Whatnot vs OfferUp fees compared

Livestream GMV vs. local $0: the fee fork comes first

Every Whatnot sale settles through the platform’s own checkout, and that position is what creates the fee. Bids close inside the live show, payment runs through Whatnot, and the platform deducts its lines before the payout. Two bases matter here, and they are not the same: commission is figured on item GMV alone — buyer-paid shipping and sales tax never enter it — while payment processing (2.9% + $0.30 in the US) is figured on the buyer total, which folds in buyer-paid shipping and applicable taxes. One percentage rides the item; the other rides everything the buyer pays.

An OfferUp meetup inverts the picture. The buyer hands over cash, the seller hands over the item, and OfferUp occupies no spot in the exchange — no commission to deduct, no total to process. The platform’s former shipped-listing program, which once carried its own fee lines, closed during fall 2025, so the $0 in-person lane plus optional paid visibility is what remains. The full auction-side schedule sits on Feebrief’s Whatnot fee hub; the meetup side is itemized at OfferUp seller fees.

Whatnot vs OfferUp fees at a glance

Six rows cover the whole gap. Where a figure isn’t published, the cell says so instead of guessing.

United States, USD; neither platform’s non-US schedule appears on this page. How Feebrief sources and dates each line is documented in the methodology, and the disclosure page covers this site’s independence.

Whatnot fees explained

The auction side of the table, line by line — with the longer walkthrough at Whatnot fees explained.

Commission: item GMV only, on 4-week tiers

Whatnot’s commission applies to the item’s gross merchandise value and nothing else — shipping the buyer pays and sales tax both stay outside the base. The percentage depends on a tier system that runs on a 4-week cadence, and the band varies by vertical: Standard, where many categories land, is often 8%, while Coins verticals come in lower. Some sellers work out custom rates with an account manager, but no public schedule lists them, so Feebrief prints no figure for that tier. The take-rate view across baskets sits at how much does Whatnot take?

Payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30 on the buyer total

In the US, Whatnot adds a processing charge of 2.9% plus a flat $0.30, and its base is deliberately wider than the commission’s: the buyer total, meaning the item price plus any shipping the buyer pays plus applicable taxes. When either of those grows, the processing line grows with it — and the commission line does not. Keeping the two bases straight is most of the work in modeling a Whatnot payout.

Listing fee: none published

Whatnot’s public fee documentation names no listing fee — the costs of selling are the commission and the processing charge, and posting an item carries no separate listed charge. The question gets its own page at does Whatnot charge a listing fee?, kept current on its own schedule.

Premier Shop: the 10% discount ended 2026-11-01

Premier Shop sellers in tiered markets once received a 10% discount on commission. That arrangement ceased to apply as of Nov 1, 2026 — worth rechecking any commission math written before the date, including older comparison guides, because it will understate the current take.

OfferUp fees explained

OfferUp’s fee surface shrank during 2025, and what remains is short enough to state in full. The per-fee parent page is OfferUp seller fees.

In-person sales: the seller’s mandatory cost is $0

An OfferUp meetup bills nobody a platform fee. No commission percentage comes off the sale, no processing charge attaches to the payment, and no buyer-side fee appears at a checkout step — there is no checkout step. Listing is free within monthly category allotments; sellers who exhaust an allotment can purchase additional listings, though those prices don’t appear on the public help pages. The mandatory column of OfferUp’s schedule reads $0 from end to end.

Mailed sales retired in two steps during fall 2025

OfferUp once ran a shipped-listing program with its own fee lines; that program is gone. The wind-down arrived in stages: beginning Sept 23, 2025, any newly created listing could offer local pickup only, and by Oct 21, 2025 the remaining older listings lost their shipping option as well. Feebrief’s source record contains no percentage from the retired program, so none is reprinted here — an OfferUp shipping fee encountered in an older guide reflects pricing from before the wind-down, not a current charge. With mailed sales off the board entirely, the in-person $0 is the whole mandatory schedule.

Promote+: $19.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and skippable

Promote+ is the only recurring price attached to selling on OfferUp, and subscribing is a choice rather than a step in the process. The subscription — $19.99 per month, or $99.99 for a full year — buys a listing extra visibility in buyers’ feeds; it is not a commission, a deposit, or a prerequisite for selling. A seller who never subscribes can list, arrange a meetup, and keep the entire sale price. The subscription price doesn’t rise with sales volume, and the $0 meetup commission holds for subscribers and non-subscribers alike. Shorter promote-day packages and any paid extra-listing pricing aren’t published on the help pages, so this page records them as not publicly available rather than estimating. Full pricing detail sits at OfferUp Promote+ cost.

Worked example: a $100 item on each

Post a $100 collectible in a Whatnot show, at the Standard band’s often-8% rate with no buyer-paid shipping or tax in the total, and the platform deducts $11.20 — leaving $88.80. The same $100 changing hands at an OfferUp meetup deducts nothing.

The model isolates platform fees: it excludes taxes and assumes the buyer paid no shipping, which keeps the processing base equal to the item price. Add buyer-paid shipping or sales tax and the two Whatnot bases pull apart — the commission stays on the $100 item GMV, while the 2.9% + $0.30 rides the larger buyer total. The 8% figure models Standard; Coins verticals typically come in lower, and custom managed-account rates, where they exist, aren’t publicly scheduled. The OfferUp column has no analogous knobs: a meetup sale’s mandatory platform cost is $0 at any price.

What neither fee schedule prints

Three gaps are worth naming rather than papering over. Whatnot’s custom rates for managed seller accounts have no public schedule — the numbers exist, but only negotiation reveals them, so no figure appears here. OfferUp’s one-time promote options carry no published price, and neither do extra listings past the monthly allotment. And any OfferUp shipping percentage still circulating in older guides describes the retired program; Feebrief’s record holds no such number, and the current schedule has no shipping fee at all. Where a price isn’t published, this page says so — an honest blank beats an invented number.

Which is cheaper?

On mandatory fees alone, the matchup is a shutout: $0 beats any percentage, and the $100 model above puts Whatnot’s all-in near $11.20 once processing is counted. But the two services rarely compete for the same transaction. Whatnot’s commission is the toll for a live room of bidders — a format that tends to make sense for collectibles, cards, and fashion, where auction competition can lift closing prices enough to absorb the take. OfferUp’s $0 assumes the seller can find a nearby buyer, agree on a price, and complete the handover in person; for furniture, appliances, and bulky goods, that local reality usually decides the platform before fees do. Cheap depends on mode: the live-audience seller pays Whatnot’s stack for reach, while the neighborhood seller pays nothing and handles the logistics personally.

Related fee comparisons

• Facebook Marketplace vs Whatnot fees — the other heavyweight meetup platform measured against the auction stack.
• Vinted vs OfferUp fees — a buyer-fee marketplace set against the same $0 meetup lane.
• Resale marketplace fees — the category hub with every platform’s schedule.

Quick questions

Does Whatnot charge a listing fee?

No listing fee appears in Whatnot’s published fee documentation. The seller-side costs are the GMV commission and the payment-processing charge; posting an item carries no separate listed charge. The dedicated page — does Whatnot charge a listing fee? — tracks the current answer.

Is selling on OfferUp really free?

On the mandatory side, yes — genuinely. An in-person sale carries no commission, no processing charge, and no buyer-side fee, and listing is free within monthly category allotments. The qualified part is optional spend: Promote+ runs $19.99 per month or $99.99 per year, one-time promote options are priced off the public pages, and extra listings past an allotment cost something unpublished. Skip all three and the platform’s take on a meetup sale is $0.

Does Whatnot take a cut of shipping?

Not through the commission. That charge is calculated on item GMV only, so money the buyer pays for shipping never widens it. Processing is where shipping shows up: the 2.9% + $0.30 rides the buyer total, which includes buyer-paid shipping — so a heavier shipping charge lifts the processing line while the commission holds still.

What changed with Whatnot’s Premier Shop discount?

The 10% commission discount for Premier Shop sellers in tiered markets ceased to apply on Nov 1, 2026. Any commission estimate drafted before that date — a seller’s own spreadsheet, or a comparison page that hasn’t been rechecked — bakes in a discount that no longer exists.

Sources and checking

Every figure on this page traces to one of two records, checked at publish on 2026-11-01. Whatnot’s tier mechanics, the “often 8%” Standard hedge, and the 2.9% + $0.30 processing line come from Whatnot’s own seller fee documentation; the Premier Shop change is dated from the platform’s notice covering tiered markets. OfferUp’s $0 local commission, the 2025-09-23 and 2025-10-21 wind-down dates, and the $19.99/$99.99 Promote+ prices come from OfferUp’s help pages. Where a number couldn’t be found in either record — promote-day pricing, extra-listing prices, managed-account rates — the page says not publicly available instead of filling the gap. How Feebrief sources, dates, and re-checks each line is laid out in the methodology.

Disclaimer

Feebrief is an independent reference on US resale-platform pricing, written and edited in-house. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or compensated by Whatnot or OfferUp, and no partnership, placement, or referral arrangement sits behind any figure above. All amounts are quoted in US dollars and reflect each schedule as last checked; marketplaces revise fees on their own timelines, and their own documentation is the authority for any live selling decision. The disclosure page records how this site is funded and what it declines to sell.