Etsy fees UK: every fee explained (2026)
Six separate charges come out of a UK Etsy sale. Here’s each one, what changed this year, and worked examples at £5, £25 and £100.
The six fees, in the order they hit you
1. Listing fee — $0.20 (~£0.16)
Charged when you create a listing, every four months while it stays live, and again each time the item sells with auto-renew on. It’s billed in US dollars, so the sterling amount drifts with the exchange rate. Small, but it never stops.
2. Transaction fee — 6.5%
Etsy’s headline commission — and the detail most sellers miss is that it applies to the item price plus postage and gift wrap. Charge £4 postage and Etsy takes 26p of it before Royal Mail sees a penny.
3. Payment processing — 4% + £0.20
Etsy Payments’ cut of the full order total. The fixed 20p makes small orders disproportionately expensive: on a £5 order it alone is 4% extra.
4. UK regulatory operating fee — 0.48% (rose 22 June 2026)
A UK-only fee on item price + postage that Etsy introduced to cover regulatory costs. It was 0.32% until 22 June 2026, when it rose to 0.48%. Many fee calculators — including several that rank well on Google — still use the old rate or miss this fee entirely.
5. VAT on fees — 20% (if you’re not VAT-registered)
The line most sellers miss. Etsy charges UK VAT on all the fees above unless you’ve given Etsy a valid VAT number. It doesn’t appear as its own line on each order; it just makes every fee 20% bigger. If you’re VAT-registered, fees come under the reverse charge instead and you typically reclaim the VAT in your return.
6. Offsite Ads — 12–15%
Only charged when a buyer clicks one of Etsy’s external ads (Google, Facebook, etc.) and buys within 30 days. Under $10,000 USD (~£8,000) of sales in 12 months: 15%, and you can opt out. Over it: mandatory, but at 12%, capped at $100 per sale.
Worked examples (non-VAT-registered seller, no Offsite Ad)
| Order | £5 + £1.50 post | £25 + £3.50 post | £100 + £5 post |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order total | £6.50 | £28.50 | £105.00 |
| Transaction 6.5% | £0.42 | £1.85 | £6.83 |
| Processing 4% + 20p | £0.46 | £1.34 | £4.40 |
| Regulatory 0.48% | £0.03 | £0.14 | £0.50 |
| Listing £0.16 | £0.16 | £0.16 | £0.16 |
| VAT 20% on fees | £0.21 | £0.70 | £2.38 |
| Total fees | £1.28 (19.7%) | £4.19 (14.7%) | £14.27 (13.6%) |
| You keep (before your costs) | £5.22 | £24.31 | £90.73 |
Note how the fee percentage falls as the order grows — the fixed 20p + 16p punish small orders. A £5 item hands nearly 20% to Etsy before materials.
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Check my real profitFrequently asked questions
What percentage does Etsy take in the UK in 2026?
Counting every per-order fee — 6.5% transaction, 4% + 20p processing, 0.48% regulatory operating fee and 20% VAT on those fees — a UK seller who isn’t VAT-registered typically pays 13–17% of the order total, more on low-priced items (the fixed 20p and 16p listing fee weigh heavier) and more again if the sale came from an Offsite Ad.
When did the UK regulatory operating fee change?
It rose from 0.32% to 0.48% on 22 June 2026. It applies to the item price plus postage on every UK sale.
Do VAT-registered sellers pay VAT on Etsy fees?
Not the way non-registered sellers do. If you give Etsy a valid UK VAT number, fees are handled under the reverse-charge mechanism — you account for the VAT in your return and typically reclaim it, so it isn’t an extra cost. Sellers without a VAT number simply pay 20% more on every fee.
Can I avoid Etsy Offsite Ads fees?
If your Etsy sales were under $10,000 USD (roughly £8,000) in the last 12 months you can opt out of Offsite Ads entirely (otherwise the fee is 15% when an ad brings the sale). Over that threshold, participation is mandatory but the fee drops to 12%, capped at $100 per sale.
Are Etsy fees cheaper than running my own website?
Per sale, usually not — a Shopify or similar store’s payment processing runs ~2–3% versus Etsy’s ~13–17% all-in. What Etsy sells you is the traffic. The right question is whether your margin survives the fees — which is exactly what a whole-shop profit check tells you.
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