Selling and marketing
How Much to Sell a Sourdough Loaf For: $10 to $18
Price a sourdough loaf from real cost, your time, and overhead, then check the margin before you sell.
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Pricing a loaf stops being a guess once the numbers are in front of you. This guide works through how much to sell a sourdough loaf for using your own ingredients, your own hours, and the prices buyers near you already pay. You will finish with one number you can say out loud without flinching.
What to remember
- Ingredients for a standard 900g loaf run $2.10 to $3.80.
- Your hands on time adds $3.50 to $6.00 at a reasonable hourly rate.
- Artisan markets charge $10 to $18 a loaf.
- Your price has to clear ingredients, labor, and overhead before any of it is profit.
What one loaf actually costs you
Start with what goes into the dough: flour, water, salt, and starter. According to Baking Subs, a standard 900g sourdough loaf costs $2.10 to $3.80 in ingredients depending on flour quality. That range is wide on purpose. A stone ground flour from a small mill costs more than a supermarket bread flour, so use the price you actually paid, not an average.
Then add everything around the loaf. The bag, the label, the box if you deliver, the gas or electric for a long bake, and a share of the shelf space and cooling racks you keep for the business. None of these is big on its own. Added up per loaf, they are the difference between a price that works and one that only looks like it does.
Cost per loaf also drops when you bake more at once, because the oven is already hot and the bags come in a bigger pack. That is one reason a baker selling twelve loaves a week can charge less than a baker selling three. Know which one you are before you set a number. For the fuller version of this math, see how much to charge for sourdough bread.
Put a number on your time
A sourdough loaf takes 24 to 48 hours from mix to slice, according to BakeProfit, but most of that is waiting. Count only the minutes your hands are busy: mixing, folding, shaping, scoring, loading the oven, and wrapping. That is the time you are actually selling.
Baking Subs puts labor for a standard 900g loaf at $3.50 to $6.00 at a reasonable hourly rate. Pick your own rate and keep it the same on every bake, so a loaf does not get cheaper just because you were in a good mood that day. If your ingredients and labor already reach $9 on a $10 loaf, you are working for almost nothing.
Price one loaf in five steps
Cost the ingredients for one loaf
Use the price you paid for your flour, not a national average. A standard 900g loaf lands between $2.10 and $3.80.
Add packaging and oven power
Bag, label, and the fuel for the bake. Keep it per loaf so the number stays honest.
Time the hands on work
Mix, folds, shape, score, load, wrap. Multiply those minutes by your hourly rate.
Add the three numbers
Ingredients plus labor plus overhead is your true cost for one loaf.
Add your margin and check the shelf
Choose the profit you want per loaf, add it to the cost, then compare with what buyers near you already pay.
If you sell at a market, add the booth fee to your overhead before you divide by loaves. Do the same with delivery miles and any card fees you pay. A booth fee spread over twelve loaves is small. Spread over four loaves it can eat the whole margin, so bake for the size of the table you booked.
A worked example: the $12 loaf
Say your flour, water, salt, and starter come to $3.00 for one 900g loaf. Your hands on time comes to $4.50 at your hourly rate, and bags, labels, and oven power add $1.50. That is $9.00 to make the loaf. Sell it at $12 and you keep $3.00 per loaf after all three costs. Sell it at $10 and you keep $1.00, which is why the market price matters as much as the recipe.
That $3.00 is profit, separate from the $4.50 you already paid yourself for the work. Keep the two apart in your head. A loaf that pays you for your hours but leaves no profit still cannot cover a new oven, a stall fee, or a slow week.
What your market already pays
BakeProfit reports that artisan markets charge $10 to $18 for sourdough loaves. Treat that as a reality check, not a target. If your cost plus margin lands at $9 and the market sits at $12, you have room to move. If your math says $16 and the table beside you sells at $10, look at your batch size and your flour before you look at your own pay.
Check three places before you settle: the farmers market near you, a local bakery counter, and any home baker selling in your town Facebook group. Write the prices down. You are not copying them. You are finding out what a buyer in your zip code already expects to hand over for a loaf. Our guide to what homemade sourdough sells for shows the same range from another angle.
Do not try to win on price alone. Someone will always bake cheaper, and matching them means paying yourself less. Win on a loaf that looks worth the money: a good crust, a clean bag, a label with your name, and a pickup time you actually keep.
Mistakes that cost you money
The same Baking Subs guide notes that most home bakers underprice sourdough by 30% or more. That gap comes straight out of your pay, and it is hard to climb back from because regulars remember the old price. Set the number you need before your first sale, not after your twentieth.
Two more quiet leaks. One is free loaves for friends and family that never get counted, so your weekly numbers look better than they are. The other is a loaf that fails to sell and goes stale, which means the cost of that loaf lands on the ones that did sell. Track both, and check your cost per loaf against what you actually sold, not what you baked.
When to raise your price
Raise it when a supplier raises theirs, and check at least once a season. Flour, butter, and packaging all move. Keep your old cost sheets so you can see what changed and by how much. A price that worked in spring can leave you short by fall, and you will not notice unless you look.
Tell your regulars before the change, not after. A short note with the date and the reason is enough, and most people take it better than you expect. If you would rather not raise the loaf, shrink the size or simplify the flour blend first. What you should not do is quietly absorb the increase for a year.
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- How Much to Charge for Sourdough: Cost Math (2026)
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Common questions
Should I charge more for a larger loaf?
Yes. Price by weight so a 1,200g loaf does not sell for the same as a 900g one. Work out your cost per gram, add your labor and overhead per loaf, then scale the price to the size you bake. Buyers understand a bigger loaf costs more.
Do I count the cost of feeding my starter?
Count the flour you feed it, spread across the loaves that starter makes. Divide your weekly feeding flour by the number of loaves you bake in that week. Do not ignore it completely, because a starter you feed every day is a real cost that comes out of your margin.
What if my neighbors will not pay $12 a loaf?
Then change the loaf before you change your pay. A smaller size, a simpler flour, or a lower overhead per bake can bring the cost down. Cutting your price below your cost only makes you busier for less money. Check what the market near you actually charges first.
Should I round the price up or down?
Round up to the next whole dollar. Rounding down feels friendly, but it quietly removes part of your margin on every loaf you sell. A price like $12 is also easier to say at a table than $11.40, and it saves you from doing math in your head while someone waits with cash in hand.
How often should I recheck my loaf price?
Recheck it whenever a supplier raises a price, and at least once a season. Flour, butter, and packaging all move. Keep your old numbers so you can see what changed. A price that worked in spring may leave you short by fall, and you will not notice unless you look.
Sources
General information for pricing your own bakes, not legal or tax advice. Your costs, your local prices, and your state rules are yours to check.