PrinquoShort answer: Add up what one shirt really costs you, including the shipping you absorb. Then divide by 1 minus Etsy's percentage fees minus the profit margin you want. With a $13.76 cost, Etsy's 6.5% transaction fee, a typical 3% payment processing fee, and a 40% margin, the price comes out to about $27.74, so $27.99. Price the shirt for the fees, not just for the blank and the print.
I'm Sam Hernandez, owner of Studio208 Print Shop in San Francisco. I run a working screen printing shop, and I also built Prinquo, quoting software for print shops, so I'll say where it fits at the end. The dollar amounts below are example numbers I chose to show the method. Use your own costs.
What does Etsy charge sellers?
These are Etsy's US seller fees as listed on Etsy's fees page, which showed an update date of October 5, 2026. Etsy changes fees now and then, so check the page before you set prices.
| Fee | What Etsy says |
|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 for each item you list |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% of the display price per sale, plus shipping and gift wrapping (not sales tax) |
| Offsite Ads | 15% of an order that came from an Etsy-run ad, or 12% once your shop has made $10,000 or more over the prior 365 days. The fee on any one order is capped at $100. |
| Payment processing | Not listed on that page. Etsy points to its Payments Policy, and rates vary by where your bank account is. For US sellers it is commonly 3% plus $0.25 per order, so confirm yours in your Etsy account. |
Offsite Ads only cost you when a sale comes from one of those ads. But when one does, it's a big bite, so it's smart to know your numbers before it happens.
How do you price a shirt so Etsy's fees don't eat your profit?
The usual cost-plus formula, cost ÷ (1 − margin), leaves out the fees Etsy takes as a percentage of your price. Add them in:
Price = (your cost + fixed fees) ÷ (1 − fee percentage − margin you want)
Here, "margin" means the share of the sale price you keep as profit. The fixed fee is the $0.25 per order. The percentage fees are the 6.5% transaction fee plus the 3% processing fee, 9.5% in all. The $0.20 listing fee is small and spread over every sale of that listing, so many sellers leave it out of the per-shirt math and just remember it.
What does a real example look like?
Say you sell a personalized tee with free shipping, so the buyer sees one price. Every number is an assumption:
| Cost item | Per shirt |
|---|---|
| Blank tee | $3.25 |
| DTF transfer | $3.50 |
| Consumables and packaging | $0.40 |
| Press time (4 minutes at $20/hour) | $1.33 |
| Order handling (personalization, art check, packing) | $0.28 |
| Overhead | $0.50 |
| Shipping you pay | $4.50 |
| Total cost | $13.76 |
For a 40% margin with 9.5% in percentage fees and $0.25 in fixed fees:
($13.76 + $0.25) ÷ (1 − 0.095 − 0.40) = $14.01 ÷ 0.505 = $27.74, so list it at $27.99.
Now see what the price does to your profit, with and without Offsite Ads:
| Listed price | Profit on a normal sale | Profit if the sale came from Offsite Ads (15%) |
|---|---|---|
| $23.50 | $7.26 | $3.73 |
| $27.99 | $11.32 | $7.12 |
| $30.99 | $14.04 | $9.39 |
Profit is the price minus your $13.76 cost, minus Etsy's fees. At $23.50 an ad sale leaves you about half the profit of a normal one. At $27.99 you still make $7.12 even when the sale comes from an ad. If you price only for the no-ads case, one Offsite Ads sale can quietly wipe out the profit from several normal ones.
Should you build Offsite Ads into your price?
That's your call, and you can see the trade-off in the table. One approach is to pick a price where an ad sale still makes a profit worth the work, and treat normal sales as the bonus. You can also lower your price a little if you find that very few of your orders come from those ads. Look at your own Etsy orders before you decide.
How do you price personalized and custom orders?
Etsy buyers who personalize expect a fast, simple order, but custom work costs you time that a plain shirt doesn't. A few things to decide ahead of time:
- Charge for art time. If you build or clean up a design, price it into the shirt or as a separate option.
- Limit revisions. Say how many proof changes are included, then charge for more.
- Use quantity tiers. A buyer who wants 12 shirts for a bachelorette party costs you far less handling time per shirt than 12 separate orders. Offer a bulk price and let it show.
- Set a minimum for odd requests. Names and numbers on a full roster are a different job than one personalized shirt.
For the full cost-plus method, with price tables for DTF, heat press and small-run screen printing, see How Much to Charge for Custom T-Shirts.
What about customers who don't come from Etsy?
Etsy is one place to find customers. Many home and side-hustle shops also get orders from their own website, Instagram, family, teams and local businesses. Those orders don't pay Etsy's fees, so you can price them from your own cost and margin, collect a deposit, and keep clean records.
One caution: Etsy's seller policies cover moving buyers off the platform, and I'm not an authority on them. Read the current policy before you send any Etsy customer to another checkout, and don't try to dodge fees on an order that started on Etsy.
How can you quote bigger orders faster?
Group orders from teams, events and small businesses can be worth a lot more than single shirts, and they need a real quote, not an Etsy listing. That's the job I built Prinquo for. You describe the order in plain English, like "24 black Gildan 5000 tees, full-color front, need them in two weeks," and the AI builds an itemized quote from your own price sheet. Your customer gets a link to approve it and pay a deposit by card, and the money goes to your own Stripe account. Each AI quote uses 1 AI credit, the free trial lasts 14 days with 25 credits and no credit card, and the Starter plan is $49 a month with 100 credits. See Best AI Quoting Software for Print Shops if you're comparing tools.
Want to quote custom shirts faster?
Try Prinquo free for 14 days at www.prinquo.com. No credit card required.
FAQ
How much does Etsy take from each sale?
On Etsy's fees page for US sellers, the transaction fee is 6.5% of the item price plus shipping and gift wrapping, and each listing costs $0.20. Payment processing is charged on top and, for US sellers, is commonly 3% plus $0.25 per order. Check your own Etsy account for your exact rates.
How much are Etsy Offsite Ads fees?
Etsy lists 15% of the order total when a sale comes from an Etsy-run ad, or 12% once your shop has made $10,000 or more over the prior 365 days. The fee on a single order is capped at $100.
What profit margin should I aim for on Etsy shirts?
There's no single right number. Printavo's DTF pricing guide recommends about 50% or more for retail work, and that's before any marketplace fees. On Etsy you may need to accept a lower margin to stay competitive, so work backward from your costs and what makes the work worth your time. The example above uses 40%.
Should I offer free shipping on Etsy?
Free shipping is common, and it works fine if you build the cost into your price, as in the example above. Remember that Etsy's transaction fee is also charged on shipping the buyer pays, so a separate shipping charge isn't free money.
Should I charge more for personalized shirts?
Yes, if personalization costs you extra time for art, proofs or setup. Fold that time into your price or sell it as an option so you aren't doing free work.
Do I need software to run a custom shirt shop from home?
Not on day one. A price sheet in a spreadsheet works. When quoting group orders starts eating your evenings, a tool that builds quotes from your own prices can save the time. Prinquo is one option, and I made it, so compare it with others before you decide.