Etsy closed 2025 with 5.6 million active sellers running shops on the platform, according to Etsy Inc.’s official Q4 and full-year 2025 results filed with the SEC. That is the clearest public measure of how many people are actually selling on Etsy today, and it comes straight from the company’s own quarterly reporting rather than a third-party estimate.
How many sellers and buyers does Etsy have in 2026?
Etsy reported 5.6 million active sellers as of December 31, 2025, where “active” means at least one charge processed in the trailing 12 months. Active buyers, by the same definition, came in at 86.5 million, down roughly 3.4% from about 89.5 million a year earlier. Sellers are growing while buyers are shrinking, a split that shapes almost every other number in this post.
Figure 1: Etsy’s active seller base as of Q4 2025. Source: Etsy Inc., Q4 and full-year 2025 results.
The buyer decline is worth sitting with for a moment before moving to sales figures.
Figure 2: Etsy active buyers, year over year. Source: Etsy Inc. Q4/FY2025 and prior-year results.
How much does Etsy sell in a year?
Etsy Inc.’s consolidated gross merchandise sales reached $11.92 billion in 2025, of which $10.46 billion came from the core Etsy.com marketplace. The rest belonged to Reverb, the musical-instrument marketplace Etsy divested in June 2025, which is why the consolidated year-over-year comparison shows a 5.3% drop even though the underlying Etsy marketplace is stabilizing.
Figure 3: Etsy Inc. consolidated GMS, including Reverb through its June 2025 divestiture. Source: Etsy Inc. 10-K filings, FY2021 to FY2025.
GMS peaked at $13.5 billion in 2021 and has declined in every year since, a five-year run that reflects both the pullback from pandemic-era online shopping and the Reverb sale. The important detail sits below the consolidated line: Etsy’s core marketplace GMS was essentially flat in Q4 2025 (up 0.1% year over year) and Etsy guided to accelerating marketplace growth through 2026, reporting 7.5% year-over-year marketplace GMS growth by Q2 2026.
What fees does Etsy charge sellers?
Etsy’s published fee schedule has three parts: a $0.20 listing fee per item for a four-month listing, a 6.5% transaction fee charged on the total sale price including shipping, and a payment processing fee of 3% plus $0.25 per order in the US (rates vary by country; UK sellers pay 4% plus £0.20). Combined, these fees left Etsy with an average take rate of 24.2% of GMS in 2025, a figure Etsy itself discloses as a headline metric in its shareholder letters.
Figure 4: Etsy’s average take rate on a typical sale. Source: Etsy Inc., Q4/FY2025 results.
| Fee | Rate | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Listing fee | $0.20 per item | Every listing, renews every 4 months |
| Transaction fee | 6.5% | Sale price plus shipping |
| Payment processing (US) | 3% + $0.25 | Every order paid through Etsy Payments |
| Overall take rate (2025) | 24.2% of GMS | Blended across all fees, company-wide |
Sellers pricing a product on Etsy need to build all three line items into the price, not just the headline 6.5% transaction fee, since the listing and processing fees compound on lower-priced items in particular.
Does Etsy require sellers to accept returns?
No. Etsy’s Seller Handbook does not require every seller to accept returns. Instead, each seller must set an explicit return policy on every physical-item listing, whether that policy accepts returns or states no returns and exchanges. The one carve-out is regulatory: the EU Omnibus Directive requires professional sellers to offer a minimum 14-day return and refund window on orders shipping into the EU or EEA, regardless of what the seller’s default policy says.
Figure 5: How an Etsy return request resolves. Source: Etsy Help Center, seller return and refund policy documentation.
This matters most for sellers of custom or made-to-order goods, who commonly set a no-returns policy since handmade items cannot always be resold. A store’s Refund Policy Generator makes it straightforward to publish a clear, listing-ready return policy that states the window and any exceptions up front, which cuts down on the back-and-forth that follows an unclear policy.
Can you make a living selling on Etsy?
Here the data runs thin. Search results for “average Etsy seller income” turn up a wide spread of numbers, from a few hundred dollars a month to tens of thousands a year, none of them traceable to a current, methodology-disclosed survey. The one real primary source is Etsy’s own “Redefining Entrepreneurship” seller survey, which had a genuine sample of 4,000 US sellers and disclosed figures such as household income distribution, but it was published in 2013 and has not been repeated at that scale since.
Warning
Treat any specific “average Etsy income” figure you see elsewhere with real skepticism. The commonly cited numbers come from SEO aggregator sites with no disclosed sample or methodology, and they contradict each other by a wide margin. We could not verify a current figure and are not printing one here.
What is verifiable is context, not income: Etsy’s own investor materials frame its addressable market at roughly $500 billion in online sales within its core categories, which puts Etsy’s $11.92 billion in 2025 GMS at around 2% of that market. Sellers frustrated by rising fees or Etsy’s 2026 shipping-price algorithm changes have also been reported moving toward parallel storefronts on platforms like Shopify, though no dataset yet quantifies how many sellers have made that move.
The Bottom Line
Etsy in 2026 is a platform with more sellers competing for fewer buyers: 5.6 million active sellers against 86.5 million active buyers, both moving in opposite directions from a year earlier. The core marketplace has stopped shrinking and is now growing again, but sellers are absorbing a take rate above 24% to be there. For anyone running a shop, the two most useful moves are pricing to the real fee structure, not just the headline transaction fee, and publishing a clear return policy per listing before a dispute forces the question.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many active sellers does Etsy have in 2026? Etsy reported 5.6 million active sellers as of December 31, 2025, defined as a seller with at least one charge in the trailing 12 months, according to Etsy Inc.’s Q4 and full-year 2025 results.
How much does Etsy sell in a year? Etsy Inc.’s consolidated gross merchandise sales (GMS) reached $11.92 billion in 2025, of which $10.46 billion came from the core Etsy marketplace. The rest was Reverb, divested in June 2025.
What fees does Etsy charge sellers? Etsy charges a $0.20 listing fee per item for a four-month listing, a 6.5% transaction fee on the total sale price including shipping, and a payment processing fee of 3% plus $0.25 in the US. Combined, Etsy’s take rate averaged 24.2% of GMS in 2025.
Does Etsy require sellers to accept returns? No. Etsy does not require a blanket return policy. Sellers set their own return terms on every physical listing, though the EU Omnibus Directive requires a minimum 14-day return window on orders shipped into the EU or EEA.
Sources and References
- Etsy, Inc.. (2026). “Etsy, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Results.” Official earnings release, GMS, active sellers, active buyers, and take-rate figures.
- Etsy, Inc.. (2026). Q2 2026 Shareholder Letter, filed with the SEC. Marketplace GMS growth acceleration.
- Etsy, Inc.. Form 10-K, FY2023. Historical GMS figures, 2021 to 2023.
- Etsy Help Center. “Refunds, Returns, and Exchanges for Sellers.” Official seller return policy documentation.
- Etsy Help Center. “How Do I Follow EU Law Regarding Returns and Refunds.” EU Omnibus Directive return requirement.
- Marketplace Pulse. Etsy active seller tracking, corroborating Etsy’s own disclosed figures.
Note: All figures verified as of September 2026, sourced primarily from Etsy Inc.’s own SEC filings and investor releases. Etsy reports GMS, seller, and buyer counts quarterly, so these figures will move; check Etsy’s latest shareholder letter for the most current numbers.
