TikTok Shop Fee Rate Updates — 2026 Changelog
TikTok changes fulfillment and commission rates quietly, often with little notice. This log records every rate-card change we track, with the new numbers and what they mean for your profit per unit. The calculators now include the June 1 FBT customer return handling fee.
What is the US referral fee, actually? Every claim we’ve checked
Search for the TikTok Shop US referral fee and you will find at least five different answers: 6%, 8%, 7.02%, a 2%–8% tier chart, and a flat $0.30 transaction fee that no longer exists. They cannot all be right. Most of these pages cite no official source and carry no verification date — so we checked each claim against TikTok’s own published rate documents and cross-referenced independent sources. This table is updated whenever a claim changes or our verification does.
Quick answer
As of our latest rate check on September 29, 2026, the standard US TikTok Shop referral fee is 6% for most categories and 5% for select fine-jewelry and pre-owned categories — TikTok's policy documents no separate transaction or processing line. The “raised to 8% on August 4, 2026” claim remains unconfirmed: TikTok’s public US category table still lists 6%, and we found no official announcement.
| Claim | Published by | Where it goes wrong (or right) | Our verdict (last reviewed 2026-09-29) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6% standard US referral fee | Profitvana (fees checked Aug 25, 2026) | Correct on the number; the page also confirms there is no separate transaction charge. (It is less reliable on the commission base — its own FAQ and calculator disagree with its prose.) | ✅ Matches our check: 6% most categories, 5% select jewelry / pre-owned. |
| 6% — and the 8% hike “could not be confirmed” | FactoryJet (observed the category table Sep 17, 2026) | Correct — and the only one of these pages that publishes its counter-evidence. | ✅ We reach the same conclusion independently, with our own sources and dates. |
| 8% since Aug 4, 2026 (presented as effective), sub-categories 9.5–11% | Delzonic | No official announcement cited; TikTok’s public category table still lists 6%; the 9.5–11% sub-category figures have no published source. | ❌ Unconfirmed as of 2026-09-29. See our August 4 entry below. |
| 8% as a “reported change” | BeBold Digital | Hedged (“official table still lists 6%”) but still repeats the 8% figure without a primary source. | ❌ Unconfirmed; treat any 8% math as speculative until TikTok’s own rate card moves. |
| 7.02% = 6% + 1.02% payment processing | LogicStop | Wrong fee structure: TikTok’s US commission policy defines exactly one selling fee — platform commission at 6% (5–6% by category) — and lists no separate transaction or processing line on the page. Stacking 1.02% on top therefore double-counts. | ❌ Double-counts. The correct all-in platform commission is 6% (5% select categories). How we know, and how far it goes: TikTok’s own page defines the single commission but never uses the words “payment processing” — our “the 6% includes processing” phrasing is ours, taken from the independent trackers listed under “Our sources” below, not quoted from TikTok. |
| 2%–8% tiered by category (2% essentials / 5% standard / 8% luxury) | TTCalculator.net | No official US tier table exists at those rates. The 2% figure echoes the 2023 structure (2% of payment + $0.30 per order), and the 8% echoes last year’s hike reports — neither describes the current published rate card. | ❌ Outdated structure. Current published rates: 6% most categories, 5% select fine-jewelry / pre-owned, 3% on the collectibles portion above $10,000. |
Older claims we also checked: two pages still describe a flat $0.30 transaction fee per order (“2.9% + $0.30” variants included) — that is the retired per-order transaction fee, not a live charge. The old 2% + $0.30 structure ended when the flat 6% rate that replaced it took effect on April 1, 2024; the April 3, 2023 date that still circulates is the start of a 2023 promotion that temporarily cut the old 2% to 0%, not the date the transaction fee ended. Today TikTok’s commission policy lists no separate transaction fee, and we read the 6% as covering processing — a reading we take from the independent trackers below, because TikTok’s own page defines the commission and stops there.
How we verify. Every rate on this site is checked by hand against TikTok’s published seller documentation — the US commission policy (referral fee definition, refund administration fee formula and examples) and the FBT Rate Card (fulfillment fees, effective July 13, 2026) — then cross-referenced against independent sources such as Marknology and Axis Intelligence — the full per-claim list is under Our sources. Last reviewed September 29, 2026. If a claim above is ever confirmed by TikTok’s own rate card, we date the change in the log below and update every calculator the same day.
Our sources, by claim
We do not count sources across claims. Each figure below lists the sources we actually used for that figure, the date we read each one, and whether it is TikTok’s own documentation or an independent tracker. Where we only have one source, we say so.
| What we assert | Sources | Read on |
|---|---|---|
| 6% standard US referral fee; 5% for five fine-jewelry sub-categories and the listed pre-owned categories; 3% on the portion of a collectibles or pre-owned sale above $10,000 | TikTok — Referral fees by category (page carries a 14 May 2026 stamp; the rates on it are dated 31 October 2024). Independent trackers — Marknology (self-checked 2026-09-25), Novoads, Jupid, Axis Intelligence, Profitvana (self-checked 2026-08-25) | 2026-09-28, 2026-09-29 |
| No separate per-order transaction fee — its published policy lists no separate processing line | TikTok — and only for the first half of this claim. US commission policy defines exactly one selling fee (platform commission, 6%, 5–6% by category) and lists no separate transaction or processing line anywhere on the page. The page never says the 6% covers payment processing — that wording is ours, and it rests on the independent trackers below rather than on a sentence TikTok published. Independent trackers — Marknology, Sellergains, Profitvana, FeesCalculator | 2026-09-28 |
| The flat 6% rate took effect April 1, 2024; the April 3, 2023 date belongs to a 2023 promotion that temporarily cut the old 2% to 0% | TikTok — US commission policy (“from 2024-04-01 … 6% per order”). Independent trackers — Value Added Resource (the 2023 promotion window), Novoads, Jupid | 2026-09-29 |
| The referral base includes shipping paid by the buyer | TikTok — US commission policy, in the note under the formula: “buyer payment includes shipping paid by the buyer”; and TikTok Ads help center. Independent trackers mostly agree; the ones that disagree either cite nothing or contradict their own calculators. | 2026-09-29 |
| Refund administration fee: 20% of the referral fee, capped at $5 per SKU type | TikTok — Referral fee updates. Independent trackers — Marknology, Axis Intelligence, Fit Small Business, FeesCalculator | 2026-09-28 |
| FBT fulfillment tiers ($4.28–$12.67) under the rate card effective July 13, 2026 | TikTok — FBT rate card — single source: TikTok publishes the per-tier amounts only as an image, so our 19 tiers ($4.28–$12.67) are a manual transcription of it, covering single items up to 16 lb. The card itself extends to 150 lb, with a separate heavy-bulky band above 50 lb. We have not cross-checked the numbers against a second independent page. | 2026-09-28 |
Two Amazon figures our vs-Amazon tool uses — the $0.30 per-item referral minimum and the $0.05 closing fee on items under $10 — we have not yet verified against an official Amazon page. Treat them as unverified until we do; we would rather label them than quietly let them look sourced.
September 29, 2026 — Referral base: we checked it again and kept buyer-paid shipping in
We almost got this one wrong. While unifying the calculators we asked whether the 6% referral fee is charged on the order subtotal or on everything the buyer pays, shipping included. Our first reading of several secondary guides pointed to the subtotal. A second pass against TikTok's own wording reversed it.
The ruling: the referral base includes shipping paid by the buyer. TikTok says so in the note attached to its own commission formula — in Chinese on that page, translated here: “buyer payment includes shipping paid by the buyer, net of shipping discounts provided by the seller or TikTok Shop.” TikTok's ads help center describes the buyer's final price the same way, “including any shipping”. We are not counting second-hand guides for this one: we went back to the policy page itself (TikTok Shop US commission policy). Several independent fee write-ups agree. The few that say otherwise either give no source or contradict their own calculators, and none of them outranks TikTok’s own wording. One honest gap: we could only read the Chinese-language version of that policy page — the English version returns a shell to crawlers. If you are signed in to Seller Center, the same note is worth confirming there.
Why publish the reversal: our other three calculators used the sale price only because they had no input for the shipping the buyer paid — their shipping field measures what you spend shipping the order out, not what the buyer pays you for it. Reading a missing input as a deliberate policy decision was the error, and it is exactly the kind that quietly shifts every number a seller trusts. The fix is now shipped: the Profit, ROAS and TikTok-vs-Amazon calculators all take a “Shipping charged to buyer” input alongside their existing shipping-cost field, and the referral base, the revenue base, the margin denominator and the break-even ROAS all follow the buyer’s total payment rather than the item price alone. No published figure moved — every worked example on this site assumes a $0 shipping charge to the buyer, and the new input defaults to $0. One more page had it backwards, and is now corrected: the FAQ on our $20-product fee article answered “do I pay the referral fee on shipping the customer is charged?” with “no” — the opposite of the ruling above. It now says yes, and cites the same note.
And the comparison tool moved with it. TikTok-vs-Amazon charges Amazon’s referral fee on the buyer’s total price too, because Amazon says so in its own words: “An item’s total price includes its list price, as well as shipping costs and any gift-wrapping charges” (Amazon, Referral fees, read 2026-09-29). A comparison that charged one platform on the item price and the other on the buyer’s total would be two different bases wearing the same label, so both channels now take their own “shipping charged to buyer” figure.
That second pass also firmed up our September 28 correction: the same official note gives the flat 6% rate as taking effect from April 1, 2024.
September 29, 2026 — ROAS Calculator: returns are now charged against product cost
The ROAS Calculator used to write off the full sale price of every returned unit, while the Profit and TikTok-vs-Amazon calculators charged returns against product cost. Same product, two answers roughly nine times apart. We closed the gap: this page now charges returned units against COGS — a return costs you the goods, not revenue you never collected.
What changes for you: on the default $29.99 product ($6.50 COGS, 10% creator commission, 5% returns) the return impact drops from $1.55 to $0.38, profit before ad spend rises from $12.62 to $13.79, and the break-even ROAS falls from 2.38× to 2.17×. Every figure on that page was recomputed to match; nothing else on the site moved.
One honest difference remains: the Profit Calculator lets you set a resale rate for returned stock, while this page has no such input, so it treats every returned unit as unsellable. That is the conservative end — if you resell your returns, your real return cost is lower than the number shown here.
September 28, 2026 — Site correction: TikTok US no longer charges a separate transaction fee
TikTok US no longer charges a separate $0.30 per-order transaction fee — the 6% referral rate is the single selling fee TikTok’s commission policy defines, and fee guides read processing as sitting inside it. The flat 6% rate took effect on April 1, 2024 and replaced the older 2% + $0.30 structure.
Evidence grade, stated plainly (added 2026-09-30): the April 1, 2024 date and the single-commission structure are TikTok’s own wording. “Processing sits inside the 6%” is not — TikTok’s policy page defines the commission, lists no separate transaction or processing line, and never uses the phrase. That half of the claim rests on the independent trackers under Our sources. We are leaving the conclusion in place and labelling its source, rather than letting a reading of ours look like a quote from TikTok.
The April 3, 2023 date that circulates on other sites belongs to something else: it is the start of a 2023 promotion that temporarily cut the referral rate to 0%, not the date the transaction fee ended. This entry supersedes our own earlier wording, which repeated that 2023 promotion date as the fee change. We corrected every calculator and article on this site to remove the outdated $0.30 line: the Fee Calculator now hides the transaction-fee row when it is $0, the Profit, ROAS, and TikTok-vs-Amazon calculators show the updated net payout, and all blog copy reflects the single 6% referral (incl. processing) fee stack.
August 4, 2026 — Reported: referral fee raised to 8% (unconfirmed)
Several seller blogs reported that TikTok Shop raised the standard US referral fee for most non-food categories from 6% to 8% on August 4, 2026, with selected beauty and electronics sub-categories supposedly moving to 9.5–11%. Two months later, this remains a reported change, not a confirmed one. TikTok’s public US category table — the page carries a 14 May 2026 stamp, and independent trackers likewise date its last revision to May 2026 — still lists 6%, and we have found no announcement on any official TikTok seller channel.
What each side has on the record:
- The 8% claim: Delzonic states the increase took effect August 4, 2026. Its “food and grocery stayed near 5%” detail does not hold either: TikTok’s own category table lists Food & Beverages at 6%. BeBold Digital repeats the 8% figure but labels it a “reported change” and notes the official category table still lists 6%. Neither cites a TikTok announcement. Two more independent guides published after the date — Moras and DimMath — model the 8% rate as their default, again without linking an updated official policy page.
- The counter-evidence: FactoryJet checked TikTok’s public category table on September 17, 2026 and still found 6%, writing “we could not confirm it.”
- Our check (September 29, 2026): TikTok’s own category rate table, plus multiple independent trackers — including the Marknology fee page (self-checked Sep 25, 2026) — all describe 6% for most US categories and 5% for select fine-jewelry and pre-owned categories. The sources we used for each figure are listed under Our sources; see also the claim-by-claim table at the top of this page.
What this means for your numbers: nothing changes in our calculators until TikTok’s own rate card moves — that is the standard we hold this log to. If the 8% figure is ever confirmed, we will date the change here, itemize which categories moved, and update every calculator the same day.
Check it yourself: the authoritative number is always the category rate table in your own Seller Center (US shop → Finance or Products → commission overview). If it shows 8% where we show 6%, that is a confirmed change — and we would like to know: the report link is in the footer. Our own current-rate snapshot is the fee schedule.
July 13, 2026 — FBT rate card adds multi-item per-unit fees + expanded weight tiers
The July 13 rate card (TikTok Seller Center FBT Rate Card) publishes per-unit fulfillment fees for 2-unit, 3-unit, and 4+ unit orders, and covers every weight tier through 16 lb. Single-item rates on the tiers we tracked in June are unchanged.
The same July 13 card also extends FBT support to eligible 50–150 lb bulky products. Our calculators still model the 4 oz–16 lb tiers used by most lightweight seller products.
| Weight tier | Single | 2 units (each) | 3 units (each) | 4+ units (each) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ≤4 oz | $4.28 | $2.52 | $1.91 | $1.56 |
| 4–8 oz | $4.52 | $2.91 | $2.36 | $1.93 |
| 8–12 oz | $4.70 | $3.05 | $2.61 | $2.23 |
| 12–16 oz | $5.10 | $3.16 | $2.78 | $2.36 |
| 1–2 lb | $5.71 | $3.92 | $3.14 | $2.60 |
| 2–3 lb | $6.27 | $4.30 | $3.25 | $2.76 |
| 3–4 lb | $6.92 | $4.70 | $3.55 | $3.12 |
| 4–5 lb | $7.66 | $5.09 | $4.54 | $4.54 |
| 5–6 lb | $8.58 | $6.19 | $5.46 | $5.46 |
| 6–7 lb | $8.88 | $6.50 | $6.14 | $6.08 |
| 7–8 lb | $9.22 | $6.90 | $6.76 | $6.70 |
| 8–9 lb | $9.42 | $7.00 | $6.77 | $6.59 |
| 9–10 lb | $9.63 | $7.46 | $7.30 | $7.30 |
| 10–11 lb | $10.64 | $8.30 | $8.10 | $8.10 |
| 11–12 lb | $10.75 | $9.20 | $9.00 | $9.00 |
| 12–13 lb | $10.98 | $10.04 | $10.04 | $10.04 |
| 13–14 lb | $11.44 | $10.42 | $10.42 | $10.42 |
| 14–15 lb | $11.85 | $10.80 | $10.80 | $10.80 |
| 15–16 lb | $12.67 | $12.67 | $12.67 | $12.67 |
What changed vs the June 18 card we tracked: the multi-item per-unit rates are new, and weight tiers from 6 lb through 16 lb now have published single-item rates (previously we only tracked 5–6 lb and 9–10 lb above 5 lb). The 50–150 lb heavy/bulky tiers exist on the card but are not covered here yet.
What it means for your numbers: on a $29.99, 4–8 oz product, single-item fees are $6.32 ($1.80 referral + $4.52 FBT). At 4+ units per order they drop to $3.73 per unit ($1.80 + $1.93) — $2.59 less per unit, which is $1,295 per month on 500 units before COGS and shipping.
June 1, 2026 — FBT customer return handling becomes itemized
The previous flat $3.00 per order customer return handling fee was replaced by a per-unit rate card. The exact charge depends on the return service you select and the final disposition of the returned item.
| Fee | Current rate |
|---|---|
| Return handling — non-inspection | $0.70 per returned unit |
| Return handling — inspection | $1.00 per returned unit |
| Restocking | $1.00 per returned unit |
| Re-packaging | $0.50 per returned unit |
| Disposal (non-hazardous) | $0.40 per returned unit |
| Return to Merchant | $0.35 per returned unit |
What it means for your numbers: a 5% return rate with non-inspection handling now adds about $0.035 per sold unit before resale/disposal outcomes. The calculators use $0.70 as the default; switch it to $1.00 if your return setting uses inspection.
January 12, 2026 — multi-unit fulfillment fee reduction
Effective January 12, 2026, TikTok reduced multi-unit fulfillment fees by up to 24% for orders with 2, 3, and 4+ items in the 0–4 lb weight tiers (source: TikTok Seller Center FBT Rate Card). The July 13 card keeps the discount across all weight tiers — at 4–8 oz the per-unit saving is now up to 57%.
Unchanged in 2026 (as of September 29, 2026)
| Fee | Current rate | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Base commission | 6% most categories; 5% Jewelry / Pre-Owned | Unchanged in 2026 |
| Collectibles & pre-owned high-value portion | 3% on the portion of a sale above $10,000 (base rate 6% collectibles / 5% pre-owned still applies below the threshold) | Per the US category rate table |
| Transaction fee | None documented | Removed Apr 1, 2024 |
| Refund admin fee | 20% of referral fee, capped $5 per SKU | Estimate — unchanged |
| FBT customer return handling | $0.70 per returned unit (non-inspection); $1.00 with inspection | Effective Jun 1, 2026 |
| SIOC discount | Up to $0.80 per unit on eligible single-unit orders | Updated May 15, 2026 |
| Cross-border additional fee | 1% | Unchanged in 2026 |
| Amazon FBA fuel & logistics surcharge | 3.5% of FBA fulfillment fee (effective Apr 17, 2026) | Used in the vs-Amazon tool |
How to use this log
- Bookmark this page and check back when TikTok announces a fee change — Seller Center announcements or seller forums usually break the news first.
- When a commission rate changes, four things move in one commit:
assets/js/rates.js, the#categoryoptions on all four calculator pages,data/tiktok-shop-2026.json, and this log. - Re-run your product through the Fee or Profit calculator after each entry. Your inputs are saved on your device, so your numbers are one click away.
- Want the raw machine-readable data? It lives in
data/tiktok-shop-2026.jsonin the source repo.