✓ Rates checked 2026-10-06 against Whatnot seller fees
You keep
Affiliate link: we may earn a commission. Compensated as a Shopify affiliate.Start Shopify — keep $96.80 on $100 · Shopify Basic keeps $96.80 on $100 · vs fees below
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US formula from Help: keep = item − commission(item) − [2.9% × (item + buyer-paid ship + tax) + $0.30] − seller-covered shipping you paste. Commission never sits on shipping or tax. Empty ship / tax / seller-cover = $0. Change any field. Default is a $50 standard-category sticker with empty add-ons.
Do not paste the same postage in both buyer-paid and seller-covered. Help’s default is buyer pays. Processing uses 2.9% of (item + buyer-paid ship + tax) + $0.30. US example does not add tax-on-fees. Planning only.
The gavel is not the checkout total. US Whatnot takes commission on the hammer (8% on most categories, 4% on Coins & Money) and a separate processing cut on everything the buyer actually paid — item, buyer-paid shipping, buyer-paid tax — at 2.9% + $0.30. That is a live-show / Buy-It-Now stack, not OfferUp’s local $0 handshake, not Depop’s 0% selling fee + 3.3% + $0.45, and not Mercari’s single 10% on item + buyer-paid shipping. Same $200 empty-ship sticker against Grailed Label 9%: Whatnot vs Grailed.
TL;DR
Whatnot KEEP $88.80 on $100 (other-categories 8% + 2.9%+$0.30). Shopify Basic Payments keeps $96.80 on the same sale. Planning only. Own store: Shopify keeps $96.80 on $100.
What’s not in this planning KEEP
This sketch is a default planning KEEP. It does not include COGS, shipping you buy, ads/PPC, returns, taxes, or Store/promoted add-ons unless this page includes them. Confirm on the platform’s official fee page before you list.
Provenance · same-price baseline
This fee page’s KEEP above vs Shopify Basic Payments keep $96.80 on $100. Own store: Shopify keeps $96.80 on $100
Same numbers as our fee index CSV 2026-09-19 · seller-fee-index-2026-09-19.csv · Seller fee index + CSV (2026-09-19).
Closet apps train you to hunt “the” seller percent. Whatnot prints two, and they do not share a base. That is the whole page.
The commission fee is Whatnot’s share of the sale. It’s calculated as a percentage of your item’s final sale price, excluding shipping and taxes.
— Whatnot seller fees, updated 11 Aug 2026
The payment processing fee … is calculated as a percentage of the total order value (the amount paid by the buyer at checkout), plus a fixed transaction fee. That total usually includes the item’s final sale price, any shipping the buyer pays at checkout, and buyer-paid taxes.
— same article
Auction start of $1 that hammers at $20 is a $20 commission base, not $1. Buy It Now listed at $50 where you take $45 is a $45 base. Help says fees fire each time a buyer checks out — even if those purchases later ride in one bundled box. Do not average a show into one invented percent.
Listing, storing, and managing listings is not a published fee on that article. Giveaways: no seller fees, because the buyer paid nothing; you still eat shipping. Seller-generated coupons shrink the hammer (fees follow the discounted amount). Platform coupons (First-Time Buyer style) do not shrink your earnings — Help’s example keeps the $20 hammer when Whatnot funded a $5 coupon.
From the US / Canada / Australia table on Whatnot seller fees. This card models USD. Canada and Australia share the table; we are not converting currencies or inventing GST.
| US category row | Commission (on hammer) | Processing (on TOV) |
|---|---|---|
| Comics, TCG, Sports Singles, Toys & Hobbies (see other restrictions) | 8% up to $1,500; 0% on the portion above $1,500 (limited time) | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Coins & Money | 4% up to $1,500; 0% on the portion above $1,500 (limited time) | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Pallets (Wholesale category) | 4% on final sale price (limited time) | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| All other categories (some restrictions apply) | 8% on final sale price | 2.9% + $0.30 |
Gap: Help does not publish a SKU-by-SKU map for “some restrictions apply.” Sports breaks and Surprise Products are called out as excluded from the high-value 0% on a different article. If your receipt shows a different commission number, use the receipt — do not pick 8% because a blog said “Whatnot is 8%.”
Official worked example on that article: hammer $50, commission 8% = $4, total order value $58.70 (shipping and taxes included), processing 2.9% of $58.70 + $0.30 = $2.00, net $44.00. They never tell you how $58.70 splits into postage vs tax. This card will not invent an 8.7% sales-tax rate to back into it. Paste $8.70 as buyer-paid shipping (or split ship + tax from a receipt) to replay that TOV.
| Planning row (USD) | Commission | Processing | Keep from hammer |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50, empty ship, empty tax, 8% | $4.00 | $1.45 + $0.30 = $1.75 | $44.25 |
| $50 / $58.70 TOV (Help’s example) | $4.00 | $2.00 | $44.00 |
| $12, empty, 8% (flat $0.30 bite) | $0.96 | $0.35 + $0.30 = $0.65 | $10.39 |
| $50 Coins, empty, 4% | $2.00 | $1.75 | $46.25 |
| $2,000 qualifying, empty, 8% to $1,500 | $120.00 (0% on $500) | $58.00 + $0.30 = $58.30 | $1,821.70 |
| $50, you cover $8 ship, empty buyer-ship, 8% | $4.00 | $1.75 (TOV is $50) | $36.25 after the $8 cover |
Buyer-paid shipping is not added to keep. Help’s net-earnings sentence is item − commission − processing. The prepaid label is generated from checkout; you do not pocket the postage dollar. Processing still follows it. That is the opposite of “free shipping baked into a higher sticker,” where the postage lives inside the hammer and then pays 8% and 2.9%.
Reduced Commission on High-Value Orders (updated 31 Jul 2026; live fetch 28 Aug 2026) started 14 Jan 2026: 0% commission on the portion of an individual order above 1,500 (USD / AUD / EUR / GBP, or JPY 225,000) in listed categories, plus standard processing on the full transaction. On 4 Jun 2026 12:00am EST it extended to Bags & Accessories and Jewelry & Watches.
Help’s US example, quoted because we will not rewrite it:
Included categories on that article: Comics & Anime, Toys & Hobbies, Coins & Money, Trading Card Games, Entertainment Cards, Sports Singles (Football / Basketball / Baseball / Soccer / Hockey / UFC / Wrestling Singles), Bags & Accessories, Jewelry & Watches. Restricted: Sports breaks and Surprise Products are out. Rate only applies to Singles subcategories in Sports Cards. No enrollment. Mis-categorizing to chase 0% is called out as abuse.
Limited-time. Whatnot can modify, suspend, or end it. “All other categories” on the main fee table still print a flat 8% with no $1,500 cliff — do not gift a Home & Garden lot the TCG promo.
Sell More, Earn More (updated 16 Jul 2026; live fetch 28 Aug 2026) is a limited-time test for a subset of US Fashion, Toys & Hobbies, and Food & Drink sellers, through at least 1 Nov 2026. Not every seller is enrolled. Four-week completed-order GMV (all categories count toward the tier; local pickup and private shows do not) sets the next period’s rate. Crossing a tier mid-period does not cut this period’s commission. Processing is unchanged.
| 4-week total sales | Tier | Fashion / Toys / Food | Coins | All other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $0 | Standard | 8.00% | 4.00% | 8.00% |
| $20,000 | 1 | 7.00% | 4.00% | 8.00% |
| $35,000 | 2 | 6.00% | 4.00% | 8.00% |
| $50,000 | 3 | 5.00% | 4.00% | 8.00% |
| $100,000 | 4 | 4.00% | 4.00% | 8.00% |
| $250,000 | 5 | 3.75% | 4.00% | 8.00% |
| $500,000 | 6 | 3.50% | 4.00% | 8.00% |
| $1,000,000 | 7 | 3.25% | 4.00% | 8.00% |
| $1,500,000 | 8 | 3.00% | 4.00% | 8.00% |
Fashion for this test: Women’s, Men’s, Sneakers & Shoes, Jewelry & Watches, Beauty, Bags & Accessories, Baby & Kids. Live shows use the show category; marketplace listings use the product category. Help’s own example: $30k Women’s Fashion + $30k Home & Garden = $60k → Tier 3 next period; Women’s Fashion then 5%, Home & Garden still 8%.
Gap we will not paper over: Help does not publish how SMEM interacts with the $1,500 high-value 0%. This card treats them as separate dropdowns. If both could apply to one TCG hammer, read the receipt. Do not model “5% to $1,500 then 0%” unless Whatnot prints that sentence.
Set up shipping before you sell and Offer free or discounted shipping (updated 10 Aug 2026): buyers pay shipping by default. Some sellers can cover all domestic postage, or cap what the buyer pays (Help’s example: $7.75 buyer max on a $20 label → you eat $12.25). Those settings are show-side; they do not apply to Giveaways or to orders placed outside a show. Not every seller sees the toggle.
If you cover postage, Help says that amount is deducted from earnings along with commission and processing. Processing may tick down because the buyer paid less shipping, so TOV is smaller. That is not “free shipping is 0%.” It is a dollar you pasted.
Gap: none of those articles print a public US weight-tier dollar table (no official $4.99 / $7.99 grid on the pages we opened). Use Whatnot-generated labels unless approved for Bring Your Own Label. Under-declared weight can become a carrier adjustment — Help discusses that as a postage problem, not a commission percent. This card will not invent label prices or an overweight %.
Cross-border gap: the fee article notes that for some cross-border orders, shipping may be charged separately and excluded from the processing total. We will not guess which lanes. US domestic planning: buyer-paid ship sits in TOV.
When you’ll get paid for your sales (updated 12 Aug 2026): US earnings typically become available up to 4 hours after confirmed delivery. Then you request a payout; most bank transfers arrive in 1–2 business days (Canada 3–4; Australia / Japan 2–3). That article does not print a cash-out flat. This card does not subtract one.
Early Payout Program (updated 12 Aug 2026) moves availability to label generation for eligible sellers. It does not change commission or processing. Eligibility on that page includes volume thresholds ($/£/€100K or ¥15,000,000 in sales before fees, plus 1,000 completed orders excluding Giveaways and tips). Do not treat Early Payout as a 2026 fee discount.
Non-standard tracking uses fixed clocks instead of delivery confirmation (BYOL: 7 days after tracking is entered; USPS First-Class Mail Letter / PWE: 10 days after label generation; Free Pickup: 3 days from order or after pickup, whichever is later). Those are timing rows, not percents.
| Same $50 item, $0 ship, $0 tax (organic, planning) | Published seller-side take used here | Keep from $50 |
|---|---|---|
| Whatnot US, standard 8% | 8% of item + 2.9% + $0.30 of $50 | $44.25 |
| Whatnot US, Coins 4% | 4% of item + 2.9% + $0.30 of $50 | $46.25 |
| Depop US | 0% selling + 3.3% + $0.45 | $47.90 (see Depop) |
| Mercari US new listing | 10% of item (empty ship) | $45.00 (see Mercari) |
| OfferUp local meetup | No in-person commission | $50.00 (see OfferUp) |
Add buyer-paid shipping and Mercari’s 10% follows that dollar while Whatnot’s 8% does not — Whatnot’s 2.9% does. Add a $2,000 TCG single and Whatnot’s cliff is the story, not 8% of $2,000. Same-SKU take-home lives on this hub; do not slogan “Whatnot is cheaper than Mercari.” Same $200 empty-ship vs Grailed Label (8% + 2.9%+$0.30 against 9% + 3.49%+$0.49, base assumed): Whatnot vs Grailed.
Gaps we will not paper over: US label-price table; 50-state tax rates; US tax-on-fees % (not in Help’s US example); full category restriction map; SMEM × $1,500 stack; carrier-adjustment dollar split; BYOL vs generated-label cents; EU/UK 6.67% + VAT and Japan JCT (this card is USD); in-app promo numbers that are not on Help.
Two lines. Commission on the hammer, excluding shipping and tax: 8% most categories, 4% Coins & Money and Pallets (limited time). Processing 2.9% + $0.30 on total order value (item + buyer-paid shipping + buyer-paid taxes). No published listing fee. Last checked 28 Aug 2026.
No. Commission excludes shipping and taxes. Processing follows both when the buyer paid them at checkout. Do not paste Mercari’s 10% of item-plus-shipping onto this hammer.
Limited-time from 14 Jan 2026: 0% commission on the portion above $1,500 in listed categories. Official $2,000 US example: $120 commission, processing still on the full transaction. Sports breaks and Surprise Products excluded. Confirm category on the listing.
Empty ship/tax, 8%: $44.25 after $4.00 + $1.75. Help’s $58.70 TOV example: $44.00 after $4.00 + $2.00. Coins 4% empty: $46.25. You cover $8 ship: $36.25. Planning only.
No. Subset test, US Fashion / Toys & Hobbies / Food & Drink, through at least 1 Nov 2026. Four-week lag. Coins stay 4%. Other categories stay 8%. Processing still applies. Not every seller is in the test.
Not on the shipping Help articles we opened 28 Aug 2026. Paste the buyer-paid or seller-covered dollar from the order. Do not invent unofficial weight-tier prices.
Shopify Basic Payments KEEP is $96.80 on $100 (2.9%+$0.30). That is a payment-processing comparison, not Whatnot’s marketplace fee model. Shopify fees. I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Compensated as a Shopify affiliate. Planning only.
That comparison skips own-store payment keep. For planning only, Shopify Basic Payments KEEP is $96.80 on $100 (2.9%+$0.30). Shopify fees. I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Compensated as a Shopify affiliate. This is a planning comparison, not a claim about Whatnot's fee model.
Use the seller fee index + CSV (2026-09-19) for same-input KEEP ladders, then compare ranker, break-even, and Shopify KEEP $96.80 on $100 for the own-store path. Planning only — before COGS, shipping, ads, taxes.
Yes when you use the Start Shopify link: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Compensated as a Shopify affiliate. The $96.80 on $100 figure is Shopify Basic Payments planning math (2.9% + $0.30) before COGS, shipping, ads, taxes, or the monthly plan. Use Shopify KEEP and the break-even tool to allocate plan cost.
Keep $96.80 Shopify vs $88.80 Whatnot — see Shopify fees Open the profit calculator Open Whatnot keep $88.80 on $100 OfferUp fees explained Depop fees explained Mercari fees explained Grailed fees explained Whatnot vs Grailed
Seller-fee hub · OfferUp fees explained · Depop fees explained · Mercari fees explained · Grailed fees explained · Whatnot vs Grailed · realratecalc.com
Shopify keep $96.80 Seller fees compare · $100 Seller fee index + CSV (2026-09-19) Break-even list price KEEP compare Shopify fees
I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. Compensated as a Shopify affiliate.