Etsy Transaction Fee

The transaction fee is 6.5% of the total a buyer pays for the item, including any shipping you charge them. It's Etsy's core commission and applies to every sale. Because it's calculated on price plus shipping, charging shipping separately doesn't avoid it.

Combined with payment processing (about 3% + $0.25 in the US), the transaction fee is the largest slice Etsy takes. Knowing it precisely is essential for POD pricing, where margins are thin and a few percentage points decide whether a design is worth selling.

What it applies to

6.5% of the item price plus the shipping you charge the buyer. That second half is the part sellers forget. Gift wrapping and personalisation charges are included too. It is charged on every sale, with no threshold and no volume discount.

A worked example

A $25 item with $6 shipping is a $31 base, so the transaction fee is $2.02, not $1.63. Fold that same $6 into the price and sell at $31 with free shipping and the fee is identical, but the listing now qualifies for Etsy's free-shipping preference in search. The fee does not decide that choice; visibility does.

The mistake nearly everyone makes

Pricing as if 6.5% were the whole cost. Add the $0.20 listing fee and 3% + $0.25 payment processing and a normal US sale carries roughly 10-11%. Add Offsite Ads and it approaches 25%. Sellers outside the US may also pay a regulatory operating fee of about 0.25-0.32%.

How ZEUS measures it

The fee calculator itemises every charge for both an organic sale and an Offsite Ads sale, because those two numbers are what your real average sits between.