Same item, three marketplaces, three very different cuts. These are total marketplace fees including payment processing, on a plain sale with no ads and no store subscription.
| Sale price | Amazon | eBay | Etsy |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10 sale | $1.50 (15.0%) | $1.76 (17.6%) | $1.40 (14.0%) |
| $20 sale | $3.00 (15.0%) | $3.12 (15.6%) | $2.35 (11.8%) |
| $50 sale | $7.50 (15.0%) | $7.20 (14.4%) | $5.20 (10.4%) |
| $100 sale | $15.00 (15.0%) | $14.00 (14.0%) | $9.95 (9.9%) |
| $200 sale | $30.00 (15.0%) | $27.60 (13.8%) | $19.45 (9.7%) |
Amazon is the flattest. A single 15% referral fee on a standard category, with a $0.30 floor. No per-order fee, no processing fee on top — payment processing is already inside the referral cut. That keeps Amazon cheaper than eBay on low-priced items — eBay's flat per-order fee pushes it past Amazon under about $30 — and Amazon stays at exactly 15% as the price climbs.
eBay sits just below Amazon in percentage but adds a flat fee. 13.6% on most categories, plus $0.40 per order. The flat fee is what hurts on cheap items: on a $20 sale it is another 2 points of margin. An eBay Store subscription pulls the percentage down by roughly 1.3 points, which starts paying for itself somewhere around $600–800 of monthly sales.
Etsy looks cheapest on paper and often is not. The headline transaction fee is 6.5%, but it stacks: $0.20 to list, 6.5% transaction, and 3% + $0.25 payment processing. That lands near 10% all-in — genuinely the cheapest of the three — right up until an order is attributed to Offsite Ads, which adds 12% or 15% of the order total and takes Etsy well past both competitors on that order.
On fees alone at these price points, Etsy is cheapest, eBay is in the middle, and Amazon is the most expensive on standard categories. But fees are rarely the deciding factor:
Compare all three on your own price and cost →
Do these numbers include payment processing?
Yes for all three. Amazon and eBay bundle processing into their headline fee; Etsy charges it separately at 3% + $0.25, and it is included in the Etsy column above.
Which marketplace is cheapest overall?
Across $10 to $200 with standard categories, Etsy takes the smallest total cut, then eBay, then Amazon. That flips in Amazon’s favour in 8% categories such as electronics and computers, and flips against Etsy on any order attributed to Offsite Ads.
Do I pay fees on the shipping the buyer pays?
Yes on all three. The percentage fee is charged on the full order total including shipping, which is why free-shipping listings with the cost baked into the price are usually fee-neutral compared with charging shipping separately.