Price a print on demand product by adding up what each sale costs you (the product, shipping and Etsy's fixed fees) plus the profit you want, then dividing by what is left of each dollar after Etsy's percentage fees. Discounts, ads and refunds then come down to how much room you leave in that price before you publish.
This is for Etsy sellers who have a product and a design and now face the price field. Pricing by feel is risky: most Etsy fees are percentages that grow with the price, so a sale that looks profitable can become a loss once shipping and an ad fee come out.
The five numbers in every POD price
Every price you set has to cover five things:
Product cost: what your production partner charges to print the item, blank included.
Shipping cost: what the partner charges to ship it, however you show shipping to the buyer.
Etsy's fixed fees: the listing fee and the fixed part of payment processing.
Etsy's percentage fees: the transaction fee, the percentage part of payment processing, and any fee tied to your location.
Your profit: the amount you want to keep, decided before you price, not discovered afterwards.
Etsy's fees, line by line
| Fee | Rate | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 per listing, which lasts 4 months | Each listing, and again on each sale of a multi-quantity listing |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% | Item price plus shipping and gift wrap |
| Payment processing (US) | 3% + $0.25 | Total sale price, including shipping and sales tax |
| Payment processing (Türkiye) | 6.5% + 14 TRY | Total sale price, including shipping and sales tax |
| Regulatory operating fee | 1.67% in Türkiye, 0.48% in the UK, its own rate in a few other countries | Item price and shipping |
| Currency conversion | 2.5% | Sales listed in a currency other than your bank account's |
| Offsite Ads | 15%, or 12% after $10,000 in sales over 365 days, at most $100 per order | Only orders that came from an Offsite Ad |
The listing, transaction, currency and Offsite Ads rates are on Etsy's fee page, processing rates by country on its payment processing page, and the regulatory operating fee on its own page. Check the row for your own country.
The formula, with a worked example
Price = (product cost + shipping + fixed fees + target profit) / (1 - percentage fees)
Here it is with round example numbers (illustrations, not quotes) for a US seller who includes shipping in the price:
Product cost: $9.00
Shipping: $5.00
Fixed fees: $0.20 listing renewal on the sale plus $0.25 processing, so $0.45
Target profit: $8.00
Percentage fees: 6.5% transaction plus 3% processing, so 9.5%
The price comes out at $22.45 / 0.905 = $24.81. Round it to $24.99 and the fees come to $2.82 ($1.62 transaction, $1.00 processing, $0.20 listing), leaving you $8.17, or 32.7% of the price.
The $0.20 sits in the fixed fees because a multi-quantity listing renews automatically when someone buys part of its quantity (Etsy Help Center), so each sale brings another listing fee. Processing is also taken from any sales tax the buyer pays (Etsy Help Center), so leave a little slack for orders where tax is collected.
Margin, markup and pricing by percentage
Margin is profit as a share of the price. Markup is profit as a share of the cost. In the example, $8.17 is about 33% of the $24.99 price but about 58% of the $14 product and shipping cost. Margin vs markup goes deeper.
If you think in margin rather than a dollar profit, put the margin into the divisor: Price = (costs + fixed fees) / (1 - percentage fees - target margin). With the same costs and a 30% target margin, that gives $14.45 / 0.605 = $23.88.
Leave room for Offsite Ads, sales and refunds
When a sale comes through Offsite Ads, Etsy charges 15% of the order total if you made less than $10,000 on Etsy in the past 365 days (Etsy fee page). On the $24.99 example that is $3.75, and your profit drops to $4.42. Shops under the threshold can opt out, while shops that reach $10,000 in a 365-day period must take part for the lifetime of the shop (Etsy Help Center).
Discounts work the same way: Etsy sales and promo codes can take between 5% and 75% off the list price (Etsy Help Center). A 20% sale on the example tee brings the price to $19.99 and cuts profit from $8.17 to $3.64, because your costs do not shrink with the price. Read running sales on Etsy without losing money before you plan one.
Refunds made through Shop Manager return Etsy's transaction and processing fees automatically (Etsy Help Center), but not what you paid your production partner, so allow for the occasional reprint or lost parcel.
Once the price is live, check it against real orders: record the sale price, the fees actually charged, the costs and any Offsite Ads fee, as shown in how to track profit per order on Etsy.
Shipping: charge it or build it in
Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee applies to the shipping you charge as well as the item (Etsy Help Center), so moving shipping into the price does not change Etsy's cut. What changes is what the buyer sees. Etsy also says US listings with domestic shipping prices lower than $6 will be prioritized in search (Etsy Help Center). The trade-offs are laid out in free shipping or charged shipping for POD.
If you sell from Türkiye
For a seller based in Türkiye the percentage fees stack higher: 6.5% transaction, 6.5% payment processing, the 1.67% regulatory operating fee and, if you list in US dollars and get paid into a lira account, 2.5% currency conversion. That is 17.17% before profit, plus fixed fees of $0.20 for the listing and 14 TRY per order for processing.
With the same example numbers, the price becomes (9 + 5 + 0.20 + 8) / (1 - 0.1717) = $22.20 / 0.8283, about $26.80, plus the dollar value of the 14 TRY fee on the day. Keeping the same profit takes roughly $2 more than for the US seller. Etsy may also charge VAT on seller fees depending on business status and location (Etsy Help Center). For tax questions, check Etsy's help pages or a qualified professional. Our guide to Etsy fees and currency conversion for sellers in Türkiye goes further.
How Alomations shows the margin
When you fulfil an order through a production partner from the Alomations orders screen, the item cost and the shipping are shown separately before you pay from your balance, so the two cost lines in the formula are visible order by order. Fulfillment is open on every plan, Free included. On paid plans, the profit view shows what you kept after Etsy fees and product cost on fulfilled orders.
The catalog lists a "from" price for each product, for example Gildan 5000 from $6.89 and Bella+Canvas 3001 from $8.40 (read October 17, 2026), with shipping quoted separately. In a template you can arrange prices across sizes, so a 2XL that costs more to make carries its own price.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good profit margin for POD on Etsy?
It depends on the product, the niche and how much you spend on ads and discounts. Decide the profit per sale you need, then check that the resulting price is one buyers pay in your niche. Etsy's Marketplace Insights tool shows price ranges of recently bought listings for search terms (Etsy Help Center).
Does Etsy charge the listing fee again on every sale?
On multi-quantity listings, yes. When someone buys part of the quantity, the listing renews automatically and the $0.20 fee is charged again (Etsy Help Center).
How should I price larger sizes?
Price each size from its own cost. Etsy lets price vary by variation, and you can set unique prices for up to 400 option combinations (Etsy Help Center).
Run the margin math on your next product, then list it on the Alomations free plan.