How do I price cookies for my cookie business?

Add up the cost of one cookie, including ingredients, packaging, labour, oven time and a share of overhead, then add your markup on top. Farinu does this per recipe and suggests the price.

Can I have different prices for markets and cafés?

Yes. Create a retail and a wholesale price list and set each cookie's price on both. If rising costs push a cookie below your target, a margin alert names the lists to raise.

Yes. The free plan covers costing for up to 10 recipes. The Team plan adds the rest when you need it.

I already have my recipes in a notebook or a spreadsheet. Do I retype them?

No. On the Team plan, the AI assistant can import recipes from a photo of the page or from a spreadsheet, and you check them before saving.

Cookie businesses

Software for your cookie business

Cookie business software should tell you what each cookie really costs and what to charge for it. A cookie makes money when its price covers ingredients, packaging, your time, the oven and your fixed costs, then leaves a margin on top. Farinu adds all of that up per cookie, suggests a price from the markup you want, and keeps your orders, sales and stock straight, so you know what every dozen really earns.

Why cookie prices are easy to get wrong

Cookies look cheap to make. A batch of dough costs a few dollars, so it is tempting to price by feel or copy the bakery down the road. The trouble is that the small things add up fast: the bag and sticker on every cookie, the hour you spend scooping and decorating, the oven running for three trays, the market stall fee.

Butter, chocolate and eggs also change price often. A price that worked last spring can quietly lose money today, and you only notice at the end of the month.

Packaging counted per cookie, not forgotten
Your time priced as labour, not as a favour
Oven and energy, plus rent, insurance and fees
Different prices for retail, cafés and events

What a cookie really costs: a worked example

Here is an example for a batch of 24 snickerdoodles, with illustrative numbers. Your own costs will differ; Farinu works them out from what you actually pay.

Farinu suggests a price from the cost and your target markup: price = cost per cookie × (1 + markup). At a 150% markup, 1.35 × 2.5 gives 3.38, which you might round to 3.50, a margin of about 61%. For a café buying by the dozen at a 70% markup, 1.35 × 1.7 gives about 2.30 per cookie.

Example cost of one snickerdoodle (batch of 24, USD)
Cost line	Per batch	Per cookie
Ingredients (butter, flour, sugar, eggs, cinnamon)	$7.20	$0.30
Packaging (bag and label)	$3.60	$0.15
Labour (1 hour at $18)	$18.00	$0.75
Oven and energy	$1.20	$0.05
Overhead share (rent, insurance, fees)	$2.40	$0.10
Total cost	$32.40	$1.35

How Farinu runs a cookie business

You enter each ingredient once with what you paid, then build recipes from them. A dough can be a sub-recipe used by several cookies, and royal icing can be its own sub-recipe for decorated sets. Add packaging, the minutes of work, the oven time and your overhead, and Farinu shows the cost per cookie and a suggested price for your target markup.

Recipe costing with ingredients, packaging, sub-recipes, labour, machines and overhead
Suggested prices from a target markup or a target price per recipe
Price lists for retail and wholesale, such as market prices and café prices
Margin alerts when an ingredient price rises, like butter or chocolate
Customers with their WhatsApp number, and custom orders with deposits and balance payments
A sales log and a monthly profit and loss
A production plan and log, plus purchases and stock
An AI assistant that imports your recipes from a photo or a spreadsheet

Custom cookie orders without the chaos

Decorated cookie sets for birthdays, weddings and company gifts are where many cookie businesses earn the most, and also where things slip. In Farinu, each order has its customer, the date, the cookies and the price. You record the deposit when they book and the balance when they collect, so you always know who still owes what.

Orders feed the production plan, so on baking day you see how many of each cookie to make across all orders, and what to buy before you start.

Selling wholesale to cafés and shops

Wholesale is a good way to grow a cookie business, as long as the lower price still covers your costs. Keep a separate wholesale price list next to your retail one and compare each price with the cookie's cost before you agree to a deal. If an ingredient goes up, the margin alert tells you which cookies now sell below your target and which lists to raise.

Helpers, your phone, and your AI tools

On the Team plan, if someone helps you bake or pack, give them the helper role: they can see orders and the production plan but never your costs or margins. Farinu runs in the browser on your phone, tablet or computer, and once you allow it, its MCP server lets you ask Claude or ChatGPT about your cookies, orders and sales.

Questions

How do I price cookies for my cookie business?: Add up the cost of one cookie, including ingredients, packaging, labour, oven time and a share of overhead, then add your markup on top. Farinu does this per recipe and suggests the price.
Can I have different prices for markets and cafés?: Yes. Create a retail and a wholesale price list and set each cookie's price on both. If rising costs push a cookie below your target, a margin alert names the lists to raise.
Is it free to start?: Yes. The free plan covers costing for up to 10 recipes. The Team plan adds the rest when you need it.
I already have my recipes in a notebook or a spreadsheet. Do I retype them?: No. On the Team plan, the AI assistant can import recipes from a photo of the page or from a spreadsheet, and you check them before saving.

Find out what each cookie earns

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