CBD isolate — the raw, 99%+ pure CBD powder — sells for about $0.15–0.50 per gram wholesale in bulk, and roughly $1–3 per gram at small retail. Since one gram equals 1,000mg, that's just $0.15–0.50 worth of CBD inside the typical $50–90 "1,000mg" store tincture. The rest is packaging, marketing, and margin.
Real isolate price ranges
| Purchase size | Price per gram | Price per mg |
|---|---|---|
| Bulk wholesale (kilo+) | $0.15–0.30 | $0.00015–0.00030 |
| Mid-size (100g+) | $0.30–0.50 | $0.00030–0.00050 |
| Small retail (grams) | $1–3 | $0.001–0.003 |
| Simple Tinctures concentrate (8,000mg) | $6.13 | $0.006 |
What does that mean per milligram?
The honest cost of pure CBD is under a cent per milligram — roughly $0.006/mg once it's dissolved and delivered to you. Store tinctures charge $0.10–0.15/mg. That's a 15–25x markup on the ingredient, and the "premium" label is usually what you're paying for, not the CBD.
Why isolate is so cheap
Isolate is a commodity. It's extracted from hemp in huge batches, purified to 99%+, and sold by the gram to manufacturers all over the world. Supply is plentiful and the process is well established, so the price has fallen over the years. That's good news for anyone willing to do a little DIY — the ingredient is cheap precisely because it's not dressed up.
The fair-price benchmark
- Raw isolate: $0.15–0.50 per gram wholesale; about $0.006/mg is a fair consumer price.
- Finished tincture (fair): you should not be paying more than a small premium over the isolate cost for the convenience of it being pre-made.
- Most store tinctures: $0.10–0.15/mg — roughly 80–90% of what you pay is not CBD.