The Offsite Ads fee — the one charge that turns a good sale into a break-even one
Etsy advertises your listings on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and partner sites. You pay nothing upfront. But when a sale arrives through one of those ads, Etsy takes a further slice of the whole order — and that slice is bigger than any other fee on the invoice.
How the fee is calculated
| Detail | Rule |
|---|---|
| Rate | 15% of the order total, or 12% once your shop has reached $10,000 |
| Charged on | The whole order — item price plus shipping plus gift wrap |
| Cap | Never more than $100 USD per attributed order |
| Attribution window | 30 days after the buyer clicks an ad |
| When you pay | Only when a click leads to an order — never per click |
Worked example: a $38 item, US seller
| Organic sale | Offsite Ads sale | |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Transaction fee 6.5% | $2.47 | $2.47 |
| Payment processing | $1.39 | $1.39 |
| Offsite Ads 15% | — | $5.70 |
| Total fees | $4.06 | $9.76 |
| You keep | $33.94 | $28.24 |
| Effective rate | 10.7% | 25.7% |
The same product, the same price, and Etsy takes more than twice as much. That is where the widely repeated claim that "Etsy takes a third" comes from — it does, on Offsite Ads orders, once you add your material cost.
The $100 cap, and when it matters
The fee can never exceed $100 per attributed order. For a $38 item that never binds. It starts to matter above roughly $667 at the 15% rate, or $833 at 12%.
This has a counter-intuitive consequence: on high-value orders, Offsite Ads becomes cheaper as a percentage. A $2,000 order pays $100, not $300. If you sell expensive pieces, an Offsite Ads order is often better than its headline rate suggests — while a $50 order is worse.
Can you opt out?
It depends entirely on your sales history, measured over any consecutive 365-day period:
| Shop revenue, any 365-day period | Status | Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Always under $10,000 | Automatic enrolment, opt-out allowed | 15% |
| $10,000 or more | Mandatory for the life of the shop | 12% |
To opt out: Shop Manager → Settings → Offsite Ads → Opt out.
Whether you should opt out is a real decision, not an obvious one. The fee is painful, but the traffic is incremental — organic Etsy search may not replace those orders at all. The honest test is: are Offsite Ads orders profitable after the 15%? Run your typical order through the calculator with the toggle on. If it is still profitable, the ads are doing their job. If it is not, opt out and rebuild your pricing.
Offsite Ads is not Etsy Ads
These are two different products and sellers confuse them constantly.
| Offsite Ads | Etsy Ads | |
|---|---|---|
| Where ads appear | Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, partner sites | Inside Etsy search and category pages |
| How you pay | Percentage of the order, only on a sale | Cost per click, whether or not you sell |
| Can you set a budget | No | Yes, daily budget |
| Can you opt out | Only under $10,000 in sales | Just switch the budget off |
Attribution, and one more rule
A sale is attributed to Offsite Ads if the buyer clicked an ad and then bought from your shop within 30 days. One click can produce several attributed orders. If a buyer clicked an Offsite Ad but their last click before purchase was an Etsy on-site ad, then only the on-site charge applies — the two never stack on the same order.
You cannot choose which listings get promoted, and you cannot set a spending cap other than the $100 per order limit.
What to do about it
- Price with it in mind. If a meaningful share of your orders come from Offsite Ads, your prices need to work at the 15% rate, not just the organic one.
- Compare your actual rate. Etsy reports Offsite Ads performance in your shop stats. Check what share of your orders are attributed before deciding anything.
- Decide deliberately. If you are under $10,000, opting in or out is a genuine choice. Run the numbers instead of reacting to the invoice.
Switch the Offsite Ads toggle on in the fee calculator to see the effect on your own prices — including the 15% and 12% variants.
Rates and rules last verified October 2026. Etsy can change the Offsite Ads programme; always confirm current terms in Etsy's Advertising & Marketing Policy.