Etsy Profit Calculator USA

Etsy fees for US sellers: what sales tax touches and what it doesn't

Sales tax changes two things on an Etsy order from a US shop. The 6.5% transaction fee ignores it. Etsy bases that fee on what you charge for the item, its shipping and gift wrap, and leaves the tax out. The payment processing fee works the other way. It runs at 3% + $0.25 per order and is charged on the item, the shipping and the sales tax together. So a taxed order costs slightly more to process, even though Etsy collects that tax from the buyer and passes it on for you.

Then there is tax on Etsy's own fees. For a shop paid into a US bank account there is none, with one exception. Texas shops have paid 6.25% sales tax on 80% of their transaction fees since October 1, 2025. In every other state, the fee lines you see are the whole cost. Etsy sets out these rules on its help page about tax on seller fees.

The full list for a US shop

Etsy picks your fees from the country of your bank account, not the buyer's. Everything below is charged in US dollars, and we compared each rate with Etsy Help on 24 September 2026.

• Listing fee: $0.20 to publish a listing. It lasts four months, then renews for another $0.20. A sale also triggers a renewal.
• Transaction fee: 6.5% of the item, shipping and gift wrap. Personalization charges are included. Sales tax is not.
• Payment processing: 3% + $0.25 per order paid through Etsy Payments, with sales tax in the base. A refund hands back a matching share, as Etsy's payment processing page explains.
• Offsite Ads: 15% of an ad-driven order, or 12% once your shop passes $10,000 in sales over 365 days. One order never pays more than $100.
• Currency conversion: 2.5% of each sale, but only when your listings are priced in something other than USD.
• Etsy Plus: a $10 monthly add-on you can skip. It bundles 15 listing credits with $5 to spend on Etsy Ads.

US shops pay no regulatory operating fee. Etsy charges it only in a short list of countries. Its rates there changed on 22 June 2026, and most other fee calculators still use the old ones. The details are on Etsy's regulatory operating fee page.

One candle order, start to finish

Say you pour candles and sell one for $25.00, plus $5.00 for shipping. The wax, wick and jar cost you $8.00, and the label to send it is $4.00. The buyer pays $30.00.

The listing fee comes first at $0.20. The transaction fee is 6.5% of $30.00, which is $1.95. Payment processing is 3% of $30.00, or $0.90, plus the fixed $0.25, for $1.15. Those three add up to $3.30, exactly 11% of what the buyer paid. Take away your $12.00 of costs as well and $14.70 is left, a 49% margin. Add sales tax in the calculator and the processing line grows, because the 3% also applies to the tax amount.

When the buyer clicked an Etsy ad

Etsy places ads for your listings on Pinterest, Google, Bing, Facebook and Instagram. A buyer who clicks one and orders within 30 days turns that sale into an Offsite Ads sale. On the candle order the ad fee is 15% of $30.00, or $4.50, and the profit falls from $14.70 to $10.20. Shops under $10,000 a year are free to opt out. Past that point the ads are mandatory and the rate drops to 12%. See Etsy's Offsite Ads page for the terms.

Running the calculator forward and backward

The calculator's second mode, “What price I need”, runs the sum in reverse. Keep the candle's costs and shipping the same, and a $15.00 profit needs an item price of $25.33. A 40% margin needs $19.65.

For a normal order, type in the item price and shipping, plus any discount, gift wrap or extra quantity. Enter your costs, including your time if you pay yourself. Leave the country on the US unless your bank account is elsewhere, and flag Offsite Ads only for an ad sale. The result lists every fee, your costs and the profit.

Habits that protect a US margin

• Enter sales tax when you know it. Leaving it out makes the processing fee look smaller than it is.
• Keep listings in USD. Etsy pays US shops in dollars, and pricing in another currency costs 2.5% of every sale under its currency conversion rules.
• Plan for the $10,000 mark. Once you cross it you can no longer opt out of Offsite Ads, so set prices that can absorb 12% before you get there.
• Sell more units per order. A second unit from the same listing adds $0.20 in listing fees but no second $0.25 processing charge. Etsy covers this under multi-quantity listings.

US seller questions

Is sales tax included in the 6.5% transaction fee?

No. For US shops that fee covers item price, shipping and gift wrap only. Sales tax does count toward the 3% + $0.25 processing fee.

Do sellers in Texas pay anything extra?

Yes, a small amount. From October 1, 2025, Etsy began adding 6.25% sales tax to 80% of each transaction fee for Texas shops. Shops in other states pay no tax on Etsy fees.

Why did I pay a listing fee again after a sale?

A sale renews the listing, and that renewal costs $0.20. When a buyer takes several units, every unit after the first costs $0.20 too, so the calculator charges $0.20 per unit in the order.