TikTok Shop Fee Calculator

How the TikTok Shop fee stack works

TikTok Shop takes money out of every completed order in up to three separate places, and the calculator above models all three so you can see what lands in your bank account.

• Referral fee, TikTok Shop's commission. It is charged on the product price (plus any TikTok-funded discount) and, importantly, not on the shipping the buyer pays.
• Per-order transaction fee, a flat $0.30 per order covering payment processing and payment infrastructure. This is the line that punishes $5 items and barely dents $200 ones.
• Affiliate commission, only if a creator sells your product. You set the rate, and it is charged on the product price, stacked on top of the referral fee.

That structure is why two sellers with the same product can take home different amounts: the referral rate depends on your category, and the affiliate line depends on whether you are pushing content yourself or paying creators to do it. The calculator's math is simple and transparent: gross = price + shipping, referral = price × rate, and net profit = gross − fees − (item cost + shipping cost). Enter your own numbers rather than the defaults and you get a defensible per-order margin you can price around.

The 6% vs 8% referral-rate question

If you have compared TikTok Shop fee guides you have probably seen both 6% and 8% quoted as the US referral rate. Both are defensible, which is why this calculator lets you pick the rate instead of hard-coding one.

TikTok Shop's own Seller Center referral-fee page, the one still titled as a 2024 update and last revised in May 2025, states 6% for most categories, with 5% on selected jewelry. That is the figure TikTok has published itself. Trade reports from August and September 2026 say the standard rate for most non-food categories rose to 8% effective August 4, 2026, with selected beauty and electronics sub-categories running roughly 9.5% to 11% and food and grocery staying near 5%.

Because the public table and the reported change disagree, the only rate that matters is the one applied to your own orders. Open Seller Center, go to Finances, open a settled order from the last two weeks and divide the referral-fee line by the order base. That is your real rate, model with it. The dropdown presets (6%, 8%, 5%, 3%, 2%) exist so you can stress-test both the published number and the higher reported one before you commit to a price.

Why your category changes everything

The single biggest lever in the calculator is the category dropdown, because the referral rate is set per category rather than per seller.

As modelled here, the presets are: most categories 6%, fashion & apparel 8%, beauty, home & sports 5%, electronics & accessories 3%, and food & beverages 2%. Those presets let you test a low-margin electronics item against a higher-margin fashion item without rebuilding your pricing sheet each time.

The practical takeaway: an 8% fashion referral fee on a $45 dress is $3.60, while the same $45 in a 3% electronics category is $1.35, a $2.25 swing on a single order that adds up fast at volume. If your catalogue spans categories, run each one separately rather than averaging; the affiliate and shipping lines interact with the referral line in ways that averaging hides. And remember the referral fee is charged on price, not shipping, so padding the shipping charge does not reduce your commission.

Worked example: the $30 default order

Leave the calculator on its defaults and you get a clean picture of a typical 6% sale: product price $30, shipping charged to the buyer $4, your product cost $9, and what shipping costs you $3.50.

• Buyer pays: $30 + $4 = $34.00
• Referral fee (6% of $30): $1.80
• Transaction fee: $0.30
• Affiliate commission (0%): $0.00
• Total TikTok Shop fees: $2.10
• Your costs: $9 + $3.50 = $12.50
• Net profit: $34 − $2.10 − $12.50 = $19.40, a 57.1% margin

Notice how the $0.30 transaction fee is about 1% of this order, but on a $10 item it would be 3%. The fixed fee is a much bigger deal on cheap products. If your average order value is under $15, the transaction fee alone can erase a thin margin, which is why TikTok Shop rewards sellers who bundle or upsell rather than push $6 trinkets. Try raising the price field to $60 with the same costs and watch the margin jump, then drop it to $8 and watch the fixed fee do real damage.

Worked example: fashion plus a 15% affiliate

Now add two things that change the math in a hurry: a fashion item and a creator commission. Take a $45 jacket in the 8% category, shipping charged $6, your cost $18, shipping cost to you $5, and a 15% affiliate rate.

• Buyer pays: $45 + $6 = $51.00
• Referral fee (8% of $45): $3.60
• Affiliate commission (15% of $45): $6.75
• Transaction fee: $0.30
• Total fees: $10.65
• Net profit: $51 − $10.65 − ($18 + $5) = $17.35, a 34.0% margin

The affiliate line ($6.75) is almost double the referral fee ($3.60). That is the trade: creators bring demand you did not have to pay ads for, but they are the largest single line on the statement. Only offer affiliate rates on products with enough built-in margin to absorb them, and remember that the same 15% on an $83 item is $12.45, the higher your price, the more a percentage-based commission costs you.

How TikTok Shop compares to other marketplaces

It helps to see TikTok Shop next to the platforms most US sellers also list on. The table below shows typical headline commission rates; every platform has category exceptions, and this page's calculator models the TikTok column.

Read the table with care: a 6% TikTok referral fee looks low next to eBay's roughly 13.6%, but TikTok sellers usually add affiliate commission on top, and TikTok hands you demand from its For You feed that eBay does not. The right comparison is your net margin after every fee, which is exactly what the calculator outputs. You can confirm the current TikTok figures on TikTok Shop Seller Center and in the official referral fee update.

New-seller discounts and when to switch on affiliate

TikTok Shop runs a new-seller promotion: sellers who complete onboarding and record their first sale within 60 days pay a reduced referral rate, around 3% for a 30-day window, before reverting to their category rate. If you are launching, that window is worth timing deliberately; a first sale in week three of a slow ramp is worth more than the same sale six months in.

On affiliate, the decision is arithmetic, not vibes. A 15% commission only makes sense if your landed margin after the referral fee, transaction fee and product cost still clears your target. Run your numbers with the affiliate field at 0%, then at the rate you would offer, and compare the two net-profit lines. If the affiliate version still beats your floor, turn it on; if it does not, the creator is not the problem, your price or your product cost is. You can read the current terms on TikTok Shop for business.