How Much Does eBay Take From a Sale in 2026?
eBay takes 13.6% of most sales (13.25% on trading cards) plus a $0.30 to $0.40 per-order fee. The full math, worked examples, and what eBay never shows you.
eBay takes 13.6% of the total the buyer pays in most categories, plus a per-order fee of $0.30 on orders of $10 or less and $0.40 above that. Trading cards run slightly lower at 13.25%, media categories like books, movies, and music run higher at 15.3%, and any promoted listing fee comes out on top. That percentage applies to everything the buyer pays, shipping included, and on the portion of a sale above $7,500 the rate drops to 2.35%. That’s the headline answer. The rest of this post is the fine print that decides whether your sale actually made money.
Rates here match eBay’s published US fee schedule as of August 2026 and the presets in our free calculators. eBay adjusts fees more often than it used to, so confirm your category on eBay’s fee page or your seller invoice.
The three fees that come out of every sale
The final value fee is the percentage, and the detail most sellers miss is the base it’s charged on: the item price plus the shipping you charged the buyer. Moving price into shipping doesn’t dodge the fee, it just moves it.
The per-order fee is small and flat: $0.30 on orders of $10 or under, $0.40 above. Flat is the problem. On a $200 sale it’s invisible; on a $6 sale it’s nearly 7% before the percentage even applies, which is why low-priced items feel like they earn nothing.
Promoted listing fees only apply if you opt in, at the ad rate you chose, charged on the same buyer-total base when the sale comes through a promoted placement.
Worked example: a $25 sale
Say you sell an item for $25 with free shipping in a standard 13.6% category:
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Buyer pays | $25.00 |
| Final value fee (13.6%) | -$3.40 |
| Per-order fee | -$0.40 |
| eBay’s take | $3.80 (15.2%) |
So “how much does eBay take” on this sale is about 15%, not 13.6%, because the flat fee piles onto the percentage. And your payout still has to cover the shipping label, packaging, and what the item cost you, none of which eBay shows against the sale. Run your own numbers in the free eBay profit calculator, which does this math plus your costs and tells you the price you’d need for a target profit.
The quiet multipliers
- Sales tax inflates the fee base. eBay collects sales tax from the buyer and then calculates its final value fee on the tax-included total. You never see that tax, but you pay a fee on it, so real fees run slightly above the sticker math on taxed orders.
- The $10 step. The per-order fee steps from $0.30 to $0.40 once the order clears $10, and the taxed total counts toward that threshold too.
- Refunds keep some costs. When a sale falls through, the money comes back to the buyer, but your time, label (if shipped), and sometimes fees don’t fully boomerang. A refund-heavy month quietly rewrites your margin.
- Top Rated Seller Plus is the real discount. It takes 10% off the final value fee rate if you offer same or 1-day handling and 30-day free returns. A store subscription, by contrast, mostly buys insertion-fee allotments; in several categories, including sports trading cards, the store percentage is the same as the standard one.
Category rates worth knowing
| Category | Final value fee (up to $7,500) |
|---|---|
| Most categories | 13.6% |
| Sports trading cards | 13.25% |
| Books, movies, and music | 15.3% |
Above $7,500, the portion over the line is charged at 2.35% in these categories. A handful of categories use different rates and tier breaks, which is exactly why the calculators let you set a custom rate. Card sellers: the eBay fee calculator has the card rate and card-specific costs built in, and the deeper walkthrough lives in Are You Actually Making Money Selling Cards on eBay? Selling live too? See how these rates stack up against Whatnot’s in Whatnot Fees for Sellers in 2026.
How much does eBay take FAQ
How much does eBay take from a $100 sale?
In a standard 13.6% category with free shipping: $13.60 in final value fees plus the $0.40 per-order fee, about $14.00 or 14%. Add your promoted rate if the sale came through an ad, then your label, packaging, and item cost to find what you actually kept.
Does eBay take a percentage of shipping?
Yes. The final value fee is charged on the full amount the buyer pays including shipping and handling. Charging $1 for the item and $20 for shipping produces the same fee as the reverse.
Why did eBay take more than the listed percentage?
Four usual suspects: the flat per-order fee (biggest effect on cheap items), promoted listing fees, the fee being charged on the tax-included total, and category rates that differ from the one you assumed. Your seller invoice itemizes exactly which applied.
Does eBay take fees on a sale that gets refunded?
When you fully refund a buyer through eBay’s flow, eBay credits back its fees in most cases. What you don’t get back is the shipping label you already bought, your packaging, and your time, which is why refund rate belongs in any honest profit math.
Knowing the take is half the job
The other half is knowing what you kept, across every sale, after every fee on this page plus the costs eBay never sees. That’s the number WaxEngine rebuilds from two years of your real eBay history and keeps live, sale by sale. Start a free trial and stop doing this math one order at a time.
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