GUIDES · NOVEMBER 1, 2026

How much does Whatnot charge sellers?

Two charges. Whatnot’s commission is a percentage of the item price. Payment processing is separate: in the United States, 2.9% of the total the buyer pays, plus $0.30. An 8% commission is not the whole fee.

Commission and processing are different bases

Whatnot calculates commission on the sale price of the item. The help center calls that gross merchandise value. Shipping and tax the buyer pays are not in the commission. That is the opposite of a fee that takes a cut of the whole checkout.

Payment processing is the second charge. Whatnot says it is calculated on the total order value the buyer pays, including the item, buyer-paid shipping, and taxes, plus a fixed amount. Published processing rates:

• United States, Canada, and Australia: 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction.
• EU and UK: 2.42% plus €0.25 or £0.25 per transaction, plus VAT.

Whatnot’s seller page says there is no signup fee and no monthly cost, and that you pay commission after an item sells. This guide does not describe a separate per-listing insertion fee, because the fee help does not describe one. A label Whatnot generates for you is still its own line. The order receipt in Seller Hub is the number that was actually charged. On iOS or Android that is Orders, then the order, then receipt and earnings. On the web it is the same path, in the side panel.

The source for everything below is Whatnot’s seller-fee article and Whatnot’s fees page, read on November 1, 2026. Rates are per country. This page uses the United States card. In the EU and UK, Whatnot says commission rates are subject to VAT.

Whatnot’s $10 example, plus US processing

Whatnot’s fee article uses a $10 item, $4.99 shipping, and $0.85 tax. The buyer’s total is $15.84. Commission at 8% is $0.80, because only the $10 counts. They use that example to show why a lower percentage on the whole $15.84 can still cost more. Their comparison figure is a 6% fee on $15.84, which is $0.95. That 6% is their illustration, not a quote from another marketplace.

Processing is not in that illustration. Applying the published US rate to the same $15.84: 2.9% is $0.45936, which rounds to about $0.46, plus $0.30. Processing is about $0.76. Commission plus processing is about $1.56, before any label. Seller Hub shows the exact cents. Do not add the $4.99 shipping into your profit. In this example it is money the buyer paid, and the label is a separate settlement.

A $25 sale at the standard 8% rate

Same structure, with round shipping and no tax, so the processing percentage is exact. Tax on a real order would raise the processing base. It would not raise the commission.

$3.17 is not “what you keep.” You still have what you paid for the item, and any label that is not already inside that $5. Cost of goods is the other half of the sale, and it starts when the inventory arrives. Whatnot’s percentage does not know your cost.

The public United States commission card

The tiered card took effect on September 21, 2026 for existing US sellers. Sellers who joined after that date pick it up on the following Monday at midnight local time, in Whatnot’s example. Your four-week sales set the tier. The tier sets the rate for the next four weeks, not the hour you cross it. Standard is under $15,000 in that window. There is nothing to apply for.

For a live sale, the rate uses the category of the show. For a Marketplace sale, it uses the category of the product. Marketplace and live use the same fee schedule. The access rules are in selling without going live.

Whatnot’s seller page also says rates can go as low as 3%. The public US card above bottoms out at 3.50% for coins, and fashion’s lowest printed rate is 4.50%. Some cells are explicitly the lowest public rate. Promotions and your own Seller Hub card can differ from this grid. Use the rate on the order, not the lowest number in a headline.

Canada, the UK, the EU countries on the help page, and Australia have their own thresholds. A seller with the same sales in another country is not on this table.

What counts toward the four weeks

One total, every category, live and Marketplace together. The window is 28 days. It resets. Sales do not carry into the next window, and crossing a tier mid-window lowers the rate next window, not this one. The cutoff in Seller Hub is in your local time.

Whatnot’s help says these count: completed orders, including Rewards Club shows, shop sales, and sales made while a promotional rate was on. These do not: private shows, local pickup orders, and cancelled orders. A second seller account does not add its sales to this one.

If you joined after September 21, 2026, sales in the current window set the tier you receive for the following window. You do not drop to a lower rate in the middle of the window you are earning it.

The portion of an order above $1,500

Starting January 14, 2026, Whatnot set commission to 0% on the portion of the item price above 1,500, in select categories. The threshold is 1,500 in USD, AUD, EUR, or GBP, and 225,000 yen. On June 4, 2026, Whatnot extended that to Bags & Accessories and Jewelry & Watches. Payment processing still applies to the full transaction.

Whatnot’s own example: a US seller, a qualifying category, a $2,000 sale. Commission at 8% applies to the first $1,500, which is $120. The remaining $500 is commissioned at 0%. Processing is still charged on the whole order. The category list is short enough to go stale here, so use the high-value order article before you price something on the assumption that the top slice is free.

If you sell on eBay as well, run that order through eBay’s schedule too. The comparison worth making is in Whatnot versus eBay: same unit, different fee base, and a count that still has to be one.

Questions sellers ask