Does Poshmark Take 20%?
Yes — on any sale of $15 or more. But the 20% is calculated on a narrower base than most sellers assume, and it is the entire seller-side cost rather than one fee among several. Both details change the comparison with other platforms.
By Marginory team · Online sellers with hands-on experience across Etsy, Shopify & PODUpdated Fee data verified against official platform documentation
The direct answer
Yes. Poshmark takes 20% of the sale price on any item sold for $15 or more. Below $15 it takes a flat $2.95 instead. There is no other mandatory seller fee — no listing fee, no monthly fee, no separate payment processing charge.
The number that surprises people is not the 20% itself but how clean it is. Most marketplaces quote a low headline rate and then add processing on top. Poshmark quotes a high one and adds nothing.
What the 20% is calculated on
The commission base is the item price only. Everything else in the transaction sits outside it:
| Component | In the 20% base? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Item sale price | Yes | The full agreed price, including any accepted offer |
| Buyer-paid shipping | No | Paid direct to Poshmark for the prepaid label |
| Sales tax | No | Collected and remitted by Poshmark |
| Bundle discount you offered | No | The 20% applies to the discounted total |
| Posh Ads spend | No | Billed separately as advertising |
The shipping exclusion matters more than it sounds. On a $40 coat with $12 of shipping, Mercari charges 10% of $52 ($5.20) while Poshmark charges 20% of $40 ($8.00). The headline gap is 10 points; the real gap is $2.80.
What 20% costs at real prices
| Sale price | Poshmark takes | You keep | Typical item |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15.00 | $3.00 | $12.00 | Basic tee, accessory |
| $25.00 | $5.00 | $20.00 | Jeans, casual dress |
| $40.00 | $8.00 | $32.00 | Brand-name top, sneakers |
| $75.00 | $15.00 | $60.00 | Designer dress, boots |
| $150.00 | $30.00 | $120.00 | Coat, premium denim |
| $400.00 | $80.00 | $320.00 | Designer handbag |
| $1000.00 | $200.00 | $800.00 | Luxury bag, fine jewelry |
Source: Poshmark seller commission policy — verified 2026-08-08.
Because there is no cap, the 20% keeps scaling. A $1,000 luxury sale costs $200 in commission — the single strongest argument for listing high-value items on a platform with capped or lower percentage fees, provided you can sell them there.
Comparing 20% fairly against other platforms
A like-for-like comparison has to include every platform's processing fee, not just its headline commission. Here is a $50 sale with $8 of buyer-paid shipping:
| Platform | Fee base | Total fee | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depop | $58 (processing only) | $2.36 | $47.64 |
| Mercari | $58 (item + shipping) | $5.80 | $44.20 |
| eBay | $58 (item + shipping) | $8.29 | $41.71 |
| Poshmark | $50 (item only) | $10.00 | $40.00 |
"You keep" counts the item price only, since buyer-paid shipping is passed through to the carrier on every platform. Depop's processing rate is a widely reported estimate, not a published figure.
Poshmark is still the most expensive of the four here — but by $2.80 against Mercari rather than the $5.00 the headline rates imply. Run your own price and shipping through the comparison →
Pricing to absorb the 20%
Do not add 20% to your target — that under-prices you. To keep $40 you need to divide by 0.8, not multiply by 1.2:
| You want to keep | Wrong (×1.2) | Actually pays you | Right (÷0.8) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $20.00 | $24.00 | $19.20 | $25.00 |
| $40.00 | $48.00 | $38.40 | $50.00 |
| $60.00 | $72.00 | $57.60 | $75.00 |
| $100.00 | $120.00 | $96.00 | $125.00 |
The ×1.2 shortcut leaves you 4% short every time. Use (cost + target profit) ÷ 0.80 instead. Or let the pricing calculator do it →
Is the 20% worth paying?
Fee rate and take-home pay are different questions. The relevant comparison is not "which platform charges least" but "which platform nets me most per item per month", and sell-through speed usually dominates that calculation.
| Scenario | Net per sale | Sales / month | Monthly net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poshmark, $50 item, 20% | $40.00 | 12 | $480.00 |
| Mercari, $50 item, 10% | $45.00 | 8 | $360.00 |
| Mercari, $50 item, 10% | $45.00 | 12 | $540.00 |
Twelve Poshmark sales at 20% beat eight Mercari sales at 10%. If the volume is equal, Mercari wins. The honest answer for most fashion resellers is to list on both and let the data decide, which is why cross-listing is so common in this niche.