How to Price Donuts, With a Free Calculator

To price donuts, cost a whole batch from the flour to the frying oil and divide by the donuts it makes, add the labor and the shop's share of rent and power for each donut, then price for the margin you need after card fees: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees). The ingredients are the small part. In the example below, a donut shop's yeast-raised glazed donut holds 28 cents of ingredients, oil and bag, 23 cents of labor and 65 cents of the shop, $1.17 in all, and prices at $2.00 for a 35% margin after fees. Below is the batch, the labor and overhead, the price, glazed against specialty, dozens and café orders, and a free calculator.

The short version

• Cost a batch: flour, sugar, milk, eggs, fat, yeast, the batch's share of the frying oil, and the glaze.
• Divide by the donuts that come out, not the ones you planned.
• Add the labor in each donut, at what the hour costs you with payroll taxes.
• Add the shop's overhead for each donut: rent, power, gas and the equipment loan, over a month's donuts.
• Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees), rounded up to a price that's easy to pay.
• Specialty donuts cost a little more and sell for a lot more; dozens and café orders earn less.
• TaroStack costs every batch from what you paid and shows margins by product and customer. More below.

The batch

Prairie Ring Donuts, a made-up donut shop in Omaha, Nebraska, I use in these examples, makes its glazed donuts ten dozen at a time:

That's 25 cents a donut, 28 cents with the bag and tissue. The frying oil is a real ingredient: a fryer's worth of oil is changed every few days, so each batch carries its share. If a batch comes out at 110 good donuts, not 120, each costs more; how to track that is in batch yield formula.

The labor and the shop

The shop's overhead is the biggest line, more than the ingredients and labor together, because a shop's rent and fryer don't shrink on a slow Tuesday. That's also why a donut shop's profit swings so hard with how many it sells, set out in is a donut business profitable. Counter staff and coffee are left out here; they're part of running the shop, not of making the donut.

The price

At a 35% margin after 3% card fees: $1.17 ÷ (1 − 0.35 − 0.03) = $1.88, rounded up to $2.00. That leaves 77 cents a donut after the fees and every cost.

Glazed, specialty, dozens and cafés

Prairie Ring sells glazed and cake donuts at $1.75 and filled donuts and maple bars at $2.50, which averages about $2.00 over the day's mix:

A filled donut costs about 23 cents more, 20 cents of filling or icing and 3 cents more labor, and sells for 75 cents more; it carries the menu. The boxed dozen costs 60 cents for the box and gives away three donuts' worth of price, so it leaves $2.87 where twelve singles would leave $6.38. The café dozen barely covers the full cost. It's still worth something: its donuts come out of a fry the shop runs anyway, so the extra cost is only the ingredients, bag, labor and box, $6.79 a dozen, and the other $8.21 goes toward the rent the shop pays either way, as long as the café orders don't crowd out full-price sales. How to set prices for shops and cafés is in how to price baked goods for wholesale, and what each customer leaves in contribution margin example.

What moves the cost

• How many you sell. At 300 donuts a day, the shop's share of each donut rises from 65 to about 87 cents.
• Leftovers. Ten unsold donuts out of 120 make every sold donut cost 9% more. Make to what sells by the hour.
• Oil and flour prices. Frying oil is a fifth of the batch; a price rise there shows quickly.
• Specialty mix. Every customer who picks a maple bar over a glazed adds 75 cents to the till for 23 cents of cost.

Get the calculator

Download the donut pricing calculator. Type each ingredient's amount and price for a batch, how many donuts it makes, the hands-on minutes, your hourly cost, the bag, the shop's overhead for each donut, your card fees and the margin you want. The full cost, the price for your margin, rounded up to the nearest 25 cents, and what's left at that price, at a wholesale price and at a price you want to test all fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Twenty kinds of donut, each its own recipe built from three doughs, six glazes and four fillings, flour and oil prices that move every delivery, a different number left over every day, and two cafés on standing orders. A one-donut calculator can't say what a raspberry-filled costs this week, or whether the cafés' dozens are paying their way.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack costs every batch from what you paid and shows margins by product and customer.

Recipes inside recipes. The yeast dough, the cake batter, each glaze and each filling is a recipe of its own, used inside the donuts that need it, so a change in the price of powdered sugar moves the cost of every glazed donut and none of the plain ones.

Each batch costed. A batch takes its flour, oil and sugar off stock at what they cost, with its labor minutes, and its actual cost sits beside the standard cost, so a batch that came out short shows. Donuts left at close are an adjustment with a reason, and waste is reported by item.

Margins by customer. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so the cafés' dozens and the counter's maple bars each show what they leave. How costs drift from the recipe is in food cost variance formula.

Recipes, batches and margin reports are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How much should I charge for donuts?

Enough to cover the full cost and your margin after fees. In the example, a glazed donut costs $1.17 with the shop's overhead, and $2.00 gives a 35% margin; the shop sells glazed at $1.75 and specialty at $2.50.

How much does it cost to make a donut?

In the example, 28 cents of ingredients, frying oil and bag, 23 cents of labor, and 65 cents of rent, gas and equipment: $1.17.

How much should a dozen donuts cost?

Less than twelve singles, and enough to cover the box. In the example, a dozen glazed is $18, against $21 for twelve singles.

What do bakeries charge cafés for donuts?

Less than the counter price, by the dozen. In the example, $15 a dozen, which covers the extra cost of the donuts and box and puts $8.21 toward the shop's rent.