Etsy Fees Explained

Updated 2026-08-31 · ProfitKit

Etsy charges sellers in four separate places, and they are not all obvious. According to Etsy's own Etsy Fee Basics documentation, the listing fee is a flat $0.20 per listing and the transaction fee is 6.5% of the total order amount. The two remaining charges — payment processing and Offsite Ads — depend on your country and how the buyer found you.

1. Listing fee: $0.20, sold or not

Charged when you publish a listing, and Etsy states it applies "regardless of whether or not the item listed sells". Two consequences sellers miss: it is charged again on auto-renewal after a sale, and on a multi-quantity listing you are charged an additional $0.20 for each extra item bought. Fifty listings that never sell are still a real, recurring cost.

2. Transaction fee: 6.5% — including on shipping

This is the one worth reading twice. Etsy's documentation states the fee "applies to the total cost of the item, along with shipping and gift wrap (if you charge your customers for those)". So on a $35 item with $6 shipping, the 6.5% is charged on $41, not $35.

The difference is $0.39 per order. Across 200 orders that is roughly $78 a year, quietly absent from every calculation that fees only the item price.

3. Payment processing: depends on your country

Etsy charges this on each transaction using Etsy Payments, and it is a set rate that varies by the country your shop is in. Any article quoting one global figure is guessing about yours. Find your own rate in Etsy's help centre and use that.

4. Offsite Ads: only on ad-driven sales

When Etsy buys an external ad that leads to your sale, it takes a percentage of that order. It does not apply to organic sales, so treat it as a worst-case scenario rather than a standing cost.

The real lesson: charge real postage

The single most common profit leak on Etsy is not the fee schedule — it is sellers charging round-number shipping that is less than actual postage, then paying the 6.5% transaction fee on top of the subsidy. Weigh a packed item, price the postage properly, and let the calculator show you the difference.

Do the calculation