Does It Cost Money To Sell On Etsy

Last Updated: August 4, 2021

Want to start selling on Etsy but don't know exactly how much does Etsy charges? Well, then! You've come to the right place.

Calculating the overall cost and fees before selling is very important and if you're not calculating then you can't price your inventory correctly which means you can't identify your total profit margins or maybe loss as well.

So, it's vital to understand and calculate Etsy fees because it will help ensure that how much profit you're going to make after selling an item.

In this article, I'll break down Etsy's pricing and fees to help you understand the cost of selling on Etsy, your overall expenses, and how much money you would be making when all those fees would be taken from you with a practical example at the end.

Let's dive in.

Types of Etsy Fees

I am going first to list out the main fees associated with selling your product and then we're going to go through an example.

So let's list out all of the expenses that apply here for selling your item on Etsy.

1. Listing Fee

The listing fee is the cost of publishing a listing on Etsy. To list an item on Etsy, you have to create a listing for each new item.

Publishing a listing on Etsy costs $0.20, and the listings are active for four months. After that four months listing period, your listing expires and is taken down unless you put it on auto-renewal or renew it manually.

Regardless of whether your listed item sells or not, you have to pay that $0.20 listing fee.

2. Auto-renew fee

Etsy auto-renew fee is the fee of automatically renewing a listing and it costs $0.20 for each automatically renewed listing.

While creating your listing, you have two options for the renewal of listing:

Auto Renew: You can set it to auto-renew so that listing will stay on your store but when the listing expires you'll be charged $0.20.
Manual Renew: You can also put it on manual renew so that the listing will expire and then you will have to manually go in there and decide whether or not you want to renew it.

In manual renewal, you'll not be charged $0.20 when the listing expires.

Also, keep in mind that if your bank's currency is not USD, the amount in your currency may vary based on changes in the exchange rate.

3. Transaction Fee

Whenever you make a sale on your Etsy store, you will be charged a 5% transaction fee of the price you set for each listing + a 5% shipping transaction fee.

Example: You are selling an item for $18 plus charging $5 for the shipping which is paid by the customer (if you aren't offering free shipping) then you'll be charged a transaction fee of that $23 sale should be $1.15. It's the same as the 5% transaction fee on a $23 item with free shipping.

4. Multi Quantity Fee

The multi-quantity fee is a little bit confusing for a lot of people and to be honest I was also confused about it at first. It's very important to know about the multi quantity fee because most people don't know about it.

And, when they're reviewing their Etsy bill at the end of the billing cycle, they usually get confused and be like how this one listing got charged multiple times. So let's talk about it.

The multi-quantify fee is $0.20 and it is charged only when you sell multiple items from one listing in a single transaction. In simple words, for each additional quantity that was sold in a single transaction then you'll be charged $0.20 USD.

However, if you're selling a quantity of 1 item only then the multiple quantity fee doesn't apply to you.

Example: You added a listing of ring with a total quantity of 10 and a customer buys 2 of them in a single transaction then you'll be charged $0.20, and if 3 then $0.40 and so on.

You may be wondering, what if I list a quantity of 10 rings and none of the 10 sells and your listing expires then you'll not be charged the multi-quantity fee. However, if you want to renew the listing then you'll be charged $0.20.

3. Currency Conversion Fee

If you are selling in a specific currency that is not the same as your bank account then there is a 2.5% extra fee associated with the currency conversion for depositing that money.

Example: Let's say you are from Canada and selling on your store in U.S. dollars. As you live in Canada then definitely your bank accounts are in Canadian, so you will be charged a 2.5% currency conversion fee.

6. Payment Processing Fees

In order to get paid and accept payments from buyers, you've to set up a payment processing and the payment processing fee varies by which payment method you're going to use on your store and whatever country you live in.

On Etsy, you can set up either Etsy Payments or PayPal.

1. Etsy Payments

Etsy payment processing fee typically cost 3% + $0.25 and allows you to accept payment from your buyers by the following payment options:

Credit cards
Debit/bank cards
PayPal
Etsy Gift Cards and Etsy Credits
Apple Pay
Google Pay
iDEAL (the Netherlands)
Sofort (Austria and Germany)
Klarna Invoice payments (Germany)

Etsy Payments is the primary way for accepting payments from your buyers if you live in one of these countries eligible for Etsy Payments (including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and 30+ more).

Look at whatever country you live in and figure out what your payment processing fee costs for your country.

Location of Bank Account	Fees for Etsy Payments (% of total sale price + flat fee per order)
Australia (domestic orders)	3% + 0.25 AUD
Australia (international orders)	4% + 0.25 AUD
Austria	4% + 0.30 EUR
Belgium	4% + 0.30 EUR
Bulgaria	4% + 0.30 EUR
Canada (domestic orders or orders from the US)	3% + 0.25 CAD
Canada (international orders)	4% + 0.25 CAD
Croatia	4% + 0.30 EUR
Cyprus	4% + 0.30 EUR
Czech Republic	4% + 0.30 EUR
Denmark	4% + 2.50 DKK
Estonia	4% + 0.30 EUR
Finland	4% + 0.30 EUR
France	4% + 0.30 EUR
Germany	4% + 0.30 EUR
Greece	4% + 0.30 EUR
Hong Kong	4.4% + 2.00 HKD
Hungary	4% + 0.30 EUR
Ireland	4% + 0.30 EUR
Italy	4% + 0.30 EUR
Latvia	4% + 0.30 EUR
Lithuania	4% + 0.30 EUR
Luxembourg	4% + 0.30 EUR
Malta	4% + 0.30 EUR
Netherlands	4% + 0.30 EUR
New Zealand (domestic orders)	3% + 0.30 NZD
New Zealand (international orders)	4% + 0.30 NZD
Norway	4% + 2.50 NOK
Poland	4% + 0.30 EUR
Portugal	4% + 0.30 EUR
Romania	4% + 0.30 EUR
Singapore	4.4% + 0.35 SGD
Slovakia	4% + 0.30 EUR
Slovenia	4% + 0.30 EUR
Spain	4% + 0.30 EUR
Sweden	4% + 3.00 SEK
Switzerland	4% + 0.50 CHF
United Kingdom	4% + 0.20 GBP
United States	3% + 0.25 USD

Now you may be wondering, what if I am not on the Etsy Payments eligibility list? You can use PayPal.

2. PayPal

If you're not living in the country where Etsy Payments is eligible then you can use PayPal to accept payments from your buyers. However, PayPal charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.

Example: If you live in USA the payment processing fee is 3% of the total transaction + $0.25.

So, let's say you have $18 transaction then 3% of that is $0.54 + $0.25, so your payment processing fee will be $0.79.

Final Verdict: How Much Does Etsy Charge?

There will be an additional fee for Offsite Ads and some other services but these are the main Etsy fees you should keep in mind.

When it comes to the cost of selling on Etsy and fees, there will be two types of fees:

1. Etsy fees you definitely have to pay:

Listing Fee ($0.20)
Transaction Fee (5%)
Payment Processing Fee (3% + $0.25)

2. Fees that depends on you, your country, currency, and customers:

Auto-renew Fee ($0.20)
Multi-quantity Fee ($0.20 per additional quantity in a single transaction)
Currency Conversion Fee (2.5%)
Offsite Ads (15%). For more details, click here.

Now let me walk you through a practical example for a better understanding.

Etsy Fees 2020: Example For Selling on Etsy

Now, I will give you a complete example of how much money you would be making when those fees would be taken from you, which will help you to understand better.

For example, you are selling a ring on your Etsy store for $18.

Listing Fee: To list this ring in your store, you have to pay $0.20, which is the listing fee.

Shipping Fee: Let's say you're not offering free shipping and when the customer buys the ring then there'll be a shipping fee as well. So, let's say the fee for shipping is $5, now the total amount that the customer paid is $23.

Transaction Fee: The transaction fee is 5% of the total cost of the item for the customer. So, 5% of $23 is $1.15.

Multi Quantity Fee:It depends on whether the customer bought more than one item or not for this example, let's say they just bought one ring.

Payment Processing Fee: As I already said the payment processing fee is based on which country you live in let's say you live in the USA, so the payment processing fee will be 3% of the total sale plus $0.25.

Calculation

Now I will calculate all the fees for this ring.

So, if you're selling an item for $23 (including shipping) then the total Etsy fees for this product is going to be $2.29 and you earned $20.71.

Now this $20.71 isn't your profit, you've to subtract the shipping fee + your total cost for the item.

📝 Note: The shipping cost which is $5 will be paid directly to the shipping label like USPS, FedEx or whichever you chose.

However, there will be some taxes, etc. but these are the main expenses that you have to pay to Etsy.

Final Words

Understanding the cost of selling on Etsy is confusing, many people know about the listing fee, and they think that they have to pay only $0.20 to Etsy.

Therefore, I wrote this article to help clarify things a little bit more.

Please, let me know if you are still confused about the Etsy fees or would like to express your opinion in the comment section.