Etsy Fees Explained: How Much Does Etsy Actually Take From Your Sales? (2026)
Etsy's fee structure is one of the most confusing in ecommerce. There's no single percentage you can point to and say "that's what Etsy takes." Instead, there are five separate fees that stack on top of each other — and depending on how the customer found you, the total can range from about 11% to over 26% of your sale price.
This guide breaks down every Etsy fee clearly, with real worked examples so you know exactly what you'll keep from each sale.
The Five Etsy Fees
1. Listing Fee — £0.16 Per Item
Every item you list on Etsy costs £0.16 (20 cents USD, converted to GBP). This fee is charged when you first list the item and again every four months when it auto-renews. It's also charged again each time an item sells, because Etsy automatically relists the item if you have more than one in stock.
For a shop with 50 active listings, that's roughly £8 every four months just to keep your items visible — plus another £0.16 each time something sells.
On its own, the listing fee is small. But it's the first of five fees, and it sets the tone: on Etsy, everything has a charge.
2. Transaction Fee — 6.5%
This is Etsy's main revenue source and it's the biggest single fee you'll pay. Etsy charges 6.5% on the total sale amount, including the shipping price the buyer pays.
That last part is important: if you charge £5 for shipping, Etsy takes 6.5% of that too. On a £25 item with £4 shipping, the transaction fee is 6.5% of £29 = £1.89, not 6.5% of £25.
If you offer free shipping (which Etsy encourages and rewards in search rankings), you've effectively absorbed the shipping cost into your item price — and the 6.5% applies to that higher price. Either way, Etsy gets its cut.
3. Payment Processing Fee — 4% + £0.20
Etsy Payments (which is mandatory in the UK) charges 4% + £0.20 per transaction for UK sellers. This is the equivalent of Stripe or PayPal processing, but run through Etsy's own system.
For context, standard Stripe rates in the UK are 1.4% + 20p for domestic cards — so Etsy's processing is roughly 2.6 percentage points more expensive than what you'd pay on your own website. On a £30 sale, that's the difference between £0.62 (Stripe) and £1.40 (Etsy) — an extra 78p per transaction.
You cannot use a different payment processor on Etsy. Etsy Payments is required for all UK sellers.
4. Offsite Ads Fee — 15%
This is the fee that catches most sellers off guard.
Etsy runs advertising for your products on Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. If a customer clicks one of these ads and buys from you within 30 days, Etsy charges you 15% of the sale price as an advertising fee.
Here's the critical part: if your shop makes more than £10,000 in the past 12 months, you cannot opt out of offsite ads. The rate drops from 15% to 12%, but it's mandatory. You're enrolled automatically.
If your shop makes less than £10,000/year, you can opt out — but Etsy enables it by default, so many sellers don't realise they're paying it until they check their statements.
We'll look at the impact of offsite ads in the worked examples below.
5. Etsy Plus — £8.50/month (Optional)
Etsy Plus is an optional subscription that gives you:
- 15 listing credits per month (saves £2.40)
- £4.25 Etsy Ads credit per month
- Customisation options for your shop (banners, featured listings)
- Restock requests (back-in-stock alerts for customers)
- Discounts on custom web addresses
Whether Etsy Plus is worth it depends on your shop. The listing credits and ads credit offset about £6.65 of the £8.50 cost, so you're paying roughly £1.85/month for the extra features. Not unreasonable, but not essential either.
Real Examples: What Etsy Actually Takes
Let's work through three realistic scenarios for a UK seller.
Example 1: £25 Item, Free Shipping, No Offsite Ad
| Fee | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | Flat fee | £0.16 |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% of £25 | £1.63 |
| Payment processing | 4% of £25 + £0.20 | £1.20 |
| Offsite ads | N/A | £0.00 |
| Total fees | £2.99 | |
| You keep | £22.01 | |
| Effective fee rate | 12.0% |
Nearly 12% of the sale goes to Etsy before you account for the cost of the product, packaging, or the shipping you're absorbing.
Example 2: £50 Item + £4.50 Shipping, No Offsite Ad
| Fee | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | Flat fee | £0.16 |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% of £54.50 | £3.54 |
| Payment processing | 4% of £54.50 + £0.20 | £2.38 |
| Offsite ads | N/A | £0.00 |
| Total fees | £6.08 | |
| You keep | £48.42 | |
| Effective fee rate | 11.2% |
The percentage drops slightly on higher-value items because the fixed fees (listing fee, £0.20 processing fixed fee) are spread over a larger amount. But 11.2% is still substantial.
Example 3: £50 Item + £4.50 Shipping, With Offsite Ad
| Fee | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | Flat fee | £0.16 |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% of £54.50 | £3.54 |
| Payment processing | 4% of £54.50 + £0.20 | £2.38 |
| Offsite ads | 15% of £54.50 | £8.18 |
| Total fees | £14.26 | |
| You keep | £40.24 | |
| Effective fee rate | 26.2% |
Over a quarter of the sale goes to Etsy. If your product cost is 40% and packaging and shipping costs another 10%, you're left with roughly 24% gross margin — before tax, before your time, before any other business costs.
The Offsite Ads Problem
Offsite ads deserve extra attention because they're the most controversial part of Etsy's fee structure.
The core issue is control. On every other advertising platform — Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok — you set your own budget, choose your targeting, and can pause campaigns at any time. On Etsy, the platform decides which of your products to advertise, where to advertise them, and how much to spend. You just get the bill.
For shops under £10,000/year in revenue, you can opt out entirely. But here's the catch: once you cross that threshold, offsite ads become mandatory. And the £10,000 figure is based on your trailing 12-month revenue, so you can't dip back below the threshold once you've crossed it for a while.
The 15% fee (12% above £10,000) applies to the entire order value, including shipping. And the attribution window is 30 days — if someone clicks an Etsy offsite ad for your shop but doesn't buy anything until 29 days later, you still pay the fee.
Some sellers report that offsite ads drive genuinely incremental sales — customers who wouldn't have found them otherwise. Others feel they're paying 15% for sales they would have gotten anyway through organic search or direct traffic. The truth probably varies by shop and product category.
What's clear is that the fee significantly impacts margins, especially on lower-priced items. If you're selling £15 handmade items, a 26% total fee rate makes profitability very difficult.
Being Honest About Etsy's Value
It would be easy to read the numbers above and conclude that Etsy is a bad deal. That's not quite right. Etsy offers something that no standalone shop platform can: built-in traffic.
When you list a product on Etsy, it's immediately visible to millions of potential customers who are already on Etsy, actively searching for things to buy. On your own website, you start with zero traffic and have to build an audience through SEO, social media, advertising, and word of mouth. That takes months or years.
For a new seller with no existing audience, Etsy's fees are essentially a marketing cost. You're paying 11–26% per sale, but you might not have gotten that sale at all without Etsy's marketplace.
The question isn't whether Etsy's fees are high — they clearly are. The question is whether the traffic and convenience justify those fees for your specific situation.
For many sellers, the answer is yes — at least initially.
The Hybrid Approach: Keep Etsy, Add Your Own Shop
The smartest approach for many sellers is to do both: keep your Etsy shop for the marketplace traffic, and build your own website to capture direct sales at much lower fees.
Here's why this works:
- Etsy drives discovery. New customers find you through Etsy search, browse your products, and (ideally) become repeat buyers.
- Your own shop captures repeat business. Once someone has bought from you, they don't need Etsy to find you again. If your packaging includes a card with your website URL, returning customers can buy directly — and you keep an extra 7–8% per sale.
- You own your customer relationships. On Etsy, the customer is Etsy's customer. On your own site, they're yours. You can email them about new products, run sales, build loyalty — things that are difficult or impossible on Etsy.
- You reduce risk. Etsy can (and does) change its fee structure, algorithm, and policies. If Etsy is your only sales channel and they make a change that hurts your business, you have no fallback. Having your own shop is insurance.
The hybrid approach doesn't have to be complicated. You don't need to choose between Etsy and your own shop — you can run both with the same products and inventory.
What Moving to Your Own Shop Looks Like
If you're considering adding your own website (or eventually moving away from Etsy entirely), here's what the economics look like.
On a platform like Haul, that same £50 item with £4.50 shipping would cost:
| Fee | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription (Starter, amortised per order) | £15/month ÷ ~100 orders | £0.15 |
| Transaction fee | 0% | £0.00 |
| Payment processing (Stripe) | 1.4% of £54.50 + £0.20 | £0.96 |
| Total fees | £1.11 | |
| You keep | £53.39 | |
| Effective fee rate | 2.0% |
Compared to Etsy's 11.2% (without offsite ads) or 26.2% (with offsite ads), you'd keep an extra £5–13 per sale on your own website. Over 100 sales a month, that's £500–1,300 more in your pocket.
The trade-off is clear: on your own site, you have to bring your own traffic. But if you already have any of the following, you're better positioned than you might think:
- An Instagram or TikTok following
- A mailing list (even a small one)
- Returning customers who already know your brand
- Products that rank well in Google searches
- Word-of-mouth referrals
If customers are already seeking you out, you're paying Etsy 11–26% for a middleman you may not need.
Making the Decision
Here's a simple framework:
- Stay on Etsy exclusively if you're just starting out, have no existing audience, and want to test whether your products sell before investing in your own website.
- Add your own shop alongside Etsy if you have any repeat customers, a social media following, or revenue above £500/month. The maths almost always works in your favour.
- Consider leaving Etsy entirely if the majority of your sales come from direct traffic, social media, or repeat customers — and Etsy is no longer your primary source of new customers.
Most sellers find the hybrid approach works best: use Etsy for discovery and new customer acquisition, but direct repeat buyers to your own shop where fees are dramatically lower.
Next Steps
If you want to understand how Etsy compares to other platforms in total cost, read our complete comparison of ecommerce platform costs in the UK. For a direct side-by-side, see our Etsy vs Haul comparison page.
And if you're ready to set up your own shop alongside Etsy, Haul offers a 3-day free trial with no transaction fees — so you can see what the difference looks like with your own products and prices.