Ten free calculators The ebook, $27 The Wick Garage waitlist is open
Candle Maker's Tools · No. 05

Batch Scaling Calculator

Scale a test recipe up or down. Set your starting batch, then dial in the target: wax and fragrance amounts scale proportionally.

Starting batch
Candles in batch
Pour per candle
Wax + fragrance combined
oz
Fragrance load
Percentage of pour weight
%
1%15%
Target batch size
How many candles to scale to
1200
Scale visualization
From
10
To
50
Per candle (total pour)8.00 oz
Wax per candle7.36 oz
FO per candle0.64 oz
Wax needed
368.0oz
Fragrance oil
32.0oz
Scale factor
5.0×

Supplies to scale this batch

Scaling up means buying up. Here's the batch shopping list.

Bulk container waxEnough for your full scaled batch
Shop
Bulk fragrance oilScale your scent proportionally
Shop
Pouring pitcher (4 lb)Bigger batches need a bigger pour pot
Shop
Digital scale (0.1 g)Accuracy matters more the larger you go
Shop

Some links are affiliate links. They cost you nothing and help keep every tool on this site free. Disclosure.

What this calculator does

A tested recipe is written at one size, and every time you scale it, every ingredient has to move in exact proportion: wax, fragrance, and dye all together. Scaling by feel drifts, and a 9 percent load that quietly becomes 8.2 percent throws noticeably weaker. This calculator takes your proven recipe at its original size and rewrites it precisely for any new batch size, whether you are testing a single vessel from a production recipe or scaling a winning test candle up to a fifty-unit run.

The math behind it

Scale factor = new wax weight ÷ original wax weight
Each ingredient = original weight × scale factor

The percentages never change, only the absolute weights. The calculator keeps the fragrance load and dye rate locked to your original recipe so the scaled batch is the same candle, just more or less of it.

A worked example

Your test recipe is 400 grams of wax, 36 grams of fragrance (9 percent), and 0.8 grams of dye. A wholesale order needs 30 candles at 170 grams of blend each, roughly 5,100 grams total, call it 4,680 grams of wax once the fragrance portion is separated out. The scale factor is 4,680 divided by 400, which is 11.7.

Wax
400 g → 4,680 g
Fragrance (9%)
36 g → 421 g
Dye
0.8 g → 9.4 g
Scale factor
× 11.7

At this size, a kitchen-scale rounding error on dye is invisible, but being 40 grams light on fragrance is a weaker candle across the entire order, which is why the calculator works to the gram.

Common questions

Do pour temperatures change at larger sizes?

The recipe scales; the process partly does not. Larger melts hold heat longer and cool slower, so your working time changes even though the formula does not. Note process observations in your batch log separately from the recipe itself.

Should I add overage?

Yes, scale to slightly more than the order needs, typically 5 to 10 percent, to cover pitcher residue and pour variance. It is cheaper than melting a second tiny batch to finish one short candle.

Get free tools

Sign up and receive our free candle pricing cheat sheet, plus one useful note from the studio each week. Unsubscribe anytime.