How to Make Money on Etsy in 2026: Fees, What Sells, First Sales
To make money on Etsy, you open a shop, list items you made, designed, or curated (handmade goods, print-on-demand designs, digital downloads, or vintage), and keep what's left after Etsy's fees and your costs. Opening the shop takes an afternoon. Learning how to make money on Etsy takes longer, because the hard part is getting found among millions of other sellers and pricing so the fees don't eat your margin. This guide covers both.
For a sense of scale: Etsy's 2025 annual report says the marketplace had 86.5 million active buyers and 5.6 million active sellers as of December 31, 2025. That's a lot of shoppers, and a lot of competition.
What you're allowed to sell on Etsy
Etsy doesn't let you resell anything you want. Its Creativity Standards say every item must fit one of four categories:
| Category | What it covers | Side hustle examples |
|---|---|---|
| Made | Physical items you make by hand or with your own tools | Candles, jewelry, crochet, laser-cut signs |
| Designed | Your original designs, produced by a partner or sold as downloads | Print-on-demand shirts, printable planners, digital art |
| Handpicked | Vintage (20+ years old) and curated items | Vintage clothing, old cameras, collectible dishes |
| Sourced | Supplies and items personalized with the buyer's text or image | Craft supplies, party kits, custom name prints |
Two rules catch new sellers. If a print-on-demand company makes your product, you have to say so in the listing and show where it ships from. And if you used AI to create an item, the standards require you to disclose that in the description. Buying finished goods from a wholesaler and relisting them doesn't fit any of the four categories.
Every fee Etsy charges on a sale
Etsy's fees are small one at a time and add up fast. These are the US rates from Etsy's own help pages, checked today:
- Listing fee: $0.20 per item. Each listing lasts four months or until it sells, and auto-renewal charges another $0.20 (Etsy Fee Basics).
- Transaction fee: 6.5% of the order total, including shipping and gift wrap (Etsy Fee Basics).
- Payment processing: 3% + $0.25 per order in the US, on the gross amount including shipping and sales tax (Etsy payment processing fees).
- Offsite Ads: 15% of an order that came from an Etsy ad on another site, for shops under $10,000 in yearly sales, or 12% for shops at or above $10,000. The fee is capped at $100 per order (How Etsy's Offsite Ads work).
Etsy can change these at any time, so read its fees and payments policy before you set prices.
Fee math on a $25 order
Say you sell a $25 print with free shipping to a buyer in a state where the sale has no tax:
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 |
| Transaction fee (6.5% of $25) | $1.63 |
| Payment processing (3% of $25 + $0.25) | $1.00 |
| Total, normal sale | $2.83 |
| Offsite Ads, if the sale came from one (15%) | $3.75 more |
| Total, Offsite Ads sale | $6.58 |
So about 11% of a normal sale goes to fees, and about 26% of an ad-driven one. If you pay $8 for materials and $5 for postage on that order, you keep around $9 on a normal sale and about $5 on an Offsite Ads sale. Run this math for your own items before you list. Underpricing is the most common reason an Etsy side hustle feels busy but earns nothing.
How to make money on Etsy: the steps
1. Pick one narrow product type. "Wedding stuff" is too broad. "Editable seating chart templates for rustic weddings" is a shop someone can find. Search your idea on Etsy and look at what's selling. Listings show review counts, and a page full of items with thousands of reviews tells you how crowded it is.
2. Price with fees and your time included. Add materials, packaging, shipping, about 11% for fees (more if you join Etsy Ads), and something for your hours. If the result is higher than what similar shops charge, change the product, not just the price.
3. Write titles and tags the way buyers search. Etsy search matches the words in your title and tags. Put the exact phrase a buyer would type first ("personalized dog bandana"), then details (size, color, occasion). Etsy allows 13 tags per listing, and you should use all of them.
If you'd rather make videos than read about it, VidPuff turns a title into a faceless video. No waitlist, cancel anytime.
4. Take clear photos. Natural light, a plain background, and at least one photo showing the item in use or next to something for scale. For digital products, a mockup of the printed page on a desk does the same job.
5. List more than a handful of items. A shop with five listings has five chances to show up in search. Variations of a winning design (new colors, new names, new occasions) are the fastest way to add listings that already have proof of demand.
6. Ask your first buyers for reviews. A short thank-you note in the package or a polite message after delivery is enough. New shops have no reviews, and reviews are what make strangers trust you.
Which Etsy side hustle to start
| Type | Startup cost | Time per sale | Main catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital downloads | Very low | Near zero after the first file | The most crowded category |
| Print-on-demand | Low (no stock) | Low | Thin margins after the partner's cut and Etsy fees |
| Handmade | Materials and tools | High | Your hours limit how much you can sell |
| Vintage | Inventory | Medium | Finding good stock takes time |
If you have small, unpredictable windows of time, digital downloads fit best, which is why they show up in our list of side hustles for stay-at-home moms. Our guide on how to sell digital products compares Etsy with Gumroad, Payhip, and Shopify. If you'd rather sell what you already make by hand, see hobbies that make money.
Getting traffic from outside Etsy
Relying only on Etsy search is slow for a new shop. Free traffic you send yourself helps:
- Pinterest. Pins for home decor, printables, and gifts keep getting found for months. Our guide on how to make money on Pinterest covers how to set that up.
- A YouTube channel in your shop's topic. Craft tutorials, room makeovers, or the history of the vintage items you sell, with your shop linked in the description. If you'd rather not appear on camera, VidPuff turns a title into a narrated long-form video that you review stage by stage before uploading.
- Your own customers. A card in every package with your shop name and a discount code for the next order costs a few cents.
Scams that target Etsy sellers
Keep every conversation and payment inside Etsy. The FTC's advice for people selling online applies here: be wary of a "buyer" who wants to pay outside the platform, sends more than the price and asks for the difference back, or asks for a verification code. The FTC explains how these fake check and overpayment scams work: the money appears in your account, then disappears weeks later when the payment bounces. Also ignore messages or emails saying your shop will be closed unless you "verify" your account through a link. Log in to Etsy directly instead.
Taxes
Etsy income is taxable, and if you earn $400 or more in net profit you may owe self-employment tax. The IRS says marketplaces only have to send a Form 1099-K when you pass $20,000 and 200 transactions in a year, but you still have to report all of your income even if you never get the form. Keep records of materials, fees, and shipping costs. Talk to a tax professional about your own situation.
FAQ
How much money can you make on Etsy?
There's no typical number Etsy publishes for sellers. What you keep depends on your price, costs, and volume. On the $25 example above, a seller keeps about $9 per normal sale after fees, materials, and postage. Run the same math with your own numbers before you decide whether it's worth your time.
Is an Etsy side hustle worth it in 2026?
It can be if you pick a narrow product, price for fees, and send some traffic of your own. It's a poor fit if you want quick money, because new shops with no reviews often wait weeks for a first sale.
How much does it cost to start selling on Etsy?
The listing fee is $0.20 per item, so 10 listings cost $2. Your other startup costs are materials, packaging, or a print-on-demand sample, depending on what you sell. You pay transaction and processing fees only when something sells.
Can you sell AI-made products on Etsy?
Yes, as long as the item fits the Creativity Standards and you say in the listing description that it was made with AI. AI-generated printables and art are also some of the most crowded categories on the site, so expect heavy competition.
See how it works →