Guide · updated 2026-10-14 · 11 min read
eBay Fees 2026 Explained: Real Math on $25 and $100 Sales
eBay's final value fee in 2026 is 13.6% of the total sale for most categories, plus $0.40 per order ($0.30 if the order is $10 or less). Books, movies, music, jewelry and handbags cost more, and an eBay Store, ads and international sales each move the number.
I checked eBay's own pages on October 14, 2026. The official source is eBay's Selling fees page, with the Store selling fees page for subscribers. Fees change, so check them before you reprice a whole closet.
This guide is for US-registered sellers on eBay.com. If your account is registered elsewhere, eBay points you to a separate fee page for your country.
The two fees every sale has
1. Final value fee (FVF). A percentage of the total amount of the sale, charged only when the item sells.
2. Per-order fee. $0.30 on orders of $10.00 or less, $0.40 on orders over $10.00. An order is everything one buyer buys at checkout with the same shipping method, so a combined order pays it once.
Here is the part that trips people up. eBay says the total amount of the sale includes the item price, handling, shipping you collect from the buyer, and sales tax. You pay the percentage on all of it. eBay remits the tax, but the fee still counts it.
Listing fees are mostly a non-issue. You get up to 250 zero insertion fee listings a month, then $0.35 per listing without a Store. Optional upgrades like a subtitle ($2.00 on a fixed price listing up to $150) cost extra whether or not the item sells.
Final value fee by category
This is the non-Store rate table for the categories resellers touch most. The percentages come from eBay's fee page and Seller Center. Each also gets the per-order fee.
| Category | Rate without a Store |
|---|---|
| Most categories (clothing, home, toys, electronics, etc.) | 13.6% up to $7,500 per item |
| Books & Magazines, Movies & TV, Music (not vinyl) | 15.3% up to $7,500 |
| Women's Bags & Handbags | 15% if $2,000 or less, 9% if over |
| Jewelry & Watches (not watch parts) | 15% if $5,000 or less, 9% if over |
| Trading cards (sports, non-sport, CCG), comics | 13.25% up to $7,500 |
| Athletic shoes | 13.6% under $150, 8% at $150+ with no per-order fee |
| Guitars & Basses | 6.7% up to $7,500 |
Two notes for thrift sellers. Books, DVDs and CDs are the most expensive common category at 15.3%, and the $0.40 hits a $12 paperback hard. Sneakers at $150 or more are the one place where the fee drops a lot.
Dollar cost of the category rate alone is easiest to see in the examples below.
Worked example: a $25 sale
Assumptions: a $25 item, free shipping (you pay the label), and a buyer in a state with 7% sales tax. That makes the total sale amount $26.75. I used 7% because eBay uses 7% in its own example. Your buyer's rate will differ.
| Category | Fee math | Total fee | You keep (before shipping and cost of goods) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most categories | 13.6% × $26.75 + $0.40 | $4.04 | $20.96 |
| Trading cards | 13.25% × $26.75 + $0.40 | $3.94 | $21.06 |
| Handbags or jewelry | 15% × $26.75 + $0.40 | $4.41 | $20.59 |
| Books, movies, music | 15.3% × $26.75 + $0.40 | $4.49 | $20.51 |
So on a typical $25 sale, eBay takes about $4.04, or 16.2% of the item price, not the 13.6% on the label. The gap between "most categories" and books is $0.45 per sale.
Worked example: a $100 sale
Same assumptions: free shipping, 7% tax, so the total sale amount is $107.00.
| Category | Fee math | Total fee | You keep (before shipping and cost of goods) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most categories | 13.6% × $107 + $0.40 | $14.95 | $85.05 |
| Trading cards | 13.25% × $107 + $0.40 | $14.58 | $85.42 |
| Handbags or jewelry | 15% × $107 + $0.40 | $16.45 | $83.55 |
| Books, movies, music | 15.3% × $107 + $0.40 | $16.77 | $83.23 |
On a $100 item the $0.40 matters less, and the percentage does the damage. A handbag costs you $1.50 more than a jacket at the same price.
Promoted Listings: the fee you opt into
Ads are optional, but eBay nudges you toward them, so know what they cost.
There are two kinds, per eBay's overview:
- General: you pay a percentage of the total sale amount (item, shipping, taxes) when the item sells within 30 days of a click on your ad.
- Priority: you pay per click, whether or not it sells.
Most resellers use General, so I'll stick to that. The ad fee is charged on top of the final value fee.
I'm using 2% and 5% as examples, not as a recommendation. A fixed 2% was the minimum on eBay's General help page as of October 2, 2026, per Value Added Resource.
| Sale | FVF | Ad fee at 2% | Ad fee at 5% | You keep at 2% | You keep at 5% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25 (total $26.75) | $4.04 | $0.54 | $1.34 | $20.42 | $19.62 |
| $100 (total $107) | $14.95 | $2.14 | $5.35 | $82.91 | $79.70 |
At 5%, eBay's total take is about 21.5% of a $25 item and 20.3% of a $100 item. If your margin on a $25 flip is thin, that is the difference between worth it and not.
Two things worth knowing, both from Value Added Resource:
- Attribution widened in January. eBay now charges a General ad fee when any buyer clicked the ad in the previous 30 days, even if a different buyer completed the purchase. So an ad can cost you on a sale it did not obviously cause.
- A 5% minimum was tested, then walked back. Some sellers saw a 5% floor on October 1 and 2. eBay staff described it as a limited test and said no increase to minimum rates has been announced. I can't tell you whether it comes back for Q4. Check your campaign rates in Seller Hub before the holiday rush.
International fee: 1.65% (sometimes zero)
eBay charges an international fee of 1.65% of the total sale amount if the delivery address is outside the US, or if the buyer's registered address is outside the US. That second part means a buyer registered abroad but shipping to a US address can still trigger it.
If your registered address is in the US and you offer eBay International Shipping on eligible listings, eBay says you won't be charged it.
For a $25 sale with no tax (I'm assuming none here, to keep it clean): FVF is $3.80, the international fee is $0.41, and the total is $4.21. For $100: FVF is $14.00, the international fee is $1.65, and the total is $15.65. Shipping abroad costs more than the fee, so check your carrier cost before you open a listing to the world.
eBay Store discounts
A Store subscription lowers the final value fee in most categories. Prices per month for yearly / monthly renewal, per eBay's Store fees page:
- Starter: $4.95 / $7.95
- Basic: $21.95 / $27.95
- Premium: $74.95 / $59.95 on yearly (the page lists $74.95 monthly renewal and $59.95 yearly)
- Anchor: $349.95 monthly / $299.95 yearly
Starter does not discount your final value fee. It uses the same 13.6% as no Store for most categories. The lower rates start at Basic.
On the Basic and higher tiers, a few examples from that page:
| Category | Non-Store | Basic and up |
|---|---|---|
| Most clothing, home, toys, collectibles | 13.6% | 12.7% |
| Jewelry (not watch parts) | 15% | 13% |
| Women's handbags | 15% | 13% |
| Cell phones, most electronics, most computers | 13.6% | 9.35% (some computer items 7.35%) |
| Books, movies, music | 15.3% | 15.3% |
Books, movies and music get no percentage break from a Store. Basic also raises your zero insertion fee fixed price listings to 1,000, which only matters if you list more than 250 a month.
Does a Store pay for itself?
For a typical category, Basic saves 0.9 points:
- $25 sale: 0.9% × $26.75 = about $0.24 saved. At $21.95 a month, you need roughly 91 sales a month to break even on the discount alone.
- $100 sale: 0.9% × $107 = about $0.96 saved. You need about 23 sales a month.
- On the monthly plan at $27.95: about 116 sales at $25 or 29 at $100.
For phones, eBay's own example is bigger: on a $500 phone sale it shows $73.89 in fees without a Store and $50.92 with Basic. That category is where a Store clearly wins.
If you flip $25 clothing and sell 40 items a month, the discount alone won't cover Basic. Count the extra free listings and any tools you'd use too.
Extra charges that can sneak in
- Below Standard account: an extra 6% on final value fees the next month, rising to 7% after four straight months. On a $100 sale with 7% tax, 6% of $107 is $6.42. Above Standard and Top Rated sellers are exempt.
- Very high "item not as described" returns: an extra 5% on final value fees in the affected categories, 6% after four months.
- Dispute fee: $20 per dispute you lose.
- Currency conversion: if eBay converts your funds for a listing on another eBay site, the charge is 3% now and rises to 3.25% on October 14, 2026. This doesn't touch you if you only sell on eBay.com.
How to check a fee before you list
- Find your category's rate in the table above or on eBay's fee page.
- Add the shipping you charge and your buyer's likely sales tax to the item price. That is your total sale amount.
- Multiply by the rate, then add $0.40 (or $0.30 if the total is $10 or less).
- If you run ads, add your ad rate times the same total.
- Subtract the fees and your shipping label from the item price, then subtract what you paid for the item.
If you'd rather not do the math by hand, resellingmath.com has free calculators. Full disclosure: they're mine. Enter a sale price and see what each marketplace takes and what you keep, before you list.
To see what you were actually charged, open the Payments tab in Seller Hub and use the Fees filter, as eBay describes. Compare a few real orders to your math. It takes five minutes and shows you if ads or a performance surcharge are eating your margin.
What I could not verify
I compared today's fee pages only. I did not check older versions, so I won't say what went up or down compared with earlier years. Third-party fee calculators vary, and some lag behind eBay's page. Rely on eBay's pages and your own transaction history.
Bottom line
Budget about 16% of the item price in eBay fees on a typical $25 sale, and about 15% on a $100 sale, before ads and shipping. Books, jewelry and handbags run higher. A Store helps most in categories with big discounts, like phones. For a mixed clothing flipper, it usually takes volume to pay for itself. Ads are where the number can quietly jump, so set your own rate and review it.
If you want fee changes and AI listing workflows like this in your inbox, subscribe to Resale Brief (Free · every Tuesday · 4-minute read).
FAQ
What is eBay's final value fee in 2026?
For most US categories it is 13.6% of the total sale amount plus $0.40 per order, or $0.30 if the order is $10 or less. Books, movies and music are 15.3%, and jewelry and women's handbags are 15% (for sales up to $5,000 and $2,000 respectively). The total sale amount includes shipping you charge and sales tax.
Does eBay charge a fee on sales tax and shipping?
Yes. eBay's fee page says the total amount of the sale includes the item price, handling, shipping collected from the buyer and sales tax. That is why a $25 item costs you more than 13.6% of $25.
Is an eBay Store worth it for a small reseller?
Only if your fee savings beat the subscription. On a typical category, Basic saves about 0.9 points, which is roughly $0.24 on a $25 sale and about $0.96 on a $100 sale. On the yearly plan at $21.95 a month, that is about 91 sales a month at $25 or about 23 at $100. Categories with bigger discounts, like cell phones, break even much sooner.
How much is the eBay international fee?
1.65% of the total sale amount, charged when the buyer's delivery address or registered address is outside the US. US-registered sellers who use eBay International Shipping on eligible listings are not charged it.