Etsy fees in France
On a $36 order a French seller pays $5.69 — 15.8% — against 10.8% for a seller in the United States. That is third of the 32 seller countries and second in the EU, behind only Hungary. France and Germany have the same listing, transaction and payment rates — and France still pays about 10% more. One line explains almost all of it, and it is the one line a VAT number does not remove.
Fee mechanics only. Nothing here is tax advice — registration and liability questions belong with an accountant. Not affiliated with Etsy, Inc.
Where the gap actually is
Etsy’s percentage fees are added together and then multiplied by the VAT on them. France is the only large EU market where a third percentage sits in that sum.
| Percentage fees | France | United States |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction fee | 6.50% | 6.50% |
| Payment processing | 4.00% | 3.00% |
| Regulatory operating fee | 1.14% | — |
| Subtotal | 11.64% | 9.50% |
| VAT charged on those fees | × 1.20 | — |
| What Etsy actually charges | 13.97% | 9.50% |
On top of the percentage, both countries pay the $0.20 listing fee and a fixed amount per order — €0.30 in France, $0.25 in the US — and in France the 20% VAT applies to those flat fees too. The United States is the only one of the 32 seller countries where Etsy charges no tax on its own fees at all — 30 of the other 31 are taxed, and Brazil is the one Etsy’s article never names.
A $30 item with $6 shipping, sold from France
Costing you $8 in materials, labour and packaging. Every figure is generated from the same dataset as our calculator, so this page and the tool can never disagree.
| Line | France | United States | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Item price | $30.00 | $30.00 | |
| Shipping charged to the buyer | $6.00 | $6.00 | Etsy charges its transaction fee and the regulatory fee on this too |
| Gross order value | $36.00 | $36.00 | |
| Listing fee | −$0.20 | −$0.20 | Flat $0.20 per listing, charged in USD everywhere, and again on every renewal |
| Transaction fee (6.5%) | −$2.34 | −$2.34 | On item price and shipping. Identical in both countries |
| Payment processing | −$1.79 | −$1.33 | 4% + €0.30 in France; 3% + $0.25 in the US |
| Regulatory operating fee (1.14%) | −$0.41 | — | Highest in the EU after Hungary. No tax number removes this one |
| VAT on Etsy fees (20%) | −$0.95 | — | Applied to the four lines above, not to your sale price. Removable with a VAT number |
| Total Etsy takes | −$5.69 | −$3.87 | 15.8% of the gross order, against 10.8% |
| Your cost — materials, labour, packaging | −$8.00 | −$8.00 | |
| What you actually keep | $22.31 | $24.13 | $1.82 a sale |
France and Germany pay the same rates. France pays 10% more.
Same currency, same listing fee, same 6.5% transaction fee, same 4% + €0.30 processing, both in Etsy’s removable-VAT group. And yet: $5.69 against $5.15 on the same order.
The line you can switch off
$0.95 of that $5.69 is VAT on Etsy’s fees, and Etsy’s own page says a valid VAT number stops it.
What is specific to France
The headline 6.5% transaction fee is the same in all 32 countries. These are the lines that actually differ.
The same order, sold from every country Etsy supports
Same $30 item, same $6 shipping, same $8 cost. Sorted from cheapest to most expensive. The fourth column is what Etsy takes once a VAT number is on file, where Etsy allows that.
| Seller country | Etsy takes | % of gross | With a VAT ID | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | $3.87 | 10.8% | — | $24.13 |
| Australia | $4.18 | 11.6% | $3.80 | $23.82 |
| Canada | $4.18 | 11.6% | — | $23.82 |
| New Zealand | $4.37 | 12.1% | $3.80 | $23.63 |
| Singapore | $4.80 | 13.3% | $4.40 | $23.20 |
| Switzerland | $4.97 | 13.8% | — | $23.03 |
| Germany | $5.15 | 14.3% | $4.33 | $22.85 |
| Brazil | $5.18 | 14.4% | — | $22.82 |
| Austria | $5.19 | 14.4% | $4.33 | $22.81 |
| Bulgaria | $5.19 | 14.4% | $4.33 | $22.81 |
| Belgium | $5.24 | 14.5% | $4.33 | $22.76 |
| Czech Republic | $5.24 | 14.5% | $4.33 | $22.76 |
| Netherlands | $5.24 | 14.5% | $4.33 | $22.76 |
| Romania | $5.24 | 14.5% | $4.33 | $22.76 |
| United Kingdom | $5.31 | 14.7% | $4.42 | $22.69 |
| Norway | $5.31 | 14.8% | $4.25 | $22.69 |
| Ireland | $5.32 | 14.8% | — | $22.68 |
| Poland | $5.32 | 14.8% | $4.33 | $22.68 |
| Portugal | $5.32 | 14.8% | $4.33 | $22.68 |
| South Africa | $5.36 | 14.9% | — | $22.64 |
| Greece | $5.37 | 14.9% | $4.33 | $22.63 |
| Sweden | $5.37 | 14.9% | $4.29 | $22.63 |
| Mexico | $5.37 | 14.9% | — | $22.63 |
| Finland | $5.43 | 15.1% | $4.33 | $22.57 |
| India | $5.45 | 15.2% | $4.62 | $22.55 |
| Denmark | $5.46 | 15.2% | $4.37 | $22.54 |
| Japan | $5.50 | 15.3% | — | $22.50 |
| Spain | $5.62 | 15.6% | $4.65 | $22.38 |
| Italy | $5.63 | 15.6% | $4.62 | $22.37 |
| France ← | $5.69 | 15.8% | $4.74 | $22.31 |
| Hungary | $6.40 | 17.8% | $5.04 | $21.60 |
| Turkey | $6.92 | 19.2% | $5.77 | $21.08 |
A dash in the fourth column means the charge cannot be removed by adding a tax ID: Etsy charges it regardless in Ireland, Japan, Mexico, South Africa and Switzerland; there is no tax on fees to remove in the United States; Etsy names Canada in a section of its own but publishes no rate there, and never names Brazil at all. “You keep” is the default case, before any tax ID. Local-currency fixed fees are converted to USD at a stored reference rate, so treat the last decimal as indicative. Excludes Etsy Ads and Offsite Ads — those are a chosen budget and an order-specific fee, not a cost on every sale.
What the gap actually costs a French shop
The percentages are abstract. These are not.
- $1.82 per order, or $0.87 with a VAT number on file. On the $36 order above, Etsy takes $5.69 from a French seller and $3.87 from a US seller. Same listing, same buyer, same product.
- $182 per hundred sales. A hundred orders at $36 costs $569 in fees from France and $387 from the US. A shop doing 500 orders a year at that price gives up $910 to geography. At $2,000 a month in sales the gap is about $1,213 a year, of which $633 is the removable VAT line.
- You have to price about 6% higher to take home the same money. To net what a US seller nets on a $36 order, a French seller has to list at $38.11. That is a much smaller gap than most sellers assume — and smaller still once the VAT number is on file.
Worth keeping in proportion: $1.82 on a $36 order is real, but it is smaller than one under-priced listing or one product nobody was searching for. Fees are the part you cannot change; what you make and how you price it is the part you can.
Three things that surprise almost everyone
- The regulatory fee applies to shipping as well. So does the 6.5%. Pricing postage at cost still costs you 7.64% of it in France, and the 20% VAT rides on the same base.
- The listing fee is charged again on renewal. $0.20 is per listing per four months, and again every time an item sells if auto-renew is on. A 100-listing shop pays $20 every cycle before a single sale, plus VAT on it.
- Offsite Ads can take 12–15% of an order on top of everything above, and once your shop passes the revenue threshold it is mandatory. It is order-specific, so it is deliberately excluded from the tables above — but it is real, and it lands on your biggest orders.
Free tools — no account, nothing stored
- Etsy fee calculator — all 32 seller countries, every fee on its own line.
- Regulatory Operating Fee — which countries pay it, and what changed on 22 June 2026.
- VAT and GST on Etsy fees — Etsy’s two country groups in Etsy’s own words, and the rate applied in each.
- Etsy fee & policy changes — dated log of what Etsy changed and when, every entry linked to Etsy’s own page.
- Etsy title checker — the 140-character limit and the first 40 characters a buyer actually sees.
- Etsy tag checker — all 13 slots, the 20-character limit, duplicate coverage.
Common questions
What are Etsy fees in France in 2026?
A French seller pays a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee on item price plus shipping, payment processing of 4% + €0.30, a 1.14% Regulatory Operating Fee, and 20% VAT on all of those fees. A $30 item with $6 shipping costs $5.69 in total fees, or 15.8% of the gross order — against 10.8% for a US seller.
How much is Etsy’s regulatory operating fee in France?
1.14%, or about $0.41 on a $36 order. It is the highest rate in the EU after Hungary’s 1.97%, and the third highest of the 32 seller countries after Hungary and Türkiye. Only four of the 18 EU countries in Etsy’s table pay it at all — France, Hungary, Italy and Spain. Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and the rest pay nothing on this line.
Can French sellers stop paying VAT on Etsy fees?
Etsy’s help page on VAT collection lists the EU (except Ireland) among the countries where adding a valid VAT number to your account means the charge is not applied — you receive a monthly invoice confirming you were not charged. On a $36 order that removes $0.95 and takes the total from 15.8% to 13.2% of the gross, worth roughly $633 a year on a shop turning over $2,000 a month. Whether registering is right for you is a question for an accountant, not a calculator.
Why do French sellers pay more than German sellers on Etsy?
Because of one line. France and Germany have identical listing, transaction and payment processing rates, and both are in Etsy’s removable-VAT group. But France pays a 1.14% Regulatory Operating Fee and Germany pays none. On a $36 order France pays $5.69 and Germany $5.15 — a difference of $0.54, of which $0.41 is the regulatory fee itself and $0.08 the VAT that rides on it. With VAT numbers on file on both sides the gap is $4.74 against $4.33: exactly the regulatory fee, and nothing removes it.
Does Etsy charge fees on shipping in France?
Yes. The 6.5% transaction fee and the 1.14% regulatory operating fee both apply to the shipping you charge the buyer as well as to the item price, and the 20% VAT rides on the same base. Offering free shipping by building the postage into the item price does not avoid it — the fee applies to the total either way.
Are Etsy fees higher in France than in the United States?
Yes. On a $36 gross order a French seller pays $5.69, or 15.8%, and a US seller $3.87, or 10.8% — a difference of $1.82 an order, roughly $1,213 a year at $2,000 a month. With a VAT number on file the French figure drops to $4.74 and the gap to $0.87. To take home what a US seller takes home on a $36 order you would need to list at $38.11, about 6% higher.
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