Etsy vs ThredUp Fees: What Each Really Takes
Etsy and ThredUp don't really charge fees the same way, so "which is lower" needs framing first. On Etsy you are the seller: $0.20 to publish or renew each listing, 6.5% of the order in transaction fees, 3% + $0.25 in processing, and Offsite Ads as a conditional extra. On ThredUp Clean Out you are the consignor: ThredUp photographs, prices, and sells the item for you, then pays a share of the final selling price — published anchors run 3% to 80% — minus a $14.99 (Standard) or $34.99 (Premium) service fee taken from earnings after sales. A third fork, ThredUp Direct Listing, keeps you the seller at a 0% seller fee. The trade in one sentence: fee-paying craft seller versus consignor swapping payout share for done-for-you selling.
Last updated . Etsy rates reflect Feebrief's Etsy fee record, compiled 2026-11-02 from Etsy's legal fees page, the Etsy Payments policy, and the Offsite Ads help pages; ThredUp rates reflect Feebrief's ThredUp payout record, compiled 2026-11-02 from ThredUp's published payout and fee pages. United States sellers, USD; sales tax is held at $0 in the worked examples.
Feebrief is independent and affiliated with neither marketplace, and no calculator runs on this page — Feebrief has no live Etsy or ThredUp calculator here. Schedules may change; each platform's own fee pages are the final word before you price a listing or mail a kit.
Etsy vs ThredUp fees at a glance
The models differ before any percentage does: Etsy bills you per listing and per order, while ThredUp Clean Out pays you a share of what the item finally sells for. The full stacks live in the parent guides — Etsy seller fees and ThredUp seller payouts.
| Line | Etsy (you sell) | ThredUp Clean Out (ThredUp sells) |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to get listed | $0.20 per listing, charged on publish and again on renewal; listings stay active 4 months or until sold | Nothing upfront; the service fee comes later, from earnings after sales |
| Charge on a sale | 6.5% transaction fee on listing price + shipping + gift wrap (US sales tax excluded), plus 3% + $0.25 processing on the gross order including shipping and tax when applicable | No fee charged to you — instead ThredUp pays you a share of the final selling price: anchors from 3% at a $5 sale to 80% at a $200 sale |
| Conditional or fixed extras | Offsite Ads on attributed orders only: 15% while trailing 365-day sales are under $10,000 (opt-out allowed); 12% and mandatory at $10,000+; $100 per-order cap; 30-day attribution window | Service fee of $14.99 (Standard) or $34.99 (Premium), deducted from earnings after sales |
| Who sets the price | You | ThredUp |
| Who does the selling | You photograph, list, and ship every order | ThredUp photographs, lists, prices, and ships |
| Sell-it-yourself fork | Not applicable — you always list yourself | Direct Listing: you list and price your own item at a 0% seller fee |
United States sellers, USD, throughout this page. Neither column is "the cheap one" — they price different jobs.
Etsy's fee stack (US)
Three always-on lines make up the Etsy bill. The deep dives are in how much Etsy takes and the $0.20 listing fee explained.
| Fee | Rate | Assessed against |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 | Each listing, on publish and on renewal; active 4 months or until sold |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% | Listing price + shipping + gift wrap; US sales tax excluded |
| Payment processing | 3% + $0.25 | The gross order, including shipping and tax when applicable |
Offsite Ads: conditional, never the baseline
Offsite Ads apply only to orders attributed within a 30-day window: 15% while a shop's trailing 365-day sales are under $10,000 (opt-out allowed), 12% and mandatory once a shop reaches $10,000 in any 365-day window, and never more than $100 per order. Etsy does not publish what share of orders gets attributed, and this page won't guess one. Rates and attribution detail are in the Offsite Ads fee guide; the worked swing comes after the $50 math below.
ThredUp's payout structure (US)
Clean Out has no seller-side fee lines at all. Instead, ThredUp publishes payout anchors — the share of the final selling price you receive at five price points. Anchors only: no formula between them is published, so none is invented here.
| Item sells for | You receive |
|---|---|
| $5 | 3% of the final selling price |
| $20 | 15% |
| $50 | 30% |
| $100 | 60% |
| $200 | 80% |
The service fee — $14.99 Standard or $34.99 Premium — is taken from earnings after sales, not paid upfront. That timing matters: the fee is charged against your kit's earnings, so this page does not force a per-item allocation. Two more ThredUp charges are simply Not publicly available: the buyer facilitation fee and the cash-out fee. Full detail is in ThredUp seller payouts and the Clean Out kit fee guide.
Direct Listing: the 0% seller-fee fork
Clean Out is not the only way in. With ThredUp Direct Listing, you list and price the item yourself and sell to ThredUp's audience at a 0% seller fee — the route for sellers who want ThredUp's buyers without handing over pricing.
A $50 item on both platforms
Same $50 item, two models, US, tax $0, no Offsite Ads. Etsy side: $50 item plus $5.00 shipping, a $55.00 order. ThredUp side: the item sells through Clean Out at $50.00, which sits exactly on the 30% anchor.
| Step | Etsy | ThredUp Clean Out |
|---|---|---|
| Sale size | $55.00 order ($50 item + $5.00 shipping) | $50.00 final selling price |
| Transaction side | 6.5% of item + shipping = ≈$3.58 | ThredUp keeps the other side of the anchor: $35.00 of the $50.00 sale |
| Processing | 3% + $0.25 on the $55.00 order = $1.90 | |
| Listing | $0.20 | |
| You keep | ≈$49.32 — after ≈$5.48 order-side fees plus the $0.20 listing, before any shipping label | $15.00 — 30% of $50.00, before the service fee, which is deducted from earnings after sales at the kit level |
That gap — ≈$49.32 versus $15.00 before their respective extras — is not a verdict about who is cheaper. Etsy's $34 spread buys the listing, photographing, pricing, packing, and shipping work; Clean Out's smaller check is what's left when ThredUp does that work and takes its share. The honest comparison is dollars kept versus hours spent.
The Offsite Ads swing on the same order
Now flip advertising on for the Etsy side. If that $55.00 order is attributed within the 30-day window, a shop under $10,000 in trailing 365-day sales pays 15% — $8.25 — leaving ≈$41.07 before the label (opt-out allowed). At $10,000+ the rate is 12% and mandatory: $6.60, leaving ≈$42.72. The $100 per-order cap only matters far above this size. Nothing here says how often attribution happens — that share is not published, and Offsite Ads stay a scenario, never the headline rate. More in the Offsite Ads fee guide.
Which one fits what you're selling
- Handmade, craft, or multi-item work you can list and ship yourself: the Etsy stack. You keep most of each sale and pay for it in labor plus $0.20 per listing.
- Decluttering branded secondhand and mostly wanting it gone: Clean Out. Mail it, let ThredUp sell it, accept the anchor share minus the service fee from earnings after sales.
- On ThredUp but unwilling to hand over pricing: Direct Listing at a 0% seller fee — you keep control and the consignment math drops out.
Nearby comparisons, different angles: Depop vs ThredUp fees for consignment-side alternatives, and Etsy vs Vinted fees for another Etsy matchup. The full set lives in the resale marketplace fees hub.
What we couldn't verify
- ThredUp cash-out fee: Not publicly available.
- ThredUp buyer facilitation fee: Not publicly available.
- Clean Out payout percentage between published anchors: no formula is published, so this page lists anchors only.
- Offsite Ads attribution share of orders: not stated beyond the 30-day window — stated here as a window and a cap, nothing more.
Where a number is missing, it stays missing; how Feebrief sources and checks rates is documented in the methodology.
Sources and dating
Etsy figures come from Feebrief's Etsy fee record (compiled 2026-11-02 from Etsy's legal fees page, the Etsy Payments policy, and the Offsite Ads help pages); ThredUp figures come from Feebrief's ThredUp payout record (compiled 2026-11-02 from ThredUp's published payout and fee pages). Worked-example arithmetic was recomputed at publish time from those verified rates. Editorial independence is described in the disclosure.
Common questions
Which is cheaper for sellers, Etsy or ThredUp?
The question misfires, because only one of them bills you. On the $55.00 Etsy order above, the all-in fee is ≈$5.68 — roughly 10% of the order — and you do the selling. On Clean Out at the $50 anchor, ThredUp keeps 70% of the sale price, charges the service fee from earnings after sales, and does the work. Compare dollars kept against hours spent, not percentage against percentage.
Does ThredUp charge you to get your money out?
The ThredUp cash-out fee is Not publicly available in Feebrief's record, and this page won't guess it. The verified charge to plan around is the service fee: $14.99 Standard or $34.99 Premium, deducted from earnings after sales.
Can I set my own price on ThredUp?
Not on Clean Out — ThredUp prices the item and your payout follows the anchor table. Direct Listing is the fork built for pricing control: you list and price the item yourself at a 0% seller fee.
Does Etsy's Offsite Ads fee hit every order?
No. It applies only to orders attributed within a 30-day window: 15% while trailing 365-day sales are under $10,000 (opt-out allowed), 12% and mandatory at $10,000+, capped at $100 per order. The share of orders attributed is not published, so it is not stated here.
Related fee guides
- Etsy seller fees — the full US stack
- ThredUp seller payout — anchors and the service fee
- How much does Etsy take? — total-take deep dive
- Etsy listing fee — the $0.20 line explained
- Etsy Offsite Ads fee — 15%/12%, cap, attribution
- ThredUp Clean Out kit fee — $14.99 vs $34.99
- Depop vs ThredUp fees
- Etsy vs Vinted fees
- Resale marketplace fees — the hub
Disclaimer
Feebrief is an independent fee reference with no affiliation to Etsy or ThredUp; both platforms are off-product on this page, and no calculator runs here — Feebrief has no live Etsy or ThredUp calculator for this comparison. Rates may change; check each platform's own fee pages before you price or mail anything. See the methodology and disclosure for how this data is sourced.