Listing a handmade item on Etsy feels free, but every completed sale silently taxes your margin through four different buckets: the listing fee, the transaction fee, Etsy Payments processing, and your own cost of goods and postage. Most new sellers price from the buyer's view — "I'll charge $40 and keep $40" — and discover at payout that the real number is much smaller. This Etsy profit calculator subtracts every known fee and your actual product cost, so the number on the result card is what lands in your bank account per order, not what Etsy advertises on the checkout screen.
Enter your sale price and costs, and the result card breaks out the transaction fee, the payment processing fee, total Etsy fees, your fully-loaded cost, net profit per order, and the profit margin percentage. The margin is the number that tells you whether a product is worth scaling: a 50% margin means you keep half of every dollar; a 15% margin means a single refund or ad click wipes out a dozen orders.
How to Use
- Enter the Item Price — what the buyer pays for the product itself, before shipping charges.
- Leave the Listing Fee at $0.20 unless you publish listings in bulk; Etsy charges it every time a listing goes live or renews after four months.
- Set Transaction Fee to 6.5% for a US shop. Etsy takes 6.5% of the sale price on every completed order; adjust it if your country uses a different schedule.
- Confirm Payment Processing at 3.0% plus the Processing Fixed Fee of $0.25 — the standard US Etsy Payments rate.
- Type your Cost of Goods (COGS) — materials, packaging, and your manufacturing cost per unit. Be honest here; this is the line sellers most often forget.
- Enter your actual Shipping Cost — what the carrier charges you, not what you recharge the buyer.
- Read Net Profit Per Order and Profit Margin. If the margin is below 30%, raise the price, cut COGS, or raise the shipping quote.
The Etsy Profit Formula
Net profit on a single Etsy order works like this:
Net Profit = Sale Price − $0.20 Listing Fee − 6.5% Transaction Fee − (3.0% Payment Fee + $0.25) − COGS − Shipping Cost
On a $40 item with $10 of COGS and $5 of shipping: the listing fee is $0.20, the transaction fee is 6.5% × $40 = $2.60, payment processing is 3.0% × $40 + $0.25 = $1.45. Total Etsy fees are $4.25. Add $10 COGS and $5 shipping, and your total cost is $19.25. Net profit is $20.75, a 51.9% margin — meaning Etsy and your costs together consume just under half the sale.
Notice what happens to margin when COGS rises: on the same $40 price with $20 of materials, net profit falls to $10.75 and the margin drops to 26.9%. That is why two sellers can sell an identical $40 print and one builds a business while the other burns out.
Where Etsy's Fees Come From
Etsy publishes its fee schedule at etsy.com/legal/fees, and the four core charges a typical seller meets on every order are:
- Listing fee — $0.20 per listing. Charged on publish and again every four months when the listing renews, whether or not it sold.
- Transaction fee — 6.5% of the sale price. Charged in the US on the item total at checkout, separate from the listing fee.
- Payment processing — 3.0% + $0.25. Applied through Etsy Payments when the buyer checks out; rates vary by country.
- Your own costs — COGS + postage. Not an Etsy fee, but the biggest hidden line in the true profit number.
Optional extras can bite deeper: Offsite Ads charge 12%–15% on sales attributed to Etsy-placed ads, and promoted listings run as a daily ad budget. This calculator isolates the baseline profit so you can decide how much of your margin you can afford to spend on ads.
Examples
Example 1 — The baseline $40 print. A seller prices a framed art print at $40, with $10 material cost and $5 postage. Fees: $0.20 + $2.60 + $1.45 = $4.25. Total cost $19.25, net profit $20.75 per order, margin 51.9%. At 30 orders a month, that is roughly $622 of take-home before taxes.
Example 2 — A low-margin handmade jewelry order. A $25 necklace costs $14 in beads and $4 to mail. Fees are $0.20 + $1.63 + $1.00 = $2.83. Total cost $20.83, net profit only $4.17, a 16.7% margin. One $25 refund erases the profit from nearly six orders — the calculator's early warning that this product needs a price increase to $35 or cheaper materials.
Example 3 — Scaling a $1,000,000-volume shop. Run at a $1,000,000 item price with default COGS and shipping: Etsy fees alone are about $95,000, leaving a net profit near $904,985 and a 90.5% margin on the fee structure alone. In practice, volume brings ad spend and labor costs that this per-order model does not include, but it shows why margin — not revenue — is the number to optimize.
FAQ
How much does Etsy take from a $40 sale?
On a $40 sale with standard US rates, Etsy takes a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee of $2.60, and a 3% + $0.25 payment processing fee of $1.45 — about $4.25 in platform fees before your materials and postage.
What is a good profit margin on Etsy?
Aim for at least 30–40% net margin after fees, COGS, and shipping. Handmade sellers commonly target 50% or more, because refunds, ad spend, and slow months eat the thinner margins quickly. Below 20%, a single refund wipes out several orders.
Does Etsy charge the transaction fee on shipping?
In the standard US fee structure used here, the transaction fee applies to the sale price of the item. If your shop's fees apply to shipping charges you collect from buyers, add that shipping amount into the item price field so the percentage fees scale correctly.
How do I calculate Etsy profit with COGS?
Subtract the listing fee, transaction fee, payment processing fee, your materials cost (COGS), and actual postage from the sale price. Divide what remains by the sale price to get the profit margin. This calculator applies all six lines automatically as you type.
Why is my Etsy payout lower than my profit?
Payout timing, payment reserves, refunded orders, payment reserves, and optional fees (Offsite Ads, promoted listings, shipping labels bought on Etsy) all move money between your gross profit and your bank balance. Use the net profit here as the per-order baseline, then track those extras separately.
Should I raise prices or cut costs to improve margin?
Raising price is usually faster and keeps your craft intact: on a $40 item, a $5 price increase adds roughly $4.34 of net profit after fees. Cutting COGS by $5 helps too, but never trade away quality — bad reviews are far more expensive than a modest material upgrade.
Disclaimer
This Etsy profit calculator is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice. Fee rates reflect the standard US Etsy fee schedule at time of writing and vary by country, shop setup, and policy changes; COGS and shipping figures depend on your actual suppliers and carrier accounts. Always verify your real payout details in your Etsy shop dashboard and consult a qualified accountant before making pricing or business decisions.