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Etsy ad profitability calculator
Ads only work if the profit survives them.
Etsy has two ad costs: the Etsy Ads budget you control and the Offsite Ads fee you don't. Enter your sale economics to compare organic profit, profit after your ad spend, and the worst case — an Offsite-Ads-attributed sale.
Results
Profit with no ads
$0.00
Your organic baseline per sale
Profit after your Etsy Ads$0.00
Profit if Offsite-attributed$0.00
Offsite Ads fee (15%)$0.00
Base platform fees$0.00
Break-even ad spend / sale$0.00
On a $28 item with $5 shipping, organic profit is about $18.71 — but an Offsite-Ads-attributed sale takes another $4.95. Know your worst case before you scale ad spend.
Transaction fee: 6.5% of item price + shipping charged
Payment processing: 3% + $0.25 per order (US Etsy Payments)
Offsite Ads: 15% (under $10k prior-year sales) or 12%, capped at $100 per attributed order
Etsy changes fees from time to time and non-US rates differ. Confirm on the official policy before pricing inventory.
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Two different ad taxes
Etsy Ads is a budget you set — divide it by the sales it drives to get spend per sale. Offsite Ads is a 12–15% fee Etsy takes when it attributes a sale to its off-platform advertising, and you can't opt out below the sales threshold. The first is a choice; the second is weather. This calculator prices both.
The break-even rule
Your Etsy Ads spend per sale must stay under your organic profit — obviously — but the useful bar is lower: keep it under organic profit minus a buffer for the occasional Offsite-attributed sale. If organic profit is $18.71 and Offsite takes $4.95 when it hits, spending $10/sale on Etsy Ads leaves you $3.76 on attributed sales. Thin.
When to kill the ads
If your break-even ad spend is under $2–3 per sale, paid clicks rarely work — the listing needs a better price, better conversion, or organic traffic instead. Use the Etsy pricing calculator to fix the price first; ads amplify whatever the listing already does.
Frequently asked questions
Are Etsy Ads worth it?
Only if your spend per sale stays well under your organic profit. Divide your daily budget by the sales the ads drive — if that number eats most of your margin, the ads are working for Etsy, not you.
What is the Etsy Offsite Ads fee?
When Etsy attributes a sale to its off-site advertising, it takes 15% of the order (12% once your shop did $10k+ in the prior 12 months), capped at $100 per order. Shops under $10k in annual sales can opt out; above that it's mandatory.
How do I calculate ad spend per sale?
Take your Etsy Ads spend over a period and divide by the number of sales attributed to those ads in the same period. That's the number to enter above.
Should I turn off Offsite Ads?
If you're under $10k in prior-12-month sales you can opt out in your shop settings. Above that threshold it's mandatory — price for it instead, using the Offsite scenario in our Etsy pricing calculator.
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