Etsy Break-Even Calculator
This Etsy break-even calculator tells you exactly how many units you must sell each month to cover your fixed costs — rent, equipment, software subscriptions, insurance — after Etsy’s October 2026 fees and your per-unit costs. It computes your contribution margin per sale (buyer total minus Etsy fees, product cost and shipping cost), then divides your monthly fixed costs by it and rounds up. Knowing your break-even number turns vague sales goals into a concrete monthly target.
Average selling price if you sell multiple products.
Etsy’s percentage fees apply to this too.
Landed cost per unit: materials, labor, packaging.
What you actually pay the carrier per order.
Rent, equipment, subscriptions, insurance — everything that does not change with units sold.
Use your ads tier if attributed orders must carry their share.
Break-even sales per month
22
- Contribution per saleBuyer total minus Etsy fees and per-unit costs.
- 23.77
- Etsy fees per sale$0.20 + 6.5% + (3% + $0.25) + Offsite Ads.
- 4.73
- Revenue at break-evenBreak-even units × buyer total.
- 990
- Profit at break-evenSmall positive number from rounding units up.
- 23.05
How it was calculated
- Contribution per sale: $45.00 − $4.73 fees − $12.00 − $4.50 = $23.77.
- Break-even units: $500.00 ÷ $23.77 = 21.03 → 22 sales (rounded up).
- At 22 sales you cover fixed costs with $23.05 to spare; every sale beyond that earns the full $23.77 contribution.
How it works
Contribution margin per sale = buyer total − Etsy fees − product cost − your shipping cost. It is the dollars each sale contributes toward fixed costs.
Break-even units = monthly fixed costs ÷ contribution per sale, rounded up — you cannot sell a fraction of a unit, so the ceiling is what matters.
Etsy fees per sale = $0.20 + 6.5% × buyer total + (3% × buyer total + $0.25) + Offsite Ads at 15% or 12% of buyer total, capped at $100.
Fixed costs are everything that does not scale with units: studio rent, equipment payments, software, insurance, and the amortized $15–$29 Etsy shop setup fee.
Worked examples
$500/month fixed costs on a $40 product
Buyer total = $45, Etsy fees = $4.73, costs = $16.50, so contribution = $23.78 per sale. Break-even = $500 ÷ $23.78 = 21.03 → 22 sales per month. At 22 sales, revenue is $990 and you clear fixed costs with $23.05 to spare.
$300 fixed costs on a $25 print
Buyer total = $25, fees = $2.83, costs = $11, contribution = $11.18. Break-even = $300 ÷ $11.18 = 26.85 → 27 sales. Revenue at break-even = $675, and sale #28 onward is pure $11.18 contribution each.
How to measure
- Total your true fixed costs: add subscriptions, rent, insurance, equipment payments, and annual fees divided by 12.
- Use a blended average price and cost if you sell multiple products — or run the calculator per bestseller.
- Price your labor into product cost; otherwise the break-even target understates what the business really needs.
- If contribution is under $5, small cost moves swing the break-even wildly — that fragility is itself the finding.
- Recompute quarterly: postage hikes and fee changes shrink contribution silently over time.
Assumptions & limitations
Planning estimate
- Fee rates as published October 2026 — verify current rates before pricing decisions.
- Assumes every sale has identical price, costs, and ads status; mixed carts and discounts change the real number.
- US Etsy Payments rates assumed; currency conversion and non-US fees not modeled.
- Fixed costs are treated as fully monthly; lumpy annual bills should be divided by 12 before entering.
- Results are a planning estimate only, not tax or financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
The monthly sales volume where total contribution covers all fixed costs — profit is exactly zero. Below it you lose money overall; above it every additional sale earns its full contribution margin. It is the single most useful target for a small shop because it converts abstract goals like “sell more” into a number: 22 sales, 27 sales, whatever your math says.
Anything you pay whether you sell zero units or a hundred: studio or storage rent, equipment loans, software subscriptions, business insurance, and Etsy’s one-time shop setup fee amortized monthly. Materials, per-order shipping, and Etsy’s per-sale fees are variable costs — they belong in the contribution math, not in fixed costs.
Three levers: raise price (increases contribution fastest), cut per-unit costs (cheaper materials, better postage rates), or cut fixed costs (drop unused subscriptions). Raising price by $5 on a $23.78 contribution cuts about 17% off the required units — far more powerful than trimming a $10 subscription.
It models one representative sale, so for a multi-product shop enter your average order value as the item price and your average landed cost as the product cost. For precision, run your top two or three products separately and weight the break-even by their sales mix.