Etsy Fees Explained: How Much Etsy Actually Takes From Each Sale

Etsy's fee structure is published, but it's split across three separate line items that never get added together in one place until the payout shows up smaller than expected. Here's the full math on one order.

The Three Fees on Every Etsy Sale

Per Etsy's own published seller fees, every sale involves three separate charges. A $0.20 listing fee to publish an item (each listing stays active for 4 months or until it sells, whichever comes first). A 6.5% transaction fee on the full sale price including the shipping price charged to the buyer. And, for sellers using Etsy Payments, a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee, also charged on the full order total.

Worked Example: A $38 Order

An item priced at $32 with $6 shipping has an order total of $38. The listing fee is a flat $0.20. The transaction fee is 6.5% of $38 = $2.47. The payment processing fee is 3% of $38 plus $0.25 = $1.14 + $0.25 = $1.39. Total fees: $0.20 + $2.47 + $1.39 = $4.06 — about 10.7% of the order total. Net payout to the seller: $38 − $4.06 = $33.94.

Step-by-Step: Pricing to Protect Your Margin

Working backward from a target payout instead of a target price avoids under-pricing. The combined fee rate in this example is roughly 9.5% of the order total plus a flat $0.45 ($0.20 listing + $0.25 processing base fee). To net a $30 payout after fees: order total needed ≈ ($30 + $0.45) ÷ 0.905 ≈ $33.65. So an item that needs to net $30 after Etsy's cut should be priced (including shipping) around $33.65, not exactly $30.

Fees at Scale: 50 Orders a Month

At the $38 order example above, 50 orders in a month brings in $1,900 in gross sales and $203 in total Etsy fees ($4.06 × 50), leaving $1,697 in net payouts before the seller's own cost of goods, packaging, and shipping costs are factored in separately. Tracking fees at this monthly scale, not just per order, makes it easier to see whether pricing is actually covering both Etsy's cut and the seller's own production costs.

The Fee Most Sellers Forget: Offsite Ads

Beyond the three fees on every sale, Etsy runs Offsite Ads — promoting listings on external sites like Google, Facebook, and Pinterest — and charges a fee only when a sale results from one of those ads. Per Etsy's official policy, shops with less than $10,000 in sales over any trailing 365-day period are charged 15% of the order total on an attributed sale and cannot opt out; shops at or above that threshold get a reduced 12% rate and can opt out. The fee is capped at $100 per order regardless of order size.

On the same $38 order, an Offsite Ads-attributed sale for a shop under the $10,000 threshold adds $5.70 (15% of $38) on top of the $4.06 in standard fees — $9.76 total, or about 25.7% of the order, roughly double the non-ads fee rate. This isn't avoidable below the $10,000 threshold, so it's worth pricing with the assumption that some share of orders will carry the higher combined fee rate, rather than assuming every order nets the same $33.94 payout.

The Short Version

Etsy's three per-sale fees — a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee, and a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee — add up to roughly 10-11% of a typical order total. On a $38 order, that's about $4.06, leaving a $33.94 payout. Shops under $10,000 in trailing annual sales also pay a mandatory 15% Offsite Ads fee on attributed orders, pushing the combined rate to roughly 26% on those specific sales. Price backward from a target net payout, not forward from a round price, and track fees at monthly scale to see the real cost of doing business on the platform.

FAQ

Educational resource only, not financial or business advice. Etsy's fee structure can change; confirm current rates on Etsy's own fees page before pricing. See Etsy's official Fees & Payments Policy for up-to-date figures.