Whatnot Fee Calculator

Whatnot Fees at a Glance

Whatnot charges its fees on the winning bid.

Fee	Percentage	Flat	Notes
Commission	8%	—	—
Payment processing	2.9%	$0.30	—

What You Keep

The flat component is what makes small sales expensive. The same fee schedule costs a very different effective rate depending on the order size:

Sale	Fees	You receive	Effective rate
$5.00	$0.85	$4.16	16.90%
$20.00	$2.48	$17.52	12.40%
$50.00	$5.75	$44.25	11.50%
$100.00	$11.20	$88.80	11.20%
$500.00	$54.80	$445.20	10.96%

Eight Percent Plus Processing

Whatnot takes a commission on the winning bid and payment processing on top. Compared with the 13%+ that traditional marketplaces charge, it is low — the platform competes on rate because its sellers are broadcasting live and can go elsewhere.

Component	Rate
Commission	8% of the winning bid
Payment processing	2.9% + 30¢

Live Selling Changes the Maths

A live auction sells inventory in minutes rather than weeks, and the fee is only part of the economics:

• Volume per hour is the metric. Fifty $10 items in a two-hour stream beats five $100

items you spent a week photographing and listing.

• The floor price is real. Auctions starting at $1 sometimes end at $1. Set reserves on

anything where that would lose money.

• Shipping is flat by category and paid by the buyer, which makes light, small items

disproportionately profitable.

The Hidden Cost Is Time

Streaming for two hours is two hours of labour that a listing-based marketplace does not require. At any realistic hourly rate, a stream that grosses $200 is not a good use of an evening. The model works at volume or not at all.

Giveaways and Promotions

Free items given away on stream are a marketing cost paid in inventory. Track them — they do not appear in any fee report but they come out of the same margin.

Charging to Hit a Target Payout

Adding 10.90% to your price under-recovers, because the percentage then applies to the larger amount as well. The correct gross-up divides:

`` charge = (target + flat fees) ÷ (1 − percentage rate) ``

To receive	Charge
$100.00	$112.57
$1,000.00	$1,122.67

Reducing What You Pay

• Raise average order value. The flat fee is fixed, so bundling two $20.00 orders

into one $40.00 order saves the second flat charge outright.

• Watch the optional surcharges. International and currency-conversion fees stack on top

of the base rate and are easy to miss when you price for a domestic market.

• Negotiate at volume. Most processors will discuss custom rates once you are processing

meaningful monthly volume; the published rate is a starting point, not a law.

• Do not migrate for 0.2%. The engineering and support cost of changing platforms

usually exceeds a small rate difference for years.

Live-auction commission. Shipping is paid by the buyer at a flat rate by category.