Etsy fees for digital downloads in 2026: what you keep from a $3, $5 or $10 file
Etsy fees for digital downloads in 2026 come down to three lines. On a $5 file, a US seller pays Etsy $0.93 and keeps $4.07; on a $3 file Etsy takes $0.74, almost a quarter of the price. The table below has every price from $3 to $100, with and without an Offsite Ads sale.
Digital files have no shipping, so the arithmetic is simpler than for physical items. But part of the fee is flat, and that part hurts cheap files the most. The figures use the fees Etsy publishes for a US shop with a US bank account, checked on 19 October 2026.
Etsy fees for digital downloads: the three lines
| Fee | Rate | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Listing | $0.20 | Each listing, for 4 months. Most digital listings have a quantity above 1, so the $0.20 is charged again every time one sells. |
| Transaction | 6.5% | The item price. There's no shipping on a download. |
| Payment processing | 3% + $0.25 | The whole order, including any sales tax the buyer pays. |
| Offsite Ads | 15%, or 12% | Only orders that came from an Offsite Ad click within 30 days. 12% applies to shops that have made $10,000 or more in any 365-day period. Capped at $100 per order. |
So on a normal sale Etsy takes 9.5% of the price (6.5% + 3%) plus $0.45 that doesn't change with the price ($0.20 + $0.25). We round each fee to the cent, half-up, before adding them up, so a total can differ by a cent or two from the exact percentage (24.7% vs 24.5% on a $3 file). Your Payment account shows the exact amounts Etsy charged. Our worked example of every Etsy fee explains each one in more detail, with a physical order.
What you keep, $3 to $100
| Price | Listing | Transaction | Processing | Etsy fees | You keep | Fees as % of price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $3 | $0.20 | $0.20 | $0.34 | $0.74 | $2.26 | 24.7% |
| $5 | $0.20 | $0.33 | $0.40 | $0.93 | $4.07 | 18.6% |
| $7 | $0.20 | $0.46 | $0.46 | $1.12 | $5.88 | 16.0% |
| $10 | $0.20 | $0.65 | $0.55 | $1.40 | $8.60 | 14.0% |
| $15 | $0.20 | $0.98 | $0.70 | $1.88 | $13.12 | 12.5% |
| $20 | $0.20 | $1.30 | $0.85 | $2.35 | $17.65 | 11.8% |
| $25 | $0.20 | $1.63 | $1.00 | $2.83 | $22.17 | 11.3% |
| $50 | $0.20 | $3.25 | $1.75 | $5.20 | $44.80 | 10.4% |
| $100 | $0.20 | $6.50 | $3.25 | $9.95 | $90.05 | 10.0% |
"You keep" is what Etsy deposits before your own costs: software, fonts or mockups you paid a licence for, your time, and income tax.
The same files, sold through an Offsite Ad
If the buyer clicked one of Etsy's ads on another site and bought within 30 days, Etsy adds 15% of the price. You can't choose which listings get advertised, and you won't know in advance which orders will count as ad sales.
| Price | Offsite Ads fee (15%) | All Etsy fees | You keep | Fees as % of price | You keep at 12% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $3 | $0.45 | $1.19 | $1.81 | 39.7% | $1.90 |
| $5 | $0.75 | $1.68 | $3.32 | 33.6% | $3.47 |
| $7 | $1.05 | $2.17 | $4.83 | 31.0% | $5.04 |
| $10 | $1.50 | $2.90 | $7.10 | 29.0% | $7.40 |
| $15 | $2.25 | $4.13 | $10.87 | 27.5% | $11.32 |
| $20 | $3.00 | $5.35 | $14.65 | 26.8% | $15.25 |
| $25 | $3.75 | $6.58 | $18.42 | 26.3% | $19.17 |
| $50 | $7.50 | $12.70 | $37.30 | 25.4% | $38.80 |
| $100 | $15.00 | $24.95 | $75.05 | 25.0% | $78.05 |
The 12% column is for shops that have passed $10,000 in sales in any 365-day period. Those shops can't opt out of Offsite Ads. Shops below that line can, in Shop Manager, but they also lose whatever sales the ads were bringing.
Why cheap files lose a bigger share
The $0.45 of flat fees is the same on a $3 planner page and on a $100 course bundle. On the $3 file it's 15% of the price on its own; on the $100 file it's under half a percent. That's why the share Etsy takes falls from 24.7% to 10% as the price goes up, even though the percentage fees never change.
In practice, a $3 file has to sell almost twice as many times as a $5 file to bring in the same money, and each of those sales pays its own $0.45.
Bundles spread the flat fees
Say you sell three printables at $4 each. If a buyer takes all three as separate items, the fees on the three sales add up to $2.49 and you keep $9.51. Sold as one $12 bundle, the fees are $1.59 and you keep $10.41.
The 90 cents only matter if people would actually buy the bundle. It's worth testing next to the single files rather than replacing them.
The lowest price for what you want to keep
With no shipping and no Offsite Ads, Etsy leaves you 90.5% of the price minus $0.45. Turned around:
price = (what you want to keep + $0.45) ÷ 0.905
To keep $2.00 from each sale: ($2.00 + $0.45) ÷ 0.905 = $2.71. To keep $4.00: $4.92.
For an Offsite Ads sale at 15%, divide by 0.755 instead.
"What you want to keep" should cover your per-sale costs, such as a commercial font licence charged per sale, and a share of the time it took to make the file. Only you know those numbers. We work through that step, plus margin targets and bundles, in how to price digital downloads on Etsy.
What the tables leave out
- Sales tax. When Etsy collects sales tax from a US buyer, the processing fee is charged on it too. On a $5 file with $0.40 of tax, processing goes from $0.40 to $0.41.
- VAT on digital items. For buyers in certain countries, Etsy adds VAT to the price of a download, collects it and pays it to the tax authority. The buyer pays it, not you, and Etsy deducts it before the funds reach your Payment account. Etsy's Help Center doesn't say whether the processing fee is also charged on that VAT; your Payment account shows it.
- Currency conversion. 2.5% more if you list in a currency different from your payment account's.
- Etsy Ads. The on-site ads you pay per click are a separate budget, not a per-order fee.
- Listings that never sell. Each one still cost $0.20 every 4 months.
If you don't sell from the US
Only the processing line changes, but it can change a lot. It depends on where your bank account is: 4% + £0.20 in the UK, for example, or 6.5% + US$0.30 in Peru. Some countries also pay a Regulatory Operating fee. Our Etsy fees article lists a few, and if you sell from Peru there's a full worked example in Spanish: Vender en Etsy desde Perú: comisiones y cuánto te queda.
Questions
Does Etsy charge the listing fee again every time a digital download sells?
Yes, if the listing has a quantity above 1, which is how most digital listings are set up. Etsy renews it automatically after each sale and charges $0.20 again. That's why the tables count $0.20 on every sale.
Is there a transaction fee on shipping for digital downloads?
There's no shipping on a download, so the 6.5% transaction fee applies only to the item price (and gift wrap or personalization, if you charge for them).
How much does Etsy take from a $5 digital download?
For a US seller with no sales tax: $0.20 listing + $0.33 transaction + $0.40 processing = $0.93, so you keep $4.07. If the sale came from an Offsite Ad, another $0.75 (15%) comes off, and you keep $3.32.
Not tax or accounting advice. Fees are the ones Etsy publishes for US sellers, checked on 19 October 2026 on the Help Center pages listed below. Etsy's Fees & Payments Policy (last updated 5 October 2026) was last read on 17 October 2026. Etsy can change them at any time, and your Payment account is always the final word on what you were charged. Prices and bundles are invented examples. No figure here is a prediction of what you will sell or earn.
Sources
- Etsy, Fees & Payments Policy. Listing, transaction, currency conversion. Last updated 5 October 2026; read 17-10-2026.
- Etsy Help, How VAT Works on Digital Items. Etsy adds VAT to digital downloads for buyers in the listed countries, collects it from the buyer and remits it; with Etsy Payments it is deducted before funds reach the seller. Checked 19-10-2026.
- Etsy Help, What are Payment Processing Fees for Selling on Etsy?. US: 3% + 0.25 USD; charged on the total including sales tax; rates by bank country. Checked 19-10-2026.
- Etsy Help, How Etsy's Offsite Ads Work. 15% / 12%, $10,000 threshold, 30-day attribution, $100 cap, opt-out rule. Checked 19-10-2026.
- Etsy Help, fees for multi-quantity listings. Automatic $0.20 renewal after each sale. Checked 17-10-2026.