TikTok Shop fee and profit calculator for US and UK sellers (2026).

A TikTok Shop payout is not the same as business profit. A small maker may also pay a creator commission, advertising, packaging, fulfillment, material, labor, and the cost of failed or returned products. This calculator separates the platform fee from the costs of making and delivering the order.

Select the United States or United Kingdom, enter the values for one completed order, and replace every preset that does not match the seller's account. The result is an independent planning estimate. TikTok Shop's current statement, category classification, promotion terms, and seller agreement control the real charge.

How to use the TikTok Shop fee calculator

1. Choose US or UK according to the TikTok Shop market in which the order is placed.
2. Enter the item price, buyer-paid shipping, platform-funded discount, and any tax that the fee policy excludes from its calculation base.
3. Keep the standard referral preset or enter the eligible category or account-specific rate shown in Seller Center.
4. Add affiliate commission and paid advertising only when they apply to the order. They are not included in the standard referral rate.
5. Add the expected full-refund order rate, production, fulfillment, tax on seller fees, and other order costs to calculate expected profit and break-even item price.

Run a normal case and a conservative case that includes creator commission, paid promotion, a higher failure allowance, and the shop's observed full-refund rate. A range is more useful than treating one unusually successful video as a permanent forecast.

US and UK TikTok Shop rates at a glance

The table is a starting point, not a substitute for classification. A product's category, participation in a qualifying incentive, seller status, or later policy change can produce another rate. The calculator therefore makes the percentage editable instead of hiding it in a permanent formula.

How the US referral fee is calculated

TikTok Shop's US policy describes the referral-fee base as Buyer Paid plus Platform Discount minus Tax. The standard preset is 6% for most qualified transactions. Eligible jewelry and pre-owned categories can use a 5% rate, subject to the official category definitions and any applicable thresholds. Do not select 5% merely because an item is handmade, customized, or sold by a small business; use the category assigned in Seller Center.

Official sources: TikTok Shop US referral-fee policy and the official US category-rate schedule.

A platform-funded discount can form part of the compensation even though the buyer did not pay it. A seller-funded discount is normally already reflected in Buyer Paid. Enter each amount once; duplicating a discount will overstate the fee.

How the UK referral fee is calculated

The UK standard planning rate is 9%. TikTok Shop identifies a 5% rate for specified electronics and beauty categories, but eligibility must be confirmed against the current category schedule. The UK commission base uses net sales plus customer-paid shipping and any platform discount, with refunds deducted. On a fully returned order, the commission is refunded under the stated policy.

See the official TikTok Shop UK referral-fee policy. A reduced campaign rate should only be entered for the period and transactions that actually qualify. Model the standard rate as the fallback when an incentive is temporary or its future eligibility is uncertain.

Affiliate commission and advertising are separate costs

Creator or affiliate commission is not part of the standard marketplace referral percentage. It is a seller-controlled or campaign-specific acquisition cost and can differ by product, creator, collaboration, and order. Enter the commission rate agreed for the promoted item and apply it to the commission base displayed by the relevant campaign or statement.

Paid advertising is separate again. Enter the amount attributed to the order, or divide campaign spend by attributed orders. Organic reach has no invented cash fee, but content-production labor can still be a real acquisition cost.

Worked US examples

Standard order with no affiliate or ad cost

Suppose a US maker sells a $30 item and charges $5 shipping. With no tax or platform discount in this simplified example, the fee base is $35. At 6%, the referral fee is $2.10. Production costs $8.50 and fulfillment costs $5. Estimated profit is $35 − $2.10 − $8.50 − $5, or $19.40. The break-even item price is about $9.36: after adding $5 shipping and subtracting the 6% fee, the remaining revenue exactly covers $13.50 of production and fulfillment.

The same order with creator and ad acquisition

Now add a 10% affiliate commission on the $30 item price and $3 of attributed advertising. Those costs add $3 and $3. The platform referral fee remains $2.10, while estimated profit falls from $19.40 to $13.40. This is why a listing can have a healthy marketplace payout but a weaker contribution after customer acquisition.

Worked UK example

For a UK order with a £30 item and £5 customer-paid shipping, the simplified commission base is £35. At the 9% standard rate, the referral fee is £3.15. With £8.50 production and £5 fulfillment, no affiliate commission, no ads, and no additional fee VAT in the example, estimated profit is £18.35. A seller whose product qualifies for 5% should change the rate rather than using this standard example.

Refunds and expected-order economics

Treat the expected fully refunded-order percentage as a long-run probability across comparable orders. The calculator reduces gross seller revenue by that percentage, credits back the same expected share of the referral fee, and then adds any market-specific refund administration fee. Production, fulfillment, affiliate commission, ads, and other entered costs remain in full as a conservative attempted-order assumption.

For qualifying US refunds from May 15, 2025 onward, TikTok Shop's policy returns the referral fee but retains a refund administration fee equal to 20% of the referral fee refunded, capped at $5 for each SKU type. The cap is applied separately to each SKU, so an order-level estimate based only on the number of SKU types can differ when returned items have different values. The calculator labels that formula as an aggregate estimate and lets the seller override it with the total administration fee shown for a full refund on the statement, including zero when an eligible exception applies.

The UK policy refunds commission on a full return and models no separate refund administration fee here. The expected full-refund rate still reduces both expected realized revenue and expected referral cost, so it affects UK profit and break-even. Partial refunds, recovered inventory, return postage, damaged material, tax adjustments, creator commission reversals, and advertising attribution cannot be inferred automatically. Adjust the editable inputs to match actual records rather than counting a recovered or reversed cost twice.

Fee tax, VAT, and costs the preset cannot know

Tax paid by the buyer and tax charged to the seller are different inputs. The US formula explicitly subtracts Tax from its referral base. In the UK, a displayed consumer price can already include seller-responsible VAT, while TikTok Shop may also charge applicable VAT or other tax on its own fees. Do not strip VAT from revenue or add it to platform charges automatically without checking the seller's registration, invoice, and accounting treatment.

Fee tax or VAT is editable because one universal assumption would be misleading. Enter the amount actually expected on TikTok Shop fees, or leave it at zero and review it separately. The calculator does not determine marketplace tax, VAT registration, customs, import duty, income tax, chargebacks, currency conversion, payment reserves, optional fulfillment services, or the recoverability of input tax.

Maker costs that belong in a TikTok Shop price

For a 3D printed or handmade product, production can include material, machine time, labor, finishing, rejects, labels, and packaging. Fulfillment can include postage, protective packing, handling, storage, and service charges. Allocate material recurring costs per realistic monthly unit.

Need a defensible selling price before marketplace fees? Use the 3D print pricing guide and calculator. To compare selling channels, run the same product through the Etsy fee calculator, eBay fee calculator, Amazon Handmade fee calculator, and Shopify fee and profit calculator. Keep production and fulfillment assumptions identical so the comparison isolates channel economics.

TikTok Shop fee calculator FAQ

How much does TikTok Shop take from a US sale?

The current preset is 6% for most categories. Eligible jewelry and pre-owned categories can use 5%. The real total can be higher after creator commission, ads, fulfillment, fee tax, refunds, and seller costs, so the referral percentage alone is not a profit margin.

Does TikTok Shop charge a fee on shipping?

Buyer-paid shipping can be part of the modeled fee base. The exact field definition differs between the official US and UK formulas, so enter shipping according to the selected market and compare the result with the order statement.

Is affiliate commission included in the 6% or 9% referral rate?

No. Treat creator or affiliate commission as a separate acquisition cost. Its percentage and base depend on the seller's collaboration or promotion settings, so the calculator asks the user to enter it.

Can the calculator predict every refund deduction?

No. It probability-weights gross revenue, the stated referral-fee credit, and the effective US administration fee entered or estimated. Actual returns can also affect shipping, inventory condition, labor, advertising attribution, creator charges, tax, and optional services.

What should I use for break-even price?

Use the price where revenue exactly covers every entered cost. Break-even is a floor, not a recommended retail price: it contains no safety margin or target profit.

Privacy, methodology, and independence

Calculator inputs are processed in the browser for the estimate and are not a substitute for uploading or reconciling a TikTok Shop statement. Avoid entering customer names, addresses, order IDs, or other personal information; none of those details is required to model one order. Read MakerGauge's calculation methodology for formula scope, rounding, and update practices, and the editorial policy for sourcing and corrections.