Updated October 11, 2026
Quick answer: Crafting is profitable when an item's sale price beats its ingredient cost plus the 5% tax. The trick is finding recipes with a real margin that also sell often. A huge margin on something nobody buys isn't gil. Rank recipes by profit × units/day for your world and craft what's on top.
Crafting is the most consistent way to make gil in Final Fantasy XIV, but only if you make the right things. This guide shows how to find recipes that actually pay, and how to keep them paying as the market moves.
Every crafted item has two prices: what its ingredients cost and what it sells for on the market board. When the sale price beats the ingredient cost after the 5% market tax, the difference is yours.
Demand keeps renewing. New players arrive, new content lands and consumables get used up, so there's always something worth making.
You don't need all eight to make money. Each one covers a different market, though, so it helps to know what each is for before you pick which to level first.
CulinarianFood (raid consumables). The highest, steadiest volume: eaten every week, all tier.Start here
AlchemistPotions, tinctures, some tools. The other consumable engine, and it spikes with every raid tier.Start here
GoldsmithAccessories, some housing. High value per item: rings, earrings and necklaces sell for a lot.Then this
WeaverCaster and healer cloth gear, glamour. Broad glamour demand, strong at patch launch.
LeatherworkerMelee and ranged leather gear, glamour. Like Weaver, but for the physical DPS side.
CarpenterCrafter and gatherer tools, some furnishings. Tools resell every tier; furnishings ignore the patch cycle.
BlacksmithWeapons and tools for Disciples of War. Weapon demand at launch, tools steady in between.
ArmorerTank plate gear and crafted parts. A narrower market, but it feeds other crafters intermediate parts.
A common gil-first order looks like this:
The specific winners shift, so let the live rankings pick the recipes, not this list.
This is where most gil is won or lost. A recipe can look great one day and lose money the next because someone flooded the board. Two numbers decide it:
Margin is the sale price minus the live cost of every ingredient, minus tax. Units/day is how many actually sell. A big margin on a slow seller isn't worth a retainer slot.
Checking that by hand across hundreds of recipes is miserable, so let the site do it.
Looking for a recipe that uses something you already own? Type it into the Uses ingredient… box. Sort by Cheapest to make when you're short on gil.
Three starting points, depending on how you like to sell. They match the presets in the main gil guide, using the crafting tool's own filter names.
Sells every day and pays enough to be worth the slot. Good for most crafters on most days.
Accessories, furnishings, gear at patch launch. Craft one or two and wait. Needs patience and capital.
Raid food, potions, intermediates. Small profit each, but you can craft in stacks.
Want slow sellers gone everywhere? Settings has a Slow-seller threshold (units/day) and a Hide slow sellers switch, plus a Max ingredient budget (gil) that applies to every job.
The crafters who earn the most don't chase one hot recipe. They keep a rotating shelf of 30–40 different profitable items listed at all times. Each retainer lists 20 items, so two selling retainers cover it.
A simple routine: run the crafting tool on Best for each class you've leveled, keep the top handful from each listed, and restock whatever sold when you log in.
Results are sorted by total value, so restocking your shelf starts at the top of the list.
High-quality items usually sell for more than normal quality, and for gear and consumables the gap can be large. If your crafter can reliably hit HQ, it's often worth the extra effort.
HQUsually the premium price. Sometimes a crowded market, too.
NQCheaper per sale, but it can move faster when the HQ board is packed.
Compare both before you commit to a big batch.
On the site, turn on Rank by HQ profit in Settings if you craft HQ, so recipes are ranked on HQ prices instead of NQ.
Higher crafting stats let you make more valuable items in HQ and take on expert recipes and collectables. You don't need best-in-slot to start earning.
As you put profit back into melds and gear, more of the profitable recipe list opens up. The materia guide covers the other side: selling the materia you extract.
Crafting demand isn't flat. It surges on a schedule:
New major patchesNew recipes, gear and housing items sell high before supply catches up. The first days are often the best of the cycle.
Raid tiersDrive demand for consumables (food, potions) and melds.
Housing and seasonal eventsSpike the furnishing and glamour markets.
Stocking mats before a patch and crafting into launch-week demand is one of the most reliable plays in the game.
The market board rewards patience over panic. A few habits keep your crafting profitable:
Put this into practice with live market-board prices for your world:
Crafting profit calculatorEvery recipe ranked by live margin × units/day.Open → What can I craft?Your jobs and bags in, the best things to make out.Open → Crafting levesCheapest EXP and best gil from levequests.Open →Leveling a crafter cheaply first? See the crafting leves guide.
See profitable recipes on your world → All gil-making methods →
More guides: every gil method · desynthesis · crafting leves · materia · Ishgardian Restoration
XIV Profitability is a free, fan-made tool. Not affiliated with Square Enix. Prices via Universalis. FINAL FANTASY XIV © SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD.