How Much Does It Actually Cost to Sell on Etsy? (The Full Breakdown)

"Etsy only charges $0.20 to list an item!"

Yeah, I fell for that too.

If you're thinking about selling on Etsy—or you're already selling and wondering where all your money went—let me walk you through what Etsy actually charges. Because that $0.20 listing fee is just the start.

The Fees Nobody Tells You About

Here's every fee you might pay on a single Etsy sale:

Fee	Amount	When It Applies
Listing fee	$0.20	Every listing, every 4 months
Transaction fee	6.5%	Every sale
Payment processing	3% + $0.25	Every sale
Offsite ads	12-15%	If buyer came from Etsy's ad
Shipping label	Varies	If you buy through Etsy

Let's say you sell a $40 item. Here's what actually happens to your money.

A Real Example: The $40 Sale

You sell a handmade item for $40. The buyer pays $5 shipping. Here's the breakdown:

Listing fee: $0.20 (paid when you listed)

Transaction fee: $40 × 6.5% = $2.60 Note: This is on the item price. Etsy also charges 6.5% on shipping, so add another $0.33.

Payment processing: ($40 + $5) × 3% + $0.25 = $1.60

Total fees: $0.20 + $2.93 + $1.60 = $4.73

Your take on a $40 sale: $35.27 (before shipping costs and materials)

That's 11.8% of your sale price gone to Etsy.

But Wait—There's Offsite Ads

Here's where it gets painful.

If your buyer clicked on an Etsy ad on Google, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest before purchasing, you pay an additional fee:

• Under $10k in annual sales: 15% offsite ads fee
• $10k+ in annual sales: 12% offsite ads fee

Let's redo that $40 sale with an offsite ad:

Regular fees: $4.73 Offsite ads fee (15%): $6.00

Total fees: $10.73 on a $40 sale

Your take: $29.27

That's 26.8% gone to fees. Over a quarter of your revenue.

And here's the kicker: if you've made less than $10,000 on Etsy, you can opt out of offsite ads. If you've made more than $10,000? Mandatory. No escape.

(I wrote a whole article about offsite ads if you want the deep dive.)

The Listing Fee Trap

That $0.20 listing fee seems tiny, but it adds up in ways you might not expect:

You pay it every 4 months. Your listing auto-renews, and you get charged again. Have 100 items? That's $20 every four months just to keep them live.

You pay it again when something sells. Sell an item? Etsy auto-relists it and charges another $0.20 (unless you only had quantity of 1).

Multi-quantity listings multiply it. If you have 10 of the same item and sell one, the listing stays up with 9—but you paid $0.20 to relist.

This isn't a huge amount, but it's not "just $0.20" either.

The Hidden Shipping Fee

Etsy charges their 6.5% transaction fee on shipping too.

If you charge $5 shipping, Etsy takes $0.33 of that.

Some sellers bake shipping into the item price and offer "free shipping" to avoid this. Others accept it as the cost of transparency. Either way, you're paying it somewhere.

How Etsy Compares to Other Platforms

Here's where a $40 sale lands you across platforms:

Platform	Your Take (No Offsite Ad)
Etsy	$35.27
eBay	$34.86
Poshmark	$32.00
Mercari	$34.25

Etsy's base fees are actually competitive. It's the offsite ads that can destroy your margins.

When Etsy Makes Sense

Despite the fees, Etsy can be worth it:

The buyers are there. Etsy has built a marketplace specifically for handmade, vintage, and craft supplies. Buyers come to Etsy looking for that stuff. You're not competing with electronics and random household items.

Search is powerful. Good SEO on Etsy can get your items in front of buyers actively searching for exactly what you make.

Trust is built-in. Etsy handles payment processing, disputes, and checkout. Buyers trust Etsy. That trust transfers to your shop.

When Etsy Doesn't Make Sense

Low-margin items. If you're selling something for $15 with $10 in materials and $3 in shipping, Etsy's fees eat your profit entirely—especially if offsite ads hit.

High-volume commodity goods. If you're selling the same thing as 50 other shops, price competition plus fees leaves nothing on the table.

If you hate the offsite ads model. Once you cross $10k, you're locked in. If that feels unfair (and many sellers think it is), the resentment will grow.

How to Protect Your Margins

A few strategies that help:

Price for the worst case. Assume some percentage of sales will come through offsite ads. Build that into your pricing. If you want to net $30, don't price at $40—price at $45-50.

Track your actual take. Don't just look at revenue. Calculate your true profit per sale after all fees. You might find some products aren't actually profitable.

Consider alternatives. Etsy isn't the only option. Shopify (if you can drive traffic), direct sales through Instagram, local markets—all have lower or no platform fees.

Don't ignore offsite ads entirely. Yes, they hurt. But they do sometimes bring in sales you wouldn't have gotten otherwise. The question is whether the conversion rate justifies the cost.

The Bottom Line

Selling on Etsy costs somewhere between 11-27% of your sale price, depending on whether offsite ads hit.

For most handmade sellers, the math can still work—if you price correctly. For low-margin items or commodity goods, the fees might be a dealbreaker.

The key is going in with your eyes open. That "$0.20 listing fee" is marketing. The real cost is everything that comes after.

Want to see exactly what you'll take home on your next Etsy sale? Our Etsy fee calculator breaks down all the fees—including an offsite ads toggle so you can see both scenarios.

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Are the fees worth it for your Etsy business? I'd genuinely like to know—share your experience.

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