Candle Burn Time Calculator
Enter your candle's wax weight and an estimated burn rate to calculate roughly how many hours it will burn — useful for comparing candles or estimating how long a batch of homemade candles will last.
How the Candle Burn Time formula works
A straightforward rate-based estimate:
Burn time (hours) = Wax weight (oz) / Burn rate (oz per hour)
Step-by-step calculation
- Find your candle's total wax weight, often listed on the packaging or measured directly.
- Divide by an estimated burn rate — commonly around 0.1 to 0.15 oz per hour for many standard candles, though this varies by wax type, wick size, and container.
Worked example
An 8 oz candle burning at an estimated 0.13 oz/hour: Burn time = 8/0.13 ≈ 61.5 hours.
Frequently asked questions
Why do burn rates vary so much between candles?
Wax type (soy, paraffin, beeswax), wick size, container width, and burn conditions (draft, burn duration per session) all affect how quickly a candle consumes wax — a rough estimate is useful for comparison, but actual burn time for a specific candle can differ.
Does letting a candle burn longer per session change total burn time?
Yes, indirectly — short burn sessions can lead to 'tunneling' (wax not melting fully across the surface), which wastes wax along the container walls and can reduce total usable burn time compared to longer sessions that melt the full wax pool each time.