Candle Pricing Calculator — Cost, Margin and Selling Price

How to use these tables

This page is a calculator built out of tables rather than a form, because a table survives a weak signal in a market, a printout above a work bench and a phone call with a supplier. Every figure is computed from live CSI prices for September 2026 and from the pack rate named against it, so the arithmetic is already done and there is nothing to mistype.

The reference build is deliberately ordinary: Luxury Soy Wax CSI 464 at the 5 kg rate of ₹507.40 per kg, Jasmine Fragrance Oil at ₹3.92 per gram in the 1 kg pack, fragrance at 8% of wax weight, one Eco Candle Wick Thin (C1) at ₹5.90 and one wick sticker at ₹2.50. The wax page states a load of up to 10% of wax weight and the Jasmine page states up to 10% of total wax weight for soy, so 8% sits inside both ceilings; where a wax ceiling and an oil page differ, the lower figure governs.

Table 1 — The rate card: what each input costs

Wax first. Rates are per kilogram at the pack named, and the per-100-g column is the one you multiply by your fill weight. Where a page does not publish a fragrance load, that is stated rather than estimated — ask on WhatsApp before you build a range on a wax whose ceiling you do not know.

Then fragrance. The per-gram rate is at the largest published pack; the two working columns are the grams you would use at 8% of wax weight in a 150 g candle (12 g) and in a 500 g candle (40 g). Stated candle ranges are quoted from each product page, and where a wax ceiling and an oil range differ the lower figure governs.

Two swaps are worth memorising because they move a candle between price tiers. On the 150 g reference build, changing the wax to Premium Coconut Soy CSI 468 adds ₹19.44, and changing it to Eco Soy CSI 400 saves ₹16.23, although that page publishes no fragrance load. Changing the oil to White Royal Oud adds ₹50.16 and changing it to Citrus Lemon saves ₹13.09. A Performance Wooden Wick instead of the eco wick adds ₹35.40.

Tables 2 to 4 — Material cost by candle size

Table 2 prices the reference build at thirteen fill weights, wax to sticker, before the vessel. Fills of 500 g and above assume two wicks and two stickers, which is a general-practice assumption for wide jars rather than a published rule — per-wick sizing tables by diameter are not published, so settle the wick count with test burns on your own jar.

Table 3 is the vessel list: every CSI container whose own page publishes a fill weight, priced per unit at the pack named. This is the line that decides whether two candles of the same weight cost the same, and it is where most costing mistakes live.

Table 4 does the addition for you, pairing each fill weight with a CSI vessel made for it. Read the last column as the complete material cost of one finished candle, excluding only the things CSI does not sell.

Notice what the vessel does to the shape. It is between a third and a half of the material cost at every size in the table: 47.6% of the 50 g candle, 41.8% of the 150 g one and 33.2% of the 500 g one, even though the apothecary jar is the dearest vessel on the list. If a candle refuses to work at your target price, the vessel and the fill weight are the two levers with real travel in them — the step from the reference wax to Premium Coconut Soy CSI 468 moves the 150 g build by only ₹19.44.

Table 5 — Selling price at each margin

The margin used here is a margin over materials: the share of the selling price left after the CSI material cost and nothing else. It is not your gross margin and it is certainly not profit, because your own costs have not been taken out yet. It is a working ratio for deciding whether a price is even worth testing.

The arithmetic is price = material cost ÷ (1 − margin). Rows are round material-cost steps so you can find yours by eye; if your cost falls between two rows, read both and interpolate. All five margin columns are illustrative choices for the table, not levels CSI recommends.

Worked example: the 180 g ceramic candle at ₹286.02 of materials prices at ₹817.21 for a 65% margin over materials. The 150 g lidded-jar candle at ₹225.99 prices at ₹564.97 at 60% and ₹753.29 at 70%. Whether either of those prices is right for your market is a question about your city, your channel and your brand, none of which a table can answer.

Table 6 — The reverse table: from a target price back to an affordable cost

Sometimes the price is fixed before the candle is designed: a marketplace price band, a gifting budget of so much per head, a shelf where everything sits under a round number. In that case the useful question is inverted — given this price and this margin, what can the materials cost. Table 6 answers it with material cost = price × (1 − margin).

Use it against Table 4 and the answers get blunt very quickly. At an illustrative ₹399.00 and a 65% margin over materials the affordable material cost is ₹139.65, which covers the 70 g votive at ₹97.75 comfortably and will not stretch to the 85 g tin at ₹149.01. At an illustrative ₹699.00 and the same margin you have ₹244.65: the 150 g lidded-jar build at ₹225.99 fits with ₹18.66 to spare, while the 180 g ceramic build at ₹286.02 is ₹41.37 over the line and needs either a higher price — ₹314.65 is affordable at an illustrative ₹899.00 — or a thinner margin, since ₹349.50 is affordable at the same ₹699.00 and a 50% margin. The 500 g apothecary build at ₹639.82 clears an illustrative ₹1,999.00 at 65% with ₹59.83 to spare, and does not clear ₹1,299.00, where only ₹454.65 of materials is affordable.

Table 7 — What a batch costs before you place the order

The per-candle figure tells you whether a price works. The batch figure tells you whether you can afford to make it at all, which is a different question and usually the more urgent one. Find your material cost per candle on the left and read across to the run size.

Worked: one hundred 150 g candles in lidded glass jars at ₹225.99 each is ₹22,598.60 of CSI materials. That is the cash that leaves before a single candle is sold, and it is the number to hold beside a festive plan. Diwali 2026 falls on 8 November 2026; with a 14–21 day cure and delivery time on top, a festive run wants pouring by about mid-October, which means the materials leave your account in the first half of the month.

Table 8 — The rows this calculator cannot fill

CSI sells raw materials. It does not sell printed labels, boxes, mailers, ribbon, courier services, electricity or hours, and it publishes no rates for any of them — so none of them has a number anywhere on this page. They are still part of your cost, and the margin you read in Table 5 has to cover all of them before anything is yours.

Fill that column once and keep it, because it changes far less often than prices do. Then the complete equation is: selling price − CSI materials (Table 4) − your own cost per candle = what the business keeps. If you want a number that means something, that is the one.

Five ways these tables will mislead you if you use them raw

1. A margin over materials is not a margin. Table 5 stops at CSI's lines. A candle at an illustrative ₹817.21 with a 65% margin over materials can still lose money once a courier, a marketplace commission and three hours of your evening are counted.

2. Pack sizes do not divide neatly. The tables price the grams you use. You buy packs: 15 kg of wax for a hundred 150 g candles means whole packs, and the surplus sits in your cupboard as working capital until the next run.

3. Fill weight is not jar volume. Every fill weight in Table 3 comes from the vessel's own page. A jar described by volume in millilitres is not a wax weight, and pouring to the brim is not the same as pouring to the published fill. Weigh one candle before you trust a column.

4. The 8% load is a choice, not a law. It sits inside the reference wax's stated ceiling of up to 10% and the reference oil's stated range. Move it and the fragrance column moves with it: 6% is ₹35.31 on a 150 g candle and 10% is ₹58.85. Whatever load you pick, the lower of the wax ceiling and the oil range governs, and the numbers are the manufacturers' stated formulation maximums.

5. Prices move. Every figure here is live CSI pricing for September 2026. Product pages are always authoritative, and for quantities beyond the largest published pack, bulk pricing is a WhatsApp conversation rather than a table. Recheck your rate card at the start of each season rather than trusting a printout from last year.

Used with those five caveats in mind, the tables do the job a calculator is for: they remove arithmetic errors from a decision that is hard enough without them. Look up the size, add the vessel, read the price, subtract your own costs — and if the answer is uncomfortable, it was uncomfortable before you looked it up.

Frequently asked questions