Etsy Offsite Ads break-even tables: when does an ad sale still pay?
An Offsite Ads sale costs an extra 15% or 12% of the whole order, on top of the usual fees. On a thin margin that can turn a sale into a loss. These tables show the lowest order total that still covers your costs, and how much to raise a price so an ad sale leaves you the same money as a normal one. It is one static page: no sign-up, nothing to install.
Rates used (estimates as of October 2026, US): transaction fee 6.5% of item price plus shipping, payment processing 3% plus $0.25 per order, listing fee $0.20 per item sold. Offsite Ads fee: 15% of the order total for shops with under $10,000 in sales over the past 365 days (these shops can opt out), 12% for shops at $10,000 or more (these shops cannot opt out), capped at $100 per order. Fees change and differ by country: always confirm them in the Fees and Payments Policy on etsy.com before you set prices.
Table 1: break-even order total
Your costs are materials, your labor, packaging and the postage label for one order. The order total is the item price plus the shipping you charge. Below the figure shown, the order loses money.
| Your costs | Normal order | Offsite Ads at 12% | Offsite Ads at 15% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5.00 | $6.03 | $6.95 | $7.22 |
| $10.00 | $11.55 | $13.32 | $13.85 |
| $15.00 | $17.08 | $19.69 | $20.47 |
| $20.00 | $22.60 | $26.06 | $27.09 |
| $30.00 | $33.65 | $38.79 | $40.34 |
| $50.00 | $55.75 | $64.27 | $66.83 |
How the table is built: the percentage fees add up to 9.5% of the order total on a normal order, 21.5% with the 12% ad fee and 24.5% with the 15% ad fee. The two flat fees add $0.45. So:
break-even order total = (your costs + 0.45) / (1 - fee share)
with a fee share of 0.095, 0.215 or 0.245. Each figure is rounded up to the next cent. Etsy rounds every fee separately, so the real break-even can differ by a cent.
Table 2: what an ad sale leaves you at the 12% rate
| Order total | Usual fees | Offsite Ads 12% | Total fees | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | $1.40 | $1.20 | $2.60 | $7.40 |
| $20.00 | $2.35 | $2.40 | $4.75 | $15.25 |
| $30.00 | $3.30 | $3.60 | $6.90 | $23.10 |
| $50.00 | $5.20 | $6.00 | $11.20 | $38.80 |
| $60.00 | $6.15 | $7.20 | $13.35 | $46.65 |
| $100.00 | $9.95 | $12.00 | $21.95 | $78.05 |
The usual fees are 6.5% plus 3% plus $0.25 plus the $0.20 listing fee. "You keep" is before your own costs.
How much to raise a price to keep the same money
To keep the same dollars from an ad sale as from a normal sale, the order total has to rise by about 19.9% at the 15% rate (multiply by 0.905 / 0.755 = 1.199) or by about 15.3% at the 12% rate (multiply by 0.905 / 0.785 = 1.153).
Worked example
- A normal $20.00 order: fees are $1.30 + $0.85 + $0.20 = $2.35, so you keep $17.65.
- To keep $17.65 from a 15% ad sale: (17.65 + 0.45) / 0.755 = 18.10 / 0.755 = $23.98 (rounded up).
- Check at $23.98: transaction $1.56, processing $0.97, listing $0.20, Offsite Ads $3.60. Total fees $6.33. You keep $17.65.
You cannot charge ad buyers a different price, so raising the price raises it for everyone. The next section gives a middle way.
Pricing for a mix of normal and ad sales
If a share of your orders comes through Offsite Ads, the average fee share is 9.5% plus the ad rate times that share. You can find your own share by counting the orders that show an Offsite Ads fee on their receipts.
| Orders from Offsite Ads | Average fee share at 15% | Average fee share at 12% |
|---|---|---|
| 5% | 10.25% | 10.10% |
| 10% | 11.00% | 10.70% |
| 20% | 12.50% | 11.90% |
| 30% | 14.00% | 13.10% |
order total = (your costs + 0.45) / (1 - average fee share - target margin)
Example: costs $13.80, a 30% target margin and 10% of orders from ads at the 15% rate. Order total = (13.80 + 0.45) / (1 - 0.11 - 0.30) = 14.25 / 0.59 = $24.16 (rounded up). With no ad sales at all the same item needs 14.25 / 0.605 = $23.56 (rounded up). This keeps the margin on average: each ad sale still earns less than each normal sale.
Where the $100 cap starts
| Order total | Fee at 15% | Fee at 12% |
|---|---|---|
| $500.00 | $75.00 | $60.00 |
| $700.00 | $100.00 (cap) | $84.00 |
| $1,000.00 | $100.00 (cap) | $100.00 (cap) |
| $2,000.00 | $100.00 (cap) | $100.00 (cap) |
The cap is reached at an order total of $666.67 at the 15% rate and $833.34 at the 12% rate. Above that the fee stays at $100, so on a $2,000 order it is 5% of the total.
What these tables leave out
- Sales tax and VAT. The processing fee is charged on the full amount the buyer pays, so on a taxed order it is a few cents higher.
- Orders with more than one item: the $0.20 listing fee is charged per item sold.
- Etsy Ads (the on-site ads you budget yourself), subscriptions and currency conversion fees.
- Fees outside the US, and your income tax.
Want this worked out for every order? The Etsy Seller Profit Tracker + Pricing Calculator is a paid download on Gumroad: six CSV files you import into Google Sheets. You mark each order as an Offsite Ads order or not, and it applies the fees, including the ad fee and its cap, and totals profit by month. The fee rates are editable. It is our own product: we sell it and earn money from each purchase, so this is a commercial link and not a neutral recommendation.