Poshmark vs The RealReal Fees: Flat 20% vs Category × Price Band
The two headline numbers point in opposite directions. Poshmark names what it keeps — 20% of the sale price once a sale reaches $15. The RealReal names what it hands back — a seller share that climbs from 20% to 70% for clothing as the price the item fetches rises. One schedule never moves; the other resets at each band edge. And behind the arithmetic sits a different division of labor: on Poshmark you list, price and ship; at The RealReal you mail the piece in and its team does the rest. Feebrief ran a $95 jacket and a $420 coat through both schedules — every figure is dated below.
Last updated . The RealReal seller shares were read from The RealReal’s seller commissions pages and Earnings Guide on 2026-11-01; the Poshmark tier comes from Feebrief’s Poshmark fee record, last checked 2026-10-26 against the Poshmark Fee Policy. United States sellers, USD throughout.
Feebrief is independent of both platforms, and this page hosts no official calculator for either. Bands, tiers and thresholds change; verify on the platforms’ own fee pages before committing inventory.
Flat take vs banded seller share — which question are you asking?
If you ask “what does each platform charge?”, Poshmark has a one-line answer — a flat 20% commission on sales of $15 and above ($2.95 flat below that), charged on the item price only, payment processing included. The RealReal can’t answer that question in one line, because it doesn’t publish a charge: it publishes your share, set by category and the sold-price band the item lands in. For clothing — the Clothing & More schedule The RealReal labels Trendsetter — that share runs from 20% under $100 to 70% at $5,000 and above, applied to the Net Selling Price, a base that excludes taxes and shipping.
The short answer for cash: Poshmark keeps more of an identical price in every clothing band — $76.00 vs $19.00 at a $95 sale, $336.00 vs $252.00 at $420. But the RealReal column buys pricing, photography, authentication and shipping you would otherwise do yourself, so read both the dollars and the labor before deciding. The rest of this page separates the two.
Poshmark: $2.95 under $15, a flat 20% at $15 and up
The whole Poshmark schedule fits in two rows:
| Charge | Applies when | What it’s measured on |
|---|---|---|
| Flat $2.95 | Sale price under $15 | A flat dollar fee, not a percentage — so it’s 29.5% of a $10.00 sale but only 19.7% at $14.99 |
| Flat 20% | Sale price $15 or more | Item price only; processing included; the buyer’s label payment never enters your payout |
Flip the 20% around and your keep is 80% of the item price at any sale of $15 or more: $76.00 on the $95 jacket, $336.00 on the $420 coat. That 80% is the mirror image of the RealReal share — the same digit, on the opposite side of the ledger. Full Poshmark edge cases and the live Poshmark fee page are linked later; nothing is embedded here.
The RealReal Clothing & More: what you keep at $95 and at $420
At The RealReal you consign: you ship the piece in, and the platform authenticates, prices, photographs, lists and fulfills it. Your payout is a share of the Net Selling Price, read off the band the sold price falls into. Feebrief is not restating the full seven-band chart here — it lives on the The RealReal seller commission reference page — only the three bands these examples touch, set beside Poshmark’s flat keep:
| Clothing & More band | RealReal share you keep | Poshmark keep, any $15+ price |
|---|---|---|
| Under $100 | 20% | 80% |
| $200–$299 | 55% | 80% |
| $300–$749 | 60% | 80% |
Assumptions for the worked rows: each item sells at the price shown; on the RealReal column that price is treated as the Net Selling Price (taxes and shipping excluded by definition of the base); sales tax $0; and because The RealReal sets its own selling prices, identical prices are a comparison assumption, not a promise of either outcome.
| Same item sells at | RealReal pays you | Poshmark pays you | Cash gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| $95.00 | $19.00 (20% band) | $76.00 (flat 20% taken) | $57.00 |
| $420.00 | $252.00 (60% band) | $336.00 (flat 20% taken) | $84.00 |
At $95 the digit 20% appears on both sides with opposite meanings: The RealReal keeps $76.00 of the sale (illustrative residual) while you keep $19.00; Poshmark keeps $19.00 while you keep $76.00. At $420 the RealReal residual is $168.00 (illustrative) and the gap narrows to $84.00 — and it narrows further as prices climb, though it never closes inside the clothing schedule: even the 70% band over $5,000 trails Poshmark’s 80% on the same price. Other categories run on their own charts; per the Guide, handbags top out at 80% over $7,500, not the advertised “up to 85%.” For the platform’s full model, see The RealReal fees explained and how much The RealReal takes.
Who sets the price and who ships
On Poshmark the listing, the price and the shipping are yours: you photograph and list the item, you decide what it costs, and when it sells you drop it on a prepaid label the buyer typically pays for. Control over the price is also control over the risk that it never sells. At The RealReal you make one shipment — the item to their facility — and its team then authenticates, prices, photographs, lists and ships to the buyer. You give up the ability to hold out for your own price, and the bands above are applied to whatever price it achieves. Neither split is a fee line, but it is the biggest hidden difference between the two “percentages.”
When you’re paid, and what the fee is measured on
Poshmark earnings typically become available once the order completes, with the commission already deducted — no separate processing line to wait on. The RealReal pays consignors under its consignor terms; those terms could not be retrieved at Feebrief’s 2026-11-01 check, so this page claims no payout cadence, minimum or withdrawal detail — generally, funds arrive after the sale, on The RealReal’s schedule rather than at the moment of sale. One more base-of-fee note while we’re here: the RealReal bands apply to the Net Selling Price, which excludes taxes and shipping, while Poshmark’s 20% applies to the item price only. The examples above assume $0 tax on both sides.
Rewards tiers can lift the RealReal share above the band
The band chart is not a ceiling for enrolled consignors. The RealReal Rewards adds a bonus on items that sell at $200 or more — +1% at Influencer, +2% at Tastemaker, +5% at VIP, by Net Sales tier — so a realized share may sit above the band base: on the $420 coat, a VIP’s 60% band plus 5% works out to 65%, or $273.00, by straight arithmetic on the published bonus. Feebrief’s Poshmark fee record lists no equivalent loyalty add-on, and none is invented here.
A live estimator exists for one side of this pair
Feebrief runs a live Poshmark fee estimator on its own page; this page links to it and embeds nothing. Feebrief has no live calculator for The RealReal, and rather than fake one, this page offers band arithmetic worked by hand from the dated sources below. There is no form, tool or input on this page. How rates are dated and checked is on the methodology page; commercial relationships, if any, are on the disclosure page.
FAQ
Which platform nets more on clothing — and does the price change it?
Poshmark nets more cash at every clothing band Feebrief checked. A $95.00 item pays $76.00 on Poshmark (flat 20% commission, processing included) against $19.00 on The RealReal (20% seller share under $100). A $420.00 item pays $336.00 against $252.00 (60% share in the $300–$749 band). The RealReal share climbs with price — 20% under $100 to 70% at $5,000+ — but never passes Poshmark’s flat 80% keep on an identical price. The trade: that gap is what you pay for The RealReal’s pricing, photography, authentication and fulfillment.
Is The RealReal’s advertised “up to 85%” payout real?
Not in the schedule Feebrief captured on 2026-11-01. “Up to 85%” is handbag marketing language; the Earnings Guide tops handbags out at an 80% seller share on prices over $7,500, and 80% is the highest share anywhere in the schedule Feebrief checked. Feebrief reports 80%. On this page the clothing maximum is lower still: 70% over $5,000.
Does Poshmark ever charge something other than 20%?
Yes, below $15. On sales of $15 and above the commission is a flat 20% of the item-only sale price with payment processing included. When the sale price is under $15, Poshmark swaps the percentage for a flat $2.95 — which is a larger share of very small sales (29.5% of a $10.00 sale). The full tier, including edge cases, is on Feebrief’s Poshmark fee page.
Related
- The RealReal seller commission — the complete category × band chart this page samples three rows from.
- Poshmark fee page and estimator — the live tool for the flat side of this comparison.
- The RealReal fees explained — the consignment model end to end.
- How much does The RealReal take? — the single-platform cut question.
- Resale marketplace fees — where to sell what, across every marketplace Feebrief tracks.
Sources
- The RealReal seller commissions pages and Earnings Guide, captured 2026-11-01 — Clothing & More seller shares by sold-price band (20% under $100 through 70% at $5,000+, with the $200–$299 and $300–$749 bands quoted above); bands applied to the Net Selling Price, which excludes taxes and shipping; handbag maximum 80% over $7,500; Rewards bonuses of +1% / +2% / +5% on items selling at $200 or more by Net Sales tier.
- Feebrief’s Poshmark fee record, last checked 2026-10-26 against the Poshmark Fee Policy — flat 20% on sales of $15 and above, flat $2.95 under $15, charged on the item price with processing included.
- The RealReal consignor terms — not retrievable at the 2026-11-01 capture, which is why payout-cadence and fulfillment statements here stay general.
- Every worked dollar on this page ($76.00, $19.00, $57.00, $336.00, $252.00, $84.00; the 65% / $273.00 Rewards arithmetic; residuals marked illustrative) — derived by Feebrief from the two dated sources above. Dating and verification conventions: methodology.
Disclaimer
Both platforms set and revise their own rates, bands, tiers and terms, and any figure here can change after the dates shown. Feebrief is an independent information site with no affiliation with Poshmark or The RealReal, sells nothing, and takes no position on which will sell your item faster or at a better price — on the RealReal side you don’t set that price at all, so treat the dollar gaps above as schedule arithmetic, not a forecast of your outcome. Nothing on this page is financial, tax or legal advice. Commercial and data practices are described on the disclosure page.