Pricing your products for Etsy can feel like trying to do math while drawing — not exactly fun, right? Between Etsy’s fees, print-on-demand costs, and that sneaky ever-present sales tax, it’s easy to wonder if you’re ever going to make any money.
Let’s make it simple (and maybe even a little fun). We’ll walk through how to price your Etsy print-on-demand (POD) products step-by-step — and I’ll show you real numbers from my calendar listings so you can see how it all adds up.
what you're paying for
When you use platforms like Etsy and Gelato, it can feel like you are losing a big chunk of money every time you make a sale. Keep in mind though that when you save your TIME you are saving MONEY (because you could make more money from your art than you could from packing boxes)! As a busy mom with a membership, marriage, family responsibilities, and hobbies of my own, I value my time more than ever before in my life. So when the platforms offer these time-saving services, I’m happy to pay up:
- Gelato prints and ships all my orders (yay, no shipping duties!)
- Gelato handles lost/damaged orders (yay, no paying for things out of my control)
- Etsy offers 88 million customers (yay, no starting a product mailing list from scratch)
- Etsy has a simple ads system (yay, not having to learn the intricacies of Meta/Google ads)
Now that you can see the immense value offered by these companies, hopefully you can see why it’s worth it to give them a big chunk of your profits.
Your Base Product Cost
First things first — how much does it cost to make your product?
If you’re using Gelato, for example, your base cost includes printing and fulfillment. For example, a wall calendar might cost around:
- $10.78 per unit for standard pricing
- $8.99 per unit if you have a Gelato+ membership
That membership gives you discounted prices and cheaper shipping — super helpful if you sell a lot of units!
Etsy’s Fees
Etsy takes a few small bites out of every sale — here’s what they look like:
Fee Type | Amount | What It Means |
Listing Fee | $0.20 | You pay this when you publish or renew a listing |
Transaction Fee | 6.5% of item + shipping | Etsy’s cut of the sale |
Payment Processing Fee | 3% + $0.25 (U.S.) | The cost of handling your payment |
Offsite Ads Fee | varies | Only applicable if your sale comes from Etsy’s ads |
Let’s say you sell a $25 calendar with $5 shipping.
Etsy’s cut would be:
- Transaction Fee (6.5% of $30): $1.95
- Processing Fee (3% + $0.25): $1.15
- Listing Fee: $0.20
- Total Etsy Fees: about $3.30
Sales Tax
Etsy usually collects and sends sales tax for you (depending on where your buyer lives). But if you sell on your own site too, or at local markets, you’ll want to keep an eye on it. Taxes vary by location but it’s usually 5-9%.
Pro tip: if you like your prices to look tidy (like $25 instead of $23.47 + tax), you can turn on the setting that includes tax in your listing price.
Profit Margin
Now for the fun part — deciding how much you actually want to make!
A good rule of thumb for Etsy artists is to triple your base product cost. So if your calendar costs $10 to produce, pricing it around $30 gives you enough cushion for fees and leaves room to pay yourself for your time and creativity.
Remember, you’re not competing with mass-produced stuff from big stores — your art has heart, story, and style. It’s also made by a real human with skills and bills — not an AI bot — so yes, it’s worth the higher price tag.
discounts
You may choose to incentivize bigger orders by giving a discount to anyone who purchases multiple items. While it may feel painful to lose such a big chunk of profit, you end up making more money overall if your pricing is right.
In my Etsy shop, I offer a big discount to anyone who buys 2+ items and have a visual image to help the buyer quickly grasp the concept.
start low, raise slow
Pricing isn’t just about covering costs. It’s about setting yourself up for long-term joy in your creative business, and you deserve to be paid fairly for your art, your ideas, and your time.
That being said, when you are just starting out, it’s a good idea to start low and then raise prices as demand grows. In the first few months, it’s more important to build confidence and credibility (sales and reviews) than it is to build profit!
the formula
Ok now for the math part! Here is the exact formula that I use in my Etsy shop:
- Customer Price – (Product Price and Shipping + Etsy Fees + Taxes) = Profit
- Example:
- $26.84 (the price of my calendars)
- $8.22 (the cost of the product)
- $7.70 (average shipping cost)
- $1.94 (Etsy listing fee and transaction fee)
- $1.06 (payment processing fee)
- $.70 average (Taxes vary by location, usually 5-9%)
- About $7.00 profit per calendar
To put that number in perspective, if I was licensing the calendar to a big company who would print and ship it for me, I would likely make 10-15% of each sale ($2.68-$4.00 per calendar). That makes $7.00 a calendar seem pretty good right? So no, I’m never going to complain about paying Gelato and Etsy what they’re due for offering high-quality products, shipping worldwide, and giving me access to over 80 million buyers.
My motto is I do what I do best (drawing), and let other people do the rest (and pay them for it without regretting the cost).
Come learn how to build a no-shipping etsy shop!
- Learn how I sell on Etsy without shipping orders by using a fulfillment service
- Watch me unbox products from the most popular POD companies