Mercari fees explained: what it takes in 2026

Mercari charges a US seller 10% of the item price plus any shipping the buyer paid, and that is the whole seller schedule. Listing is free, there is no payment processing fee, and a completed direct deposit to your bank costs nothing. This guide sets out each fee as Mercari publishes it, with worked examples computed by the same engine as the Mercari fee calculator. Every rate below is quoted from Mercari's official fees page, cross-checked against Mercari's US Terms of Service, and was verified on 3 September 2026.

The one fee a seller pays

Mercari's fees page opens by saying that listing an item is always free and that fees are charged when an item sells or when a service is used. Nothing is deducted while an item sits unsold, however long it sits, and relisting costs nothing.

The selling fee is a flat percentage with no fixed component and no minimum: no category table, no store subscription, and no per-order charge that falls hardest on cheap items. A $5 sale and a $500 sale are charged the same 10%.

On a $100 item with free shipping, the fee on $100.00 is $10.00 and you keep $90.00, an effective rate of 10%. On a $25 item with free shipping, the fee on $25.00 is $2.50 and you keep $22.50, an effective rate of 10%.

Because the rate is flat, the effective rate you pay on a sale with free shipping is always exactly 10%, whatever the price. That is not true once the buyer pays for shipping, which is the one thing about Mercari's fee that catches sellers out.

The 10% is charged on shipping the buyer pays

Mercari's fees page states that the selling fee is "10% of the combined amount of item price and buyer-paid shipping". The shipping charge is part of the base the percentage is applied to, even though that money goes to the carrier rather than into your balance.

The practical effect is that buyer-paid shipping costs you a tenth of itself: on a $100 listing where the buyer pays $9 of shipping, the fee is charged on $109, so the rate against the price you set rises above 10%.

With $9 of buyer-paid shipping, the fee on $100.00 is $10.90 and you keep $89.10, an effective rate of 10.9%.

The smaller the item, the more this matters, because shipping is a larger share of the total. A $25 item posted with $5 of buyer-paid shipping is charged on $30, and the fee against the listing price works out at twelve per cent rather than ten.

On a $25 item with $5 of buyer-paid shipping, the fee on $25.00 is $3.00 and you keep $22.00, an effective rate of 12%.

Enter it in the calculator's Shipping charged to the buyer field and the fee is applied the way Mercari does; leave it at zero when you cover shipping yourself.

Free shipping does not lower the fee

It is tempting to conclude that offering free shipping avoids the charge on shipping. It does not. If you raise the price to cover the label, the higher price is what the 10% is charged on, and the fee base ends up the same.

On a $109 item with free shipping, the fee on $109.00 is $10.90 and you keep $98.10, an effective rate of 10%.

That is the same fee as the $100 listing with $9 of buyer-paid shipping above. Whether the buyer sees "$100 plus $9 shipping" or "$109, shipping included", Mercari charges 10% of $109 either way, and the only real difference is who buys the label. Free shipping is worth offering because buyers respond to it, not because it saves you anything on fees.

What the buyer pays on top

Mercari charges the buyer a Buyer Protection fee of 3.6% of the item price plus buyer-paid shipping. Mercari's fees page says it is displayed as part of the final price at checkout and that it may not be refunded, depending on the reason for a return.

This never touches your payout: it is added to what the buyer is charged, which is why the calculator shows it in the fee table but never subtracts it from your net. It still matters commercially, because it is part of the price a buyer compares against the same item elsewhere.

What changed on 6 January 2025

Mercari's current structure is recent, and the fees page still documents the version it replaced, because old listings kept the old treatment until they were updated. Reading both side by side is the clearest way to understand where the money moved.

Before 6 January 2025 the seller paid no selling fee at all. Mercari's fees page still says that on a listing created before that date "a selling fee will not be applied until the listing is updated". The cost sat on the buyer instead: the page describes a 10% buyer fee on those older listings, plus a payment processing fee of $0.50 and 2.9% of the transaction price, which covered the item price, shipping, the service fee and sales tax.

From 6 January 2025 the charge moved across. The seller now pays 10%, the buyer pays 3.6% for Buyer Protection, and the separate payment processing fee was eliminated. Mercari's page is explicit that it "will no longer charge buyers a payment processing fee at the time of purchase on new or updated listings". Existing listings were migrated automatically: the page notes that listings created before that date would be updated within a week, and that updating an existing listing also switches it to the new structure.

The $2 fee for each direct-deposit cash-out was removed the same day. The calculator keeps the retired payment processing fee in the breakdown as a zero line, so the change stays visible rather than silently disappearing from the schedule.

Getting paid

Money from a sale settles into your Mercari balance rather than going straight to your bank. Mercari's terms put it plainly: on completion of the sale, seller earnings, less any applicable charges, settle in the seller's account.

Moving that balance out by direct deposit carries no fee for a completed transfer. You can request one cash-out a day once a checking account is on file, and Mercari says the transaction is typically processed within five business days, depending on your bank. There is a faster option, Instant Pay, which carries a flat fee and a monthly cap, and a fee applies when a direct deposit fails; neither is part of the schedule this calculator models, so plan on the free route unless you need the money the same day.

Pricing so you keep a round number

Because the fee is a percentage of the price rather than of what you keep, adding 10% to your target is not enough: the fee is charged on the higher price too, including the part that covers the fee.

To keep $100.00 you charge $111.11, and the fee is $11.11.

Buyer-paid shipping widens the gap, because it enlarges the fee base without adding anything to your proceeds. To keep the same amount on an item where the buyer pays $9 of shipping, the price has to rise further.

To keep $100.00 you charge $112.11, and the fee is $12.11.

The calculator's "I want to net" mode solves this for any target, finding the smallest price whose net lands within one cent of the figure you want.

How Mercari compares

Mercari's flat 10% is simple in a way its larger competitors are not. eBay charges a percentage that depends on the category, plus a per-order fee, and the rate can step down on expensive items. Etsy stacks a listing fee, a transaction fee and payment processing, so its effective rate moves with the size of the order.

The same $100 sale on eBay, in most categories, the fee on $100.00 is $14.00 ($13.60 final value fee — most categories plus $0.40 per-order fee) and you keep $86.00, an effective rate of 14%. The same $100 sale on Etsy, the fee on $100.00 is $9.95 ($6.50 transaction fee plus $3.25 payment processing fee plus $0.20 listing fee) and you keep $90.05, an effective rate of 9.95%.

Those are like-for-like only on the headline sale: each platform reaches different buyers, and none of the three figures includes shipping. Work your own categories and prices through the eBay fee calculator and the Etsy fee calculator; the eBay fees guide and the Etsy fees guide explain where their fees come from.

How to pay Mercari less, honestly

• Weigh and measure before you list. Mercari prices prepaid labels by the weight class you pick and charges the difference, plus any carrier penalty, when the package turns out heavier. That correction often costs more than the selling fee on a small item.
• Do not let orders cancel. Frequent cancellations attract a penalty on the item price, and unlike the selling fee it buys you nothing. Delist anything you cannot ship rather than cancelling after a sale.
• Cash out with the free direct deposit. Instant Pay exists for emergencies; the standard transfer costs nothing and arrives within a few business days.
• Bundle where the buyer is willing. The 10% does not shrink with volume, so bundling saves nothing on the selling fee, but one package instead of three cuts the shipping the fee is charged on.
• Set prices with the reverse calculator. Working backwards from what you want to keep avoids the common mistake of adding 10% and landing short.

What this guide leaves out

The calculator models the fees a Mercari seller meets on an ordinary sale: the 10% selling fee, the retired payment processing fee, and the buyer's Buyer Protection fee. Mercari's fees page is longer, and the following are deliberately out of scope: the cancellation penalty charged to sellers who cancel frequently; Mercari Authenticate and its certificate, which are per-item charges from a third-party service; Instant Pay and the fee for a failed direct deposit; the prepaid-label rate tables for USPS, UPS and FedEx, which run to dozens of weight classes and change on their own schedule; the charges for underpaid or improperly packaged labels; and Mercari's legal-request processing fees. All of those are on Mercari's fees page.

Sales tax is also out of scope. Mercari's terms say tax is not included in a listed price and is added separately at checkout, so it does not reduce your proceeds.

When these rates last changed

This schedule was first verified on 3 September 2026 against Mercari's fees page, which Mercari last updated on 7 May 2026, and cross-checked against Mercari's US Terms of Service. The Terms name the fees page as the authoritative source for rates but do not restate the 10% selling fee or the 3.6% Buyer Protection fee, so no independent source corroborates the percentages and the schedule is marked medium confidence.

The rates themselves have been effective since 6 January 2025. The Mercari fee changelog currently holds that single verification entry; every later change is added there with the date and the rule affected, and the schedule is re-verified at least every 60 days. If a figure here disagrees with what Mercari shows you, report it and it will be checked against the official page.

Frequently asked questions

Does Mercari take 10% of the shipping?

Yes, when the buyer pays for it. The fee is charged on the combined item price and buyer-paid shipping, so a shipping charge the buyer covers adds a tenth of itself to your fee even though the money goes to the carrier. Covering shipping yourself and raising the price instead does not help, because the higher price is what the 10% is charged on.

Is it free to list on Mercari?

Yes. Mercari's fees page states that listing an item is always free and that fees are charged only when an item sells or a service is used. There is no listing fee, no relisting fee and no monthly subscription in the schedule.

Why is Mercari charging my buyer more than my price?

Because of the Buyer Protection fee, which is 3.6% of the item price plus buyer-paid shipping and is shown as part of the final price at checkout. It is charged to the buyer and never deducted from your payout, so your net is unaffected by it.

Where do these numbers come from?

Every figure is quoted from Mercari's official fees page, saved as a dated snapshot and checked by a person. The methodology explains the process, and the schedule is quoted line by line, with the verbatim source text behind every rule, in the calculator's fee table for anyone who wants to check the work.