Key takeaways
- TikTok Shop’s published US referral fee is 6% for most categories, with 5% for some jewelry and pre-owned categories. There is no fixed per-order fee.
- The referral fee is charged on what the customer pays, including shipping but not sales tax. TikTok-funded discounts are added back; discounts you fund lower it.
- Affiliate creator commission is a rate you set, from 1% to 80%, on the product price. At 15% on a $40 item it costs $6.00, about twice the $2.88 referral fee.
- On a refund TikTok keeps 20% of the referral fee as an administration fee, capped at $5 per SKU.
The short answer: how much TikTok Shop takes
For a US seller, TikTok Shop’s main fee is the referral fee. TikTok’s Seller University category table, last updated in October 2026, sets it at 6% for most categories, including beauty, fashion accessories, home and electronics. There is no listing fee, no monthly fee and no fixed fee per order.
A few categories pay less. Five jewelry subcategories (diamond, gold, jade, platinum and carat gold, and ruby, sapphire and emerald) were cut to 5% from October 31, 2024. Pre-owned categories are 5%, and for collectibles and pre-owned goods the part of a sale above $10,000 is charged 3%.
Everything else you pay is either your choice or your own cost: creator commissions, ads, samples and shipping. Those are often bigger than the referral fee, so a seller who budgets only 6% for TikTok usually underestimates the cost of a sale.
| Charge | Rate | Charged on |
|---|---|---|
| Referral fee, most categories | 6% | Customer payment incl. shipping, + platform discounts, − tax |
| Referral fee, some jewelry and pre-owned | 5% | Same base |
| Affiliate creator commission | 1% to 80%, set by you | Product price before tax, after your own discounts |
| Refund administration fee | 20% of the referral fee, max $5 per SKU | Refunded, returned or cancelled orders |
How the referral fee is calculated
TikTok’s formula is the referral rate times the customer payment, plus any platform discount, minus tax. The category table states that the base includes the shipping fee the customer pays. So on a $40 item with $8 shipping, the fee is 6% of $48, or $2.88.
Discounts change the base in opposite ways depending on who pays for them. If TikTok funds a $5 coupon, the $5 is added back and you still pay 6% of $48. If you fund a $5 discount yourself, the customer pays $43 and the fee is $2.58. Your own discounts cost you the discount but save a little fee.
Sales tax is never part of the base. Since November 1, 2025, TikTok adds sales tax to the referral fee itself for sellers whose business is registered in Texas or West Virginia, so sellers there pay slightly more than the headline rate.
Some websites reported in 2026 that the standard US rate rose to 8%. TikTok’s own category table still showed 6% when checked in November 2026, and we found no official notice of a change. At 8% the fee on the $48 order would be $3.84. Check the fee lines in your Seller Center settlement report, which show the rate actually charged.
Referral fee = Referral rate × (Customer payment + Platform discount − Tax) Customer payment includes the shipping the customer pays
Affiliate creator commission
TikTok Shop Affiliate lets creators sell your products in videos and LIVEs for a commission. You set the rate, anywhere from 1% to 80%, per product or for a group of products. An open collaboration offers that rate to any creator. A target collaboration offers a rate to creators you pick, and it overrides the open rate for the same product. Creators are paid one rate per product, never both.
TikTok’s settlement guide calculates the commission on the product price before tax, minus any discount you fund. Shipping is not part of it. A 15% commission on a $40 item is $6.00, and if you sell it at $35 after your own discount, it is $5.25.
Commission is paid on top of the referral fee, not instead of it. Commissions are confirmed only after the order is delivered and the after-sales period ends, and a fully refunded order pays the creator nothing.
Work out your ceiling before you set a rate. In the worked example below, a sale that earns $25.62 profit without a creator still makes $10 at a commission of about 39%. Above that, each creator sale earns you less than you want.
Affiliate commission = (Product price − Your discount) × Commission rate No commission on shipping or sales tax
Free toolTikTok Shop fee calculatorWorked example: a $40 phone stand
A small shop sells a phone stand for $40, and the customer pays $8 shipping. The stand costs $12 to make and $7.50 to ship. The table shows the same order sold directly, and through creators at three commission rates.
Sold directly, TikTok takes 6% of the order and the shop keeps a 53.4% margin. At a 20% creator commission, fees and commission together take 22.7% of what the customer paid, and margin falls to 36.7%. The creator may still be worth it if they bring sales you would not otherwise get.
Payout = Item price + Shipping − Referral fee − Commission Profit = Payout − Item cost − Shipping cost
| Sale type | Referral fee | Commission | Payout | Profit | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct, no creator | $2.88 | $0.00 | $45.12 | $25.62 | 53.4% |
| Creator at 10% | $2.88 | $4.00 | $41.12 | $21.62 | 45.0% |
| Creator at 15% | $2.88 | $6.00 | $39.12 | $19.62 | 40.9% |
| Creator at 20% | $2.88 | $8.00 | $37.12 | $17.62 | 36.7% |
Shipping options and free shipping
US sellers can ship with TikTok Shipping, using labels bought through TikTok, or with Seller Shipping, using their own carrier account. Fulfilled by TikTok (FBT) stores your stock in TikTok’s warehouses and ships orders for you, for TikTok’s standard FBT fulfillment fees.
Whichever you use, the referral fee is charged on the shipping the customer pays. Charging $8 shipping on a $7.50 label does not make you 50 cents: the fee on that $8 is 48 cents, which leaves 2 cents.
TikTok replaced its Co-Funded Free Shipping program with a Free Shipping program, and the $0.80 per-order subsidy for TikTok Shipping and Seller Shipping orders was discontinued, so you now carry the full cost of any free shipping you offer. Shops that set a free shipping threshold of $30 or less get extra exposure and campaign benefits. If you offer free shipping, build the label cost into your price, because there is no customer shipping payment to cover it.
Refunds, new-seller offers and other charges
When an order is refunded, returned or cancelled after it was placed, TikTok returns the referral fee minus a refund administration fee of 20% of that fee. On the $2.88 fee above, TikTok keeps $0.58. Since May 15, 2025 the administration fee is capped at $5 per SKU, so on a $500 item the 20% would be $6.00 but you pay $5. There is no administration fee on creator sample refunds or on eligible cancellations before shipping.
TikTok runs referral fee offers from time to time. Its US seller sign-up page currently advertises a referral fee reduced by up to 4% for new LIVE auction sellers, with terms and an end date of 31 December. Sellers enrolled in a promotional plan stay on it until the promotion ends. Check Seller Center for the exact rate on your account.
Other costs are optional: TikTok ads, free samples sent to creators, and any FBT storage and fulfillment fees. Count them per order when you price. Funds from a sale are released after delivery once no refund or return is open.
How TikTok Shop compares
On a standard sale with no creator, TikTok Shop’s 6% is low next to most big marketplaces. The comparison changes once creators are involved, because a 15% commission makes a TikTok sale cost more than an eBay or Etsy sale of the same item. Compare the same item and shipping across platforms, with and without the commission you expect to pay, before deciding where to put your effort.
Free toolMarketplace fee comparison
