Selling 3D prints on Etsy: what price should you set?

On Etsy, the price you display is not the price you receive. Between the commission, payment processing, regulatory fees and sometimes advertising, part of every sale stays with Etsy. Here is how I work back from the real cost of a part to the price to list, using the rates on Etsy's official pages in November 2026.

Before the price: what Etsy accepts for 3D prints

Since 10 June 2025, Etsy's Creativity Standards have been clear about items produced with computerized tools, 3D printers included: you must make them yourself, at home or in your own workshop, and from your own original design. Before that date the text allowed a third-party design or pattern; it no longer does, and it makes no exception for a file bought with a commercial licence. If you want to sell on Etsy without worrying, sell your own models.

Elsewhere, the file's licence decides. On Printables, the author picks one when publishing (Creative Commons, Standard Digital File License, commercial-use licences…), and it binds whoever downloads. On Thingiverse the author chooses too, most often a Creative Commons licence. On MakerWorld, personal use is free, and some creators sell a “commercial licence” membership to people who want to sell prints. A licence marked NC (NonCommercial) rules out any use aimed at making money: selling the print is exactly that.

The direct consequence for pricing: your modelling time goes into the calculation. I count it at €23/h and spread it over the number of sales I can reasonably expect.

Every Etsy fee, checked in November 2026

According to Etsy's Fees & Payments Policy (updated 5 October 2026) and its Help Center, this is what comes off a sale:

1. Listing fee. $0.20 per listing, billed in dollars and converted, about €0.18 at the ECB rate of 30 October 2026. It expires after four months, and a listing with several in stock renews on every sale: count $0.20 per sale.

2. Transaction fee. 6.5% of the displayed price, plus 6.5% of the shipping and gift wrapping you charge. Outside the US, Etsy treats your displayed price as including your taxes: if you are VAT-registered, the fee is also charged on the VAT.

3. Payment processing. In France, Germany, Italy and Spain, 4% + €0.30 per order; in the United Kingdom, 4% + £0.20. It is calculated on the total paid, shipping and taxes included.

4. Regulatory operating fee. A percentage of price and shipping, charged in some countries only. Since 22 June 2026: 1.14% in France, 0.80% in Italy, 0.88% in Spain, 0.48% in the UK. Germany is not on Etsy's list. The detail depends on your country, so check the line for yours.

5. Offsite Ads. If a buyer arrives through an ad Etsy runs outside its site and orders within 30 days, Etsy takes 15% of the order, shipping included, capped at $100. While your shop stays under ten thousand dollars ($10k) in sales over 365 days you can opt out; above that it is compulsory, at 12%, for the life of the shop.

6. Currency conversion. 2.5% if your listings are in a different currency from your payment account. List in the currency of your account and this fee disappears.

On top of that come a one-off, non-refundable shop setup fee whose amount Etsy does not publish (it depends on the country), and the VAT Etsy may add to its fees each month if you have not entered a VAT number. It shows on your monthly Etsy invoice; I have left it out of the calculation below.

The formula: from the amount you want to the listed price

The starting point is the real cost of the part, plus your margin: what you want to receive. The trap is that Etsy takes its percentages on the displayed price, which already contains its fees. So you divide, you don't multiply. For a seller in France, without Offsite Ads, the percentages add up to 6.5 + 4 + 1.14 = 11.64%, and the fixed amounts to €0.30 + €0.18 = €0.48:

Listed price = (what you want to receive + €0.48) ÷ (1 − 0.1164)

For a sale that comes through Offsite Ads, add the 15%: divide by 1 − 0.2664. A UK seller replaces 1.14% with 0.48% and €0.30 with £0.20; the method does not change.

The full example: a PLA headphone stand

A desk headphone stand I modelled myself: the slicer says 96 g of PLA and 4 h of printing. Twelve minutes to remove the supports and check the part. Two hours of modelling, spread over twenty sales. My margin here is 15% of cost; that is a choice, not a rule. My shop is in France, so the French rates apply.

Out of €24.31, Etsy keeps €3.31 and I receive €21.00: my €18.26 of cost and €2.74 of margin. In the shop I would round up to €24.90, never below €24.31. But if the same sale comes from Offsite Ads, another €3.65 goes: I am left with €17.35, less than the part costs. For an ad-driven sale to stay profitable, the listing would have to show €29.28.

Shipping and packaging

Shipping carries the same percentages as the item. Divide your carrier's price the same way: in France, a Colissimo home delivery up to 500 g costs €7.59 at La Poste's rate in force since 1 January 2026, so you have to charge €7.59 ÷ 0.8836 = €8.59 to get it back in full. Add your box and padding at their real cost, divided the same way. And “free” shipping is never free: it moves into the item price, where it carries the fees too.

An Etsy sale is declared and invoiced

Etsy collects the money for you, but it does not keep your books. Every sale is income to declare in your country, and what the buyer paid is not what Etsy pays out: keep both figures, and Etsy's monthly fee invoice. How you invoice depends on your status and your country; the French micro-enterprise case is covered in the guide on invoicing as a micro-entrepreneur. These are the rules as of November 2026; check with your accountant.

The mistakes I see most often

Working out the fees on the cost instead of the price: in the example you would list at €23.92 instead of €24.31 and lose 34 cents per sale, €1.62 when the sale comes from an ad. Forgetting that shipping pays fees too. Forgetting the €0.48 of fixed amounts, which weigh heavily on a €5 keyring. Keeping prices in dollars with a euro account, and paying 2.5% conversion. Copying another shop's price without knowing your own cost. And listing a downloaded model: Etsy removes listings that break its rules.

Read also: The real cost of a 3D print · How much should you charge for a 3D print? · the online calculator