🐻 Early access - all features free for now. No credit card, no limits, no paywalls. Help us shape the product.
MarginCub

Sourdough Bread Cost Calculator

Artisan sourdough loaf from 1 lb (454 g) of flour, about 800 g of dough. Ingredient cost for home bakers selling at farmers markets, where a plain loaf typically sells for $8-12. Prefilled with US average ingredient costs. Edit any quantity or price to match what you actually pay, and the math updates as you type.

Total cost
$1.17
Yields
1 each
Cost / serving
$1.17
Food cost %
11.7%
US average menu price: $10.00

Ingredients (US average costs - edit to your prices)

Nothing is saved and nothing is sent anywhere. Change a price, see the new food cost % immediately.

Line cost
$0.84
Line cost
$0.16
Line cost
$0.02
Line cost
$0.15

Prefilled with the US average - replace with what you charge.

Keep this recipe with your own prices.

Saved recipes recalculate on their own: change an ingredient price once and every dish using it updates. Sub-recipes, scaling, PDF cost sheets. All unlocked during early access, no credit card.

Blank calculator → Sourdough calculator: grams for your loaves →

Not signed in? We keep your edits and drop the recipe into your library right after signup.

How much does it cost to make Sourdough Bread?

$1.17
per unit, ingredients only

About $1.17 of ingredients at 2026 US grocery prices, and 86% of that is flour. A starter costs nothing to keep beyond the flour you feed it, so the $0.15 line covers a refresh rather than a purchase, and salt costs about two cents.

Where the money goes

Share of recipe cost per line for Sourdough Bread
Bread flour
71.8% · $0.84
Whole wheat flour
13.7% · $0.16
Sourdough starter refresh
12.8% · $0.15
Salt
1.7% · $0.02

What 30 of them return at different prices

Your price Food cost % Over ingredients, each Over ingredients, 30
$7.50 15.6% $6.33 $189.90
$10.00 US average 11.7% $8.83 $264.90
$12.50 9.4% $11.33 $339.90

Ingredients only. Labor, packaging, fuel, and stall or platform fees come out of these figures.

That figure is only the shopping list. It leaves out the electricity of a full oven cycle, the bags and labels a market stall needs, and the 20-plus hours of bulk ferment, shaping, and proof the loaf actually takes. Time is the real input, and it is the one home bakers most often leave out of their price.

At $10, an 11.7% food cost looks low next to the 28-32% a restaurant targets, and it needs to be. A restaurant sells a dish and moves on; a market baker heats an oven for batch after batch, drives to a stall, and stands behind it for six hours. The table above shows the whole day's return after ingredients, and that has to cover the stall fee, the packaging, the fuel, and every one of those hours. Cutting the price to $7.50, a common rural price, wipes out more than a quarter of that return.

Flour is also the only line worth optimizing. Bought in 50 lb bags instead of 5 lb retail bags, it costs roughly 30-40% less per ounce, which takes the loaf under a dollar. Bulk salt and a house starter change nothing at this scale.

Sourdough Bread cost FAQ

How much does it cost to make a loaf of sourdough bread?
About $1.17 in ingredients for a loaf from 1 lb (454 g) of flour at 2026 US grocery prices: $0.84 of bread flour, $0.16 of whole wheat flour, $0.02 of salt, and $0.15 for the starter refresh. Buying flour in 50 lb bags instead of retail bags brings the loaf closer to $0.80.
Is it cheaper to make sourdough than to buy it?
On ingredients alone, yes, and by a wide margin: $1.17 to bake against $8-12 for a plain loaf from a market stall or home bakery. Count electricity and your own time at any hourly rate and the gap narrows sharply, because one loaf occupies 20-plus hours of ferment and a full oven cycle. Baking several loaves per session is what makes the arithmetic work.
What should I charge for sourdough at a farmers market?
Charge about $10 for a plain loaf made from 1 lb of flour (roughly 1.5 lb baked). US farmers markets and home bakeries price plain loaves at $8-12 in 2026: rural markets at the low end or under it, big-city markets at the top end or as high as $15. Loaves with cheese, fruit, or seeds go for $12-15. At $10, ingredients are 11.7% of the price, which leaves room for the stall fee, packaging, fuel, and the hours the loaf takes.
Why is my sourdough more expensive than this estimate?
There are three common reasons. Retail 5 lb flour bags cost about half again as much per ounce as bulk. Organic or specialty flour can double the flour line. And inclusions such as seeds, olives, or cheese often cost more than the entire base loaf. Put your own prices into the calculator above to see your real number.

More recipe cost examples