Etsy order profit: reconcile shipping, tax and Offsite Ads

Worked decision guide · 16 October 2026 · AllMarkets Trading
An order total is not profit. Separate item revenue, charged shipping, collected tax, platform fees and fulfillment costs before evaluating margin. For an illustrative US order with $55 of revenue and $25 of product and postage costs, the simplified model leaves $24.20 before an Offsite Ads fee and $15.95 after a 15% attributed fee.
Use the
US Etsy fee calculator
to reproduce the example. This guide concerns its stated US bank-account model; other countries and payment arrangements need their own fee schedules.
Define the hypothetical order
Input
Illustrative amount
Item price
$50.00
Shipping charged to buyer
$5.00
Gift wrap
$0.00
Marketplace-collected sales tax
$4.00
Product cost
$20.00
Actual postage
$5.00
Listing-fee units allocated
1
Other allocated costs
$0.00
Revenue in this example is $55, excluding the $4 tax remitted by the marketplace. Buyer payment is $59. Charging $5 for shipping does not cancel $5 of postage within the fee calculation: the shipping charge remains part of the stated fee bases.
Reconcile the fee lines
Under the calculator's US assumptions, the transaction fee is 6.5% of $55, or $3.575. Processing is 3% of the $59 buyer payment plus $0.25, or $2.02. One listing unit adds $0.20. The calculator rounds each fee line to cents: $3.58 + $2.02 + $0.20 = $5.80. Subtract $5.80 and $25 of modeled direct costs from $55 to get $24.20.
An attributed 15% Offsite Ads fee adds $8.25 on this $55 revenue base. The model adds the $8.25 to the rounded $5.80 fee subtotal: $14.05 in total modeled fees. Remaining profit is $55 − $25 − $14.05 = $15.95. Actual settlement can differ because of fee bases, line-item rounding or charges outside this model. Reconcile the payment-account lines rather than forcing the statement to match an estimate.
Confirm listing, transaction and attributed advertising rules in
Etsy's Fees & Payments Policy
, and the US processing assumption in
Etsy's processing-fee table
. Sources checked 16 October 2026. The simplified model is not a complete representation of every charge or jurisdiction.
Compare Offsite Ads scenarios fairly
Apply an attributed fee only to an attributed order. Etsy's policy describes 15% and qualifying 12% rates and a $100 maximum fee per attributed order. A calculator switch does not establish your eligibility or change your participation settings. Consult
Etsy's Offsite Ads explanation
for qualification and participation details.
At a hypothetical 12% rate, the added cost in this example is $6.60. Keep price, shipping, tax and fulfillment inputs identical when testing only the advertising assumption. If you also raise price, that is a second change and should be recorded. An order-level margin comparison does not establish whether advertising increased total business profit: incremental demand and other costs remain outside the calculation.
Allocate the costs the calculator cannot know
Consider packaging, your labor, refunds, returns, damaged items, currency conversion, taxes on seller fees, regulatory charges, subscriptions, paid on-site ads and overhead. Allocate those deliberately through other costs where the model allows, or reconcile them separately in your records. Do not enter collected sales tax as revenue and then count it again as an expense.
For a campaign, divide attributable campaign costs by a clearly stated group of orders. Listing renewals are not always one fee per sale; use the units your own account records support. Keep charged shipping and postage separate even when both happen to be $5.
Turn the estimate into a repeatable check
Record the order date, country, currency and fee schedule used.
Enter buyer charges separately from costs.
Compare no attributed fee, 15% and 12% only where relevant.
Export a scenario comparison and retain the assumptions.
Reconcile against the actual settlement and investigate each difference.
Use the
variable-income worksheet
to examine household cash requirements separately from shop revenue. See the
business calculator methodology
for exclusions and rounding.
How this guide was prepared
Prepared with AI assistance and numerical checks against the stated model. Examples are invented, not reported investment or business results. No professional financial certification is claimed. Read our
editorial method
.