Marketplace fees in 2026, Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Walmart seller fees compared

Marketplace fees on the big US platforms run from about 10% to 15% of a sale before extras, and the headline rate hides ads, shipping and monthly charges. For a $50 item with free shipping, we calculate $5.20 on Etsy, $7.20 on eBay and $7.50 on Amazon or Walmart.

Key marketplace fees for 2026

Every figure below comes from the platform's own fee page or financial filing, opened on November 4, 2026. Amazon, Etsy, eBay and Walmart count the sale price differently, so read the scope column before comparing two rows.

How much does selling on Amazon cost in 2026?

Selling on Amazon costs a plan fee plus a referral fee on every order. The US pricing page lists $39.99 a month for the Professional plan or $0.99 per item sold on the Individual plan, and says a referral fee is a percentage of the total price or a minimum amount, whichever is greater. Home and Kitchen carries 15% and Computers 8%, with a $0.30 minimum in most categories. Clothing and Accessories steps up with price, from 5% for items at $15 or less to 17% above $20. Dividing $39.99 by $0.99 gives 40.4, our calculation, so the Professional plan is cheaper from 41 items a month. We found no Fulfillment by Amazon fee amounts on that page, so warehouse and shipping costs are extra.

Two details change the bill, and the first is easy to miss. Some categories apply a lower rate only to the portion of the price above a threshold, such as Compact Appliances at 15% up to $300 and 8% beyond, while others, such as Baby Products, apply one rate to the whole item depending on whether it costs more than $10. The page also advertises over $50,000 in automatic referral fee waivers for a new-to-Amazon brand in its first year, so check eligibility before you model costs. In Europe the structure is similar. Amazon France lists 39 euros a month, excluding VAT, and most selling fees between 8% and 15%, as Amazon France's pricing page shows.

How much does Etsy charge sellers?

On a typical US sale Etsy bills a listing fee, a transaction fee and payment processing, and sometimes an advertising fee on top. The Etsy fees policy, updated on October 5, 2026, sets the listing fee at $0.20 per item and the transaction fee at 6.5% of the price you display plus shipping and gift wrapping. The Etsy Payments policy, updated on July 31, 2026, sets processing at 3% plus $0.25 for a US bank account, 4% plus 0.20 pounds in the United Kingdom and 4% plus 0.30 euros in France. Listings expire after four months and cost another $0.20 to renew, and a 2.5% currency conversion fee applies if you list in another currency.

Offsite Ads work differently. Etsy buys ads on other sites, and if a buyer clicks one and orders within 30 days, the seller pays 15% of the order. A shop with at least $10,000 in sales over the previous 365 days pays 12%, and keeps that rate for the life of the shop, but cannot opt out. Shops below that threshold can switch Offsite Ads off. Outside the US, a regulatory operating fee may come on top, and Etsy's help center lists 0.48% for the United Kingdom and 1.14% for France, charged on item price plus shipping.

What does eBay charge per sale?

eBay charges one final value fee when an item sells, with no separate payment processing fee. For most US categories, the eBay fee page sets it at 13.6% of the total amount of the sale up to $7,500 per item and 2.35% on the portion above, plus $0.30 for orders of $10.00 or less and $0.40 above. The total includes shipping, handling and sales tax, so a taxed order costs more than the list price suggests. Books, magazines, movies and music run at 15.3%. Every month you get 250 zero-insertion-fee listings, then $0.35 each. If you do not use eBay International Shipping, an extra 1.65% international fee applies when the buyer is abroad.

Does Walmart Marketplace charge a monthly fee?

No. Walmart's pricing page says the marketplace operates with zero setup, monthly or hidden fees, and that referral fees are deducted only after a sale. The default is 15% for Everything Else and for Home, Kitchen, Decor and Garden, with lower rates for Personal Computers at 6% and Consumer Electronics at 8%. Apparel and Accessories follows a ladder, 5% at $15 or less, 10% from $15 to $20 and 15% above. Walmart's total sales price includes shipping and handling and gift wrap. The same page markets Walmart Fulfillment Services separately, and its fees are not part of this comparison.

How do marketplace fees compare on a $50 sale?

On a $50 sale with free shipping and no sales tax, listed fees run from 10.4% on Etsy to 15% on Amazon and Walmart. We used a Home and Kitchen item, which sits at 15% on Amazon and Walmart, and the standard rates from each fee page.

Three things move these numbers, and none shows in the table. Amazon Professional adds $39.99 a month, so a seller with 10 such orders pays about $4 more per order in plan fees. Etsy's Offsite Ads would add $7.50, or 15% of $50, on an attributed order, taking the Etsy total to $12.70, or 25.4%. And on eBay, a buyer who pays 8% sales tax raises the fee base from $50 to $54, so the percentage part grows by $0.54. Card fees on your own site run lower, as our payment gateway comparison shows, but you then pay for traffic yourself.

Why is Etsy's take rate 26.2% when the fee table says about 10%?

Etsy's take rate is higher because it counts all of Etsy's revenue, advertising included, against the value of goods sold. In its third quarter 2026 shareholder letter, dated October 28, 2026, Etsy defines take rate as revenue divided by GMS and reports 26.2%, up 50 basis points from a year earlier. Marketplace GMS reached $2,646,888 thousand, up 8.8%, and total revenue was $692,469 thousand. Etsy credits the rise primarily to further enhancements to Etsy Ads and, to a lesser extent, Offsite Ads. A seller who never advertises pays close to the fee table. One who does can pay several times that, and Etsy publishes no breakdown by seller type.

Scale explains why sellers accept this. In its third quarter 2026 results, published on October 29, 2026, Amazon reported third-party seller services net sales of $46,492 million, against $42,486 million a year earlier, and a seller share of 61% of worldwide paid units.

How should you choose a marketplace on fees alone?

Skip the headline rate. Work through these steps, then set the result against what your own store would cost.

1. Take your three best-selling products and price each one the way a shopper pays, with shipping included.
2. Look up each product's category rate on the fee page of every marketplace, because 6% to 8% on electronics and 15% on home goods change the ranking.
3. Add the fixed charges, such as the $39.99 Amazon plan, the $0.20 Etsy listing or the $0.40 eBay order fee, and spread them over your monthly order count.
4. Add an advertising budget, since Etsy's take rate shows ads are where marketplaces make money.
5. Compare the total with your own store, using our platform comparison for software costs.

Fees also depend on basket size. A fixed $0.30 or $0.40 weighs more on a $12 order than a $120 one, a point our average order value guide explains, and a lower conversion rate on marketplaces can change the picture, which the conversion rate guide covers.

What we could not verify

Several costs are not on the pages we opened. Amazon's pricing page lists no Fulfillment by Amazon amounts, Walmart's Fulfillment Services grid is separate, and eBay does not date its fee page. None of the four publishes advertising results, so any estimate of total cost with ads is your own calculation. We compared published fee schedules only. We have not sold on these platforms and report no results from doing so.

Your next step

Pick one product, calculate its fees on each marketplace using the formulas above, then add your real shipping and ad spend. If the margin survives on two platforms, test the cheaper one with a small catalog for a month and read the monthly statement before you scale.