How much does eBay take per sale?
For most categories in 2026, eBay takes 13.25% of the total the buyer pays, plus $0.30 per order. On a $68 item with $9 of shipping, that is $10.50 — before you have paid for the item or posted it.
The two charges that make up an eBay fee
eBay replaced PayPal fees with a single final value fee, which is why you no longer see a separate payment processing line. In practice there are two components:
- Final value fee — a percentage of the total sale, charged only when the item sells.
- Per-order fee — a flat $0.30 added to every order, regardless of value.
Since 13.25% is a "most categories" figure rather than a rule, the category you list in decides your real rate. Books, music, collectibles and several business and industrial categories are lower, roughly 12%; other categories run to 15% and above. If you sell in one category all year, that one number is worth more to your margin than any other setting on this page.
Why the fee looks bigger than 13.25% of your item price
The percentage is charged on the total the buyer pays, including shipping and handling. Sellers who price shipping at cost and treat it as "not really revenue" get surprised: the shipping fee is commissionable, so a $9 shipping charge costs you an extra $1.19 in fees.
Promoted listings work the same way. The ad rate you set is charged on the order total when a promoted listing produces the sale, so a 6% promoted rate turns a 13.25% sale into a 19.25% sale.
A worked example
Take an item listed at $68 with $9 of shipping charged to the buyer. Your cost for the item is $24 and the label and packaging come to $10.40.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Buyer pays | $77.00 |
| Final value fee (13.25%) | -$10.20 |
| Per-order fee | -$0.30 |
| Item cost | -$24.00 |
| Shipping and packaging | -$10.40 |
| Net profit | $32.10 (41.7% margin) |
Total fees were $10.50, which is 13.6% of what the buyer paid. The break-even price — the lowest figure you could accept and still not lose money — is $31.
Three things sellers get wrong
- Pricing against the item price only. If you set your price so that 13.25% leaves a comfortable margin, then add "free" shipping on top, the commission on that shipping comes straight out of the margin you just calculated.
- Ignoring the $0.30. On a $200 sale the flat fee is invisible. On a $12 sale it is 2.5% of everything, and it is the reason very cheap items are rarely worth listing on eBay.
- Forgetting insertion fees at volume. Listings above your monthly free allowance cost $0.35 each whether or not they sell, so a large catalogue of slow movers accumulates a real monthly bill.
Do the calculation on your own numbers
The eBay fee calculator has every rate above pre-filled and editable, along with a break-even price and a target-margin price. If you sell the same product on more than one platform, the marketplace comparison tool will rank them by what you keep per sale.