How much profit will you make on Etsy?
Etsy fees stack: $0.20 listing + 6.5% transaction + 3% + $0.25 payment processing. This calculator shows your real take-home after all fees, including Etsy Ads.
All Etsy fees explained
Listing fee: $0.20 per item. Each listing stays active for 4 months or until it sells. If you have 100 active listings and 50 sell per month, you're paying $20 just to keep listings live.
Transaction fee: 6.5%. Charged on item price + shipping. This is Etsy's primary revenue. On a $25 item, that's $1.62 to Etsy.
Payment processing: 3% + $0.25. Charged through Etsy Payments. This is Etsy's version of Stripe/PayPal fees, but slightly higher. On a $25 item, that's $1.00.
Etsy Ads: variable, ~12% of attributed revenue. Optional but most successful sellers use them. If 30% of your sales come from ads, that's an additional 3.6% effective fee.
Total fees: typically 12-18% of revenue — much higher than the 6.5% headline rate.
Highest-margin product types on Etsy
- 01Digital downloads — Zero shipping, zero materials. 80%+ profit margin after fees.
- 02Print-on-demand — No inventory risk. 30-50% margin via Printful/Printify integration.
- 03Personalized handmade — Premium pricing for custom work. 40-60% margin.
- 04Vintage curation — Source cheap, sell at markup. Margins vary widely.