Etsy Fees Explained: How Much Etsy Really Takes From Each Sale in 2026
A clear breakdown of every Etsy fee — listing, transaction, payment processing, and offsite ads — with a real worked example. See how much you keep per sale and how a custom store changes the math.
Key Takeaway
Etsy fees are not one charge — they are a stack. Listing, transaction, payment processing, and sometimes offsite ads can take 10% to 20%+ of a sale before you even account for COGS. Knowing the exact math is the first step to keeping more of it.
Every Etsy fee, in plain English
Most sellers feel Etsy fees in their payout but never add them up. Here is each fee, what it covers, and when it applies. (Etsy updates its fee structure periodically — confirm the current rates on Etsy's seller handbook before you finalize pricing.)
1. Listing fee — $0.20 per item
Every listing costs $0.20 and auto-renews every four months unless you turn off auto-renew. That fee is charged whether or not the item sells, so a listing that sits for a year costs you $0.60 before it ever converts.
2. Transaction fee — 6.5% of the item price
When an item sells, Etsy takes 6.5% of the item price (not including shipping or tax in most regions). This is the core marketplace commission.
3. Payment processing — ~3% + $0.25 per sale
If you use Etsy Payments (required in most countries), Etsy charges roughly 3% plus a $0.25 fixed fee on the full order total — including shipping and sales tax. This is on top of the 6.5% transaction fee.
4. Offsite ads fee — 12% (sometimes 15%)
If a buyer reaches your shop through an Etsy-run ad off-platform and purchases within 30 days, Etsy adds an offsite ads fee of 12% of the order total. Shops that were enrolled before the 2022 threshold change may pay 15%. This is the fee that catches sellers off guard, because it stacks on top of everything else.
A worked example: what you keep on a $30 sale
Let's say a buyer finds your shop through a Google ad Etsy runs and buys a $30 item with $5 shipping:
- Listing fee: $0.20
- Transaction fee (6.5% of $30): $1.95
- Payment processing (~3% + $0.25 of $35): $1.30
- Offsite ads fee (12% of $35): $4.20
Total Etsy fees: $7.65 — about 22%of the $35 the buyer paid. You keep $27.35 before product cost, shipping labels, and taxes. Without the offsite ad, it's $3.45, or about 10%. That single fee nearly doubles what Etsy takes.
See exactly where your revenue leaks
Get a free AI audit of your Etsy shop. It maps your fees, your repeat-purchase gap, and what you'd keep on your own storefront.
Audit My Etsy Shop →Why the fee stack matters more than the headline rate
Sellers often focus on the 6.5% transaction fee and stop there. But the real cost is the stack: a listing that auto-renews without selling, processing on the full total, and an offsite ads fee you didn't plan for. On a low-margin product, the stack can turn a profitable order into a break-even one.
The fix isn't always to leave Etsy. It's to know which products earn their fees and which ones bleed margin — then route the second group to a channel you control.
What changes on your own storefront
A custom store doesn't charge a 6.5% transaction fee or an offsite ads fee. You pay payment processing (typically ~2.9% + $0.30 through Stripe or PayPal) and your hosting — which is a flat cost, not a percentage of every sale. As your volume grows, your per-order cost drops instead of scaling with revenue.
- No $0.20 listing fee per item
- No 6.5% marketplace transaction fee
- No 12% offsite ads fee — you run your own ads and keep the margin
- You capture every buyer's email for repeat sales
- You set your own policies, returns, and pricing without platform overrides
The dual-channel approach: keep Etsy, add a store
Etsy is still one of the best discovery channels for handmade and vintage sellers. The smart move is to keep Etsy for new-customer acquisition and run your own store for repeat buyers and higher-margin products.
Every Etsy order ships with a package insert or email nudge toward your own site. Over time, your repeat revenue moves to the channel with no marketplace commission — while Etsy keeps sending you new customers.
SwitchKit: your own store in 14 days, $1,799
SwitchKit builds a custom storefront for marketplace sellers — no templates, no Shopify, no monthly platform fees. You own the code, the checkout, and the customer data.
- Custom storefront built from scratch in 14 days
- AI listing importer for Etsy, eBay, Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart
- Stripe and PayPal checkout + customer and order database
- Email capture built in, before and after purchase
- Full source-code ownership — it's yours to keep
Ready to keep more of every sale?
Book a free call and I'll break down your current Etsy fees and show you what your margins look like on a store you own.
Book My Free Call →Before you act: a quick checklist
- Add up every Etsy fee on your last 10 orders — including offsite ads
- Flag which products lose margin after the full fee stack
- Pick those products as the first to move to your own store
- Plan a package insert or post-purchase email that routes buyers off Etsy
- Reserve your brand domain if you haven't already
You don't have to quit Etsy to keep more of your revenue. You just need a second channel where the fee stack doesn't follow you.
