What is a platform & payment fee calculator?
A platform and payment fee calculator shows what an e-commerce sale actually leaves in your pocket after the selling platform and the payment processor take their cut. You enter the sale price, the shipping you charge, and the platform you sell on; the tool returns your total fees, your net payout, and the effective fee percentage for that exact order. It is the fastest way to compare what Shopify, Etsy, Amazon, eBay, or a bare Stripe/PayPal checkout really costs on a given sale.
Most founders price products by guessing the fee — “platforms take around 3%” — and that guess is usually wrong, because the flat per-order fee (often $0.30) and the platform's percentage stack differently at every price point. A $5 order and a $200 order on the same platform have wildly different effective fee rates. This calculator removes the guess.
The formula, explained
Every platform's fee is built from the same two ingredients: a percentage of the order and a flat per-order amount. The order amount that the percentage applies to is almost always the price plus the shipping you charge — not the item alone. The math is:
- Gross collected = sale price + shipping charged.
- Total fees = (percentage × gross) + flat fees, summed across every fee line the platform charges.
- Net payout = gross − total fees − item cost (item cost is optional; leave it at $0 to see fees only).
- Effective fee % = total fees ÷ gross × 100.
The effective fee percentage is the number worth memorizing. It rolls the flat $0.30-ish charges into a single rate, so it tells you the true cost of the platform for this order — not the headline rate the platform advertises.
2026 platform fees used by this calculator
The calculator uses current published rates. Each is sourced below; rates change, so confirm against the platform's own fee page before pricing.
- Shopify (Basic + Shopify Payments): 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, with no extra Shopify transaction fee when you use Shopify Payments (CentSight).
- Etsy: 6.5% transaction fee on price + shipping, a $0.20 listing fee, and 3% + $0.25 payment processing — roughly 9.5% + $0.45 combined (Etsy Fees & Payments Policy).
- Amazon: a referral fee on the total sale, most commonly 15% (it ranges 8–45% by category) (Webgility).
- eBay: a final value fee of about 13.25% of the total sale plus $0.30 per order, with payment processing bundled in (EcomCalcTools).
- Stripe / PayPal only: 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for a bare checkout with no marketplace layer.
A worked example
Take a $40 product with free shipping ($0), the calculator's default. Here's what each platform takes:
- Shopify / Stripe / PayPal: 2.9% × $40 = $1.16, plus $0.30 = $1.46 in fees. Effective rate 3.7%. Net payout $38.54.
- eBay: 13.25% × $40 = $5.30, plus $0.30 = $5.60. Effective rate 14.0%. Net payout $34.40.
- Amazon: 15% × $40 = $6.00. Effective rate 15.0%. Net payout $34.00.
- Etsy: 6.5% × $40 = $2.60, + $0.20 listing, + (3% × $40 = $1.20) + $0.25 = $4.25. Effective rate 10.6%. Net payout $35.75.
Same product, same price — and the platform's cut swings from under $1.50 to $6.00. On thin-margin products that gap decides whether the sale is profitable at all. If you add an item cost in the calculator, the net payout drops by that amount so you can see your actual contribution per sale.
How fees relate to your margins
Platform fees only matter relative to your margin. Across more than 5,000 stores, a healthy e-commerce business runs a gross profit margin in the 60–70% range, and most stores target a net profit margin of 15–25%. Net margins by channel diverge sharply: Shopify DTC channels typically net 10–20%, while Amazon seller net margins compress to 5–15% after referral fees, fulfillment, and advertising. A 15% referral fee on a product carrying a 20% net margin erases most of the profit, which is why marketplace sellers price higher than DTC sellers for the same item. Knowing the effective fee before you list lets you build it into the price instead of discovering it on the payout report.
How to lower the fee you pay
- Sell direct where it makes sense. A Shopify or Stripe checkout at ~2.9% + $0.30 can be a fraction of a 13–15% marketplace fee. Marketplaces buy you traffic; direct keeps the margin. Many brands use both deliberately.
- Raise average order value. The flat $0.30 fee is fixed per order, so it's a smaller percentage on a $120 cart than on a $20 one. Bundles, free-shipping thresholds, and cross-sells push the effective fee down.
- Use the platform's own processor. Shopify waives its extra transaction fee when you use Shopify Payments; third-party gateways trigger an additional charge on top.
- Price the fee in. Once you know the effective rate, set your price so the fee plus item cost still leaves your target margin. The calculator's net payout is the number to protect.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Shopify take per sale?
On the Basic plan with Shopify Payments, Shopify charges 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction and no extra transaction fee. On a $40 sale that's about $1.46 in fees, leaving roughly $38.54 before your product cost. If you use a third-party gateway instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds an additional transaction fee on top of the processor's rate.
How much does Etsy take per sale?
Etsy charges a 6.5% transaction fee on the item price plus shipping, a $0.20 listing fee per item, and payment processing of 3% + $0.25. Together that's roughly 9.5% + $0.45. On a $40 sale with free shipping that's about $4.25 in fees, the highest effective rate of the platforms in this calculator for small orders.
What is Amazon's referral fee?
Amazon charges a referral fee on the total sale (item price plus shipping). The most common rate is 15%, though it ranges from 8% to 45% by category. This calculator uses the common 15% rate. Amazon's referral fee does not include FBA fulfillment fees or advertising, so your real take-home can be lower than the referral fee alone suggests.
What is eBay's final value fee?
eBay's final value fee for most categories is about 13.25% of the total amount of the sale (item price plus shipping) plus a $0.30 per-order fee. The fee bundles payment processing into a single percentage, so there's no separate processing line to add.
Why are fees charged on shipping too?
Most marketplaces — Etsy, Amazon, and eBay among them — calculate their percentage fee on the total order amount, which includes the shipping you charge the customer. That's why raising shipping to lower the item price rarely reduces fees: the platform taxes the whole order. Payment processors like Stripe and PayPal also charge on the full amount they move.
What is the effective fee percentage?
The effective fee percentage is total fees divided by the total amount you collect (price plus shipping), shown as a percent. It folds flat per-order fees into the percentage, so it's the single number that tells you what each platform truly costs on this specific order. Flat fees like $0.30 make small orders far more expensive in percentage terms than large ones.
Keep going: plan the whole launch with the e-commerce business plan generator, find a high-margin category with the niche finder, or read the definitions behind these numbers — payment processing fees, profit margin, and gross vs. net margin.