Making pie shells

Requirements

How it works

1. Check three prices before buying anything: pastry dough, pie dish and pie shell. You make money only while a shell sells for more than one dough plus one dish plus the 2% sales tax. The worked numbers below show how to do the sum.
2. Buy 500 pie dishes, the most the Grand Exchange will sell you every four hours, and 500 pastry dough. Buying more dough than you have dishes just leaves you holding dough.
3. At any bank, withdraw 14 pastry dough and 14 pie dishes. Use a dough on a dish and press space to make the whole inventory. Each shell takes 2 game ticks, so an inventory takes about 17 seconds.
4. Bank the 14 shells and repeat. 500 dishes is 36 inventories; the last one is short.
5. Sell the shells on the Grand Exchange. Tens of thousands trade every day, so a batch of 500 normally sells quickly near the going price. Undercut only if it sits unsold.
6. Wait for the dish limit to reset before buying the next 500. To play for longer in one sitting, buy 500 dishes every time you're online beforehand and build up a stockpile.
7. Optional, roughly doubles the margin: buy pots of flour and jugs of water instead of pastry dough. Use a jug on a flour (1 tick each) to make your own dough, which gives the empty pot and jug back, then make shells as above. It takes an extra inventory per 14 shells.

Written by ScapePath. Checked against the OSRS Wiki: Pie shell, Pie dish, Pastry dough and the pie shell money making guide on 2026-10-14.

The numbers

Profit per pie shell at 2026-10-14 prices, after the 2% Grand Exchange tax. A pie shell sold for 306 gp.

• The 500-dish limit is the real ceiling. One fresh batch of 500 shells makes 500 times the margin above, whatever your hourly speed.
• The headline gp/hr is the Wiki's free-to-play figure. It assumes you have the dishes on hand to keep going all hour, which needs a stockpile from earlier buy-limit windows.
• These prices are one day's averages. Shell, dough and flour prices move, so redo the sum before a big buy. If the margin is near zero, skip it today.
• Selling empty pots and jugs is optional; they're worth a few coins each and pay no tax under 50 gp.

Prices: OSRS Wiki real-time prices, 24-hour averages (buy at the instant-buy price, sell at the instant-sell price).

Common mistakes

• Buying thousands of pastry dough, then finding out you can only get 500 pie dishes every four hours.
• Forgetting the 2% Grand Exchange tax. A shell that sells for 306 puts 300 in your pocket.
• Trusting an old margin. Check today's prices; the gap can shrink to almost nothing.
• Dumping a huge stack of shells instantly at a low offer instead of selling near the going price.
• Paying for pastry dough when flour and water cost far less and only add a few seconds per inventory.

Why choose this method?

• Ranks #7 of 7 free-to-play methods by profit.
• Cheap to set up: about 150k.
• No skill or quest requirements: any account with the setup money can run it.

Who should skip this method?

• It needs constant attention, so it's a poor fit for AFK play.

Tips

• Buy your 500 pie dishes every time the limit resets, even on days you aren't making shells, so you have a stockpile for a longer session.
• Any bank works. Pick one where you also check Grand Exchange prices, since buying and selling is half the job.

Progress to next

Higher-earning processing methods to move toward once Making pie shells feels comfortable.

Frequently asked questions

Why can I only buy 500 pie dishes?

That's the Grand Exchange buy limit for pie dishes, and it resets every four hours. The shops that stock pie dishes are members-only. Members can top up there, and anyone can make their own: shaping an unfired pie dish needs 7 Crafting, and firing it always succeeds from 13 Crafting.

Does making pie shells give Cooking experience?

No. Putting dough in a dish gives no experience, and neither does making the dough. You're paid for the work of combining items, not for training.

Is it better to make my own pastry dough?

At the 14 October 2026 prices, yes: about 194 gp profit per shell instead of about 93, because flour plus a jug of water costs far less than ready-made dough. It adds one short inventory per 14 shells. Check the prices first, since the gap varies.

Can I do this on an ironman?

Not as a money maker. The profit comes from buying and selling on the Grand Exchange, which ironmen can't use.