The motivation for this work is to develop a simple yet sufficiently accurate equation that can be used in the design of castellated beams subjected to pure bending, considering the contribution of the web-flange coupling effect in the local buckling. To accomplish this, an energy method - Rayleigh quotient - is adopted to determine the approximate critical stress equation. In this method, the strain energy and the potential work are calculated for an assumed approximate and kinematically admissible continuous deflected shape. Thus, the accuracy of the result is dependent on the quality of the assumed buckled shape. These shape functions were chosen based on the results obtained from numerical models created using ABAQUS software and verified with GBTUL, considering full interaction between web and flange. The developed closed-form expressions were based on classical plate stability approximations, validated with parametric studies performed using ABAQUS and GBTUL. The results indicate that the proposed equation can effectively calculate the critical stress of castellated beams due to local instability. The validated expression and its associated limits are intended to be general within the typical limits of practical applications.