A card sells for $50 on a Whatnot stream and it feels like a $50 night. It isn't. Commission, payment processing, the cost of the item, shipping supplies and your own label all come out before you see profit. This guide walks through the math by hand so you can price lots with confidence.

Fee figures below are the defaults from Whatnot's published seller fee schedule as checked on 2026-09-13 (US/Canada/Australia unless noted). Rates change and promos vary, so always confirm against the Whatnot Help Center and your Seller Hub, which is the source of truth for payouts. This guide is not affiliated with Whatnot.

The key point: two fees, two different bases

This is where most spreadsheets go wrong:

Commission is a percentage of the item's final sale price only. It doesn't include buyer-paid shipping or tax.
Payment processing is a percentage of the total order value (item + buyer shipping, plus buyer tax where applicable) plus a fixed fee per order.

So when buyer shipping goes up, your processing fee goes up too, but your commission doesn't.

Step 1: Find your commission rate

Published US/CA/AU defaults at the time of writing:

Category type	Commission
Most categories ("all other")	8%
Coins & Money	4% (up to the threshold, 0% above)
Pallets / wholesale	4% flat
Eligible high-value collectibles	8% up to $1,500, 0% above

In the UK and EU the default is 6.67% commission, and VAT is charged on fees (commonly 20%). In Japan, 8% plus JCT on fees applies, with a ¥225,000 threshold.

Step 2: Find your processing fee

US/CA/AU: 2.9% of order value + $0.30 per order. UK/EU: 2.42% + £/€0.25, plus VAT.

Step 3: Do the math for one lot

Example (US, standard 8% category): $50 sale, buyer pays $8.70 shipping, so the order value is $58.70.

Commission: 8% × $50 = $4.00
Processing: 2.9% × $58.70 + $0.30 = $2.00
Total fees: $6.00, so net payout from the sale is $44.00

Now take off your own costs to get profit:

Cost of goods (what you paid for the card), e.g. $25
Supplies (top loader, team bag, mailer), e.g. $1
Any shipping cost you pay above what the buyer paid

Profit = sale − commission − processing − COGS − supplies − your shipping cost Margin = profit ÷ sale

With $25 COGS and $1 supplies, that $50 sale is $18 profit, a 36% margin, not $25.

Step 4: Understand the high-value "cliff"

On eligible categories, commission applies only to the part of the sale up to the threshold ($1,500 / £/€1,500 / ¥225,000). The part above it is charged 0%. Processing still applies to the whole order value.

Example: a $2,000 cliff-eligible sale.

Commission: 8% × $1,500 = $120 (not $160, so you save $40)
Processing: 2.9% × $2,000 + $0.30 = $58.30
Net payout: $1,821.70

Watch out: at the time of writing, the high-value promo applies to Sports Singles only. Sports breaks and Surprise Products are excluded, so don't count on the cliff for those.

Step 5: Work out break-even before you list

Start from the margin you want and work backwards. Roughly: minimum price ≈ (COGS + supplies + fixed fee) ÷ (1 − commission % − processing % − target margin). Remember that buyer shipping also adds to processing. Run your cheap lots through this. Low starting bids on low-cost items are where fixed fees quietly eat the margin.

Step 6: Review the whole show

After a stream, put every lot in a sheet with sale, shipping, COGS and supplies, and flag anything under your target margin. A handful of losing lots can cancel out a good night.

Doing it faster: Whatnot Seller Profit Calculator

Whatnot Seller Profit Calculator is a single offline HTML file that does this math for you. Pick a region (US, Canada, Australia, UK, EU, Japan) and a category preset (cliff collectibles, coins, pallets, standard, or a custom %). Enter the sale, shipping and costs, and it shows live commission, processing, VAT/JCT on fees, net payout, profit, margin, ROI and break-even price. It handles the cliff automatically and warns you about sports breaks.

For whole shows, bulk CSV mode takes a template with one lot per row and marks each one ok / thin / loss. A show-night print sheet summarizes gross, fees, net and losing lots on one page. All fee constants are editable if Whatnot changes its rates. Your costs never leave your device. It's an independent estimate, not a replacement for Seller Hub receipts, and not tax advice.

→ Whatnot Seller Profit Calculator

Related tools

Also wholesaling? Faire Wholesale Fee & Profit Calculator does the same kind of math for Faire orders.
Also selling on Etsy? Etsy Listing CSV Fixer checks and cleans your listings export offline.

How to calculate your real profit per Whatnot sale after fees