Marketplace Fee & Profit Calculator
Enter your marketplace’s fees — see the payout, the profit and the price you need.
Where the money goes
Price for a target margin
How this was calculated
Results are estimates for general information and planning, not financial advice. Banks and institutions may calculate differently (rounding, fees, rate changes). Confirm figures with your lender or a qualified adviser before deciding.
About the Marketplace Fee & Profit Calculator
Selling on a marketplace, the price the buyer pays is not what reaches your bank. This calculator works out, for one order, the settlement (what the marketplace pays you) and your profit and margin after commission, fixed or closing fees, payment collection, shipping and pick-and-pack fees, GST on those fees, TCS and TDS, a provision for returns and RTO, and advertising. It also finds the price you need to break even or to reach a target margin.
No marketplace’s fee table is built in — fees change often and differ by category — so you enter the rates from your seller account or the marketplace’s published rate card. Commission can be one rate or a set of price slabs, applied to the whole price or band by band.
How to use it
- Enter the selling price the buyer pays (including GST), the product’s GST rate, and your product and packaging cost per unit.
- Enter the commission — one percentage, or price slabs with a rate and fixed fee for each band — and whether the marketplace charges percentages on the price including or excluding GST.
- Add the fixed or closing fee, shipping, pick-and-pack, payment collection and any other per-order fees, and the GST charged on them.
- Check the TCS and TDS rates, then the return rate with what one return costs you, and your ad cost per order.
- Read the settlement, profit and margin, the line-by-line breakdown and the prices for each target margin. Copy the summary or download a CSV.
Examples
Settlement ₹716.80 · profit ₹143.43 per delivered order · margin 16.94% Break-even price ₹793.36 · price for a 20% margin ₹1,048.05
Revenue is ₹999 ÷ 1.18 = ₹846.61; fees ₹234.85 (+ ₹42.27 GST, claimable); returns provision ₹120 × 10 ÷ 90 = ₹13.33 per delivered order.
Whole price at its band’s rate: 8% × ₹450 = ₹36 Band by band: 5% × ₹300 + 8% × ₹150 = ₹27
Settlement is not profit
The settlement is the selling price minus everything the marketplace keeps or holds back: its fees, the GST on those fees, TCS and TDS. The profit starts from the price excluding GST — the GST in the price belongs to the government — and takes off the fees, your product, packaging, ad and returns costs.
Three deductions from the payout are not costs for a GST-registered seller: the GST on fees (claimed as input tax credit), TCS (it can be used to pay your GST) and TDS (it counts as income tax already paid). Untick the input-tax-credit box if you cannot claim GST; it is then counted as a cost.
TCS and TDS on marketplace sales in India
- TCS under GST — CGST Act, 2017, section 52: the e-commerce operator collects tax on the net value of taxable supplies made through it, which excludes GST. The rate is 0.5% in total from 10 July 2024 (Notification 15/2024–Central Tax). The seller claims it in their electronic cash ledger (s.52(7)) and can use it to pay GST.
- TDS under income tax — Income-tax Act, 2025, section 393(1), Table Sl. No. 8(v): the operator deducts 0.1% of the gross amount of the sale. Section 393(4) (Table Sl. No. 11) exempts an individual or HUF seller whose gross sales through the operator in the tax year do not exceed ₹5,00,000 and who has given the operator a PAN or Aadhaar number — set TDS to 0 in that case.
You can choose whether TDS is worked out on the price including or excluding GST; check which your marketplace’s settlement report uses.
Price slabs
Marketplaces often set commission or closing fees by price band. Two ways of applying them are offered:
- Whole price at its band’s rate — the band the price falls in sets the rate for the whole price.
- Each part at its band’s rate — like tax slabs, each band’s rate applies only to the part of the price inside it.
A price exactly on a band’s upper limit belongs to that band. Each band can also carry its own fixed fee. Because a higher band can have a higher rate, a small price rise across a band edge can lower your profit — the target-price search takes this into account.
Returns and RTO
Returns are entered as a provision: the share of the orders you ship that come back (customer returns and return-to-origin parcels) and what one return costs you — forward and reverse shipping, fees that are not refunded, packaging and stock you cannot resell.
A returned order earns nothing, so its cost is carried by the orders that are delivered. With 10% of orders coming back, every 9 delivered orders carry 1 return: at ₹120 a return, each delivered order carries ₹120 × 10 ÷ 90 = ₹13.33 — not 10% × ₹120 = ₹12, because only 90 of every 100 orders pay. The gap grows with the rate: at 30% RTO it is 30 ÷ 70 = 0.43 of a return per delivered order, not 0.3. The settlement, profit and margin are all for one delivered order.
Limitations
- Per order of one unit. Weight-based shipping fees depend on the chargeable weight — the volumetric weight calculator works that out.
- Fees, rates and exemptions are what you enter; nothing is looked up. Check them against your marketplace’s rate card and settlement reports.
- Your own GST liability (output GST less all input tax credit) is not worked out here, only the GST in this order.
- Income tax on the profit is not deducted.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.
Frequently asked questions
What is the settlement amount?
What the marketplace pays into your bank for the order: the selling price minus commission and other fees, GST on those fees, TCS and TDS.
Is TCS a cost for the seller?
No. You claim the TCS collected under section 52 of the CGST Act in your electronic cash ledger and can use it to pay GST, so it reduces the payout but not your profit.
What TDS rate applies to e-commerce sales?
0.1% of the gross amount of the sale under the Income-tax Act, 2025, section 393(1), Table Sl. No. 8(v). It is income tax paid on your behalf, which you claim against your tax.
Which marketplaces does this work for?
Any — Indian or international — because you enter the fees yourself. Set the GST rates, TCS and TDS to 0 where they do not apply.
How are returns and RTO counted?
As a cost carried by the delivered orders, since a returned order earns nothing. With 10% of orders coming back at ₹120 each, every delivered order carries ₹120 × 10 ÷ 90 = ₹13.33. Enter the return rate as the share of the orders you ship that come back.
How is the price for a target margin found?
The calculator finds the lowest price (to the paisa) at which profit divided by the price excluding GST reaches your target, checking every price slab, since a higher band can change the commission.