COGS = Cost of Goods Sold — what it actually costs you to make one unit of your product, including every ingredient, your time, and packaging.
If you make products from multiple ingredients, your cost per unit isn't a single number — it's the sum of every component that goes into a batch, divided by how many units come out. This does that math.
Most makers price their products with a rough sense of what they cost to produce. But "roughly" compounds fast — if you're off by $1.50 on a product you sell 400 units of a month, that's $600 in profit you thought you had but didn't.
Add in a supplier price increase you absorbed without adjusting your prices, and the gap widens. Knowing your real cost per unit is the first step to knowing whether you're actually making money.
Pull out your recipe or production notes and the invoices for your ingredients.
Every ingredient (or component) that goes into one batch
List everything — flour, packaging, labels, bottles, whatever. If it goes into or onto the product, it counts.
How much of each ingredient you use per batch
In whatever unit makes sense — ounces, grams, cups, "each." You'll also enter the unit (e.g. "oz") so the calculator knows what cost to attach to it.
What you paid for each ingredient (your invoice price)
Check your most recent supplier invoice or receipt — use the price you actually paid per unit, not the store retail price.
How many finished units one batch makes
E.g. "one batch makes 12 candles" or "8 bottles." This is the number that divides your total cost into a per-unit cost.
Tip: If you buy ingredients in bulk packs (e.g. a box of 4 sleeves × 200 lids), use the Pack toggle on any ingredient row — it calculates the per-unit cost from your pack price automatically.
Ingredients
qty × cost = row total
How many finished units this recipe produces.
Optional — add these to see your full margin
Try an example
Your cost per unit — also called your production COGS — is the total cost of every ingredient, material, and component that goes into making one finished unit. It's the number that sits between your selling price and your actual profit.
The formula: Cost Per Unit = Total Batch Cost ÷ Units Per Batch. Total batch cost includes every ingredient (at your invoice price, not the retail price), plus labor if you track it, plus packaging per finished unit. The result is your true floor — the minimum you need to charge to break even on materials alone.
Real example: you make soy candles. One batch uses $14 in wax, $6 in fragrance oil, $4 in wicks and containers, and $3 in labels and packaging — $27 total. One batch makes 12 candles. Cost per unit = $27 ÷ 12 = $2.25. If you're selling them for $18, your gross margin on materials is 87.5%. If a supplier raises the fragrance price by $2 per order, your per-unit cost jumps to $2.42. That's the number you need to know before you set your next price.
Most makers undercount because they forget to allocate inbound shipping, ignore packaging, or use the store price for ingredients instead of the wholesale invoice price. Running this calculator with real invoice data is the difference between knowing your margin and guessing it.
ReUp tracks ingredient costs as supplier prices change. When a supplier raises their price, your cost of goods sold per unit goes up automatically — so you know before you reorder, not after you've already committed to a price.
Ingredient cost per batch
Sum of (quantity × cost per unit) for each ingredient
Every ingredient that goes into a batch, multiplied by how much of it you use and what it costs per unit.
Total batch cost
Ingredient cost + Labor per batch + (Packaging × units)
Labor is what it costs you (or an employee) to produce one batch. Packaging is per finished unit — a label, a bag, a box. Both are real costs that belong in your COGS.
Cost per unit
Total batch cost ÷ Units per batch
The number that matters. Subtract it from your selling price to get profit per unit, or divide the difference by your selling price to get gross margin.
What is COGS for a maker or food producer?
Cost of Goods Sold is the total cost to make one finished unit. It bundles every ingredient at the invoice price you actually paid, the labor cost per batch, and any packaging that ships with the product. For a maker, COGS = (total batch cost ÷ units per batch). It is the floor below which you cannot price profitably.
Should I use my invoice price or the retail price of an ingredient?
Invoice price. Always. The retail price of an ingredient you bought wholesale is irrelevant to what the unit actually cost you. If you buy in bulk packs, divide the pack price by the pack count to reach a per-unit cost. Underpricing your COGS by using retail-price proxies is the most common mistake makers make.
Should labor be in COGS for a one-person shop?
Yes — even if you do not pay yourself. Assign a realistic hourly rate (whatever you would pay a part-time helper) and multiply by hours per batch. If labor sits outside COGS, your gross margin looks fictional and pricing decisions get built on a foundation that quietly breaks the day you hire your first employee.
How often should I recalculate my recipe COGS?
Any time an ingredient invoice changes by more than five percent. A single supplier raising a fragrance oil by three dollars per kilo can shift your per-unit cost by fifteen cents — invisible until you notice your margin has thinned. Set a calendar reminder to spot-check the top three ingredients in each recipe every quarter.
What about waste and prep loss?
If you lose 5 to 10 percent of an ingredient to spill, evaporation, or trim, your effective cost per finished unit is higher than the raw math suggests. Multiply your ingredient quantity by (1 + waste percentage) before dividing by units per batch. Food and bath-product makers especially under-cost their products by ignoring this.
How do I price my product from COGS?
COGS is the floor, not the price. A common rule for handmade goods is 4× COGS for wholesale and 2× wholesale for retail (so 8× COGS retail). Adjust up or down based on perceived value, competitor pricing, and channel mix. Selling below 3× COGS retail almost never leaves enough room for marketing, shipping, returns, and a real wage.
The other free calculators in the same family. Use any one without an account.
Reorder Point Calculator
When to reorder, with safety stock and lead time built in.
Stockout Cost Calculator
The full cost of running out — revenue, freight, churn.
MOQ Break-Even Calculator
Whether a supplier’s minimum order is actually profitable.
Stocky migration guide
Move off Shopify Stocky before the August 31, 2026 sunset.
Last updated: June 2026
ReUp tracks ingredient costs as prices change.
When a supplier raises their price, your cost per unit goes up. ReUp catches it before it eats into your margin.
