How building prices scale
Every building costs 15% more than the last one you bought. The price of your next building is base cost × 1.15^owned, rounded up, so the 51st Farm costs about 1,084 times as much as the first, and the 101st about 1.2 million times as much.
Adding those prices up gives a handy shortcut for the total cost of owning n of a building from scratch: base cost × (1.15^n − 1) ÷ 0.15. Because the series grows so fast, the last few buildings make up most of the total. The table above uses this to show what 100 of each building costs in all.
Why base efficiency is only a starting point
Base cost divided by base CpS tells you how efficient a building is before any upgrades. In a real game, tiered upgrades double a building's output many times over, grandma types and synergy upgrades link buildings together, and Cursors gain CpS from every other building you own. That is why the best purchase depends on your save. Paste it into the Save Analyzer to rank buildings by payback period with your real multipliers, or use the What-If Calculator to price out a bulk purchase.
Building levels and minigames
Spending a sugar lump on a building raises its level, and each level adds 1% to that building's CpS. Four buildings unlock a minigame at level 1: the Farm opens the garden, the Bank the stock market, the Temple the Pantheon and the Wizard Tower the Grimoire. Those are usually the best first uses of sugar lumps. Our sugar lump guide covers what to level next.
Selling buildings
Selling a building returns 25% of its current price, or 50% with the Earth Shatterer dragon aura. Players sell buildings for specific tricks: lowering the Grimoire's magic cap right before a second spell, sacrificing buildings to train Krumblor, or trading with the Spontaneous Edifice spell. Outside of those, selling loses cookies.
Frequently asked questions
How much more does each Cookie Clicker building cost?
Each one costs 15% more than the previous one of the same type. The price is base cost times 1.15 to the power of the number you own.
What is the best building in Cookie Clicker?
It depends on your upgrades. In general, the newest building you can afford gives the most CpS per cookie, but the Save Analyzer ranks them for your save by payback period.
How many cookies do 100 of a building cost?
Base cost times (1.15^100 − 1) divided by 0.15, which is roughly 7.8 million times the base cost. The table on this page lists it for every building.