The short version: Sell homemade donuts for about $3 each at a market table, $15 for a half dozen and $27 for a dozen, add about $3 a dozen only for toppings you buy, like nuts or crushed cookies, and sell donut holes for about $12 a dozen. That ladder sits close to what home vendors already charge: in a live pull of the Homegrown catalog on September 26, 2026, four vendors sold donuts at $1.00 to $5.00 a donut, with a middle price of $2.54. A glazed donut from King Arthur's yeast recipe costs about 37 cents to make at Walmart.com prices checked the same day when you fry in 6 cups of fresh oil, and the frying oil alone is 56% of that. Your oil, your box and your time set the price, not your flour.
Checked September 26, 2026: donut prices on the order pages of Duck Donuts (Columbia, SC), Trefzger's Bakery, Lou's Donut Co., Reston Farm Garden Market and Eat Well ABQ, supply and grocery donut prices on Walmart.com, King Arthur's Yeast-Raised Doughnuts and Sourdough Doughnuts recipes, a live pull of Homegrown's catalog, California's Approved Cottage Foods list, and the pricing pages of Homegrown, Hotplate and Square. Two limits: store prices move weekly, and the batch hours below are our estimate, not a measurement. Homegrown customers create an account to place a first order, and Homegrown has no timed drop or countdown release.
A coworker tried one of your glazed donuts at a birthday breakfast, and now three people want a dozen for Saturday. You are happy to fry them. Then someone asks what a dozen costs, and you realize you have been guessing.
Most donut pricing advice says "know your costs" and "don't undercharge" and stops there. That does not tell you whether $15 or $30 is the right price for a dozen. This guide builds the number from prices checked the day it was written: what home vendors on Homegrown charge, what donut shops charge, what a batch costs in flour, glaze and oil, what the box costs, and what card fees take from each order.
Sell standard homemade donuts for $3 each, $15 for a half dozen and $27 for a dozen. Keep sprinkles and a chocolate drizzle at that same price, since Homegrown vendors do. We recommend adding about $3 a dozen only for toppings you have to buy, like chopped nuts, freeze-dried fruit or crushed cookies. Sell fritters for about $4 each, and sell donut holes for about $12 a dozen. Those prices assume a classic yeast-raised donut cut with a 2 1/2 to 3 inch cutter, the size King Arthur's recipe makes when it yields 16.
Here is the ladder most part-time donut vendors can start from:
Scroll sideways to see every column.
| Donuts | Amount | Suggested price | Per donut | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glazed or sugared | Single | $3.00 | $3.00 | Farmers market table, walk-up customers |
| Glazed or sugared | Half dozen | $15.00 | $2.50 | Your everyday pre-order size |
| Glazed or sugared | Dozen | $27.00 | $2.25 | An office breakfast, a birthday, a team meeting |
| Toppings you buy | Dozen | $30.00 | $2.50 | Chopped nuts, freeze-dried fruit, crushed cookies |
| Fritter | Single | $4.00 | $4.00 | A bigger, heavier piece |
| Donut holes | Dozen | $12.00 | $1.00 | Kids, snacking, add-ons to a box |
| Glazed, sold to a coffee shop | Dozen | $18.00 | $1.50 | Wholesale, standing order |
The ladder is our recommendation, built from the Homegrown catalog pull of September 26, 2026 (middle price $2.54 a donut at each vendor's dozen rate, or the 6-count rate where that is the only size), five donut shop and bakery order pages loaded the same day ($1.25 to $3.00 a donut, and donut holes at Eat Well ABQ at $14 a dozen, $1.17 each), and the cost build further down, which uses Walmart.com supply prices from the same day.
Three things back that ladder:
If you are still working out whether your state allows fried foods, which donut styles are safe to sell and how to keep them fresh until pickup, start with the companion guide on how to sell homemade donuts under cottage food law. Its pricing section tells you to price by the piece and the dozen and to add a healthy margin. This guide puts the numbers on it, each one with the date it was checked.
On September 26, 2026, four Homegrown vendors sold donuts, at $1.00 to $5.00 a donut at each vendor's dozen rate (Tallow & Dough's 6-count rate, its only size), with a middle price of $2.54. Donuts are rare on the site. Out of 2,717 products from 307 vendors, 11 listings from 5 vendors are donuts, donut holes, fritters, beignets or fried jelly buns. These are listing prices, not sales, but they are the prices a shopper sees next to yours.
What four Homegrown vendors charge per donut, September 26, 2026
Source: Homegrown catalog, pulled live on September 26, 2026. One price per vendor: the dozen price divided by 12, or the 6-pack price divided by 6 where a 6-pack is the only size.
Here is how each one sets its price:
In a live pull of the Homegrown catalog on September 26, 2026, 11 of the 2,717 products listed by 307 vendors were donuts, donut holes, fritters, beignets or fried jelly buns, from 5 vendors. We matched on the product name and description, then opened every listing from each matching vendor and counted what each product actually was. We left out an apple fritter coffee cake, savory corn fritters and a dog treat shaped like a donut. Bakery products made up 1,443 of the 2,717 listings.
The spread from $1.00 to $5.00 a donut tells you there is no single "right" price. The lowest price comes from a shop with more than 100 listings, where donuts are one product among many. The highest comes from a shop with one listing, a box of tallow-fried donuts in one size. A new home vendor can start in the middle.
Five donut shops and bakeries we checked on September 26, 2026 charged $1.25 to $3.00 a donut and $15.00 to $28.00 a dozen (donut holes at Eat Well ABQ: $14 a dozen, $1.17 each). A dozen was the most common size. Lou's Donut Co., the one shop with four sizes, charged less per donut at each step up, while Trefzger's charged the same $1.25 a donut for six or twelve.
Swipe left to see the rest of the columns.
| Shop | Where | What | Price | Per donut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trefzger's Bakery | Peoria Heights, IL | Donuts, six | $7.50 | $1.25 |
| Trefzger's Bakery | Peoria Heights, IL | Donuts, dozen | $15.00 | $1.25 |
| Duck Donuts | Columbia, SC | Random Dozen | $20.50 | $1.71 |
| Reston Farm Garden Market | Reston, VA | Apple cider donuts, half dozen | $10.99 | $1.83 |
| Lou's Donut Co. | Clare, MI | Glazed sourdough, single | $3.00 | $3.00 |
| Lou's Donut Co. | Clare, MI | Glazed sourdough, 3 | $8.00 | $2.67 |
| Lou's Donut Co. | Clare, MI | Glazed sourdough, 6 | $15.00 | $2.50 |
| Lou's Donut Co. | Clare, MI | Glazed sourdough, 12 | $28.00 | $2.33 |
| Eat Well ABQ | Albuquerque, NM | Sourdough donut holes, dozen | $14.00 | $1.17 |
We loaded each shop's own order page on September 26, 2026. Sales tax is not included. The Duck Donuts price is the Columbia, SC store's menu; other locations may charge differently.
What stands out once the prices sit side by side:
The takeaway: a dozen for $15 is a bakery price built on volume. Lou's Donut Co. and Traditional Rise, two small sellers of sourdough donuts, charge $25 to $28 a dozen, and that range is where we think a home vendor belongs.
A dozen Krispy Kreme Original Glazed doughnuts cost $14.28 on Walmart.com on September 26, 2026, and a dozen Walmart bakery glazed donuts cost $6.97. Those are the prices a customer might have in their head.
The shelf prices, all from the same Walmart.com search:
A customer who compares your $27 dozen to a $6.97 box is not your customer. The people who order from you want a donut that was fried that morning, by someone they know. The grocery price matters for one reason: it is what a coffee shop could buy instead of yours, which comes up again in the wholesale section.
A glazed donut from King Arthur's Yeast-Raised Doughnuts recipe costs about 37 cents to make at Walmart.com prices on September 26, 2026, if you fry in 6 cups of fresh vegetable oil. The dough alone is 9 cents a donut. The glaze adds 7 cents, and the oil adds 21 cents.
King Arthur's recipe makes 16 donuts from 360 grams of all-purpose flour, an egg, a cup of milk and a little butter, sugar, yeast, nutmeg and vanilla. It fries them in 6 cups (907 grams) of peanut oil or vegetable shortening. We priced 6 cups of vegetable oil instead, the cheapest of the frying fats we checked. Oil is sold by volume, and 6 cups is 3/8 of a gallon, so we priced it as 6/16 of a gallon jug. The glaze is King Arthur's sugar glaze from its Sourdough Doughnuts recipe (confectioners' sugar, milk, vanilla and salt), and we budgeted one batch of it for each batch of 16. That glaze amount is our assumption.
Swipe across to read the whole table.
| Ingredient | Amount per batch of 16 | Walmart.com price, Sept 26, 2026 | Cost per batch |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 360 g | Great Value, 5 lb for $2.38 | $0.38 |
| Granulated sugar | 50 g | Great Value, 4 lb for $2.97 | $0.08 |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | Morton, 26 oz for $1.92 | $0.01 |
| Instant yeast | 2 tsp | Red Star Quick-Rise, 4 oz jar for $5.43 | $0.29 |
| Nutmeg | 1/4 tsp | Great Value, 1.5 oz for $2.46 | $0.03 |
| Egg | 1 large | Great Value, 12 for $1.67 | $0.14 |
| Milk | 227 g | Great Value whole milk, gallon for $2.68 | $0.16 |
| Butter | 28 g | Great Value unsalted, 1 lb for $3.06 | $0.19 |
| Vanilla | 1/2 tsp | Great Value pure vanilla, 2 oz for $5.12 | $0.22 |
| Dough total | $1.48 | ||
| Glaze | 301 g confectioners' sugar, 76 g milk, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp salt | Great Value powdered sugar, 32 oz for $1.98 | $1.14 |
| Vegetable oil for frying, used once | 6 cups (3/8 gallon) | Great Value, 1 gallon for $8.78 | $3.29 |
| Batch total | $5.92, or 37 cents a donut |
Weights for teaspoons are our conversions. The oil is priced by volume: 6 cups is 6/16 of a gallon. Prices are Walmart.com prices shown for the Chamblee, Georgia, Supercenter on September 26, 2026. Your store will differ by a few cents.
A few things to notice in that table:
For the method behind putting labor and overhead on top of these numbers, the baked goods pricing formula walks through each line.
Frying oil is $3.29 of the $5.92 a glazed batch costs, or 56%, when you use the oil once. That is more than all nine dough ingredients together, which come to $1.48, and almost three times the $1.14 glaze.
That changes how you should think about your costs:
When you use the oil once, it is more than half your batch cost, so a jump in its price moves your cost far more than the same jump in flour would. We checked the $8.78 gallon of vegetable oil on Walmart.com on September 26, 2026. Re-check it every few months, and if it climbs, raise your dozen price before your margin shrinks.
How many batches one pot of oil lasts depends on how you strain, cover and store it, and how dark it gets. We priced it two ways, fresh every batch and spread over four batches, so you can see the range.
A dozen donut box costs about $1.01 and a half-dozen box about $1.04 when you buy them by the case, based on Walmart.com prices on September 26, 2026. That is about as much as the ingredients in three donuts fried in fresh oil, or five with the oil reused.
What packaging costs per order, from the same day's prices:
Put the donuts and the packaging together, and here is what each size costs you:
A half-dozen box can cost as much as a dozen box. On September 26, 2026, the half-dozen box in our build was $1.04 and the dozen box was $1.01. That makes a $15 half dozen carry $1.04 of packaging on $15 of revenue, while a $27 dozen carries $1.01 on $27. Keep the half dozen at $15, not lower, so the box does not eat into a small order.
One person can mix, cut, fry, glaze, box and hand off four dozen donuts in about 3 1/2 hands-on hours by our estimate, including cleanup and pickups. The dough rises take another 2 to 3 hours, but you are free to do other things while they rise.
King Arthur's recipe sets the pace: the dough rises 1 1/2 to 2 hours, the cut donuts rise another 30 minutes to an hour, and you fry them 2 or 3 at a time at 350°F, with each side taking no more than a minute. Here is our estimate for three batches, 48 donuts:
That adds up to 210 minutes, or 3 1/2 hours. Your numbers will be different. Time one full batch day, from the first cup of flour to the last pickup, and use your own number in the math below.
Four dozen donuts sold at $27 a dozen earn about $89.00 after supplies and card fees, or about $25.43 an hour for 3 1/2 hours of work. That is before your share of the monthly plan and any market booth fee.
Here is how the $27 dozen breaks down, with one pot of oil used for four batches and Homegrown's card processing of 2.9% + $0.30:
Run the same four dozen at lower prices and the hourly rate falls fast:
Scroll right to see the full breakdown.
| Price per dozen | Revenue for 4 dozen | Supplies | Card fees | What you keep | Per hour at 3 1/2 hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15 (a bakery price) | $60.00 | $14.67 | $2.94 | $42.39 | $12.11 |
| $20 | $80.00 | $14.67 | $3.52 | $61.81 | $17.66 |
| $27 (this guide) | $108.00 | $14.67 | $4.33 | $89.00 | $25.43 |
Supplies use the Walmart.com prices from September 26, 2026, with oil spread over four batches, one box and one label per dozen. Card fees are Homegrown's 2.9% + $0.30 per order. Hours are our estimate.
Selling the same 48 donuts as eight half dozens at $15 keeps a little more money, about $94.88 after supplies and fees, because eight small orders bring in $120 against $108 for four dozens. The extra boxes and card fees eat part of that gain, and so does your time. Our time estimate gives four orders 35 minutes of pickups and four boxes 15 minutes, so eight of each add about 50 minutes. That makes the day about 4 1/3 hours and the pay about $21.90 an hour, a little below the $25.43 an hour the dozen price pays, by our estimate.
Sell half dozens as your everyday size, dozens for groups, and singles only where people walk up, like a farmers market table. Each size does a different job.
For more ideas on setting sizes that nudge people up, tiered pricing for baked goods covers how to space the jumps between sizes.
Keep sprinkles, chocolate and jelly donuts at your plain price, add about $3 a dozen only for toppings you buy, and sell fritters for about $4 each. On Homegrown, Seriously Sourdough charges the same $12 a dozen for Sprinkles, Chocolate Frosted and Jelly as for Glazed, and Traditional Rise charges one $25.00 dozen price for glaze, maple, chocolate or sprinkles. The one $3 jump we found is Seriously Sourdough's maple bacon, at $15 a dozen. Saturday's Donuts sells a single peach fritter for $4.00.
How to think about the extras:
Sell donut holes for about $12 a dozen. Seriously Sourdough charges $12 a dozen on Homegrown, and Eat Well ABQ charged $14 a dozen for sourdough donut holes on September 26, 2026.
Donut holes are a byproduct if you cut rings with a hole cutter. Every ring gives you a hole, so a $12 dozen of holes is found money from dough you already made and oil you already heated. Sell them as an add-on to a box of donuts, or as a cheaper size for kids.
Mini donuts are a separate product, since you cut or pipe them on purpose. Price them like donut holes, about $12 a dozen, by our recommendation. On Walmart.com the same day, a 12-count bag of Freshness Guaranteed iced mini donuts was $3.97 and a 12-count box of Krispy Kreme Original Glazed Doughnut Dots was $4.78, so a customer can find minis cheap. Yours sell on freshness, not on price.
Charge the same for sourdough donuts as regular ones, and about $3.00 to $3.25 each for gluten-free. The two sellers we found that label their donuts sourdough charge $25 and $28 a dozen. That is above the three non-sourdough shops we checked, but inside the Homegrown range and close to this guide's $27 dozen, so price sourdough like any fresh homemade donut and do not count on the word to add more. The one gluten-free donut vendor on Homegrown, Saturday's Donuts, charges $3.00 to $3.25 a donut.
What the three sourdough-named sellers charge, all from September 26, 2026:
Saturday's Donuts, the one gluten-free donut vendor on Homegrown, charges $3.00 to $3.25 a donut for gluten-free fried donuts, above the $2.54 middle price for the four vendors. If you sell gluten-free, say exactly what "gluten-free" means in your kitchen, and price the dozen at $36 or more, as Saturday's does.
For sourdough, sell on flavor and the long rise, not on a higher price tag. A glazed sourdough donut from King Arthur's Sourdough Doughnuts recipe costs about 65 cents in ingredients, glaze and fresh oil, since that recipe makes 9 donuts and 9 holes from a batch that costs about $5.81, by our build at the same Walmart.com prices. That is about 75% more than the 37 cents of the yeast recipe, mostly because the same 6 cups of oil is spread over 9 donuts instead of 16. Each sourdough donut is also bigger, cut with a 3 1/2 inch cutter from dough 1/2 inch thick, against 2 1/2 to 3 inches at 1/4 inch for the yeast recipe. The holes come out of the same batch, and 9 holes at $1 each (the $12-a-dozen rate) bring in $9 a batch, more than the roughly $2.48 extra that 9 sourdough donuts cost over 9 from the yeast recipe.
Ask a coffee shop about $18 a dozen, or $1.50 a donut, for a standing wholesale order. That is our recommendation. It is below your $27 retail dozen and above the $14.28 a store dozen of Krispy Kreme cost on Walmart.com on September 26, 2026.
Why $18 works:
Ask for payment by check or cash on delivery, or send a card link, and settle how many days' notice the shop gives to change the count. The wholesale pricing guide for food products covers the terms to agree on before the first order.
Pre-orders tell you exactly how many donuts to fry, so you heat the oil for a known count and have little or nothing left over. Donuts do not keep. King Arthur's own advice is that its sourdough doughnuts are best the day they are made and keep in a paper bag for up to one day.
Every unsold donut costs you its ingredients and its share of the oil. A dozen you fried and could not sell costs you about $4.44 in ingredients and fresh oil, or $5.52 once it is boxed and labeled, plus about 12 of the 50 minutes it takes to fry four dozen.
Homegrown is a storefront built for this: $10 per month billed annually ($12.50 billed monthly) with no percentage fees beyond standard payment processing. Customers order and pay ahead for a pickup time you set, so on Saturday morning you know you need 36 donuts, not a guess of 48. Compare that to taking orders through Instagram DMs, where you count donuts across a dozen separate conversations and chase payments after. Or compare it to Hotplate, which shows your customer a 5% + $0.55 service fee at checkout unless you choose to pay it yourself, so your $15 half dozen reads as $16.30, and you still pay 2.9% + $0.30 card processing. Square's free plan costs $0 a month, but its online rate is 3.3% + 30¢, and you build the ordering flow yourself.
What Homegrown gives a donut vendor:
What it does not do: Homegrown does not set your prices, check your cottage food permit, or fry anything. Customers create a Homegrown account to place their first order. There is no timed drop or countdown release. Your storefront is listed on the Homegrown marketplace, but plan on most orders coming from people you send to your own link.
If you fry on Saturdays and keep guessing how many to make, set up a Homegrown storefront and take this week's donut orders ahead of time. You will know your count before you heat the oil.
On a $15 half dozen, card processing takes about 74 cents on Homegrown, 80 cents on Square's free plan online, and 74 cents on Hotplate, where the customer also pays a $1.30 service fee unless you cover it. All three platforms charge something on each card payment, so build it into your price.
Swipe to see every fee.
| Platform | Monthly plan | Trial | Service or platform fee | Card processing | Customer pays on a $15 half dozen | Vendor pays on a $15 half dozen | Vendor pays in a month of 50 half dozens |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homegrown | $10 billed annually ($12.50 billed monthly) | 7 days, no charge until day 8 | None, 0% commission | 2.9% + $0.30, paid by the vendor | $15.00 | $0.74 plus the plan | $46.75 ($49.25 on monthly billing) |
| Hotplate, customer pays the fee | $0, no monthly subscription | No plan to trial | 5% + $0.55, paid by the customer | 2.9% + $0.30, vendor pays | $16.30 | $0.74 | $36.75 |
| Hotplate, vendor covers the fee | $0, no monthly subscription | No plan to trial | 5% + $0.55, paid by the vendor | 2.9% + $0.30, also vendor-paid | $15.00 | $2.04 | $101.75 |
| Square Free, online checkout | $0 | No plan to trial | None | 3.3% + 30¢ online (2.6% + 15¢ tap, dip or swipe) | $15.00 | $0.80 | $39.75 |
We checked Homegrown's signup page, Hotplate's pricing page and Square's fee page on September 26, 2026. Card processing here is figured on the $15 price. Square takes its fee on the total including tax and tip, and any platform that charges on the full total runs a few cents higher. When Hotplate's fee is passed to customers, they pay $65.00 in service fees in that 50-order month, on top of your prices.
What this means for your price:
The real cost of selling at farmers markets adds booth fees and the rest of a market day to these numbers.
In California, yes: donuts are on the state's list of approved cottage foods, fried or baked, and other states write their own rules on fried foods and fillings. California is a clear example: the California Department of Public Health's Approved Cottage Foods list (last reviewed April 2026) names "Donuts (fried or baked)" in category 1, "Baked Goods Without Cream, Custard, or Meat Fillings." We checked that list on September 26, 2026.
What California's list says for donut vendors:
Other states write their own lists, so check how yours treats fried foods and fillings. Verify your state's current rules with your state or county health department before you set up a menu. The companion guide's section on fried-food and filling rules for donuts walks through the fried-food and filling questions to ask. This article is general information, not legal advice.
Charge about $27 for a dozen homemade glazed or sugared donuts, the same with sprinkles or a chocolate drizzle, and about $30 with toppings you buy, like nuts or crushed cookies. That is $2.25 a donut, close to the $28 dozen Lou's Donut Co. charged for glazed sourdough on September 26, 2026, and inside the $1.00 to $5.00 range four Homegrown vendors charged the same day. It leaves room for oil, a $1 box and your time.
A dozen glazed yeast donuts cost about $4.44 in ingredients and oil with 6 cups of fresh vegetable oil, based on King Arthur's recipe at Walmart.com prices on September 26, 2026. Add about $1.08 for a box and a label, and a boxed dozen costs about $5.52. Spread the oil over four batches and the boxed dozen drops to about $3.67.
Sell a single homemade donut for about $3 at a market table or pop-up. Lou's Donut Co. charged $3 for one glazed sourdough donut on September 26, 2026, and a single costs you about 56 cents with a bag. Singles work best where customers can smell the donuts and buy on impulse.
Sell donut holes for about $12 a dozen. Seriously Sourdough charged $12 a dozen on Homegrown and Eat Well ABQ charged $14 a dozen for sourdough donut holes on September 26, 2026. If you cut ring donuts, the holes come from dough you already made, so they add sales without much extra cost.
Sell donuts at a farmers market for about $3 each and $15 for a half dozen to take home. Fresh donuts sell on smell, so fry as close to market time as you can. Take pre-orders for half dozens and dozens so you know how many to fry before you heat the oil.
Not under California's cottage food rules. California's Approved Cottage Foods list, checked September 26, 2026, approves donuts only as baked goods without cream, custard or meat fillings, so glazed, sugared and cake donuts fit and a Boston cream donut does not. Other states write their own lists. Verify your state's current rules with your health department before selling any filled donut.
These five guides answer the next questions most donut vendors have once the price is set. Read the fried-food guide first if you have not checked how your state treats fried foods and fillings, and read the wholesale guide before you pitch a coffee shop.
Your donuts are worth more than a grocery box because they were fried this morning. Price them for that, fry to your order count, and start taking donut pre-orders on Homegrown this week.
