Last verified: October 29, 2026
There is no single "good" profit margin on Etsy, because the same Etsy fees take a very different bite out of different products. In the six US examples below, the margin after Etsy's fees, shipping and your own time runs from about 85% for a printable planner down to about 19% for a sticker sheet, and an order that comes from an Offsite Ad can cut it to a few percent.
These are illustrative examples with stated costs, not industry averages. Nobody publishes reliable averages by product type, so this guide shows how the numbers work, so you can run them for your own products. It uses US seller fees, verified on October 29, 2026. Sellers in other countries can use the free Etsy fee and profit calculator, which covers 9 countries.
Margin is your profit as a share of the price. Profit is what is left after Etsy's fees, your materials and packaging, the shipping label and the value of your time. All the margins in this guide are calculated that way.
Some guides quote margins of 80% to 95% for crafts. Those figures usually count materials only. They leave out Etsy's fees, shipping and your time, which are the costs that decide whether a product is worth making. For the fees, see Etsy Fees Explained.
Every example is a US sale with free shipping built into the price, one $0.20 listing fee per sale, the 6.5% transaction fee and 3.0% + $0.25 payment processing. Time is valued at $15 an hour. The costs are round numbers chosen for the example, not measured data.
| Product | Price | Materials and packaging | Postage | Your time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Printable planner (digital download) | $8.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Sticker sheet | $5.50 | $1.00 | $1.25 | 5 minutes ($1.25) |
| Art print | $30.00 | $7.00 | $4.80 | 10 minutes ($2.50) |
| Soy candle | $32.00 | $9.00 | $8.00 | 20 minutes ($5.00) |
| Handmade earrings | $38.00 | $7.50 | $4.50 | 45 minutes ($11.25) |
| Print-on-demand t-shirt | $29.99 | $17.50 (supplier cost, including shipping) | included | $0.00 |
The planner's design time is not counted, because it is a one-time cost spread over every sale. The print-on-demand supplier handles production and shipping, so there is no time or postage in that row.
| Product | Price | Etsy fees | Profit | Margin | Margin on a 15% Offsite Ad order | Price for a 40% margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Printable planner | $8.00 | $1.21 | $6.79 | 84.9% | 69.9% | not needed |
| Sticker sheet | $5.50 | $0.97 | $1.03 | 18.7% | 3.7% | $7.82 |
| Art print | $30.00 | $3.30 | $12.40 | 41.3% | 26.3% | $29.21 |
| Soy candle | $32.00 | $3.49 | $6.51 | 20.3% | 5.3% | $44.46 |
| Handmade earrings | $38.00 | $4.06 | $10.69 | 28.1% | 13.1% | $46.93 |
| Print-on-demand t-shirt | $29.99 | $3.30 | $9.19 | 30.6% | 15.6% | $35.54 |
The last column uses the formula from the Etsy pricing strategy guide: price = (costs + $0.45) ÷ (0.905 − target margin), where costs include your time. The Offsite Ad column assumes the order was attributed to an ad and the fee is 15% of the price. Whether a listing is eligible for Offsite Ads depends on your shop and Etsy's rules, so check Etsy's help page. For how the fee works, see the Offsite Ads fee guide.
With no materials, postage or per-sale time, the only costs are Etsy's fees, 15.1% of an $8 price. The margin is the highest in the table, and it stays high on an ad order. But each sale earns $6.79, less than the earrings earn per sale. A high margin does not mean a lot of money unless sales volume or the price is high, and the design time was spent before the first sale.
On a $5.50 sheet, the $0.45 in fixed fees alone is 8.2% of the price, and Etsy's total fees are 17.6%. Add postage and packaging and you keep $1.03 after your time. An ad order leaves $0.20. A flat markup does not work for products at this price: to reach a 40% margin the sheet would need to sell for $7.82, which is why many sellers sell sets or bundles instead of single sheets.
A $30 print with $7.00 in materials and a $4.80 label earns $14.90 before your time, a 49.7% margin. This is the example from our fee guides. Valuing 10 minutes of work brings it to 41.3%, and a 15% ad order still leaves 26.3%. Here the price already clears a 40% margin.
Candles are heavy, so the label is the biggest cost after materials. At $32 the candle earns $6.51 after 20 minutes of work, a 20.3% margin, and an ad order leaves 5.3%. To reach 40% the price would have to be $44.46. If the real price on your market is lower than that, the fixes are lighter packaging, cheaper postage, a bundle (two candles share the fixed fees and part of the shipping), or a smaller margin target you are happy to defend.
Before time, the earrings look strong: $21.94 profit, 57.7%. Valuing 45 minutes at $15 an hour takes $11.25 off, leaving $10.69 and 28.1%. If you do not count your time, the product looks twice as profitable as it is. An ad order leaves 13.1%.
When a supplier charges $17.50 for production and shipping, the shirt earns $9.19 on $29.99 (30.6%), with no time spent. An ad order leaves $4.69 (15.6%). You control only the price, so check it against the supplier's cost before you list.
Four things move the margin, and none of them is "the type of product" by itself:
Use the formula from the pricing guide for a single product. For a quick check on one sale, use the free Etsy fee and profit calculator. For all your products, the free Etsy profit spreadsheet calculates fees, profit, margin and profit per hour for each order, and flags products below your target margin.
CraftKept is an Etsy profit tracker. You upload your Etsy payment statement, and it shows profit per order and per product, with the fees Etsy actually charged and your own costs split out, so you can see which of your products earn what. CraftKept is our product. It costs $1 for the first 30 days, then $4.99 per month. See how CraftKept works.
There is no official benchmark. A good margin is one that pays for your time, covers the cost of an ad order and leaves room for discounts and slow months. In the examples above, margins range from 18.7% to 84.9% depending on price, shipping and time.
In these examples, a digital download has the highest margin, because it has no materials, postage or per-sale time. But margin is only part of the picture: the earrings have a lower margin and earn more per sale. Work out profit per sale and profit per hour as well.
After. Your profit is what remains once Etsy's fees, your costs and the value of your time are subtracted from the price. A margin that only subtracts materials is a materials margin and overstates what you keep.
Yes. If you leave it out, products that take a long time to make look more profitable than they are. Choose an hourly rate you would accept from someone else and add it to your costs.
Add up your costs per order, then use Price = (costs + $0.45) ÷ (0.905 − target margin) for US fees, or enter the sale in the free calculator. Both are explained in the pricing guide.
This guide is an estimate for planning and pricing, not tax or financial advice. The product costs are examples, not measured data. CraftKept is not affiliated with Etsy.
Last verified: October 29, 2026.