What selling internationally on Etsy actually costs

Updated September 14, 2026 · 7 min read · Sources checked on publication

International orders look like ordinary orders in your dashboard, and they aren’t. Up to three extra costs can attach to them, only one of which is obvious, and a recent EU rule changes what your overseas buyers pay even though it never appears on your statement.

1. The currency conversion fee — 2.5%

This one is widely misunderstood, so it’s worth being precise: it is not triggered by the buyer being abroad. It is triggered by listing in a currency other than your payment account’s currency. When that happens Etsy has to convert the proceeds and applies a 2.5% currency conversion fee.

So a US shop listing in USD and shipping to Japan pays no conversion fee. A US shop that lists in GBP to look local to British buyers pays 2.5% on those sales. That is a real strategic choice — listing in the buyer’s currency can help conversion, and it costs 2.5% to do it. Just make the trade knowingly rather than discovering it on the statement.

2. A higher processing rate, if you’re in Canada or Australia

Payment processing rates are set by the country your bank account is in, and two countries charge more when the order crosses a border.

One quirk worth knowing: Canada’s domestic rate also covers orders from the US, so a Canadian shop selling to American buyers pays 3%, not 4%. Australia has no such exception — a US order from an Australian shop is international.

The gap is one percentage point of the order total. On a $60 order that’s 60 cents, which is small per order and worth knowing if most of your buyers are overseas — it can quietly move a product’s margin by a point.

3. The €3 EU customs fee

Since 1 July 2026, packages shipped into the EU from outside it carry a €3 customs fee where the item value is under €150 excluding shipping. It applies per unique item per package, regardless of quantity — so three of the same item is one charge, and three different items is three.

Crucially, Etsy does not collect this at checkout. Carriers collect it when the label is created or on delivery. It therefore never appears on your Etsy statement and never reduces your payout — but it does raise what the buyer effectively pays, which affects whether low-value orders to the EU are still attractive to them. On a €12 item, €3 is a quarter again on top.

There is a related change on the other side of the Atlantic: from 9 July 2026, sellers shipping to the US must use Delivered Duty Paid shipping and prepay duties, and orders without prepaid duties no longer qualify for Etsy Purchase Protection. That is a policy change rather than a fee, but it moves real money and real risk.

You may also see a €2 French import fee referenced. It was announced for 1 March 2026 and suspended before it ever took effect — if a guide lists it as live, that guide is out of date.

The cost that dwarfs all three

Honestly? Postage. The three fees above are cents and single euros. International shipping is frequently two to four times a domestic label, and it is the one where a flat rate does the most damage.

A flat international rate set from a light parcel to a nearby country loses money on every heavy one and every distant one — and unlike domestic orders, there is no typical case to average toward, because “international” spans a €4 difference and a €40 one. Either use calculated shipping for overseas orders or set your rates by region, and check the shortfall per product rather than trusting the shop average.

Is it worth selling internationally?

For most shops, yes — it is a large amount of extra demand for one settings change, and the fee differences above are genuinely minor next to it. The failure mode isn’t the fees; it’s underpriced shipping combined with slower delivery expectations and occasional customs friction.

The way to know is to look at what your international orders actually returned per product, with the real label costs against the shipping you charged. MakerMargin computes that from the order file Etsy already exports — and it now applies the correct domestic or international processing rate per order for Canadian and Australian shops, which is precisely the kind of one-point difference a spreadsheet tends to miss.

The 2.5% currency conversion fee and the per-country processing table are from Etsy’s Etsy Payments Policy, including the wording that Canada’s domestic rate covers “domestic orders; orders from the US”. The €3 EU customs fee, the suspended French import fee and the 9 July 2026 US Delivered Duty Paid requirement are from Etsy’s seller announcements. All read 14 September 2026.