How international marketplace seller take-home really works

Why the price a buyer pays is not the money you keep — and where every dollar goes.

Most fee calculators stop at the marketplace’s cut: Etsy takes 6.5%, so you keep the rest, done. But if you’re a non-US seller, the sale passes through four layers before it lands in your bank account, and each one shaves a little off the top.

1. The marketplace fee

Etsy charges a 6.5% transaction fee plus a $0.20 listing fee. Amazon charges a referral fee that is 15% for most categories (it ranges 5–45% by category), with a $0.30 per-item minimum. eBay charges a 13.6% final value fee up to $7,500 per item plus about $0.40 per order. This is the layer everyone knows about.

2. Payment processing & payout

On Etsy, payment processing (roughly 3% plus a flat amount in the US) comes out on top of the transaction fee. Amazon and eBay fold processing into their fee, but the payout still has to reach you — often through Payoneer, which has its own small receiving fee. Small, but it stacks.

3. The currency conversion markup

This is the layer generic calculators ignore — and the reason they’re wrong for international sellers. When the marketplace converts your payout to your home currency, it adds a markup on top of the real exchange rate: about 2.5% on Etsy, ~3% on eBay, and ~3–4% with the Amazon Currency Converter for Sellers. Receiving in USD and withdrawing through Payoneer (~2%) or Wise (often under 1%) is usually cheaper. Over a full month of sales, that gap becomes real money.

4. The per-order & withdrawal fee

Finally the flat amounts — Etsy’s $0.20 listing, eBay’s ~$0.40 per order, Amazon’s $0.30 minimum — plus any bank fee to move the money to your account. Payoneer also charges a $29.95 annual fee if you receive under $6,000 in any 12 months.

What it adds up to

Stacked together, on a $100 item a non-US Etsy seller who converts to a local currency often keeps closer to $88 than the $93.50 the headline 6.5% implies — and on Amazon or eBay the marketplace cut alone is larger. Use the take-home calculator to see your real number for each marketplace, and to work backwards from a target: enter what you want to keep and it tells you what to price the item at.

💼 Get paid as a freelancer on Fiverr or Upwork instead of selling products? The same fee stack hits your gigs — see What You Actually Keep — the freelancer take-home calculator (our sister tool for getting paid across borders).

Rates are typical published figures verified against Etsy, Amazon, and eBay as of July 2026, and they change. Always confirm against your own category and account. Estimates for planning only — not legal, tax, or financial advice, and they exclude your local income tax.