You sell a vintage lamp for $50, charge $8 for shipping, and expect to see about $58 minus postage. Then the sale posts to your payment account with $5.96 in fees taken out, and $14.66 if the buyer came through one of Etsy's off-site ads at the 15% rate. Etsy's headline fee numbers are small. The totals only make sense once you know what each one is charged on.
Here is every fee a US seller pays on Etsy, what it applies to, and a worked example. The rates below match Etsy's fee policy and Help Center pages as of October 2026.
The Fee Structure
| Fee | Amount | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 per listing | Each time a listing is published or renewed |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% | Item price + shipping you charge + gift wrap (not sales tax) |
| Payment processing | 3% + $0.25 per order | The full order, including shipping and sales tax |
| Offsite Ads (only if an ad led to the sale) | 15%, or 12% once your shop passes $10,000 | Item price + shipping + gift wrap, capped at $100 per order |
US sellers pay no regulatory operating fee. That fee only applies to sellers in a short list of other countries, including the UK, Canada, France, and Italy.
Two differences trip people up. The transaction fee skips sales tax, but the processing fee does not, so on an order that includes tax you pay processing on a larger number than you pay the transaction fee on. And both fees apply to shipping, which means charging $8 for shipping costs you roughly 9.5% of that $8 on top of what the label costs.
What You Keep on a Sale
For an item with no shipping charged, no ads, and no sales tax:
| Sale Price | Total Fees | Effective Rate | You Keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| $25 | $2.83 | 11.3% | $22.17 |
| $50 | $5.20 | 10.4% | $44.80 |
| $100 | $9.95 | 9.95% | $90.05 |
| $200 | $19.45 | 9.7% | $180.55 |
The flat $0.20 and $0.25 hurt most on cheap items, which is why the effective rate falls as the price rises. That is before your item cost and before any shipping label you buy.
How much are platform fees really costing you?
Compare exact selling fees and payouts across eBay, Poshmark, Mercari, Depop, Etsy, Grailed, and Vinted.
Use the Fee Calculator →A Worked Example With Shipping, Ads, and Tax
Take a $50 item with $8 shipping charged to the buyer. The fee base for the transaction fee is $58.00.
No ads:
- Listing fee: $0.20
- Transaction fee: 6.5% of $58.00 = $3.77
- Processing: 3% of $58.00 + $0.25 = $1.99
- Total: $5.96, which is 10.3% of the $58.00 order. You keep $52.04 before the shipping label and what you paid for the item.
With an Offsite Ads sale at 15%:
- Offsite Ads fee: 15% of $58.00 = $8.70
- Total: $14.66, or 25.3% of the order. You keep $43.34.
With an Offsite Ads sale at 12%:
- Offsite Ads fee: 12% of $58.00 = $6.96
- Total: $12.92, or 22.3% of the order. You keep $45.08.
If the buyer also pays 8% sales tax ($4.64): processing is calculated on $62.64, so it becomes $2.13, and total fees without ads rise to $6.10. The transaction fee and Offsite Ads fee stay the same because they exclude tax.
Offsite Ads: The Fee You Can't Always Avoid
Offsite Ads are Etsy's advertising on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Bing, and other sites. You don't choose which of your listings are advertised. You pay only when a buyer clicks an ad and orders from your shop within 30 days of that click, and the fee applies to each order that comes from that click.
- 15% if your shop made under $10,000 in the prior 365 days
- 12% once it reaches $10,000
- $100 maximum on any single order. At these rates, the cap only matters on orders above roughly $667 (at 15%) or $833 (at 12%)
- Opting out is allowed only while your shop has never reached $10,000 in sales over a 365-day period. After that, Etsy makes participation mandatory at 12% for the life of the shop, even if your sales later fall below $10,000
If a buyer's last click before ordering is an Etsy Ads (on-site) ad, only the Etsy Ads fee applies, not Offsite Ads on top.
Etsy's pages are slightly inconsistent about exactly how and when the $10,000 mark is counted: the fee policy describes a monthly calculation, while the Offsite Ads help article says "any consecutive 365-day period." If you are close to the line, check your shop's Offsite Ads page.
Etsy Ads (On-Site)
This is the separate, optional advertising inside Etsy search. You pay per click, set a daily maximum budget, and are never charged above it. Every seller starts with a $25 maximum daily budget that Etsy adjusts weekly based on your recent spending, and a shop has to be open 15 days before it can run a campaign.
Listing Fees Add Up
The $0.20 is charged whether or not the item sells, and it is charged per listing, not per item.
- Listings expire after 4 months. Auto-renew is on by default and charges another $0.20 each time.
- On a listing with several units, Etsy charges $0.20 again for each additional unit that sells in an order and triggers a renewal.
- Editing a listing does not cost anything.
If you list a lot of low-priced inventory, turn off auto-renew on items you wouldn't mind letting expire. Etsy lets you switch a single listing or the whole shop to manual renewal in Listings Manager.
Optional Subscriptions and Other Fees
- Etsy Plus: $10 a month. It includes listing credits and Etsy Ads credits that expire each cycle and do not roll over.
- Pattern: a 30-day free trial, then $15 a month. Pattern-only listings carry no listing fee.
- Currency conversion: 2.5%, only if you list in a currency different from your payment account's currency. A US seller listing in dollars pays none.
- Shipping labels: the price depends on carrier, weight, and add-ons. You need Etsy Payments or PayPal to buy them.
What Happens to Fees When You Refund
Etsy's policy says all service fees, including prepaid fees, are non-refundable. For refunds you issue through Etsy Payments, the payment processing fee is recalculated on the adjusted sale price, and the difference comes back to you. The policy does not clearly say that the transaction fee or the flat $0.25 is returned, and for refunds Etsy itself covers, it says the processing, transaction, and Offsite Ads fees are not credited back. We could not find an Etsy page that settles it, so after a refund, check your payment account to see what was returned before you assume it was.
How Etsy Compares
On a $50 sale with no shipping, no ads, and no tax, using the rates in our fee calculator (last verified August 2026):
| Platform | Fees |
|---|---|
| Vinted | $0.00 |
| Depop | $2.10 |
| Mercari | $5.00 |
| Etsy | $5.20 |
| Grailed | $5.24 |
| eBay | $7.20 |
| Poshmark | $10.00 |
Etsy lands in the middle on a standard sale. It moves to the expensive end the moment an Offsite Ads sale is involved, because that 12% or 15% is larger than the whole rest of the fee stack. For a closer look across more platforms, see our fees comparison.
The Real Tradeoffs
- You pay before you sell. Listing fees are non-refundable and charged on every publish and renewal, so slow inventory costs money while it sits.
- Shipping and tax get taxed. Charging shipping raises both your transaction fee and your processing fee, and the processing fee applies to sales tax too.
- Offsite Ads can become permanent. Past $10,000, you cannot opt out, so a good year can lock in a fee on every ad-attributed sale.
- Fees are stacked, not bundled. Three separate charges make it harder to estimate a payout than on a platform with one flat rate.
On the other side, a basic Etsy shop has no monthly subscription, and the standard stack comes to roughly 10% of an order.
Before You Open a Shop
If you are setting up, read our guide to starting an Etsy shop, and check that your shop name is free with our Etsy username checker or the checker on the homepage, since a taken name is easier to fix before your first listing than after.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Etsy take from each sale?
A US seller pays a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus shipping, and a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee on the full order including shipping and sales tax. On a $50 item with $8 shipping and no ads, the total is $5.96.
Do Etsy fees apply to shipping and sales tax?
The 6.5% transaction fee applies to the item price, shipping you charge, and gift wrap, but not to sales tax. The payment processing fee is calculated on the whole order, so it includes both shipping and sales tax.
Is the Etsy listing fee charged again when a listing renews or sells?
Yes. Listings expire after 4 months, and auto-renew (on by default) charges another $0.20 and restarts the 4 months. On a multi-quantity listing, Etsy also charges $0.20 again each time a unit sells and the listing renews.
Can I opt out of Etsy Offsite Ads?
Only while your shop has never reached $10,000 in sales over a 365-day period. Once it does, Etsy makes Offsite Ads mandatory at the lower 12% rate, even if sales later drop below $10,000.
Are Etsy fees refunded if I cancel or refund an order?
Etsy's policy says service fees are non-refundable, and that the payment processing fee is recalculated on the adjusted sale price after a refund. It does not clearly say that the transaction fee or the flat $0.25 comes back, so check your payment account after a refund.
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