"How much does eBay take?" has a different answer for almost every seller, which is why it is one of the most-searched questions in selling online. The honest short answer for a UK business seller is: the headline percentage runs from 6.9% to 14.9% depending on the category, and the real total is higher because three more charges are added on top, all of which are easy to read past on eBay's own fee page.
This is the plain-English version for UK sellers: every fee, the order they come in, a full rate table for every category, and three worked examples where the pounds and pence are shown rather than described. I run Sellhelm, which works these sums out for every product in a shop, so I have spent a long time watching where sellers' numbers go wrong. The figures below are eBay's own, linked to the pages they come from, and the worked examples are produced by the same pricing engine as our free eBay fee calculator.
The short version
- Final value fee: a percentage of the total the buyer pays (item + postage + any taxes). The percentage is set by category, and many categories step down on the part of a sale above a threshold.
- Per-order fee: 30p on an order of £10 or less, 40p on an order over £10 (the over-£10 fee rose from 30p to 40p on 12 February 2026).
- Regulatory operating fee: 0.35% of the total sale (0.42% once VAT is added).
- VAT at 20% is added to eBay's fees. If you are VAT registered you can normally reclaim it; if you are not, it is a real cost.
- Below Standard seller? An extra 6 percentage points is added to the final value fee on the following month's sales.
- Private sellers based in the UK pay no final value fee at all. Everything on this page is about business sellers.
1. The final value fee: the big one
The final value fee is eBay's main charge, taken when an item sells. It is a variable percentage of the total amount of the sale, and that total includes the item price, the postage you charge and any applicable taxes. This is the single most common surprise: postage is part of the sale, so you pay a percentage of it too. Offering "free postage" does not avoid the fee on the postage; it just hides the postage inside the item price, where the fee is charged on it anyway (our post on why free postage is never actually free goes into what that does to conversion as well).
The percentage depends on the category. Across the categories the first slice of a sale carries between 6.9% and 14.9%, and eBay steps the rate down in many higher-value categories once a sale passes a threshold. Where a sale crosses a threshold, the lower rate applies only to the part above it, the way tax bands work, not to the whole sale. If an item is listed in two categories, the higher of the two fees is charged.
One more rule worth knowing: if you offer or reference your contact details to a buyer, or ask a buyer for theirs, in order to buy or sell outside eBay, eBay charges a final value fee for introducing you to the buyer even though the deal never completes on eBay. It is an easy mistake to make in a polite message, and an expensive one.
2. The per-order fee
On top of the percentage, eBay charges a fixed fee for each order: 30p when the order is £10 or less, 40p when it is over £10. eBay's rate card change in early 2026 raised the over-£10 fee from 30p to 40p (eBay's announcement). A fixed fee matters most on small sales: on a £10 order the fee alone is 3% of the sale, before any percentage is applied.
3. The regulatory operating fee
Since 8 April 2024, eBay has charged a regulatory operating fee on sales from UK listings. It is a flat 0.35% of the total sale (including postage, taxes and the other fees), and eBay's own page notes that it is subject to VAT, which is why you will also see it quoted as 0.42%. It is small, but it applies to every order, so it belongs in every price you calculate.
4. VAT on the fees
eBay's fees are subject to VAT at 20%. If you are VAT registered, that VAT is normally reclaimable as input tax on your VAT return, so your true cost is the fees before VAT. If you are not VAT registered, it is simply a further 20% on every fee. The calculator on this site shows the fees with VAT included and says so, because that is the number a non-registered seller actually pays. If registration is on your horizon, our post on VAT for UK eBay dropshippers explains when it starts to matter.
5. eBay UK final value fee rates by category
This is eBay's published schedule for a business seller on Managed Payments, written out in full (the same data the fee calculator uses to pick your rate for you). It was checked against eBay's business seller fees page on 27 September 2026; eBay changes rates from time to time, so confirm yours there before relying on a figure to the penny. Where a category has more than one rate, the lower rate applies only to the part of the sale above the threshold.
| Category group | Category | Final value fee |
|---|---|---|
| Home, Furniture & DIY | General | 11.9% on the first £500, then 7.9% above £500 |
| Furniture, bathroom & plumbing fixtures | 10.9% on the first £500, 7.9% from £500 to £1,000, then 3% above £1,000 | |
| Appliances, DIY tools & workshop equipment | 6.9% on the first £400, then 3% above £400 | |
| Power strips & surge protectors | 9.9% on the first £250, then 7.9% above £250 | |
| Tents | 10.9% on the first £250, then 7.9% above £250 | |
| Garden & Patio | Garden & Patio | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Baby | Baby | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Pet Supplies | Pet Supplies | 12.9% on the whole sale |
| Health & Beauty | General | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Hair extensions & wigs | 11.9% on the whole sale | |
| Electronic smoking, parts & accessories | 12.9% on the whole sale | |
| Clothes, Shoes & Accessories | General | 11.9% on the whole sale |
| Women's bags & handbags | 12.9% on the first £800, then 7% above £800 | |
| Trainers (men's & women's) | 11.9% on the first £100, then 7% above £100 | |
| Jewellery & Watches | Jewellery | 14.9% on the first £1,000, then 4% above £1,000 |
| Watches, parts & accessories | 12.9% on the first £750, then 3% above £750 | |
| Sporting Goods | Sporting Goods | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Toys & Games | Toys & Games | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Crafts | Crafts | 12.9% on the whole sale |
| Collectables | General | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Coins | 10.9% on the first £450, then 3% above £450 | |
| Dolls & Bears | 10.9% on the whole sale | |
| Antiques | Antiques | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Art | Art | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Stamps | Stamps | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Pottery, Ceramics & Glass | Pottery, Ceramics & Glass | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Musical Instruments & DJ Equipment | Musical Instruments & DJ Equipment | 10.9% on the whole sale |
| Holidays & Travel | Holidays & Travel | 7.9% on the first £650, then 3% above £650 |
| Business, Office & Industrial | Business, Office & Industrial | 12.5% on the whole sale |
| Computers/Tablets & Networking | General | 9.9% on the whole sale |
| Desktops, drives, tablets, laptops & printers | 6.9% on the first £1,000, then 3% above £1,000 | |
| Mobile Phones & Communication | General | 9.9% on the whole sale |
| Mobile & smart phones | 6.9% on the first £1,000, then 3% above £1,000 | |
| Sound & Vision | General | 9.9% on the whole sale |
| DVD, Blu-ray, headphones, home audio & TVs | 6.9% on the first £1,000, then 3% above £1,000 | |
| Cameras & Photography | General | 9.9% on the whole sale |
| Camcorders, digital cameras, film & lenses | 6.9% on the first £1,000, then 3% above £1,000 | |
| Video Games & Consoles | General | 9.9% on the whole sale |
| Video game consoles | 6.9% on the first £400, then 2% above £400 | |
| Books, Comics & Magazines | Books, Comics & Magazines | 9.9% on the whole sale |
| Music, Films & TV | Music | 9.9% on the whole sale |
| Films & TV | 9.9% on the whole sale | |
| Vehicle Parts & Accessories | General | 9.5% on the first £750, then 3% above £750 |
| Tyres, GPS & sat nav, power tools & equipment | 6.9% on the first £750, then 3% above £750 | |
| Everything Else | Everything Else | 12.9% on the whole sale |
| Wholesale & Job Lots | 12.9% on the whole sale | |
| Event Tickets | 12.9% on the whole sale | |
| Memorials & Funerals | 11.9% on the whole sale |
If the category you sell in is not listed, or your own account shows a different rate, the calculator lets you type your own rate in and applies it as one flat percentage.
6. Worked examples, with the pounds and pence
Rates are easier to trust once you have seen them add up. Here are three sales, with every fee shown. The buyer's total includes postage, because that is what the fees are worked on.
| Sale (buyer pays, including postage) | Final value fee | Per-order fee | Regulatory fee 0.35% | VAT on fees (20%) | All fees | Fees as a share of the sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A mirror in Furniture: £89.99 | £9.81 | £0.40 | £0.31 | £2.10 | £12.63 | 14% |
| A kitchen gadget in Home, Furniture & DIY (General): £24.99 | £2.97 | £0.40 | £0.09 | £0.69 | £4.15 | 16.6% |
| A small item at £8.99: £8.99 | £1.07 | £0.30 | £0.03 | £0.28 | £1.68 | 18.7% |
Read the last column first. On the mirror, eBay's four charges come to £12.63 on a £89.99 sale, which is 14%, not the 10.9% the category headline suggests. The percentage fee is only part of it; the per-order fee, the regulatory fee and the VAT on all three are what lift the real figure. On the smallest sale the fixed fee and VAT do even more damage, which is why small items need a closer look than large ones.
Now take the next step. If the mirror cost you £52.40 delivered, you keep £24.96 before your own time and any returns. That is the number to price from, not the sale price minus the headline percentage. Our pricing guide shows how to work backwards from the profit you want, and the calculator does the same sum in one click.
7. Extra charges that catch sellers out
- The Below Standard surcharge. If your account is rated Below Standard in eBay's evaluation on the 20th of a month, an extra 6 percentage points is added to your final value fee on sales in the following calendar month. See eBay's seller standards policy, and our plain-English guide to seller levels.
- Optional upgrades. Promoted Listings and listing upgrades are charged separately and quickly change your margin; our post on whether Promoted Listings are worth it shows how to test them.
- Currency conversion. If a payout is converted from another currency, eBay's seller currency conversion charge applies (eBay's private seller page says the rate for UK-registered sellers rises from 2.5% to 2.75% from 1 December 2026).
- Shop subscriptions. A Shop subscription changes your listing allowance and, in some categories, your rates. Whether it pays for itself depends on volume; we worked through the numbers here.
8. Private sellers pay almost nothing, business sellers pay all of this
A UK-based private seller does not pay the final value fee or the regulatory operating fee at all; they get a monthly allowance of free listings and pay a small fee beyond it (eBay's private seller fees page). That is the reason the line between private and business matters: if you are buying stock to resell for profit you are almost certainly a business seller in eBay's and the law's eyes, and the fees above apply. Our guide to business versus private selling explains where the line sits.
9. What about the buyer protection fee?
Sellers often confuse the fees they pay with the buyer protection fee. That fee is paid by buyers, on listings from UK private sellers; a business seller is not charged it, and buyers of business listings do not pay it. We have a separate page with the exact formula and worked examples: the eBay buyer protection fee, who pays it and how it is worked out.
10. How to use all of this
- Find your category's rate in the table above, or let the calculator pick it.
- Work out the fees on the buyer's total, including postage, then add the per-order fee, the 0.35% and the VAT.
- Subtract your full delivered cost, and keep the result as a percentage of that cost. That return on spend is the figure to hold every product to.
- Re-do it whenever a supplier changes a price. A supplier raising a price by 10% can turn a healthy product into a loss, and nothing on eBay will tell you. This is exactly the job Sellhelm does for a whole shop at once, using each product's own category rate.
Rates and thresholds change, so bookmark the two eBay pages linked above and treat them as the source of truth. What does not change is the structure: a percentage of the total, a fixed fee per order, a small regulatory fee, and VAT on all of it. Build your prices on that structure and a rate change becomes a number to update, not a surprise.
Questions people ask
How much does eBay take from a sale in the UK?
For a UK business seller it is a final value fee (a percentage set by category, worked on the total including postage), a per-order fee of 30p on orders of £10 or under and 40p above that, a 0.35% regulatory operating fee, and 20% VAT on all of those fees. On a £89.99 sale in the Furniture category that comes to £12.63, or 14% of the sale.
Does eBay charge fees on postage?
Yes. The final value fee, the regulatory operating fee and the per-order threshold are all worked on the total amount of the sale, which includes the postage you charge and any applicable taxes, not just the item price.
What is the eBay per-order fee in the UK?
30p for orders of £10 or less and 40p for orders over £10. The over-£10 fee rose from 30p to 40p on 12 February 2026.
What is the regulatory operating fee?
A flat 0.35% of the total sale on sales from UK listings, in place since 8 April 2024. It is subject to VAT, which is why it is sometimes quoted as 0.42%.
Do I pay VAT on eBay fees?
eBay charges VAT at 20% on its fees. If you are VAT registered you can normally reclaim it on your VAT return; if you are not, it is an additional cost on every fee.
Do private sellers pay eBay fees in the UK?
A UK-based private seller does not pay a final value fee or the regulatory operating fee. They have a monthly allowance of free listings and pay a small fee per listing beyond it. Business sellers pay the fees described on this page.
What happens to my fees if my seller standard drops?
An account rated Below Standard in eBay’s monthly evaluation is charged an extra 6 percentage points on the final value fee for sales in the following calendar month.
Where do the category rates on this page come from?
They are eBay’s own published rates for a UK business seller on Managed Payments, checked against eBay’s fees page on 27 September 2026. eBay changes rates from time to time, so confirm yours on eBay’s page before relying on a figure.