How much should I charge for my item on Etsy?
Start from what the item costs you to make — materials, packaging, and anything you buy per order — then add every Etsy fee and the profit you want left over. That is exactly what this calculator does in reverse: you set the margin, it returns the price. The common mistake is adding a percentage on top of your cost and calling it a margin. If an item costs you $10 and you charge $15, that is not a 50% margin — after a US seller's Etsy fees you keep $3.13, which is 20.8%. To actually keep half, you would need to list it at $25.81.
What is a good profit margin for an Etsy shop?
Most handmade sellers aim for 40-50% after Etsy's fees but before their own time and taxes. Digital products and print-on-demand can run higher because there is no per-order material cost. Under 20% is fragile: a single Offsite Ads order, a refund, or a small rise in material costs can wipe out the profit on that sale. Use the ladder in the results to see what each margin actually asks the buyer to pay.
Should I build shipping into the item price or charge it separately?
Etsy charges the 6.5% transaction fee on the shipping you charge as well as the item price, so shipping is never free money either way. Building it in usually wins on conversion, because free shipping is a search and badge advantage on Etsy. Either way, enter what you charge for shipping in the field above and the price you get back already accounts for the fees on it.
Why does the price jump so much when I switch on Offsite Ads?
Because the Offsite Ads fee is 15% of the whole order, and it stacks on top of the 6.5% transaction fee and your payment processing. Chasing a high margin against that combined rate needs a steep price. That toggle answers a specific question: what price still profits on your worst-case order. Many sellers price for normal orders and simply accept a thinner margin on the attributed ones — both are valid, just decide on purpose.
Does this work for sellers outside the United States?
Yes, and it matters more than most sellers expect. Etsy sets the payment processing fee by the country of your bank account: 3% + $0.25 in the US, 4% + £0.20 in the UK, 4% + €0.30 across most of the EU. Sellers in Canada, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Spain, Türkiye, the UK and Vietnam also pay a Regulatory Operating fee that US sellers do not. Pick your country at the top and every number changes to your real rates.
Why does it say my target margin is not reachable?
Etsy's percentage-based fees take the same cut no matter how high you price, so they set a hard ceiling on your margin. With Offsite Ads on, the transaction fee, processing and ad fee can total over 25% of an order — which means a 75% margin is impossible at any price, because raising the price raises the fees along with it. The calculator tells you the ceiling that is actually reachable instead of returning a fantasy number.
How is this different from a fee calculator?
A fee calculator runs forwards: you give it a price and it tells you what is left. This one runs backwards: you give it the profit you want and it tells you the price to charge. Both use the same fee engine and the same official Etsy rates, so they always agree. If you already have a price and just want to see the damage, use the fee calculator instead.