Gold per day, explained properly

"Best crop" arguments go wrong because people compare different things: price per harvest, days to grow, or nothing at all. Four numbers decide everything, and once you have them, the answer is arithmetic.

Published 08 Oct 2026 · By the StardewTools team

Quick answer

Profit = (sell price × harvests) − seed cost, divided by the days it takes (28 for a season). Harvests depend on growth time and (for regrowing crops) the regrow rhythm: 1 + floor((days left − growth days) ÷ regrow days). Use the crop profit calculator for any crop, or the best-crop finder to rank everything for your remaining days.

The four numbers that decide profit

  1. Seed cost. What you pay per planting, subtracted once per seed, however many harvests it gives.
  2. Sell price per harvest. Base price, before quality bonuses. Quality pushes this up: silver +25%, gold +50%, iridium +100%.
  3. Growth time & regrow rhythm. Single-harvest crops (cauliflower, melon, pumpkin) pay once; regrow crops (blueberry, cranberry, ancient fruit) keep paying every few days. The rhythm is the whole advantage of the second kind.
  4. Processing option. Kegs and jars multiply value with only time as the input: wine ≈ 3× fruit base, juice ≈ 2.25× vegetable base, pickles/jelly = base × 2 + 50.

Worked example: starfruit vs cranberry

Starfruit (summer): seed 400g, base 750g, 13 days to grow, no regrow. With replanting, floor(28 ÷ 13) = 2 plantings: profit = 750×2 − 400×2 = 700g per season, or 25 g/day raw. Processed into wine (3× = 2250g each), the same crop netts 2250×2 − 800 = 3700g: 132 g/day. The keg transforms the answer.

Cranberry (fall): seed 240g, base 75g, 7 days grow, 5 days regrow, 2 berries per harvest. From day 1: 1 + floor((28 − 7) ÷ 5) = 5 harvests. Profit = 75 × 2 × 5 − 240 = 510g, or 18.2 g/day. Two completely different shapes of income: starfruit pays in big single hits (great for kegs), cranberries in steady small ones (great raw or for jellies).

Numbers here come from the wiki tables in our dataset; the calculator reproduces both examples exactly (see the test suite on the methodology page). Always check the tool for your exact planting day, mid-season the ranking changes.

Common mistakes

  • Comparing per harvest, not per day. The slow expensive crop often loses.
  • Forgetting seed cost entirely. For cheap crops the seed can be a third of the revenue.
  • Ignoring processing capacity. A keg shed changes which crop is best; the tools show both raw and processed numbers for exactly this reason.
  • Planting with too few days left. A crop that cannot finish is a total loss, the best-crop finder filters these out.

Frequently asked questions

Is the most expensive crop always the most profitable?

No. Profit depends on gold per day, not gold per harvest: a cheap fast crop can out-earn an expensive slow one over a season. And with artisan processing, the ranking can flip again, pumpkins out-process melons in a keg cycle, for example. Always compare per-day, after costs.

How do I calculate crop profit for the days I have left?

Count how many harvests fit before season end: for regrowing crops, 1 + floor((days left − growth days) ÷ regrow days). Multiply by sell price, subtract seed cost, divide by 28. The best crop finder does this for every crop automatically.

Do I subtract the seed cost from every harvest or once?

Once per planting. If a crop gives 3 harvests from one seed, the seed cost is subtracted once from the total: profit = price × 3 − seed price. (Replanting changes this: each new seed is a new cost.)

When does processing beat selling raw?

Almost always when you have keg/jar capacity you would otherwise leave idle, because processing multiplies value using only time. The exceptions are when you need cash immediately or when the crop is more valuable as a direct gift/quest item. The calculators show both numbers side by side.