This guide is for Etsy sellers who want to know exactly where the money goes between the buyer's checkout and their bank deposit. It covers a shop that banks in the United States first, then what changes for sellers in the UK, Canada and the euro area.
You will see which fee is charged on which amount, why sales tax quietly raises one of them, and how the Offsite Ads cap behaves on large orders. Rates come from Etsy's fee policy as last updated on October 5, 2026, plus its Help Center articles, all checked on October 15, 2026.
The formula behind every Etsy order
Etsy does not take one blended percentage. It charges separate fees, each on its own base, and the base is where most errors creep in:
Order subtotal = item price × quantity + shipping charged + gift wrap
Total fees = listing + transaction + processing + Offsite Ads + regulatory + conversion − Share & Save credit
Most orders use only the first three terms. Our Etsy fee calculator uses these same lines, one by one.
Listing fee: $0.20 per unit sold
Publishing a listing costs $0.20. A sale triggers an automatic renewal for another $0.20, and every additional unit in that order is billed $0.20 too. For one order, then, the listing fee is $0.20 times the quantity sold.
Transaction fee: 6.5%
This is 6.5% of the order subtotal: the item price, the shipping you charge and any gift wrap. For US sellers, sales tax stays out of it.
Payment processing: 3% + $0.25 for US sellers
Processing is charged on the full checkout total, sales tax and all. It is the one fee where tax counts, and the line homemade spreadsheets most often get wrong. The rate follows your bank country, not the buyer's (Canada, Australia and New Zealand add a twist, covered below), and the fixed $0.25 per order weighs heavily on small sales.
Offsite Ads: 15% or 12%, capped at $100
When an order is attributed to an ad Etsy placed on an outside site, you pay a share of the subtotal. The rate is 15% for a shop whose sales have never gone above $10,000 within any 365 days, and 12% after that. Crossing the threshold is permanent: the 12% rate stays. Etsy lets shops under the threshold opt out. The ad fee on a single order never exceeds $100.
Share & Save: a 4% credit
A buyer who arrives through your own Share & Save tracking link earns you a credit of 4% of the subtotal against your fees. The credit never applies to an order attributed to an Offsite Ad.
Currency conversion: 2.5%
If your listing currency differs from your bank currency, Etsy charges 2.5% of the sale to convert it. Listing in your bank's currency avoids it.
Regulatory operating fee
Sellers based in certain countries pay an extra percentage of the subtotal to cover local regulatory costs; US sellers pay none. Rates from Etsy's Help article on the fee (edited June 22, 2026) appear further down.
Example 1: $25 item, $5 shipping, $2.40 sales tax
A print priced at $25 ships for $5 from a US shop. Sales tax of $2.40 is collected and remitted by Etsy, so the buyer's checkout totals $32.40.
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Order subtotal | $25.00 × 1 + $5.00 shipping | $30.00 |
| Listing fee | $0.20 × 1 | $0.20 |
| Transaction fee | $30.00 × 6.5% | $1.95 |
| Payment processing | $32.40 × 3% + $0.25 | $1.22 |
| Total fees | $0.20 + $1.95 + $1.22 | $3.37 |
| Payout | $30.00 − $3.37 | $26.63 |
Fees come to 11.23% of the subtotal. Processing runs on $32.40, not $30: leave the tax out and it falls to $1.15, which is $0.07 too low. Apply both percentage fees to the $25 item alone and the estimate drops to $2.83, understating the real fees by $0.54 on one small order.
Had the buyer come through the seller's Share & Save link, a $1.20 credit would cut total fees to $2.17 and lift the payout to $27.83.
Example 2: Offsite Ads on a $180 order and a $900 order
The $180 order at 15%. A shop that has never reached $10,000 in a year sells a $160 lamp with $20 shipping to a buyer who clicked an Etsy ad first. Sales tax is left out here to isolate the ad fee.
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 × 1 | $0.20 |
| Transaction fee | $180.00 × 6.5% | $11.70 |
| Payment processing | $180.00 × 3% + $0.25 | $5.65 |
| Offsite Ads | $180.00 × 15% | $27.00 |
| Total fees | $44.55 | |
| Payout | $180.00 − $44.55 | $135.45 |
At $27 the ad fee is nowhere near $100, so the cap does not bind. Without the ad the same order would cost $17.55 in fees, or 9.75% of the subtotal; with it, fees reach 24.75%.
The $900 order at 12%. An established shop, already past the $10,000 threshold, sells an $860 chair with $40 shipping, again through an Offsite Ad.
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 × 1 | $0.20 |
| Transaction fee | $900.00 × 6.5% | $58.50 |
| Payment processing | $900.00 × 3% + $0.25 | $27.25 |
| Offsite Ads | min($900.00 × 12%, $100.00 cap) | $100.00 |
| Total fees | $185.95 | |
| Payout | $900.00 − $185.95 | $714.05 |
Uncapped, 12% of $900 would be $108, so the cap saves $8; at 15% the raw $135 would be cut to the same $100. Fees are 20.66% of the order, against 9.55% with no ad involved. Rounded to the cent, a 15% ad fee first reaches the $100 cap at a subtotal of $666.64, and a 12% fee at $833.30. Beyond those amounts, extra order value adds nothing to the ad fee.
Sellers in the UK, Canada and the EU
The structure is the same everywhere; your bank country sets the processing rate, and the country your shop is based in sets any regulatory operating fee (the calculator uses one country for both).
| Bank country | Payment processing | Regulatory fee |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 4% + £0.20 | 0.48% |
| Canada | 3% + CA$0.25 on domestic orders and orders from US buyers (4% on other international orders) | 0.50% |
| France | 4% + €0.30 | 1.14% |
| Italy | 4% + €0.30 | 0.80% |
| Spain | 4% + €0.30 | 0.88% |
| Germany, Netherlands, Ireland | 4% + €0.30 | none |
Etsy's regulatory list also includes Hungary (1.97%), Turkey (1.67%), India (0.05%) and Vietnam (1.24%). Australian and New Zealand sellers pay 3% plus A$0.25 or NZ$0.30 on domestic orders and 4% on international ones, with no regulatory fee.
Two figures in the schedule are fixed in US dollars, the per-unit listing charge and the ad cap. Using the ECB reference rate for October 7, 2026 (0.75731 pounds per dollar), they come to about £0.15 and £75.73. Etsy converts at its own rate on the billing day, so small differences are normal.
Example 3: a UK seller, £30 item with £4 shipping
A seller with a UK bank account prices listings in pounds and sells a £30 item, charging £4 shipping. The price shown to the buyer already includes any VAT the seller charges, so nothing is added on top.
| Line | Math | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Order subtotal | £30.00 × 1 + £4.00 shipping | £34.00 |
| Listing fee | US$0.20 × 0.75731 | £0.15 |
| Transaction fee | £34.00 × 6.5% | £2.21 |
| Payment processing | £34.00 × 4% + £0.20 | £1.56 |
| Regulatory operating fee | £34.00 × 0.48% | £0.16 |
| Total fees | £0.15 + £2.21 + £1.56 + £0.16 | £4.08 |
| Payout | £34.00 − £4.08 | £29.92 |
Fees take 12% of the order. A US seller with the same figures in dollars would pay 10.82%; the gap comes from the higher processing rate and the regulatory fee. If this shop priced its listings in US dollars while banking in pounds, a £0.85 conversion fee would lift the total to £4.93. Through a 15% Offsite Ad, the ad fee would be £5.10 and the total £9.18; for this seller the ad fee reaches the £75.73 cap at a subtotal of £504.84.
Common mistakes when working out Etsy fees
- Charging processing on the item price only. Processing covers the whole checkout, shipping and tax included. In Example 1 the shortcut gives $1.00 instead of $1.22, and the gap repeats on every order.
- Adding sales tax to the transaction fee. The opposite error: for US sellers the 6.5% ignores tax.
- Treating shipping as fee-free. Both percentage fees apply to the shipping you charge. Switching to "free shipping" and raising the price just moves money between lines.
- Counting one listing fee per order. Three $12 mugs with $6 shipping in one order carry $0.60 in listing fees, not $0.20, and $4.84 in total fees on the $42 order.
- Ignoring the fixed $0.25. A $5 digital download with no shipping or tax pays $0.93 in fees, which is 18.6% of the sale.
- Misjudging the ad cap. On a $180 order the full 15% applies. The cent-rounded ad fee first reaches the $100 cap at a subtotal of $666.64 at 15%, or $833.30 at 12%.
- Netting Share & Save against Offsite Ads. An ad-attributed sale never earns the 4% credit.
- Using US rates with a non-US bank account. Processing follows your bank's country and the regulatory fee follows where you are based, not the currency you list in.
By hand, with the calculator, or neither
For one US order without ads, pencil and paper are enough: work out the subtotal, take 6.5% of it, take 3% of the checkout total plus $0.25, and add $0.20 per unit. A few orders worked by hand teach the structure and help you spot a statement line that looks off.
The Etsy fee calculator pays off once several terms interact: multiple units, sales tax, an ad order near the cap, a non-US bank with converted dollar amounts, or when you want profit and a break-even price after your own costs. It prints each line with its arithmetic, ready to check against your Payment account. If you would rather begin with the margin you want, the Etsy price calculator solves for the price, and our guide on how to price Etsy products covers what belongs in the cost fields.
Neither approach covers everything. Per-order math leaves out an Etsy Ads budget or paid shop subscription, refunds and disputes, any tax added to your seller fees, and income tax. Nor can you predict which sales Etsy will credit to an ad, so budgeting for Offsite Ads is a judgment call. The calculator rounds each fee to the cent and Etsy may round differently, so a statement off by a cent or two is normal.
Sources
Every rate and rule in this guide comes from these official pages; the dates are when we last checked them.
Run your own numbers
More guides
Note. Guides explain how the numbers work using published rules and our own worked examples. They are not tax, legal, financial or engineering advice; fees and codes change, so check the current source before you rely on a figure.