Etsy US fees: from order total to contribution profit

By Sumwick · Reviewed 2026-10-05 · Published 2026-10-05

An order total is not your profit. Separate the buyer's tax, the fee bases and your own product/postage costs before deciding what remains.

This walkthrough covers one completed order for a US seller with a US bank account, using Etsy Payments and USD. Use the Etsy Fee & Profit Calculator (US) to estimate your own included costs.

Separate revenue from the amount the buyer pays

Our seller-revenue subtotal contains item value after discounts, personalization, buyer-paid shipping and gift wrap. Buyer sales tax is entered separately and excluded from revenue. It still affects the processing-fee base.

Etsy's fee policy sets the transaction fee at 6.5% on item value, shipping and gift wrap, excluding US sales tax. Etsy Payments section 9 gives the US bank-account fee as 3% plus $0.25, with tax included in gross order amount.

A worked order, with each cost kept separate

Illustrative order: $50 item, $5 shipping charged, no gift wrap or buyer tax, no attributed Offsite Ads fee, and one listing charge allocated. Product cost is $20, actual postage $4 and other included costs $1.

• Seller revenue: $55.00.
• Transaction estimate: $3.58.
• Payments estimate: $1.90.
• Allocated listing fee: $0.20.
• Total modeled fees: $5.68.
• Proceeds after modeled fees: $49.32.
• Contribution profit after $25 included costs: $24.32.

The buyer-paid shipping is revenue; your postage is a cost. Entering them separately avoids confusing a shipping charge with what you paid for the label. Packaging and allocated labor can go in other costs.

We round each fee estimate to the nearest cent, half-up. This explicit convention is not a claim about Etsy's exact rounding; compare the estimate with your payment account.

What changes when tax or gift wrap is added?

Add $5 gift wrap and $4.80 buyer tax to that example, keeping the included costs at $25. Seller revenue becomes $60.00, while the processing base becomes $64.80. Modeled fees are $6.29 and contribution profit is $28.71.

Gift wrap increases revenue and the relevant fee bases. Tax increases the processing base without becoming revenue. The calculator takes an actual tax amount; it does not decide which tax rate applies.

Listing allocation and Offsite Ads change the comparison

The listing policy charges $0.20 on listing publication or renewal. Decide which charges to allocate to this sale; do not automatically count the same charge twice or assume unused listing credits cost cash.

Etsy's Offsite Ads guidance describes attributed-order fees and standard/qualified tiers. Use your actual account status: lifetime qualification matters, and current sales alone may not identify it. The reviewed cap is $100.00 per order. US buyer tax is excluded from this fee under the fee policy.

Contribution profit is not a bank deposit or net income

Subtract the modeled fees, then the costs you chose to include. A loss remains a loss; the tool does not clamp it to zero. Contribution margin divides that profit by seller revenue, rather than the buyer's tax-inclusive payment. For the denominator difference, read margin vs markup.

Setup/subscriptions, Etsy Ads, taxes on seller fees, conversion, credits/rebates, refunds and overhead are not automatically modeled. Known order costs can be added explicitly. Missing costs change the result, and payout timing/balance is a different question. Non-US or non-USD sales require different applicability.

Review the assumptions and use the US Etsy fee/profit tool with costs from the same order. No calculator inputs are sent to Sumwick or saved.

Fee records actually verified 2026-10-05; version us-2026-10-05. Unknown effective start dates are not invented. See our editorial policy.