Whatnot Fee & Profit Calculator (2026)

Worked answer: On a $25 Whatnot sale with $5 shipping and 7% tax, you pay a $2.00 commission and $1.23 in processing, so you're paid $26.77 and keep $13.77 after an $8 item cost and your $5 label.

Listing it on Whatnot? LensLumi turns phone photos into clean, marketplace-ready photos and writes the title and description for you. Try LensLumi

Whatnot takes two separate bites out of every order: a commission on what the item sold for, and a payment processing fee on everything the buyer paid. Enter the hammer price or Buy It Now price, the shipping your buyer was charged, your label cost and what you paid for the item. Then pick the category of the show (or of the listing, for marketplace sales) and your sales over the last 28 days, because both now set your commission rate.

Worked example: a $25 sale in a general show

Say a $25 item sells in a show listed under a category that falls into Whatnot's Other group (the calculator labels it Everything else). The buyer pays $5 for shipping, lives somewhere with a 7% sales tax, and you're a Standard-tier seller (under $15,000 in the last 28 days). You paid $8 for the item, and the label costs you the same $5 the buyer paid.

• Sales tax: 7% of $30.00 (item plus shipping) is $2.10, so the buyer pays $32.10 in total.
• Commission: 8% of the $25.00 item price is $2.00. Shipping and tax aren't part of this base.
• Payment processing: 2.9% of $32.10 is $0.93, plus the fixed $0.30, for $1.23.
• Total fees: $3.23.
• Payout: $25.00 + $5.00 − $3.23 = $26.77. The tax goes to the state, not to you.
• Profit: $26.77 − $5.00 label − $8.00 item cost = $13.77, a 55.1% margin on the sale price.

Worked example: Whatnot's own $10 sale

Whatnot's fee page walks through a $10 item with $4.99 shipping and $0.85 in sales tax, and puts the commission at 8% of $10, or $0.80. The page stops there, but processing still applies. The buyer paid $15.84, so the processing fee is 2.9% of that ($0.46) plus $0.30, which comes to $0.76. Fees on the order are $1.56, and the payout is $13.43. To reproduce it in the calculator, enter a 5.67% tax rate, which gives the same $0.85 of tax on $14.99.

Notice how much of that small order the fixed $0.30 eats. On cheap singles and bulk lots, the flat part of the processing fee matters more than the commission rate you're chasing.

Things that catch Whatnot sellers out

Tax raises your fee. Processing is charged on the tax as well. Run the first example again with a 0% tax rate and processing falls from $1.23 to $1.17. It's only a few cents per order, but you can't avoid it, and it adds up over a busy show.

Your tier is set by last period, not today. From September 21, 2026, US commission depends on the category and on your total sales across every category in the previous 28-day period. Your rate is locked for the whole period. Cross a threshold mid-period and the lower rate only starts with the next one. Cancelled orders come off the total, and private shows and local pickup don't count toward it. Existing sellers open with a tier worked out from their August 24 to September 20 sales. New sellers join the tiered structure a week later. See the full seven-by-seven table and rollout timeline in Whatnot's seller fee tiers, explained.

Rates only fall fast in some categories. At the $50,000-and-up tier, Fashion drops to 5.5%, and the same $25 sale above would carry a $1.38 commission instead of $2.00. Sports and trading card games only get down to 7.25% at that tier. Coins start at 4%. The full grid is in the table below.

Don't pick a cheaper category. Whatnot says listing a show in a category that doesn't match what you sell, to get a lower rate, counts as fee avoidance and can lead to enforcement.

Updated September 19, 2026