Where the 30% number comes from
The 30% figure tends to circulate in seller forums when someone has stacked every possible fee on a small order. The $0.20 listing fee plus the $0.25 payment processing flat fee disproportionately punish sub-$10 orders — on a $4 sticker, the flat fees alone are 11.25% of revenue. Add the percentage-based fees and Off-Site Ads, and you can get to 30%+ on the smallest end of the price spectrum.
But it isn't a flat rate. A $4 sticker that gets attributed to Off-Site Ads pays a total of $1.20 in fees (30%), while a $50 order pays $5.20 + $7.50 = $12.70 (25.4%). The math is regressive — flat fees consume a larger percentage of small orders.
The actual ceiling
On a real-world basis, the upper bound for Etsy's cut on a standard US sale is approximately 28%: 10% baseline + 15% Off-Site Ads + the occasional 2.5% currency conversion. The Off-Site Ads cap of $100 per order means luxury items effectively pay below 15% on the Off-Site Ads line above ~$667.
30%+ scenarios exist but they're not the rule: a UK seller with regulatory operating fees, currency conversion, and Off-Site Ads on a sub-$20 order can cross 30%. A US seller on a typical $30 order rarely will.
The sales-tax confusion
Many sellers report a 30% number that's actually inflated by sales tax. Etsy collects sales tax in most US states on behalf of the seller and remits it directly to the tax authority — it appears on the seller dashboard as part of the order total, but the seller doesn't keep it. If you compare 'order total' to 'amount deposited' without backing out sales tax, you'll see an inflated 'Etsy cut' that includes tax pass-through. Etsy isn't keeping that money.