Facebook Marketplace Fee Calculator

Local is free, shipping costs 5%

Facebook Marketplace is unusual among selling platforms because most of what happens on it is completely free. If you list an item for local pickup and the buyer hands you cash or pays you directly through an app, Meta charges nothing, it never touched the money. There is no listing fee, no final value fee and no monthly subscription for an individual seller.

The only time Meta takes a cut is when you use shipped checkout: the buyer pays through Facebook's own checkout (Meta Pay), and Meta charges a selling fee of 5% of the transaction, with a $0.40 minimum. That fee bundles everything, commission, payment processing and buyer purchase protection, into one line. There is no separate processing charge the way there is on eBay or a card processor.

The calculator reflects this with its sale-type dropdown. Leave it on “local pickup” and the fee is zero; switch to “shipped via Facebook checkout” and the 5% (or $0.40) applies. Same item, same costs, different take-home, which is why the local-versus-shipped decision matters as much as your price.

How the 5% and the $0.40 minimum work

Meta calculates the selling fee on the entire transaction: the item price, the shipping the buyer pays, and any applicable tax. That is a broader base than some sellers assume. Charge $6 for shipping and the fee is calculated on the item plus that $6; collect tax and it is included too.

The $0.40 minimum only matters on small sales. Five percent of $8 is exactly $0.40, so $8 is the crossover point. Below $8 the flat minimum is larger than the percentage would be, a $5 sale would be $0.25 at 5%, but the minimum makes it $0.40. Above $8 the percentage governs. The calculator applies whichever is larger, exactly as Meta does.

In practice this means the fee behaves like a flat 40¢ on cheap items and a true 5% on everything above $8. If you sell a lot of small items, the minimum quietly raises your effective rate: on a $5 item it is 8%, not 5%.

Worked example: a $60 item shipped

Take the calculator defaults on a shipped order: item price $60, shipping charged to the buyer $8, no tax, your item cost $20, and your actual shipping cost $7.

• Buyer pays (item + shipping + tax): $68.00
• Facebook selling fee (5% of $68): $3.40
• Total fees: $3.40
• Your costs: $20 + $7 = $27.00
• Net profit: $68 − $3.40 − $27.00 = $37.60, a 55.3% margin

Because the fee is charged on shipping too, the $8 you collected added $0.40 to your selling fee. If the same item had sold locally for $60 with no shipping and no fee, your profit would be $40.00, $2.40 more. That gap is the real cost of offering shipping, before you even count the $7 label.

Run the numbers both ways before you list. If an item is small and light, shipping opens it to a national audience for a $3.40 fee and is usually worth it. If it is bulky or heavy, the label alone can exceed the item's margin, and a local cash sale with zero fee is almost always the better trade.

Worked example: a $5 item and the $0.40 minimum

Now a cheap item, where the minimum bites. A $5 book, no shipping charged, no tax, cost $1 to acquire.

• Buyer pays: $5.00
• Facebook selling fee: 5% would be $0.25, but the minimum applies, so $0.40
• Total fees: $0.40
• Your costs: $1.00
• Net profit: $5 − $0.40 − $1 = $3.60, a 72% margin

The $0.40 minimum is an 8% effective rate on a $5 item, not 5%. At $8 the two rules meet and the fee is exactly $0.40 either way; above $8 the percentage takes over. For a seller moving lots of $4-$8 items, that minimum is worth tracking, it is small per item but it is a higher percentage than the headline suggests.

If you find yourself selling a lot of $5 items shipped, bundling them into a single lot is the obvious fix: one $20 sale pays a $1.00 fee (5%) instead of four separate $0.40 minimums. Same goods, lower total fee, and one shipping label instead of four.

The 5% vs 10% question: what Meta's own documents say

You will find guides quoting a 10% Facebook Marketplace fee with an $0.80 minimum, and others quoting 5% with $0.40. The disagreement is real and it is not just blog noise, it reflects different Meta documents.

Meta's Business Help Centre states a selling fee of 5% per shipment, or a flat $0.40 on shipments of $8.00 or less, and that is the rate most US sellers report seeing in practice and the rate this calculator models. However, Meta's merchant/commerce policies at facebook.com/legal/merchant_policies have described a fee of 10% per transaction with a minimum of $0.80 for Individual Sellers using onsite checkout. The two figures have coexisted, and Meta has also run zero-fee promotions in the past.

Because the documents disagree, treat the calculator's 5% as the working assumption and confirm the actual rate shown in your selling flow before you ship. If your payout breakdown shows a different percentage, reprice accordingly, the calculator lets you model either reality by adjusting your expectations, even though its preset follows the 5% figure.

How Facebook Marketplace compares to other platforms

Facebook's fee looks tiny next to dedicated marketplaces, but the platforms are not comparable. Here is the picture on a $68 shipped order.

On pure fees, Facebook shipped checkout is the cheapest of the bunch by a wide margin. The catch is reach and trust: Facebook's buyer base is more local and casual, and there is no seller rating system as mature as eBay's. For furniture, appliances and bulky local goods, Facebook is often the best platform on earth, zero fees and a buyer who collects. For collectibles and niche items, eBay's higher fee buys a much larger, more committed audience.

What is bundled into the fee

The 5% is not just commission. Meta's selling fee is described as covering the selling commission, payment processing and buyer purchase protection in one charge. That bundling is why there is no separate line for card processing the way there is when you accept Stripe or PayPal directly.

It also means the buyer is paying for protection. Shipped Facebook orders come with purchase protection for the buyer, which reduces disputes but also means Meta can side with the buyer in a claim. As a seller, that is a real consideration: the 5% buys you a smoother, more trustworthy checkout, but it does not eliminate the risk of a return or a claim. Keep good records, ship with tracking, and photograph items before packing.

For local sales the opposite is true, there is no protection for either side, no fee, and no recourse if something goes wrong. Many sellers prefer local for exactly that reason: no fee, no claim window, cash in hand. The calculator's two presets mirror these two different worlds.

Payout timing and shipping labels

When a buyer pays through Facebook checkout, Meta holds the funds until the order is complete. Payout is typically released 15-20 days after you mark the item shipped and add tracking, or 5 days after delivery if a delivery confirmation is received, whichever comes first. That is a longer hold than eBay or Mercari, and it matters if you are turning inventory quickly.

Facebook also offers discounted shipping labels through its checkout, which can be cheaper than buying postage at the counter. Because the selling fee is calculated on the shipping the buyer pays, not on your label cost, a cheaper label does not reduce the fee, but it does improve your margin. Model your real label cost in the “what shipping costs you” field to see the true picture.

For local sales there is no payout to wait for at all: you are paid directly, immediately. See the fee terms at Meta's merchant policies and the selling tools at Facebook Marketplace.

Where the rules come from

The selling-fee rules on this page follow Meta's published commerce policies for Marketplace and Shops. Meta has changed how it charges on shipped orders more than once, so treat the number you see on your own order summary as the final word.

For consumer-protection basics on selling used goods to individuals, the FTC's consumer guidance is a useful plain-English reference on what you have to disclose and what you do not.