How online seller fees really work

A breakdown of fees on eBay, Etsy, PayPal, Stripe, Square, and the line items that get missed.

If you sell anything online, the headline price you see in your seller dashboard is rarely what hits your bank account. Marketplaces and payment processors take their cut in layers — sometimes four or five distinct fees per sale — and the layers don't always show up where you'd expect. This guide walks through how the major platforms structure their fees and the items first-time sellers most often miss.

The two-layer model: marketplace + processor

Most online sales involve two charges:

  • Marketplace fee — what the platform itself takes for hosting your listing, exposing it to buyers, and handling buyer/seller protection. eBay, Etsy, Mercari, and Poshmark all charge this.
  • Payment processing fee — what's charged for running the buyer's credit card, debit card, PayPal balance, etc. Stripe, Square, and PayPal Standard are pure-play processors. Marketplaces usually also include processing in their fee structure now (eBay's "managed payments" rolled both into one fee).

Direct-to-consumer setups (Shopify store, Stripe checkout, etc.) skip the marketplace fee but still pay the processor.

eBay

eBay charges a final value fee on the total amount of the sale, including shipping. Most categories are currently around 13.25% on the first $7,500 and 2.35% above that, plus a fixed $0.30 per order. Promoted Listings (their pay-to-rank ads) add another 2–15% if you opt in.

Don't forget:

  • The fee is on shipping too. If you charge $5 shipping on a $10 item, the fee is computed on $15.
  • Sales tax that eBay collects on your behalf is generally not subject to the final value fee, but check the current policy.
  • International sales add a 1.65% cross-border fee.
  • Below-standard sellers pay an additional 5% penalty fee.

Etsy

Etsy stacks fees more visibly. Per sale you pay:

  • Listing fee: $0.20 per listing (every 4 months or per quantity).
  • Transaction fee: 6.5% of total sale price (item + shipping + gift wrap).
  • Payment processing: varies by country, typically ~3% + $0.25 in the US.
  • Etsy Ads (optional): you set a daily budget; cost-per-click varies.
  • Offsite Ads: if Etsy advertises your listing externally and you make the sale, 12% (or 15% if your shop is below the threshold).

On a $30 item with $5 shipping, Etsy's combined cut is roughly $3.50–$4.00 depending on processing fees in your country.

PayPal

PayPal's standard rate for goods-and-services payments is 2.99% + $0.49 per transaction in the US (rates differ by country). Cross-border transactions add roughly 1.5%. Currency conversion is built in at a spread of 3–4% above the mid-market rate, which is often the biggest hidden cost for international sellers.

"PayPal Friends and Family" payments are 0% fee for personal transfers but have no buyer protection — using them for actual sales violates PayPal's terms and can get accounts frozen. Don't.

Stripe

Stripe is a payment processor only — no marketplace, no buyer discovery. The standard US rate is 2.9% + $0.30 for online card payments. Add 1.5% for international cards, plus 1% for currency conversion.

Stripe is the cheapest option for direct sales when you control the storefront, because there's no marketplace fee on top. The catch is you have to bring your own customers.

Square

Square's pricing depends on how the card is presented:

  • In person, tapped/dipped: 2.6% + $0.10
  • Online sales: 2.9% + $0.30
  • Manually keyed in: 3.5% + $0.15
  • Invoices: 3.3% + $0.30

Square is most competitive for in-person retail with their free Reader and POS app. Online, they're roughly priced like Stripe.

Mercari, Poshmark, Venmo

Mercari charges 10% selling fee + 2.9% + $0.50 payment processing. Shipping label fees come out of your payout if you use their pre-paid labels.

Poshmark charges a flat $2.95 on sales under $15 and 20% on sales of $15+. That 20% is the highest marketplace fee of the major platforms; they justify it with high buyer trust and included shipping label.

Venmo personal payments are free; Venmo Business Profile and goods-and-services tagged payments are 1.9% + $0.10. Like PayPal F&F, using personal payments for actual sales is against terms.

Shopify

Shopify's structure is different — you pay a monthly subscription ($29 to $399+) and a per-transaction fee:

  • Basic plan: 2.9% + $0.30 online card rate (Shopify Payments)
  • Shopify plan: 2.6% + $0.30
  • Advanced plan: 2.4% + $0.30
  • Third-party gateway penalty: extra 0.5%–2% if you use Stripe/PayPal instead of Shopify Payments

For a small shop doing $2,000/month in sales, the fee gap between Shopify Basic and Etsy is usually small — $58 in Shopify subscription + $76 processing vs $130 in Etsy fees per $2k. The bigger differences are control, customization, and customer ownership.

The hidden costs people forget

  • Refunds and chargebacks. Most processors refund the percentage fee on a full refund but keep the fixed $0.30. Chargebacks add a $15–$25 dispute fee on top.
  • Currency conversion. If you sell in USD but get paid in another currency (or vice versa), the spread is often 2–4%. Far higher than the headline percentage fee.
  • Withdrawal/instant payout fees. "Get your money now" buttons usually cost 1–1.5%. Wait two days and it's free.
  • Shipping costs eat into "shipping income." If you charge $5 flat shipping and the actual label costs $4.85, the marketplace still charges fees on the full $5 — your real margin on shipping is often slightly negative once fees apply.
  • Sales tax remittance. Many platforms now collect and remit sales tax for you, but if you sell on a Shopify store you're responsible for tracking nexus and filing in each state where you cross thresholds.

Estimating real take-home

A useful mental rule: budget 12–15% of your sale price as fees on the major marketplaces (eBay, Etsy, Mercari) and 3–4% on direct-to-consumer with a processor only. Add shipping costs, product cost, and any platform-specific extras (Promoted Listings, Etsy Ads, etc.) on top of that.

Use our seller fee calculators for exact numbers on each platform — they're updated when the published rates change: