Etsy’s fees are small one by one, which is why they are easy to wave away. On the worked order below they add up to 11.0% of what the buyer pays, and two of them are charged on the shipping you collect as well as on your item price. If your price does not account for them, they come straight out of your profit.
This guide explains each fee that applies to a normal US sale, shows them on a real worked order, and explains how the pricing calculator builds them in. The values here are the ones the calculator uses. Etsy changes its fees from time to time, so confirm them on Etsy’s own fee page before you rely on them.
The fees on a typical order
Transaction fee: 6.5%
Etsy charges a 6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus the shipping you charge. Shipping is the easy part to miss: if you charge the buyer for postage, Etsy takes its percentage of that too.
Payment processing: 3% plus $0.25
When a buyer pays through Etsy Payments, a US seller pays a processing fee of 3% of the order total plus $0.25 per order. Like the transaction fee, the percentage applies to the item price plus shipping. Etsy’s fee page lists exactly what the processing fee is charged on; if it includes sales tax collected on an order, that small amount is not in the calculator.
Listing fee: $0.20
It costs $0.20 to list an item, and a listing that sells is renewed for another $0.20. The calculator counts one $0.20 listing fee per order, which matches a one-item order. If buyers often order several of an item, check Etsy’s fee page for how renewals are charged.
Offsite Ads: 12% to 15%, not in the calculator
When a sale comes from one of Etsy’s ads on other websites, Etsy charges an Offsite Ads fee of 12% to 15%, capped at $100 per order. It only applies to sales that come through those ads, so the calculator leaves it out. If a large share of your sales come from Offsite Ads, check how the fee applies to your shop on Etsy’s fee page and think about whether your margin can absorb it.
Putting the fees together
For a normal order, the percentage fees add up to 6.5% + 3% = 9.5% of the item price plus shipping. The fixed fees add up to $0.25 + $0.20 = $0.45 per order. That is how the calculator models Etsy:
Fees = 9.5% x (item price + shipping charged) + $0.45
The fees on a real order
Here is worked example A from our sublimation mug guide: a mug priced at $23.67 with $6.00 shipping, so the buyer pays $29.67. These are example numbers, not market prices.
| Fee | How it is worked out | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction fee | 6.5% of $29.67 | $1.93 |
| Payment processing | 3% of $29.67, plus $0.25 | $1.14 |
| Listing fee | One per order | $0.20 |
| Total fees | 9.5% of $29.67, plus $0.45 | $3.27 |
On this order, Etsy’s fees come to about 11.0% of what the buyer pays. Of that, $0.57 is the 9.5% charged on the $6.00 shipping alone.
To get a feel for the size of Offsite Ads: 12% of this $29.67 order would be $3.56, and 15% would be $4.45. Etsy’s fee page explains exactly which amounts the Offsite Ads fee applies to.
Why you cannot just add the fees on top
It is tempting to work out the fees at your current price and add that amount on. It falls short, because the fees are a percentage: of every extra dollar you add, Etsy takes 9.5 cents and you keep 90.5 cents, so the fees on the added money still come out of your profit.
The calculator avoids this by dividing instead of adding. It works backward from the margin you want:
Price = (cost + your shipping cost + $0.45) / (1 – 0.095 – your margin) – shipping you charge
For the mug in our example, with a cost per item of $11.50, a shipping cost of $6.00 and a 30% margin, that gives $23.67. Check it forward and the margin is exactly 30.0% after fees.
Shipping and fees
Because Etsy’s percentage fees apply to shipping, the shipping you charge is never quite pass-through money. On the mug above, $0.57 of the fees is caused by the shipping charge. There is no right or wrong way to handle this, but there are two consistent ones:
- Charge shipping. Enter what you charge and what the label really costs. The calculator counts the fees on both.
- Offer free shipping. Enter $0 for shipping charged and your real label cost for shipping cost. The calculator moves the cost of shipping into the item price, and you still get the same margin.
What you should not do is charge less for shipping than it costs and forget to make up the difference in the item price.
Costs that are not Etsy fees
The calculator covers the fees on every normal order. A few other costs are real but depend on your shop:
- Shipping labels. If you buy labels through Etsy, the label cost is your shipping cost. Enter it in the “your actual shipping cost” field.
- Etsy Ads. On-site advertising is optional and you set the budget. Treat it as overhead and spread it across the items it helps sell.
- Subscriptions and extras. Paid Etsy plans and other shop tools are overhead too.
A quick fee check for any listing
You do not need the calculator to sanity-check a listing you already have. Add the item price and the shipping you charge, take 9.5% of that total, and add $0.45. That is roughly what Etsy keeps on a normal sale. Subtract it, your shipping cost and your cost per item from the total the buyer pays, and what is left is your profit. If that number surprises you, run the listing through the calculator with “Check my current price” filled in to see the full picture, including your margin and what you earn per hour.
Keeping up with fee changes
Put a reminder in your calendar to look at Etsy’s fee page every month or two. If a value has changed, re-run your best sellers through the calculator with the new numbers. The Craft Pricing Workbook (coming soon) keeps the Etsy fee values in one place, so updating them reprices every product in your list at once.
Questions sellers ask
Does the calculator include sales tax?
No. Sales tax is paid by the buyer on top of your price, and in the US Etsy collects it on many orders on your behalf. Check Etsy’s help pages for how it applies to your shop.
Are these fees the same outside the US?
No. Payment processing and some other fees differ by country. The values here are for US sellers. Sellers elsewhere can choose “In person or other” in the calculator and enter their own percentage and fixed fee.
What happens to the fees when I refund an order?
Etsy has its own rules for which fees are returned on a refund. Check Etsy’s fee page and help center for the current policy.
