What Each Marketplace Charges Fees On
Fees checked on ; next check .
Updated
At a glance
- Final value fee: item + shipping + tax
- Per-order fee: a flat amount per order
- Promoted listing fee, if promoted: item + shipping + tax
- Selling fee: item + shipping
- Poshmark fee: item price only
- Commission: item price only
- Payment processing: item + shipping + tax
- Payment processing: item + shipping + tax
- Boosting fee on your own label, if boosted: item + shipping
- Boosting fee on a Depop label, if boosted: item price only
eBay and Depop's fee bases include item price, buyer-paid shipping and sales tax together. Mercari's includes shipping but not tax. Poshmark's is item price alone. Whatnot splits into two lines with two different bases.
- eBay
- Final value fee: item + shipping + tax. Per-order fee: a flat amount per order. Promoted listing fee, if promoted: item + shipping + tax
- Mercari
- Selling fee: item + shipping
- Poshmark
- Poshmark fee: item price only
- Whatnot
- Commission: item price only. Payment processing: item + shipping + tax
- Depop
- Payment processing: item + shipping + tax. Boosting fee on your own label, if boosted: item + shipping. Boosting fee on a Depop label, if boosted: item price only
On this page
Every calculator on this site starts from the same question: what is the fee actually a percentage of? The headline rate on a marketplace's help page only tells half the story, because eBay, Mercari, Poshmark, Whatnot and Depop each draw a different line around what counts toward that rate. Two marketplaces advertising a similar number can still take a different dollar amount from an identical sale, once you see what's actually in the base. This page isn't run by, endorsed by, or speaking for any of the five marketplaces below — it's an independent comparison built from each one's own fee or policy page, the same pages each calculator is checked against.
What's in each fee's base
The table lines up four things a fee can be charged on — the item price, the shipping the buyer paid, sales tax, and a flat dollar amount some marketplaces add regardless of the sale total — against the five marketplaces this site covers.
| eBay | Mercari | Poshmark | Whatnot | Depop | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Item price | In the final value fee's base (eBay Help) | In the 10% selling fee's base (Mercari Help) | In the fee's base, whichever band applies (Poshmark Fee Policy) | In the commission's base (Whatnot Help) | Not in a selling fee — Depop charges none for US sellers; is in the processing fee's base (Depop Help) |
| Buyer-paid shipping | In the final value fee's base, same as item price (eBay Help) | In the selling fee's base, when the buyer pays it (Mercari Help) | Not in Poshmark's fee base — the buyer pays a separate flat-rate label (Poshmark Fee Policy) | Not in the commission; is in the processing fee's base (Whatnot Help) | In the processing fee's base; in the boosting fee's base too, unless a Depop label was used (Depop Help) |
| Sales tax | In the final value fee's base (eBay Help) | Not in the fee's base (Mercari Help) | Not in the fee's base (Poshmark Fee Policy) | Not in the commission; is in the processing fee's base (Whatnot Help) | Not in the boosting fee's base; is in the processing fee's base (Depop Help) |
| Per-order or fixed fee | $0.30 at $10.00 total or less, $0.40 above (eBay Help) | None | $2.95 flat below $15, replacing the percentage fee entirely (Poshmark Fee Policy) | $0.30 fixed, added to the processing percentage (Whatnot Help) | $0.45 fixed, added to the processing percentage, once per transaction (Depop Help) |
Every figure above is the same one its calculator uses. Run your own numbers on the eBay, Mercari, Poshmark, Whatnot or Depop calculator.
eBay: the ad rate rides the same tax-inclusive total
eBay's promoted-listing fee doesn't run off the item price a seller is usually budgeting from. It runs off the identical total used for the final value fee: item, buyer-paid shipping and sales tax together. A seller planning ad spend around a headline item price will find the real ad charge is larger once a high-tax buyer's order is counted, because the base moved even though the ad rate they chose never did.
Mercari: a lower headline rate doesn't mean a lower fee
Mercari's 10% looks like half of Poshmark's 20%, but the two percentages apply to different bases, so the comparison isn't valid until you check what's inside each one. Mercari's 10% includes buyer-paid shipping; Poshmark's 20% never touches shipping, because the buyer pays for Poshmark's own label separately. On a $30 item with $8 of shipping, Mercari's 10% is charged against $38, not $30 — a detail the two headline percentages alone never show you.
Poshmark: the missing shipping field isn't an oversight
A seller moving a listing over from eBay or Depop often looks for a shipping-cost field on Poshmark and doesn't find one, then assumes shipping just isn't tracked. It is — Poshmark simply never puts it in the seller's fee base or payout at all. The buyer pays for Poshmark's own prepaid label directly, entirely outside the final order price the 20% or $2.95 is calculated against.
Whatnot: two fees, two different bases, one order
Whatnot's tiered commission, as low as 3.5% for its highest-volume Coins sellers, is only the smaller of its two charges. That commission is worked out on the item price alone. The payment processing fee right behind it — 2.9% plus $0.30 — is worked out on item, shipping and tax combined, a wider base that keeps applying at the same rate no matter how low a seller's commission tier goes.
Depop: no selling fee still means a fee on the tax
Depop's headline for US sellers is that there's no selling fee at all, which reads as close to free. What that headline leaves out is payment processing — 3.3% plus $0.45, charged on item, shipping and sales tax together. A high-tax order still pays a real percentage fee on Depop; it's just labeled processing instead of selling, and it's charged on the same tax-inclusive total that eBay and Whatnot use for their own, separately named fees.
Sources
- eBay Help: Selling fees ebay.com
- Mercari Help Center: Fees on Mercari mercari.com
- Poshmark Fee Policy (version 1.7, effective November 25, 2024) poshmark.com
- Whatnot Help Center: Whatnot seller fees help.whatnot.com
- Depop Help: Seller fees and charges depophelp.zendesk.com