# How much to charge for macarons: wastage, almond flour, fillings and gift boxes

> Price macarons with shell wastage as its own cost line: a decorated dozen in a gift box is about A$84.50 at a 45% margin. Fillings, boxes of 6 and 12, five currencies.

Price macarons from the shells you can sell, not the shells you pipe. If one
shell in five comes out hollow, cracked, footless or unmatched, a dozen
macarons carries the cost of 30 shells, and that loss belongs on its own line.
In Australia, with example ingredient prices, a dozen in a gift box costs
about A$84.50 at a 45% margin (A$7.04 a macaron) for a two-tone or drizzled
design. Of that, about A$4 is shells that went in the bin, almost as much as
the A$5.10 of ingredients in the dozen you sell. Plain macarons land at about
A$69 a dozen and hand-painted ones at about A$129.

## What goes into a dozen

Twelve filled macarons are 24 shells of about 3.5 cm (1.4 inches).

- **Almond flour.** 100 g per dozen, and the most expensive ingredient by a
  distance. Supermarket packs cost far more per kg than a bulk bag from a
  baking wholesaler, so cost it from the bag you use. Example prices
  per kg: A$22, US$14, £12, C$20, NZ$25.
- **Sugar.** 100 g of icing sugar for the tant pour tant and 100 g of caster
  for the meringue, priced as white sugar.
- **Egg whites.** About 75 g, from 2.5 eggs. The yolks are costed in; use
  them for curd or custard fillings and they earn some of it back.
- **Colour.** An example 0.30 a dozen for gel or powder colour.
- **Filling.** About 130 g per dozen. Buttercream (50 g butter, 80 g icing
  sugar) is the baseline in the tables below; ganache and jam centres are
  costed further down.
- **Gift box.** An example 3.80 for a box of 12 with an insert and ribbon.
  Macarons need inserts; a loose box arrives as crumbs.
- **Overhead.** 12% of materials and labour, as in the
  [cake pricing calculator](/blog/cake-pricing-calculator).

## Wastage is a cost line

Count every shell you pipe and every shell you sell for a month, and you have
your failure rate. Hollows, cracked tops, missing or spreading feet, oven hot
spots, lopsided shells and pairs that do not match all count. A new recipe,
a humid day or a new oven can push it past a third.

Shell cost per dozen = (shell ingredients + shell piping and baking time x hourly rate) / (1 - failure rate)

The same Australian standard dozen at three failure rates:

| Failure rate | Shells piped for 24 good | Wastage cost per dozen | Price per dozen | Price per macaron |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 5% | 25 | A$0.84 | A$78.09 | A$6.51 |
| 20% | 30 | A$4.01 | A$84.53 | A$7.04 |
| 35% | 37 | A$8.63 | A$93.95 | A$7.83 |

Wastage cost is the ingredients and piping time of the failed shells. At a
35% failure rate, the bin costs more than the macarons' ingredients. Cutting
failures is worth more than any cheaper almond flour, and a rate you can
measure is a better input than a guess.

> Put a **failure rate on every macaron price**, measured from your own bakes,
> and recost when it changes.

## Labour and decoration tiers

Times per dozen, baking several dozen in a session:

- **Shells.** 20 minutes for 24 good shells (sifting, meringue, macaronage,
  piping, resting, baking), which is 25 minutes at a 20% failure rate.
- **Filling.** 10 minutes to sort pairs, pipe and close.
- **Boxing.** 6 minutes a dozen.

Maturing overnight in the fridge is not labour, but it is fridge space and
it means a macaron order needs two days, not one.

| Tier | What it looks like | Decorating per macaron | Labour per dozen | Labour per macaron |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Plain | One colour shell, no decoration | none | 41 minutes | 3.4 minutes |
| Standard | Two-tone shells, a drizzle, sprinkles or lustre | 1 minute | 53 minutes | 4.4 minutes |
| Custom | Hand painting, edible prints, piped shapes or characters | 4 minutes | 89 minutes | 7.4 minutes |

Decoration materials are an example 0.60 a dozen for standard and 1.50 for
custom.

## The worked dozen, in five currencies

Boxed dozens at a 20% failure rate and a 45% margin, with the example hourly
rates used across our pricing guides:

| Market | Ingredients | Wastage at 20% | Hourly rate | Plain | Standard | Custom |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| United States | US$3.24 | US$2.74 | US$25 | **US$50.48** (US$4.21 each) | **US$61.88** (US$5.16 each) | **US$94.26** (US$7.85 each) |
| United Kingdom | £3.09 | £2.14 | £18 | **£40.38** (£3.37 each) | **£48.93** (£4.08 each) | **£72.76** (£6.06 each) |
| Canada | C$4.36 | C$3.40 | C$30 | **C$60.18** (C$5.01 each) | **C$73.62** (C$6.13 each) | **C$112.11** (C$9.34 each) |
| New Zealand | NZ$5.98 | NZ$3.92 | NZ$32 | **NZ$67.00** (NZ$5.58 each) | **NZ$81.26** (NZ$6.77 each) | **NZ$122.19** (NZ$10.18 each) |
| Australia (example ingredients) | A$5.10 | A$4.01 | A$35 | **A$69.05** (A$5.75 each) | **A$84.53** (A$7.04 each) | **A$129.13** (A$10.76 each) |

Ingredients are the shells and buttercream for 24 good shells. Sugar, butter
and egg prices: US Bureau of Labor Statistics city averages for August 2026
(sugar US$1.024 per lb, butter US$4.021 per lb, eggs US$2.272 a dozen); ONS
shopping prices for August 2026 (butter £2.26 for 250 g, white sugar £1.15 a
kg, free-range eggs £3.93 for 12); Statistics Canada table 18-10-0245-01 for
July 2026 (butter C$5.92 for 454 g, sugar C$2.64 for 2 kg, eggs C$4.95 a
dozen); Stats NZ selected price indexes for August 2026 (butter NZ$7.70 for
500 g, sugar NZ$3.30 for 1.5 kg, eggs NZ$8.60 a dozen). None of these series
includes almond flour, and Australia has no current official average retail
price series for any of them, so almond flour everywhere and the other
Australian prices (butter A$12 a kg, sugar A$1.80 a kg, eggs 60c each) are
examples. Hourly rates, colour, decoration materials and boxes are examples.

## Fillings

The filling changes the price less than people expect, because it is a small
weight per macaron. Australian standard dozen, example prices:

| Filling | What is in a dozen | Filling cost | Extra time | Price per dozen |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Buttercream | 50 g butter, 80 g icing sugar | A$0.74 | none | A$84.52 |
| Ganache | 80 g dark chocolate (A$20 a kg), 50 ml cream (A$6 a litre) | A$1.90 | 2 minutes | A$89.26 |
| Jam or curd centre | Buttercream ring plus 40 g jam (A$10 a kg) | A$0.90 | 3 minutes | A$88.41 |

Flavour range costs more than any one filling. Every flavour in a mixed box
is its own shell colour, its own filling and its own small batch, and small
batches fail more often. Price a mixed box of six flavours from six smaller
batches, not from one big one.

## Gift boxes, events and wholesale

**Gift boxes.** A box of 6 is half a dozen plus a box that costs about two
thirds as much as the 12-box, so it is more than half the price. Standard design, example 2.50 for a 6-box with insert and
ribbon:

| Market | Box of 6 | Box of 12 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | US$33.01 | US$61.88 |
| United Kingdom | £26.30 | £48.93 |
| Canada | C$39.05 | C$73.62 |
| New Zealand | NZ$42.94 | NZ$81.26 |
| Australia | A$44.68 | A$84.53 |

Wedding and corporate favours in boxes of two are the extreme case: the box
and ribbon can cost more than the macarons in it. Price favours per box, not
per macaron.

**Events.** Macaron towers and dessert tables use one or two flavours in
large batches, which lowers the failure rate and the time per dozen. Price
the tower hire, assembly on site and delivery as separate lines (see
[what to charge for delivery](/blog/what-to-charge-for-delivery)), and take a
deposit at booking (see
[how to take a deposit](/answers/how-do-i-take-a-deposit-on-a-cake-order)).

**Wholesale.** Cafes usually pay 50 to 70% of your retail price, per
[wholesale pricing, price lists and terms](/blog/wholesale-pricing-price-lists-and-terms).
For the Australian plain macaron (A$5.75 retail) that is about A$2.88 to
A$4.03. Plain macarons in trays, made in large single-flavour batches, cost
about A$2.00 each to make, so wholesale works here when the cafe orders by
the tray in a few flavours. Macarons freeze well, which lets you bake for
wholesale on your own schedule.

## Common mistakes

- Dividing the batch cost by the shells piped instead of the shells sold.
- Guessing the failure rate instead of counting it.
- Costing almond flour from one bulk bag price and buying supermarket packs.
- Pricing a six-flavour box as if it came from one batch.
- Charging favours per macaron when the box costs more than the macarons.

Prices above exclude GST or VAT. Tax treatment varies by country and product,
so check [GST on cakes in Australia](/answers/do-i-charge-gst-on-cakes-in-australia)
or [VAT on cakes in the UK](/answers/do-i-charge-vat-on-cakes-in-the-uk), and
check with your local authority elsewhere.

## Costing macarons in ibakepro

ibakepro, bakery management software for macaron makers, patisseries and
bakeries of every size, costs each macaron from your own invoices: the almond
flour, sugar, eggs, filling and gift box at what you paid, recosting every
flavour when almond flour goes up. A box of 6, a box of 12 and a mixed box
can be one product with options that change the price. See
[recipe costing](/features/recipe-costing).