Etsy fees explained (2026): every fee, in plain numbers

Updated 2026-07-13 · rates verified directly against etsy.com/legal/fees and etsy.com/legal/etsy-payments.

Most sellers have a rough sense that Etsy "takes a cut," but few can say exactly how much, because the cut comes from six different directions at once. Here's every one of them, with the actual current rate.

1. Listing fee — $0.20 per listing

Charged when you list an item and again every four months it stays live (auto-renewal), or every time it sells and a replacement listing goes up. A shop with 40 active listings pays roughly $8/month just to keep the shelf stocked, before a single sale happens.

2. Transaction fee — 6.5% of the sale price

Applied to the item price and whatever you charge for shipping and gift wrapping. This is the big one — on a $30 candle with $6 shipping, that's 6.5% of $36, not just $30.

3. Payment processing fee — 3% + $0.25 per order (US sellers)

Etsy Payments' cut for actually moving the money into your bank account. Rates vary by country; 3% + $0.25 is the US rate. This is charged per order, not per item, so multi-item orders are slightly more efficient here.

4. Offsite Ads — 12% or 15% per sale, if it applies

If Etsy runs an ad on Google, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest and someone buys through it within 30 days, you owe this fee — 15% for shops under $10,000 in trailing-12-month sales, 12% above that. Shops under $10K can opt out; above that threshold, participation is mandatory.

5. Etsy Ads — pay-per-click, budget you set

Separate from Offsite Ads: this is Etsy's own on-platform ad product, billed like standard PPC — you set a daily budget and pay per click, regardless of whether it converts.

6. Shipping labels — cost of postage

Not a "fee" exactly, but it's money leaving your Etsy balance, so it belongs in this accounting whether you buy labels through Etsy or elsewhere.

So what's a "normal" total take rate?

It depends heavily on your ad spend and shipping costs, but transaction (6.5%) + processing (~3.25%) alone is already ~9.75% of every sale before ads, listing fees, or shipping labels are counted. Sellers who run Offsite or Etsy Ads aggressively often see 25–35% of gross sales go to fees — which is normal, not a sign something's wrong, but worth actually knowing rather than guessing.