⏱️ Candle Burn Time Estimator
Estimate total burn time from wax weight and a burn rate. If you don't know your candle's exact burn rate yet, a commonly cited rough starting point is about 1 ounce of wax per hour for a standard single-wick candle — actual rate varies by wick, wax, and container.
Burn rate varies by wick, wax, and container — measure your own candle's actual rate for the most accurate estimate.
Wax divided by burn rate
Burn time is the wax you poured divided by how fast the flame consumes it:
hours = wax weight (oz) / burn rate (oz per hour)The defaults, 8 oz of wax at 0.5 oz an hour, give 16.0 hours. Halve the rate to 0.25 and the same candle runs 32 hours: burn time is set by the wick far more than by the size of the jar.
Measure your own rate
Published rates are guesses about someone else's candle. Yours takes ten seconds of arithmetic:
- Weigh the finished candle, jar and all, and note the figure.
- Burn it for a full 4 hour session, long enough to reach a complete melt pool.
- Weigh it again. Lose 32 g over 4 hours and that is 8 g an hour, or 0.28 oz — so 8 oz of wax lasts about 28.6 hours.
Single-wick container candles usually measure somewhere between 0.15 and 0.3 oz an hour; multi-wick jars burn proportionally faster, roughly per wick.
Frequently asked questions
How long does an 8 oz candle burn?
Between about 27 and 53 hours in practice, depending on the wick: 8 oz at a measured 0.3 oz an hour gives 27 hours, and at 0.15 oz an hour, 53. Enter your own measured rate for a figure you can trust.
How do I work out a candle's burn rate?
Weigh it before and after a timed burn and divide the weight lost by the hours. Grams are easiest: divide grams per hour by 28.35 to get the ounces per hour this tool wants.
Why does my candle burn faster than the estimate?
Almost always the wick. Going up one size raises consumption and cuts hours by the same proportion. Draughts, an untrimmed wick and repeated short burns all add to it.