Kite prices in Lahore

19 September 2026 · 5 min read · Written in Lahore

The kite price in Lahore is not a number, it is a curve. The same patang that is affordable in December is expensive in the last week before Basant, and the reason is not greed — it is that lawful supply is capped and demand arrives all at once.

This guide explains what sets the price and how the market is structured, rather than quoting rates that go stale within a season. Kite prices move with the season, with the rupee, and with what the province permits — so for current numbers, read a seller's published list. Ours is on the home page, item by item.

Gudda: priced individually, by size

Gudda are sold singly, and the size ladder is the first thing to understand.

The whole lawful ladder sits inside a narrow band. The gap between the smallest and the largest gudda is slight next to what a season's dor will cost you, which makes size a weaker driver of total spend than most buyers assume — choose on wind and skill rather than budget, because the budget barely moves either way.

Note the ceiling: 1.5 tawa (40 in × 34 in) is the maximum legal gudda size under the current rules. Anything larger is not a premium option, it is an illegal one.

Patang: priced by the dozen, by githi

Patang are sold by the dozen rather than singly, and graded by githi rather than tawa.

A dozen-price looks alarming beside a single gudda. Divide it out before you compare the two, and note that each step up the githi ladder carries a real premium — the largest grade costs appreciably more per kite than the smallest.

4.5 githi (35 in × 30 in) is the legal maximum for patang.

Dor and pinna: where the money actually goes

This is the largest share of a season's spend by some distance, and where buyers understand least what they are paying for. A single pinna costs many times what any individual kite does.

Pinna are sold by piece count, and a 4-piece carries roughly double the line of a 2-piece for close to double the money. Above that, premium and export grades buy winding quality rather than more line. The grade-by-grade breakdown is here, along with how to compare two spools per yard.

Four things set a pinna's price: ply (tar count, capped at 9), count (fineness, minimum 28), length, and winding quality. The fourth is the one buyers overlook and flyers care about most — badly wound dor tangles and knots at exactly the wrong moment. The full dor guide explains how to judge all four, and what each one does to the price.

Why prices climb before Basant

Supply has a legal ceiling. Only registered manufacturers may produce kite-flying material, at an approved address, with production uploaded to the Basant Festival 2027 portal as it happens. The total that can lawfully exist for a season is decided months ahead by licence, not by demand. A shortage cannot be met by making more.

Demand is compressed. Almost the whole season's buying happens in the final fortnight, and a very large share in the last three or four days — made sharper by the fact that the retail window is now officially bounded rather than open-ended.

Nobody wants to hold stock. Kites are seasonal and fragile. Sellers price for the risk that anything unsold after the festival is worthless, which keeps early rates soft and late rates hard.

The practical version: the first days of the retail window are the cheapest of the season, and the week before Basant is the most expensive. Watch the portal for when the window opens.

A word on anything unusually cheap

If a quoted dor price sits far below everything else in the market, ask what it is made of. Chemical-coated and metallic string is cheaper to produce and cuts better, which is exactly why it is banned and exactly why the festival was lost for twenty years.

Buying it is not a bargain. Under the current law, flying with banned string carries 3–5 years and/or a fine up to Rs 2 million; manufacturing, trading or selling it carries 5–7 years and/or up to Rs 5 million, and the offences are non-bailable. Punjab Police enforcement runs through the season.

How to buy well

1. Check the seller is registered before discussing price at all. How to verify a seller.
2. Buy early in the retail window rather than in Basant week.
3. Match sizes to your roof and wind — a big gudda on a light afternoon is money on the floor.
4. Compare pinna per yard, and look at the winding.
5. Budget for gloves. Cotton line under load opens bare hands, and it happens more often than people expect.

Where to go: kite shops in Lahore, or online shops with published price lists. Ours are on the home page — every product and its price, and how to order.