Whatnot Fees in 2026: What Sellers Actually Pay Per Sale

Short answer: Whatnot charges sellers an 8% commission plus 2.9% + $0.30 payment processing per order, which works out to ~11% of gross sales on a typical break. Sell $1,000 in a night and Whatnot keeps ~$109 of it.

That ~11% is the number that matters, and it is higher than the 8% most sellers quote from memory. This guide walks through exactly where the extra goes, the one exception worth knowing about, and how to figure out what the fees mean for your actual profit.

The two fees Whatnot charges

Every Whatnot sale pays two separate lines:

• Selling commission: 8% of the sale price. This is Whatnot's cut for the marketplace and the livestream audience it brings.
• Payment processing: 2.9% + $0.30 per order. This covers the card networks and is charged on the full order amount.

The commission is the headline rate. The processing line is what pushes your real cost above it, and the flat $0.30 means small orders pay a higher effective percentage than big ones. A $10 sale pays $0.80 commission plus $0.59 processing, which is ~13.9% all-in. A $200 order pays ~10.9%. The more your sales fragment into small orders, the worse your blended rate gets.

What that looks like on a real break

Take a $1,000 break sold across a typical mix of spots:

| Line | Amount | |---|---| | Gross sales | $1,000.00 | | Commission (8%) | $80.00 | | Payment processing (2.9% + $0.30/order) | ~$29.30 | | Whatnot's total cut | ~$109.30 (~11%) | | Left before product and shipping | ~$890.70 |

Run your own numbers in the Whatnot fee calculator, which uses this exact fee model and lets you change the order mix.

Remember that the $890 is not profit. The case you opened and the shipping to buyers still come out of it, which is why a $1,000 break with a $450 case and $60 of shipping nets closer to $380 than $890. The full four-line math is covered in how much card breakers actually make.

The $1,500 rule, and why breakers rarely see it

Whatnot drops the commission to 0% on the portion of a single order above $1,500. Sell one item for $2,000 and you pay 8% on the first $1,500, nothing on the last $500. Two caveats keep this from mattering for most breakers:

1. It is per order, not per show. Forty spots that add up to $2,000 all pay full commission. Only a single order crossing $1,500 qualifies.
2. Sports cards, including breaks, are excluded. The reduction applies to eligible categories only, and break revenue is specifically carved out.

Payment processing also still applies to the full amount either way. Treat the $1,500 rule as a nice surprise on the occasional big single, not a lever you can plan around.

How Whatnot fees compare to other platforms

On rate alone, Whatnot's ~11% sits in the middle of the live-selling pack: Fanatics Live and TikTok Shop charge a flat 6%, while eBay Live's stacked fees reach ~13.6%. But the cheapest rate does not automatically win. Whatnot's live audience is the largest in the hobby, and stronger hammer prices can outearn a 5-point fee gap.

The full side-by-side, with the same $1,000 break run through all four fee models, is in the card breaking fees guide and the platform comparison.

Fees are the predictable cost. Track the rest.

Whatnot's ~11% is the one cost you can predict to the penny before you ever go live. What actually decides whether a show made money is everything around it: what you paid for the product, what shipping really cost, and whether every spot sold. Sellers who only watch gross sales consistently overestimate their profit, because the gross is the biggest number on the screen and every real number is smaller.

That gap between gross and net is exactly what BreakDesk tracks: every sale, minus the fees from this guide, minus product cost and shipping, rolled into a real P&L per break. If you want your Whatnot numbers without the spreadsheet, join the waitlist.