Etsy fees explained for UK sellers (2026)
Etsy doesn't take one fee, it takes four or five — and VAT applies on top of them. Here's every charge a UK seller pays in 2026, what it's calculated on, and what they add up to on a real sale.
If you sell on Etsy, the money that lands in your Payment account is never the price the buyer paid. Several separate fees come out first, each calculated differently, and it's genuinely hard to keep track of what they add up to. Here's the full list for UK sellers, as verified against Etsy's own fee documentation.
The transaction fee — 6.5%
Etsy's main cut is 6.5% of the total order amount. The important word is total: it's charged on the item price plus postage plus any gift wrap or personalisation charge. If you charge £3.50 postage, Etsy takes 6.5% of that too — which is why "free postage built into the price" and "postage charged separately" come out almost the same in fees.
Payment processing — 4% + 20p
Etsy Payments charges UK sellers 4% of the total sale (again including postage) plus a fixed 20p per order. On small orders the 20p matters more than it looks: on a £5 sale it's an extra 4% all by itself.
The regulatory operating fee — 0.48%
UK sellers pay a regulatory operating fee on each sale. It rose from 0.32% to 0.48% in June 2026. Small on its own, but it's charged on the full order amount like the others.
Listing fees — about 15p per listing
Every listing costs US $0.20 (roughly £0.15, varying with the exchange rate), and it renews every four months or each time the item sells. If you list 50 items that don't sell, that's still a real cost.
Offsite Ads — 15% when it applies
If a sale comes through Etsy's Offsite Ads, an extra 15% fee applies to that order (12% for shops over US $10,000 in the past year). Smaller shops can turn Offsite Ads off; larger shops are enrolled compulsorily.
Don't forget the VAT
UK sellers who aren't VAT-registered pay 20% VAT on top of Etsy's fees themselves. A "6.5%" transaction fee is effectively 7.8% once VAT is added, and the same applies to the payment and regulatory fees. This is the part that most surprises people.
What it adds up to
- A £25 item with £3.50 postage: roughly £4.18 in Etsy fees including VAT — about 15% of what the buyer paid.
- The percentage is worse on cheaper items, because the fixed 20p and the listing fee are a bigger share of a small order.
Those aren't guesses — you can put your own numbers into the free Etsy fee calculator on this site and see every fee line itemised, along with your actual profit after materials, labour and postage costs. If a figure ever doesn't match your real Etsy statement, use the "report a wrong fee" link on the calculator — real statements are the best accuracy check there is.