Etsy vs Whatnot fees: stacked marketplace cut vs livestream commission
Etsy prints three fee lines on every US order — a $0.20 listing, a 6.5% transaction cut, and 3% + $0.25 processing — before an optional ad fee ever enters the picture. Whatnot prints two: a tiered commission that touches the item price only, and 2.9% + $0.30 processing that touches everything the buyer paid. This page runs the same $75 sale with $8 shipping through both stacks and counts the dollars left over.
Last updated . Etsy rates checked against Etsy’s public fees, Etsy Payments and Offsite Ads pages; Whatnot rates read from Whatnot’s published seller commission schedule and US payment processing terms on the same date. United States, USD throughout.
Feebrief is independent — not affiliated with Etsy or Whatnot, and not an official calculator for either. Whatnot’s commission tiers move with your trailing 4-week GMV, so confirm current rates on the linked pages before pricing a show.
Structure first: Etsy’s always-on stack vs Whatnot’s commission-on-item + processing-on-buyer-total
Start with the headline number, then the plumbing. On a $75 item with $8 buyer-paid shipping and no sales tax, Etsy’s always-on stack leaves you $74.66 and Whatnot’s Standard 8% commission leaves $74.29 — thirty-seven cents apart on an $83 order. Offsite Ads is the switch: an attributed Etsy order loses another $9.96–$12.45, and Whatnot suddenly keeps roughly $10–12 more. And at the top of Whatnot’s Fashion ladder, where the commission rate falls to 4.5%, Whatnot’s total take drops to $6.09 and it wins in the other direction. US rates, USD, as of 2026-11-01.
The rest of the confusion in this comparison comes from bases, not rates — which dollar amount each percentage actually multiplies. Etsy’s percentages ride on the order including shipping; Whatnot’s commission skips shipping while its processing fee includes it. One table, six lines:
| Fee line | Rate | Applied to |
|---|---|---|
| Etsy listing | $0.20 per listing | Each listing published or renewed — a flat toll, independent of the sale |
| Etsy transaction | 6.5% | Item + shipping + gift wrap; US sales tax excluded |
| Etsy processing | 3% + $0.25 | Gross order including shipping and tax when applicable |
| Etsy Offsite Ads | 15% or 12% | Only orders attributed to an offsite ad — conditional, never baseline |
| Whatnot commission | Tiered; Standard entry typically 8% by category, down to 4.5% at the top of the Fashion ladder | Item price only — shipping and tax never enter the commission base |
| Whatnot processing | 2.9% + $0.30 | The buyer’s full total: item + buyer-paid shipping + tax |
Two links if you want depth instead of a duel: the full Etsy seller fee stack, line by line, and the complete Whatnot fee explainer with every category ladder. Whatnot runs separate ladders for fashion, sports, trading card games, other collectibles, and everything else; the tiers step down as your trailing 4-week GMV climbs, and this page cites only the endpoints — no invented midpoints.
The worked keep: $75 item + $8 shipping, no tax
Same basket, both platforms, every fee line shown so you can re-run the arithmetic yourself. Each fee line is rounded to the cent. US, USD, as of 2026-11-01.
| Step | Etsy | Whatnot Standard |
|---|---|---|
| Item price | $75.00 | $75.00 |
| Buyer-paid shipping | $8.00 | $8.00 |
| Money in | $83.00 | $83.00 |
| Listing fee | −$0.20 | — (no listing fee) |
| Transaction fee | −$5.40 (6.5% × $83) | — |
| Commission | — | −$6.00 (8% × $75 item only) |
| Processing | −$2.74 (3% × $83 + $0.25) | −$2.71 (2.9% × $83 + $0.30) |
| Total fees | $8.34 | $8.71 |
| You keep | $74.66 | $74.29 |
Now the branches that matter. If the Etsy order came through an Offsite Ad, add 12% or 15% of $83 — $9.96 or $12.45 — and Etsy’s fee total climbs to $18.30 or $20.79; you keep $64.70 or $62.21, and Whatnot’s $74.29 wins by $9.59 to $12.08. If instead you sell in Fashion at the top of Whatnot’s GMV ladder, the commission falls to 4.5%: $3.38 commission + $2.71 processing = $6.09 in fees, and you keep $76.91 — beating even ad-free Etsy by $2.25.
Sales tax, when it applies, widens both processing bases symmetrically (Etsy’s 3% + $0.25 and Whatnot’s 2.9% + $0.30) and leaves the comparison otherwise intact. Full rounding method lives at /methodology/.
A smaller show: $40 item + $4 shipping
Cheap lots are where the fixed fees bite, so here is the same exercise in plain lines rather than another grid. Order total $44.00, no tax, US, USD, as of 2026-11-01.
- Etsy baseline: $0.20 listing + $2.86 transaction (6.5% × $44) + $1.57 processing (3% × $44 + $0.25) = $4.63 in fees → you keep $39.37.
- Etsy with Offsite Ads: add $5.28 (12%) or $6.60 (15%) → fees $9.91 or $11.23 → you keep $34.09 or $32.77.
- Whatnot Standard 8%: $3.20 commission (8% × $40) + $1.58 processing (2.9% × $44 + $0.30) = $4.78 in fees → you keep $39.22.
- Whatnot Fashion top band 4.5%: $1.80 + $1.58 = $3.38 in fees → you keep $40.62.
The pattern repeats at a smaller scale: fifteen cents apart at the baseline, a $5–6.45 flip toward Whatnot whenever Offsite Ads attaches to the Etsy sale, and Whatnot’s best ladder band beating ad-free Etsy by $1.25. Etsy’s $0.20 listing fee is a bigger share of a $44 order than of an $83 one, which is part of why the two stacks sit so close here.
Shipping is buyer-paid on both — the stacks just tax it differently
Neither platform asks the seller to absorb shipping: the buyer pays it at checkout on Etsy, and Whatnot buyers pay shipping on top of the hammer price. The difference is how much of that shipping money each stack skims on the way through.
- Etsy: both percentages include the shipping line — 6.5% + 3% = 9.5 cents per shipping dollar. Of the $8 in the lead basket, shipping effectively costs you about $0.76.
- Whatnot: the commission ignores shipping entirely; only the 2.9% processing slice touches it. Of the same $8, about $0.23.
The fixed components — Etsy’s $0.25 and Whatnot’s $0.30 — don’t scale with shipping at all. And when sales tax applies, it rides into both platforms’ processing bases but never into Etsy’s 6.5% or Whatnot’s commission.
Side notes: Offsite Ads is conditional; Premier Shop’s discount is over
Offsite Ads (Etsy only). The 15%/12% fee applies exclusively to orders Etsy attributes to an offsite ad — never to organic traffic. Sellers under $10k in trailing 365-day sales can generally opt out; at $10k and above the 12% rate is mandatory. Treat it as a branch, not a baseline. The deep dive, including the thresholds, is at /etsy-offsite-ads-fee/.
Premier Shop (Whatnot) — dated correction. Older guides still quote a 10% commission discount for Premier Shop subscribers. That program ended as of in tiered-commission markets, the US included. Price against the current category ladder, not the retired perk; the ladders in force are listed at /whatnot-fees-explained/.
No calculator here — for either platform
This is a static comparison, hand-computed from published rates; there is no estimator embedded on this page and nothing to configure. Feebrief has no Etsy calculator either. If you want current Whatnot tier tables, seller cost notes, and the full ladder set in one place, they live on the Whatnot hub; the line-by-line anatomy of Etsy’s stack is at /etsy-seller-fees/, and a single-number view of Whatnot’s total take is at /how-much-does-whatnot-take/. How sellers climb the 4-week GMV bands is covered at /how-to-lower-whatnot-commission/ — tactics stay there, not here.
FAQ
Does Whatnot charge commission on shipping?
No. Whatnot’s commission is calculated on the item price only — buyer-paid shipping and sales tax are excluded. Shipping is not free of fees, though: the 2.9% + $0.30 US processing fee runs on the buyer’s full total, shipping and tax included. On the $75 item + $8 shipping basket that means a $6.00 commission (8% of $75) and a $2.71 processing fee (2.9% of $83 + $0.30). US rates, USD, as of 2026-11-01.
Which is cheaper on a $75 sale — Etsy or Whatnot?
Almost a tie at the entry band, then Offsite Ads decides it. Without Offsite Ads, Etsy’s always-on stack costs $8.34 on the $75 + $8 shipping basket and Whatnot’s Standard 8% commission costs $8.71 — a 37-cent gap on an $83 order. If the Etsy sale is attributed to an Offsite Ad (15% or 12%), Etsy’s fees jump to $20.79 or $18.30 and Whatnot keeps roughly $10–12 more. At the top of Whatnot’s Fashion commission ladder (4.5%), Whatnot costs $6.09 and wins outright.
Does the Whatnot Premier Shop 10% commission discount still exist?
No. The Premier Shop discount on commission ended as of 2026-11-01 in markets on the tiered commission schedule, the US among them. Any page still advertising a 10% reduction for Premier Shop sellers is out of date; price against the current category ladder instead.
Related pages from Feebrief
Sources
- Etsy — public seller fees page (listing $0.20; transaction 6.5% on item + shipping + gift wrap), checked 2026-11-01.
- Etsy — Etsy Payments documentation (processing 3% + $0.25 on the gross order), checked 2026-11-01.
- Etsy — Offsite Ads policy (15% / 12%, attribution and opt-out thresholds), checked 2026-11-01.
- Whatnot — published seller commission schedule (category ladders, 4-week GMV bands, Standard entry rates, Premier Shop discount ended), checked 2026-11-01.
- Whatnot — US payment processing terms (2.9% + $0.30 on the buyer total), checked 2026-11-01.
Disclaimer
Feebrief is an independent fee-information site with no relationship to Etsy or Whatnot. Every dollar figure above was computed by hand from the published rates listed in the sources, as they stood on , with each fee line rounded to the cent — no live pricing feed, no scraper, no estimator running in your browser. Platforms revise rates without much notice, Whatnot’s commission percentage moves with your trailing 4-week GMV, and category ladders can differ from the endpoints cited here, so treat these nets as a snapshot and verify against the official pages before you price a listing or schedule a show. Our full calculation method is documented at /methodology/ and how this site pays for itself at /disclosure/.