Etsy Offsite Ads are ads Etsy places for your listings across the web, on Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and partner publications. You never set up or pay for these ads yourself. Instead, Etsy charges you an advertising fee only when someone clicks one of those ads and buys from your shop within 30 days. No sale, no fee. Here is what that fee actually is, who can opt out, and how to decide whether the program pays for your shop.
Etsy Offsite Ads fee: the table
Etsy charges a percentage of the attributed order total, on top of all standard Etsy fees (the 6.5% transaction fee, the $0.20 listing fee, and payment processing):
- 15% per attributed order if your shop made less than $10,000 USD in any consecutive 365-day period. Participation is optional at this tier.
- 12% per attributed order if your shop made $10,000 USD or more in any consecutive 365-day period. Participation is mandatory at this tier.
- $100 maximum per order. The Offsite Ads fee on a single attributed order never exceeds $100 USD, no matter the order total.
- 30-day attribution window. If a buyer clicks an Offsite Ad for one of your listings and then buys anything from your shop within 30 days, that order is attributed to the ad and the fee applies, even if the buyer came back through an Etsy search.
A worked example: what Offsite Ads cost on a $40 order
Take a $40 item with no shipping charged to the buyer, using standard US Etsy fees: 6.5% transaction fee ($2.60), $0.20 listing fee, and 3% + $0.25 payment processing ($1.45). Without Offsite Ads, Etsy takes $4.25, about 10.6% of the order.
If that order is attributed to an Offsite Ad at the 15% tier, the ad fee adds $6.00, bringing Etsy's total cut to $10.25, or 25.6% of the order. At the 12% mandatory tier, the ad fee is $4.80 and the total is $9.05, or 22.6%. That is why sellers say Offsite Ads are the fee that turns a thin-margin winner into a loss: everything else stays the same, and one fee more than doubles Etsy's share.
Note the $100 cap in action on big orders: at 15%, any attributed order above about $667 pays $100 instead of the full percentage, so high-value shops hit the cap instead of the rate.
Can you opt out of Etsy Offsite Ads?
Only if your shop has stayed under $10,000 USD in every consecutive 365-day period. At that level you can turn Offsite Ads off in Shop Manager under Settings, then Offsite Ads. The catch is that the threshold is one-way. The moment your shop crosses $10,000 in any rolling 365-day window, Etsy enrolls you automatically, your fee drops to 12%, and participation becomes mandatory for the lifetime of your shop, even if your sales fall back below $10,000 later. Etsy checks the threshold on the first day of each month, so a breakout holiday season can lock you in.
Two details sellers miss: first, you are enrolled automatically even below the threshold, so doing nothing is not opting out. Second, attribution is not limited to the item in the ad. Any order the buyer places in your shop within 30 days of the click gets the fee.
Are Etsy Offsite Ads worth it?
It comes down to margin. A common rule of thumb is that you need at least a 25 to 30% gross margin to come out ahead on an Offsite Ads sale after Etsy's other fees. If your margins are thin, an attributed sale can sell at break-even or worse, which is why many sub-$10k shops with tight margins choose to opt out.
The case for staying in: Offsite Ads bring buyers who might never have found your shop, with zero upfront cost and zero marketing work from you. For shops with healthy margins, that is cheap customer acquisition on a pay-per-sale model. If you are under the threshold and deciding, look at your margin on your bestsellers first. If they absorb an extra 15% comfortably, the extra reach is usually worth it. If they do not, opt out and focus on Etsy search traffic and your own marketing.
See exactly what an Offsite Ads sale costs you
The 15% or 12% headline is only part of the story, because the ad fee stacks on the transaction fee, listing fee, and payment processing. Run your real price through our free Etsy fee calculator: enter your sale price, pick your Offsite Ads tier, and see your true profit per order before Etsy takes its cut.
Etsy sets its own fee schedule and policies; confirm the current Offsite Ads rates and opt-out rules on Etsy's help pages before making pricing decisions.