Offsite Ads is the Etsy fee that sellers argue about most. Etsy runs ads for your listings on Google, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Bing and other sites, pays for them up front, and charges you only when an ad leads to a sale. You cannot pick which listings get promoted, you cannot set a budget, and once your shop crosses $10,000 in annual sales you cannot leave.
Whether that is a good deal depends entirely on your margins. This article explains exactly how the fee is calculated, using the wording from Etsy's Fees & Payments Policy (checked November 8, 2026), then gives you a simple test to decide whether to stay in or opt out while you still can.
The rules in one place
Who pays
Every shop is enrolled automatically. Etsy's Help Center splits sellers into two groups:
- Under $10,000 USD in sales over the prior 365 days: automatically enrolled, eligible to opt out, and charged 15% on attributed orders if you stay in.
- $10,000 USD or more in any 365-day period: enrolled, required to participate for the lifetime of your shop, and charged a reduced 12%.
The lifetime part is real. The policy says that if you later fall below $10,000, "you will still only be charged a 12% advertising fee for the lifetime of your shop," and a previous opt-out "will no longer apply." Etsy recalculates on the first day of each month and notifies you when you cross the line.
How the $10,000 is counted
For the threshold, Etsy counts item price multiplied by quantity, minus discounts and formally cancelled orders. It excludes shipping, taxes, gift wrap, Etsy fees, Pattern orders and in-person Square sales. So a shop selling $9,500 of items plus $1,500 of shipping is still under the threshold.
When an order is "attributed"
A buyer clicks an Offsite Ad showing one of your listings, then "places any orders from your shop within 30 days of that click." Three details matter:
- It is any order from your shop, not just the item in the ad.
- Multiple orders from one click can each carry a fee.
- If the buyer's last click before buying was an onsite Etsy Ad, only the Etsy Ads cost applies, not the Offsite fee.
What the fee is charged on
The percentage applies to "the total order amount, which comprises the price you display for each listing plus the amount you charge for postage and gift wrapping." For US sellers it is not charged on sales tax. Personalization surcharges count as part of the price. The fee on a single order "will not exceed 100 USD."
Worked example: a $60 order
You sell a $55 ceramic planter and charge $5 shipping, so the order total (before tax) is $60. Here is what Etsy takes with and without an Offsite Ads attribution. Sales tax is left out to keep the figures clean; it adds only a few cents to the processing fee.
| Fee | No attribution | Offsite Ad, 15% | Offsite Ad, 12% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 | $0.20 | $0.20 |
| Transaction fee (6.5% × $60) | $3.90 | $3.90 | $3.90 |
| Processing (3% × $60 + $0.25) | $2.05 | $2.05 | $2.05 |
| Offsite Ads fee | $0.00 | $9.00 | $7.20 |
| Total fees | $6.15 (10.3%) | $15.15 (25.3%) | $13.35 (22.3%) |
| You keep | $53.85 | $44.85 | $46.65 |
Working: 15% of $60 is $9.00; 12% of $60 is $7.20. The percentages in brackets are total fees divided by $60 (for example $15.15 ÷ $60 = 0.2525).
Now bring in your costs. Suppose the planter, box and postage cost you $30. Without attribution your profit is $53.85 − $30 = $23.85. With a 15% attribution it is $44.85 − $30 = $14.85. That is a lot less, but it is still a profit on a customer you might never have reached otherwise.
Change one number and the picture flips. If your costs were $50 on that $60 order (a thin 16.7% gross margin), the unattributed profit is $3.85 and the attributed result is a $5.15 loss. You would be paying Etsy to find you customers who cost you money.
Run your own order through the Etsy fee calculator with the Offsite Ads option switched on to see both outcomes side by side.
When the $100 cap kicks in
At 15%, the fee hits $100 on an order of $666.67; at 12%, on an order of $833.33. Anything larger is capped. On a $900 order, 15% would be $135, but you pay $100, which works out to 11.1%. The cap is irrelevant for most handmade shops but matters for furniture, large art and wholesale-size orders.
A simple test: should you opt out?
You can only opt out while under $10,000, so this decision belongs to newer and smaller shops. Work through these three steps.
1. Find your profit margin after regular fees
For a typical order: (order total − Etsy's regular fees − cost of goods − packaging − postage) ÷ order total. In the planter example above that is $23.85 ÷ $60 = 39.75%.
2. Compare it with 15%
If your margin is comfortably above 15%, every attributed order is still profitable, just less so. If it is below 15%, each attributed order loses money and opting out is the safer choice until you fix your pricing. If it is close to 15%, the next step decides it.
3. Ask whether those buyers would have found you anyway
The fee only stings if the attributed buyer would have come through Etsy search for free. There is no way to know for certain, but your Offsite Ads stats show how many orders were attributed. A shop with hundreds of search views per day and the occasional attributed order has little to gain or lose either way. A new shop with almost no organic traffic may find Offsite Ads is where most of its sales come from, and paying 15% beats making nothing.
How to opt out (or back in)
In Shop Manager go to Settings > Offsite Ads, choose Opt out of Offsite Ads, and confirm. To return, open the same page and choose Turn on Offsite Ads. The Help Center does not say how pending 30-day attributions are handled when you opt out, so check your payment account for a few weeks afterwards.
Planning for the fee when you cannot avoid it
Once you are past $10,000, treat Offsite Ads as a cost of doing business and price for it. The cleanest approach is a blended rate: if your own stats show, say, one order in eight is attributed, the average cost is 12% ÷ 8 = 1.5% of revenue, which you can fold into your pricing formula. To see the worst case instead, choose the "Offsite Ad sale, 12%" option in the Etsy pricing calculator; it will tell you the price at which even an attributed order still hits your target profit.
FAQ
Is the Offsite Ads fee charged on top of the normal 6.5% transaction fee?
Yes. On an attributed order you pay the listing fee, the 6.5% transaction fee, the 3% + $0.25 processing fee and the 12% or 15% Offsite Ads fee. In the $60 example that totals $15.15 at the 15% rate.
Can I choose which listings appear in Offsite Ads?
No. Etsy's Help Center says you cannot select listings; Etsy decides based on how listings perform on each channel.
If I opt out now and later pass $10,000, what happens?
You are re-enrolled automatically at the 12% rate for the lifetime of the shop, and the earlier opt-out no longer applies.
Does the fee apply if the buyer purchases a different item from the one in the ad?
Yes. Attribution covers any order from your shop within 30 days of the click, not just the advertised listing.
Last reviewed: November 2026 · By Muhammad Shujah Uddin Qazi · Fees change; always check the platform's official fee page.