What should I put in the payment rate field?

Zero, if the marketplace settles the money for you — that is the normal case in the United States, and entering a payment percentage on top of a managed-payments selling fee charges you twice. Use the field for an own-store checkout, an invoice or a platform that bills payment processing separately.

How should returns be handled?

As a provision, not as an event. A 3% return rate on this month's orders is $1.05 a unit set aside, which is the honest way to plan — the alternative is a month that looks fine until the returns arrive.

What does the break-even units number mean?

How many orders it takes to cover the fixed cost of the period before the month starts earning. With the subscription above it is three — small here, and decisive for a seller paying for software, storage or a store on a slow month.

Seller profit calculator

Sell 120 phone cases in a month at $34.90 — postage free to the buyer, a 13% selling fee, 4% behind promoted listings, 3% set aside for returns and $27.95 of store subscription — and $1,538.40 is left. That is $12.82 an order, a margin of 36.73% and a return of 87.21% on the money laid out, with the order turning unprofitable below $18.88.

Profit$10.78

Threshold: This sale stops earning at a price of $12.60. You are $12.39 above it. Right now the sale leaves $10.78.

Profit per unit: $10.78
Margin: 35.97 %
Return on what you laid out: 75.40 %
Costs: $19.20
Revenue excluding VAT: $29.98
Break-even price: $12.60

Where the money goes

Marketplace fees: $3.50
Payment fee: $1.40
Goods: $9.50
Shipping: $4.20
Packaging: $0.60

The rates are yours to enter: this site publishes no marketplace tariff. Take them from your own invoice.

How the number is worked out

This is the hub calculator: the one place where the fee, the payment cut, the label, the goods, the ads and the returns meet.

What the calculator does

It works per unit and then multiplies. The selling percentage and the fixed order charge come off the price plus any shipping you charged; the payment cut comes off what is left; the goods, the label, the packaging, the ad spend and the return provision come off after that. Fixed costs for the period are subtracted once, at the end, not per unit.

The threshold it adds

Two, because a monthly view has two. The break-even price is what a single order needs to be worth making — $18.88 here. The break-even units number is how many orders pay for the fixed cost before anything is profit.

What it will not do

It will not invent a tax treatment. The tax fields stay at zero unless you set them, and this site publishes no rate for any market: the marketplace facilitator rules mean a US seller rarely needs them at all, while a seller quoting tax-inclusive prices elsewhere very much does.

Worked example

120 phone cases a month at $34.90 with free shipping, a 13% selling fee, 4% promoted-listing spend, a 3% return rate and a $27.95 store subscription.

Profit$1,538.40

Threshold: This sale stops earning at a price of $18.88. You are $16.02 above it. Right now the sale leaves $12.82.

Profit per unit: $12.82
Margin: 36.73 %
Return on what you laid out: 87.21 %
Costs: $2,649.60
Revenue excluding VAT: $4,188.00
Break-even price: $18.88
Units that cover the fixed cost: 3 units

Marketplace fees: $4.94
Promoted listings: $1.40
Returns: $1.05
Goods: $8.40
Shipping: $5.60
Packaging: $0.70

Open this case in the calculator

Worked out by Markupo with the same engine as the calculator above.

What is different in the United States

For a US seller the payment rate usually belongs at zero: eBay, Amazon and Etsy settle the money themselves and the payment cut is already inside the selling fee. Sales tax stays out of the arithmetic too, because the marketplace collects and remits it. What is left to watch is the shipping label and the promoted-listing spend — the two lines a US seller controls every day, and the two that most often turn a healthy-looking margin into a thin one.

Questions sellers ask

What should I put in the payment rate field?: Zero, if the marketplace settles the money for you — that is the normal case in the United States, and entering a payment percentage on top of a managed-payments selling fee charges you twice. Use the field for an own-store checkout, an invoice or a platform that bills payment processing separately.
How should returns be handled?: As a provision, not as an event. A 3% return rate on this month's orders is $1.05 a unit set aside, which is the honest way to plan — the alternative is a month that looks fine until the returns arrive.
What does the break-even units number mean?: How many orders it takes to cover the fixed cost of the period before the month starts earning. With the subscription above it is three — small here, and decisive for a seller paying for software, storage or a store on a slow month.

Last updated: 2026-09-20

Other calculators for sellers

The percentages in the calculator are your own numbers, not a published tariff. Fees differ by category, by store subscription and by promotion, so take them from your last payout statement and type them in; the tool does the arithmetic on what you enter. This site publishes what your own inputs produce — one number, one band, one threshold — and never reproduces a marketplace's or a carrier's fee table.