eBay seller fees in the UK now depend almost entirely on one question: are you a private seller or a business? Since October 2024, private sellers in the UK pay no final value fee on most sales. Business sellers still pay a percentage of every sale, a fixed per-order fee, a 0.35% regulatory operating fee, and optional costs for a shop and Promoted Listings.
If you’re a brand selling on Amazon and eyeing eBay as a second channel, you’re a business seller. This is the business version of eBay seller fees in the UK: the rates as of September 2026, what they come to on a real price point, and how they compare with Amazon.
What are eBay seller fees in the UK in 2026?
For a UK business seller, the core cost of a sale is a category percentage plus a 30p or 40p per-order fee, plus 0.35% regulatory operating fee. The percentage and the regulatory fee are charged on the total amount of the sale, which eBay defines as item price plus postage plus any taxes. Everything else (shop subscription, extra listings, ads, international sales) sits on top.
Here are the building blocks, from eBay’s business seller fees page (last updated 4 August 2026, all figures ex VAT):
| Fee | What you pay (as of September 2026) | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Final value fee (variable) | 5%–14.9% by category, some tiered | Total sale incl. postage and VAT |
| Per-order fee | £0.30 if the order is £10 or less; £0.40 above £10 | Per order |
| Regulatory operating fee | 0.35% | Total sale |
| International fee (UK-registered seller) | 1.05% Eurozone and Northern Europe; 1.8% US and Canada; 2.0% everywhere else | Total sale to that buyer |
| Insertion fee (no shop) | 30p per listing | Per listing |
| Promoted Listings (optional) | General: 2%–100% ad rate you choose; Priority: cost per click | Varies |
One detail that trips people up: eBay’s fees are shown exclusive of VAT. If you’re VAT-registered you reclaim it. If you aren’t, add 20% to every line above before you model anything.
What do private sellers pay compared with business sellers?
UK private sellers pay no final value fee and no regulatory operating fee on domestic sales, outside the motors categories. eBay announced this on 30 September 2024 and it has been the rule since. Private sellers get 300 free listings a month, pay 35p per listing after that, and pay 3% on international sales. Business sellers get none of those exemptions.
The money didn’t disappear. eBay moved it to the buyer. On items from UK private sellers, buyers pay a Buyer Protection fee of £0.10 per item plus 7% of the first £20, 4% from £20 to £300 and 2% from £300 to £4,000 (VAT included). Items from business sellers don’t carry that fee.
That has two consequences for a brand:
- You can’t register as private to dodge fees. If you buy goods to resell or make items to sell, eBay treats you as a business, and so does UK consumer law.
- Your listing is cheaper for the buyer than a private seller’s at the same headline price. On a £30 item, a private seller’s buyer pays £1.90 extra in Buyer Protection (10p + 7% of £20 + 4% of £10). Worth knowing when you benchmark against private listings of the same product.
How is the eBay final value fee calculated for business sellers?
The eBay final value fee is the category percentage applied to the total amount of the sale, plus the per-order fee. Total amount means item price, postage and any VAT the buyer pays. So if you sell a £25 item with £4.99 postage, the percentage is charged on £29.99, not £25.
The per-order fee went up on 12 February 2026: orders over £10 now pay £0.40 instead of £0.30. Orders of £10 or less stayed at £0.30. eBay’s help page notes a reduced 10p per-order fee for selected Collectables and Home, Furniture & DIY listings, introduced in 2022. Check your own category in Seller Hub before you count on it.
Some categories use a tiered rate. You pay the higher percentage on the portion up to a threshold and a lower rate on the portion above it. That matters for high-ticket items and barely at all below £100.
eBay business seller fees by main category (as of September 2026)
| Category | Final value fee (plus per-order fee) |
|---|---|
| Most “Everything Else” categories | 12.9% |
| Clothes, Shoes & Accessories | 11.9% |
| Trainers | 11.9%; 7% if the item sells for £100 or more |
| Women’s Bags & Handbags | 12.9% up to £800, 7% above |
| Health & Beauty | 10.9% |
| Home, Furniture & DIY | 11.9% up to £500, 7.9% above |
| Appliances, DIY Tools & Workshop Equipment | 6.9% up to £400, 3% above |
| Garden & Patio | 10.9% |
| Baby | 10.9% |
| Sporting Goods | 10.9% |
| Toys & Games | 10.9% |
| Pet Supplies | 12.9% |
| Crafts | 12.9% |
| Business, Office & Industrial | 12.5% (up from 11.9% on 12 Feb 2026) |
| Computers, Tablets & Networking | 9.9% (laptops, tablets, desktops: 6.9% up to £1,000, 3% above) |
| Sound & Vision | 9.9% (TVs, headphones, home audio: 6.9% up to £1,000, 3% above) |
| Mobile & Smart Phones | 6.9% up to £1,000, 3% above |
| Jewellery & Watches | 14.9% up to £1,000, 4% above |
| Vehicle Parts & Accessories | 9.5% up to £750, 3% above |
| Books, Comics & Magazines | 9.9% |
This is a selection. eBay’s full table has around 50 rows and some sub-category exceptions. Look up your exact leaf category rather than the parent.
The penalty rates nobody puts in the spreadsheet
Seller performance changes your eBay business seller fees more than any shop tier. A business account rated Below Standard pays an extra 6 percentage points on the final value fee, rising to 7 points after four consecutive months. A “Very High” rate of item-not-as-described returns adds 4 points, rising to 5. On a 10.9% category, that’s a fee of 14.9% to 17.9% before you’ve done anything else wrong.
Going the other way, Top Rated Sellers get 10% off the variable part of the final value fee on listings that qualify for Top Rated Plus (eBay calls them Premium Service listings). Ten per cent of 10.9% is about 1.1 points. Worth having, but it won’t rescue a thin margin.
Is an eBay shop subscription worth it?
An eBay shop subscription buys you free listings and lower per-listing costs, not a lower final value fee. As of September 2026, eBay’s business fee page lists the same final value fee table for every tier. So the decision is almost entirely about how many listings you run each month.
| eBay shop | Monthly price ex VAT | Inc. 20% VAT | Free fixed-price listings | Free auction listings | Extra fixed-price listing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No shop | £0 | £0 | None | None | 30p |
| Basic | £27 | £32.40 | 250 | 100 | 10p |
| Featured | £77 | £92.40 | 1,500 | 600 | 5p |
| Anchor | £437 | £524.40 | Unlimited | 1,000 | £0 |
The break-even is simple arithmetic. Without a shop, 250 fixed-price listings cost 250 × 30p = £75 a month in insertion fees. Basic covers those for £27, so it pays for itself at 90 listings (90 × 30p = £27). Featured starts beating Basic somewhere around 750 active listings, depending on how many you list over your allowance.
A brand with 40 SKUs doesn’t need Featured. A brand with 3,000 variations probably does. Anchor is for large catalogues and people who want the bundled support.
eBay has historically offered a lower monthly price for annual commitments. The August 2026 help page lists monthly prices only, so check the current options in Seller Hub before signing up, and read the early termination terms if you pick a yearly plan.
What does eBay Promoted Listings cost?
Promoted Listings General costs whatever ad rate you set, between 2% and 100% of the total sale, and you only pay when a buyer clicks the ad and buys that item within 30 days. Priority campaigns work like Amazon Sponsored Products: you pay per click whether or not it sells.
Two things matter for your ebay promoted listings cost:
- General is cost-per-sale, charged on the total sale amount including postage and VAT, the same base as the final value fee. At a 5% ad rate on a £30 order, that’s £1.50.
- Priority charges for every valid click, and eBay counts “halo” sales: if the buyer clicks one promoted listing and buys something else from your shop, that can be attributed too.
eBay doesn’t publish a standard ad rate. Seller Hub suggests a rate per listing based on what similar items are paying, and in competitive categories that suggestion can sit well into double digits. Our heuristic: treat the General ad rate like an ACoS target. If your margin after fees is 25% and you set a 15% ad rate, you’re keeping 10 points on promoted sales. The break-even ACoS logic we use on Amazon applies almost unchanged.
The catch with General is attribution. A 30-day click-to-sale window means you’ll pay ad fees on some buyers who would have bought anyway. Test it on a set of listings, compare their conversion with a control group, and keep the rate only where it moves sales.
eBay vs Amazon: what do the fees come to on a £30 item?
On our illustrative £30 sporting goods item, eBay’s core fees come to about £3.87 (12.9%) and Amazon’s, merchant-fulfilled, about £4.67 (15.6%). eBay is cheaper on the base fees. It usually stops being cheaper once you add Promoted Listings, and the comparison changes again if you use FBA.
This is a modelled example, not client data. Assumptions: a £30 sale including VAT, free postage, UK buyer, Sporting Goods on eBay (10.9%) and a 15% referral category on Amazon, 300 orders a month, eBay Basic shop and Amazon Professional plan, both sellers VAT-registered so fees are shown ex VAT. Fee rates as of September 2026.
| Line | eBay (Basic shop) | Amazon (Professional, merchant-fulfilled) |
|---|---|---|
| Selling fee | £3.27 (10.9% FVF) | £4.50 (15% referral fee) |
| Per-order fee | £0.40 | None |
| Regulatory / digital services fee | £0.11 (0.35% ROF) | £0.09 (2% Digital Services Fee on the referral fee) |
| Subscription, per order (÷300) | £0.09 (£27/month) | £0.08 (£25/month) |
| Total platform fees | £3.87 (12.9%) | £4.67 (15.6%) |
| Add eBay General ads at 5% on every sale | £5.37 (17.9%) | n/a |
| If not VAT-registered (fees +20%) | £4.64 | £5.61 |
What the table doesn’t show:
- Advertising. We’ve put eBay ads in and Amazon ads out, because they don’t compare cleanly. Most Amazon brands run Sponsored Products at a TACoS well above 5%. On a like-for-like basis with ads on both sides, the gap can close or reverse.
- Fulfilment. Add FBA and Amazon’s number goes up by the fulfilment fee for your size tier, but you stop paying for postage, packing and the warehouse time. The Amazon profit calculator handles that side, and our Amazon seller fees UK breakdown covers every line.
- Volume. Amazon usually sells more units of the same product. A lower fee on fewer sales is not always the better deal.
So on eBay seller fees UK brands usually come out ahead on the base rate. That’s a reason to add eBay, not a reason to move off Amazon.
Which smaller eBay fees catch business sellers out?
The international fee, listing upgrades and returns postage are the three that most often make an eBay margin smaller than expected. None is large on its own, and all of them sit outside a basic fee calculation.
- International fee. A UK business seller selling to a US buyer pays 1.8% of the total sale on top of the normal final value fee. On a £30 order, that’s another 54p.
- Listing upgrades. A subtitle costs £2 per listing. Gallery Plus costs £2.50, except in Clothes, Shoes & Accessories, Home, Furniture & DIY and Pet Supplies, where it’s free. A reserve price on an auction costs 4% of the reserve, capped at £150. Brands rarely need any of these.
- Refunds. When you refund an order, eBay’s policy on crediting the final value fee depends on the refund type and reason. Model returns as a cost, not a wash.
How does Ecom Enable run eBay alongside Amazon?
We treat eBay as a second storefront for the same catalogue, not a separate business. One product feed, one stock pool, one pricing model, with eBay-specific titles and category mapping. The fee structure above is why we price per channel rather than copying the Amazon price across.
In practice, our eBay management work covers four things:
- Fee-aware pricing. We set eBay prices from the same margin build we use for Amazon, including the per-order fee, the regulatory fee and a target Promoted Listings rate. Most brands we look at are either leaving margin on the table on eBay or quietly losing money on low-price SKUs where the 40p per-order fee bites hardest.
- Shop tier and listing count. We match the shop tier to the real active listing count and review it quarterly.
- Promoted Listings as a controlled test. General campaigns on a subset first, measured against unpromoted listings, before rolling out.
- Seller standards. Keeping the account out of Below Standard is worth 6 to 7 points of final value fee. That’s more than any ad rate tweak.
People searching for an eBay agency usually want one of two things: someone to run the listings day to day, or someone to fix the economics. We do both, but for brands that already sell on Amazon or Shopify, because our value is in running the channels together. If eBay is your only channel, an eBay-only specialist may suit you better. The wider picture is on our marketplaces page, and our Walmart Marketplace post covers the next channel after eBay.
FAQ
How much does eBay take from a sale in the UK?
For a business seller, eBay takes the category final value fee (5%–14.9%, 10.9%–12.9% in most consumer categories) plus 30p or 40p per order and 0.35% regulatory operating fee, all charged on the total sale including postage and VAT, as of September 2026. On a £30 order in a 10.9% category that’s about £3.78 before shop or ad costs.
Are eBay fees free for private sellers in the UK?
Mostly, yes. Since 30 September 2024, UK private sellers pay no final value fee or regulatory operating fee on domestic sales outside motors. They get 300 free listings a month, then pay 35p a listing, and 3% on international sales. Buyers pay a Buyer Protection fee instead. Anyone selling as a business must register as a business seller.
What is the eBay per-order fee?
It’s the fixed part of the final value fee. As of September 2026, business sellers pay £0.30 per order of £10 or less and £0.40 per order above £10. The 40p rate took effect on 12 February 2026. eBay lists a reduced 10p per-order fee for selected Collectables and Home, Furniture & DIY listings.
Do eBay fees include VAT?
No. eBay’s UK business seller fees are quoted exclusive of VAT, and VAT is added on your invoice. VAT-registered businesses can normally reclaim it. Separately, the final value fee percentage is charged on the total sale amount, which includes the VAT your buyer pays, so the fee is higher as a share of your ex-VAT revenue.
Does an eBay shop subscription lower my final value fees?
Not as of September 2026. eBay’s business fee page shows one final value fee table across all shop tiers. A shop subscription gives you free listings (250 on Basic, 1,500 on Featured, unlimited fixed-price on Anchor) and cheaper listings over your allowance. Basic at £27 a month ex VAT pays for itself once you run around 90 listings.
How much do eBay Promoted Listings cost?
Promoted Listings General charges an ad rate you choose, from 2% to 100% of the total sale, only when a buyer clicks your ad and buys that item within 30 days. Priority campaigns charge per click regardless of sales. eBay suggests an ad rate per listing; treat it as a ceiling to test, not a target.
Is eBay cheaper than Amazon for UK sellers?
On base platform fees, usually. In our illustrative £30 example, eBay came to about 12.9% of the sale and Amazon merchant-fulfilled about 15.6%. Once you add advertising, fulfilment method and the difference in sales volume, the answer depends on the product. Model both channels with your own numbers.
Sami Sultan runs Ecom Enable, an Amazon growth partner for DTC brands. eBay UK fee pages and Amazon UK pricing checked 22 September 2026. If you want your eBay and Amazon margins modelled side by side, start with our free audit or see how we handle eBay management.
Sources: eBay UK: Fees for business sellers (last updated 4 August 2026); eBay UK Seller Centre: Rate card change, effective 12 February 2026; eBay UK: Private seller fees; eBay Inc: eBay UK announces it is now free to sell across its categories; eBay UK: Buyer Protection fee; eBay UK: Promoted Listings overview; eBay UK: General campaign strategy; eBay UK: eBay Shops overview; Amazon UK: Selling fees and pricing. Corroborating secondary source: DashVue on eBay UK fees 2026. Amazon digital services fee: Ecom Enable’s break-even ACoS post, sourced to Seller Central.