The seller
This changes everything. Private sellers in the UK pay no final value fee at all.
The sale
eBay charges its fees on the postage too, not just the item.
Your costs
Settings
You take home
eBay UK charges business sellers four separate things, and only one of them is the percentage everybody quotes. There is the category final value fee, a fixed per-order fee that just went up, a regulatory operating fee nobody mentions in the headline, and 20% VAT sitting on top of all three. Stack them together and a "12.9% category" takes closer to 16.5% out of a normal sale.
There is a second thing worth knowing before you touch the calculator: if you sell as a private seller in the UK, you pay no final value fee at all. Not a reduced rate, not a small one. Zero. eBay dropped private seller fees in the UK to hold off Vinted and Depop, and it is the single biggest difference between the UK and every other eBay market. Most fee calculators ignore this and quietly assume you are a business.
This page does both. Pick private or business at the top and the receipt changes completely.
What eBay UK actually charges a business seller
Four charges, three of which scale with the sale and one of which does not:
| Charge | Amount | What it is charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Final value fee | 6.9% to 14.9% | The total amount of the sale — item price, postage and any taxes the buyer pays. Varies by category, and several categories are tiered. |
| Per-order fee | £0.30 or £0.40 | £0.30 on orders up to £10, £0.40 on anything above. Raised from £0.30 to £0.40 on 12 February 2026. An "order" is everything one buyer pays for in a single checkout. |
| Regulatory operating fee | 0.35% | The total amount of the sale. Charged on every business sale, in every category, with no cap. |
| VAT on the above | 20% | Every fee eBay publishes is quoted excluding VAT. The VAT is added to your invoice unless you are VAT registered and reclaim it. |
What is not on that list is a payment processing fee. eBay took over payments with Managed Payments, and the processing cost is baked into the final value fee. That is why comparing eBay to Etsy's UK fees by their headline percentages is misleading — Etsy quotes 6.5% but then charges payment processing separately, while eBay quotes 11.9% and means it.
Why 12.9% is really 15.48%
eBay's own fee page says, in a line at the bottom that most people scroll past: "All fees displayed on this page are exclusive of VAT." So the 12.9% "most categories" rate is a pre-VAT number. Multiply it by 1.2 and the real cost of the percentage alone is 15.48%. The 0.35% regulatory fee becomes 0.42% once VAT is added, and the £0.40 per-order fee becomes £0.48.
Here is a £64 sale — a £60 dress and £4 postage — in an 11.9% category:
| Sale total | £64.00 |
| Final value fee at 11.9% | £7.62 |
| Per-order fee | £0.40 |
| Regulatory operating fee at 0.35% | £0.22 |
| Fees before VAT | £8.24 |
| VAT at 20% | £1.65 |
| Total taken by eBay | £9.89 |
| Share of the sale | 15.45% |
15.45%, not 11.9%. The gap is £1.65 on one sale, and it is the fee nobody budgets for, because eBay's rate card never shows it.
The smaller the order, the worse that number gets, because the per-order fee is a flat £0.40 no matter what you sell. On a £20 order in a 12.9% category, eBay keeps £3.66 — 18.3% of the sale — even though the percentage on the rate card reads 12.9%.
Private sellers: you probably owe nothing
This catches out a huge number of people searching for an eBay fee calculator, because almost every calculator on the first page assumes you are a business. If you are a UK private seller — clearing out a wardrobe, selling a used phone, shifting old furniture — eBay charges no final value fee, no per-order fee and no regulatory operating fee on a domestic sale.
| On a £64 sale to a UK buyer | Private seller | Business seller |
|---|---|---|
| Final value fee | £0.00 | £7.62 |
| Per-order fee | £0.00 | £0.40 |
| Regulatory operating fee | £0.00 | £0.22 |
| VAT on fees | £0.00 | £1.65 |
| Total | £0.00 | £9.89 |
What you do still pay as a private seller: 35p for each listing beyond your free monthly allowance, any optional listing upgrades, and a 3% international fee if the buyer's delivery address is outside the UK. Vehicles are excluded from the free deal and carry their own fee schedule.
The line between the two is your registration type, not your volume. If your eBay account is registered as a business, you pay business fees from the first sale, even if you sell three things a year. If it is registered as private, you keep the exemption — but selling new stock repeatedly on a private account is exactly the pattern eBay's checks look for, and converting you to a business account is a decision they can make on your behalf.
Final value fees by category
These are the business seller rates, before VAT. eBay updated several of them on 12 February 2026.
| Category | Rate | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Jewellery (not watches) | 14.9% | Then 4% above £1,000 |
| Most other categories | 12.9% | Default rate for Everything Else |
| Crafts, pet supplies, wholesale, event tickets | 12.9% | Flat |
| Business, office & industrial | 12.5% | Raised from 11.9% in Feb 2026 |
| Women's bags & handbags | 12.9% | Then 7% above £800 |
| Clothes, shoes & accessories | 11.9% | Trainers drop to 7% at £100+ |
| Home, furniture & DIY | 11.9% | Then 7.9% above £500 |
| Antiques, art, baby, collectables, toys, sporting goods | 10.9% | Flat |
| Books, films, music, video games | 9.9% | Consoles 6.9% up to £400 |
| Vehicle parts & accessories | 9.5% | Then 3% above £750 |
| Phones, laptops, cameras, TVs, headphones | 6.9% | Then 3% above £1,000 |
| Tyres, sat navs, power tools | 6.9% | Then 3% above £750 |
Two things move your position in this table by more than a percentage point: the category you list in, and whether you have a Shop subscription. Shops cost a monthly fee but reduce the per-listing cost and can change the fee bands in some categories, so the break-even depends on volume — usually somewhere above 50 to 100 listings a month.
Tiered categories: the rate falls as the price rises
Several categories do not have one rate but two, split at a threshold. Everything up to the threshold is charged at the headline rate, everything above it at a much lower one. If you sell a single expensive item you do not pay the headline rate on the whole thing, and this is where a naive flat-percentage calculator gets the answer badly wrong.
| Category and sale price | Fee | Blended rate |
|---|---|---|
| Phone, £900 | £62.10 | 6.90% |
| Phone, £1,200 | £75.00 | 6.25% |
| Vehicle part, £900 | £75.75 | 8.42% |
| Jewellery, £1,500 | £169.00 | 11.27% |
| Home and DIY, £800 | £83.20 | 10.40% |
Trainers are the odd one out: the switch at £100 is not a tier but a cliff. Below £100 you pay 11.9% on the whole sale; at £100 or more you pay 7% on the whole sale. List a pair of trainers at £99 and you hand eBay £11.78. List the same pair at £100 and you hand over £7.00, plus a pound more from the buyer. This is the only place on eBay UK where raising your price takes less out of your pocket.
eBay or Etsy: the same dress, both ways
Sellers often ask which platform is cheaper. On a £64 clothing sale to a UK buyer, here is the honest arithmetic, business seller on both. The Etsy column comes from our Etsy fee calculator for the UK:
| On a £64 sale | eBay UK | Etsy UK |
|---|---|---|
| Final value fee | £7.62 | £4.16 |
| Payment processing | Included | £2.56 |
| Fixed per-order charge | £0.40 | £0.20 |
| Regulatory fee | £0.22 | £0.31 |
| Listing | £0.30 | £0.15 |
| VAT on fees | £1.65 | £1.45 |
| Total fees | £9.89 | £8.83 |
eBay is about £1 dearer on this sale, and the gap widens on cheap items because of the £0.40 per-order fee. What you get for it is a different buyer: eBay buyers arrive searching for a specific thing, Etsy buyers browse. That difference is worth more than a pound on most sales, and it is why "which is cheaper" is the wrong question. The right one is which platform has someone already looking for what you sell.
Three places sellers lose money without noticing
Postage is fee-able. eBay charges the final value fee on the postage the buyer pays, not just the item. If you charge £4 postage and it actually costs you £3.50, you are paying commission on a 50p margin that is mostly not yours. Either charge what postage really costs, or price it into the item.
The flat fee punishes cheap stock. A £0.40 per-order fee on a £5 item is 8% before you have paid a single percentage point of commission. If you sell low-value items, bundle them into lots — one order, one per-order fee instead of five.
Below Standard costs six points. If your seller level drops to Below Standard on the 20th of a month, every sale in the following month carries an extra 6 percentage points on the final value fee, rising to 7 if it stays there for four months. On a 12.9% category that is 18.9% before VAT, or 22.7% after. That single status change can wipe out a low-margin catalogue.
Common questions
Do private sellers pay fees on eBay UK?
No. A UK private seller pays no final value fee, no per-order fee and no regulatory operating fee when the item sells to a UK buyer. You still pay 35p for listings beyond the free monthly allowance, any optional upgrades, and a 3% international fee if the buyer's delivery address is outside the UK. Vehicles are excluded and carry their own fee schedule.
Why is my eBay fee higher than the category rate?
Because three charges sit on top of the percentage. On top of the final value fee there is a £0.30 or £0.40 per-order fee, a 0.35% regulatory operating fee, and 20% VAT on all of it. A 12.9% category therefore costs about 16.5% of the sale on a typical order, and more than 18% on a small one.
Is the per-order fee charged per item or per order?
Per order. An order is everything a single buyer pays for at one checkout with the same shipping method. If someone buys three items from you in one checkout, you pay one per-order fee, not three. If they check out three times, you pay three.
Do I pay eBay fees on postage?
Yes. The final value fee, regulatory operating fee and international fee are all calculated on the total amount of the sale, which includes the postage the buyer pays. The only exceptions are specific cases like trainers sold through Authenticity Guarantee, and international sales through eBay International Shipping where the fee is calculated on your cost to the UK shipping hub instead.
What is the regulatory operating fee on eBay UK?
It is 0.35% of the total amount of the sale, charged to business sellers on every sale in every category. eBay describes it as a contribution to the cost of complying with regulation across its markets. Private sellers do not pay it, and there is no cap on the amount.
Can I reclaim VAT on eBay's fees?
Only if you are VAT registered. eBay quotes its fees excluding VAT and adds 20% to your invoice. If you are registered, that VAT is input tax you reclaim on your return, so it is a cash-flow cost rather than a real one. If you are not registered, it is simply money gone — which is why the calculator above asks.
How much can I sell on eBay UK before registering for VAT?
The UK VAT registration threshold is £90,000 of taxable turnover in any rolling 12-month period. Once you go over it you must register, and from that point you charge VAT to buyers and reclaim it on fees. Selling through eBay counts towards that turnover the same as any other channel, and holding stock in the UK can trigger registration earlier regardless of your sales level.
Rates checked against eBay UK's official business seller fee pages and its 12 February 2026 rate card change on 11 November 2026. eBay changes fees without much notice — the per-order fee moved in February 2026 and the currency conversion charge is scheduled to rise to 2.75% on 1 December 2026 — so re-check the source before you price a large batch. The calculator runs entirely in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.