eBay Australia completely rewired its fee structure on 12 May 2026. If you have not looked at the numbers since then, whatever you think eBay charges is probably wrong.
The headline change is that casual sellers now pay zero transaction fees. But the full picture is more nuanced than that, and getting it wrong means either overpricing your items or underestimating your actual profit.
Here is what every tier of Australian eBay seller actually pays as of May 2026.
The Three Selling Tiers
eBay AU now has three distinct selling experiences, and the fees differ significantly between them.
Free Selling (under $25,000 annual sales): If you are an Australian-based seller and your total eBay sales over the past 12 months are under $25,000, you pay zero transaction fees on domestic sales. No final value fee. No per-order fee. This is the default for most casual flippers and side hustlers.
Pro Starter (over $25,000 or opted in): If your rolling 12-month sales exceed $25,000, eBay auto-upgrades you to Pro Starter. There is no monthly subscription cost, but you pay 13.4% (incl GST) on most categories for the first $4,000 of each sale, dropping to lower rates above that. There is also a $0.30 per-order fee.
Pro Subscriptions (Basic, Featured, Anchor): Monthly subscription plans with progressively lower transaction fee rates. Pro Basic is $24.95/month, Pro Featured is $54.95/month, and Pro Anchor is $549.95/month. These also unlock marketing tools, volume pricing, and integrations.
What Free Sellers Actually Pay
Zero transaction fees sounds amazing, and it mostly is. But there are still costs:
Shipping labels are mandatory. Non-Pro sellers must purchase shipping labels through eBay for most domestic orders. The cost varies by weight and destination but typically runs $8 to $15 for standard parcels within Australia. Some exceptions apply for envelope-sized items (trading cards, coins, jewellery, CDs), items under $3 or over $5,000, and local pickup orders.
International sales fee. If you sell to a buyer outside Australia, you pay 3% (incl GST) of the total sale amount. This jumped from 1.1% in the May 2026 update.
Optional listing upgrades. Subtitle ($2.50), bold ($3.00), gallery plus, and promoted listings all cost extra regardless of your selling tier.
Promoted listings. If you use eBay's ad system to boost visibility, you pay a percentage of the sale when the item sells through a promoted listing click.
The Buyer Protection Fee (What Buyers See)
Here is the catch that free sellers need to understand. While you pay nothing, your buyers pay a Buyer Protection Fee on every purchase from a non-Pro seller.
The fee structure for buyers is: $0.30 per item, plus 8% of the item price up to $20, plus 6% of the portion from $20 to $500, plus 4% of the portion from $500 to $5,000. Nothing above $5,000.
For a $50 item, the buyer pays roughly $4.10 in Buyer Protection Fees on top of the item price. For a $200 item, it is around $13.10.
This fee is baked into the total price shown in search results, so buyers see a higher number than your listed price. That matters for sell-through. If two identical items are listed at $80, one from a Pro seller and one from a free seller, the buyer sees $80 for the Pro listing and roughly $85.50 for the free listing. The Pro seller's item looks cheaper even though the seller's payout is the same.
This is worth thinking about when you are pricing items and wondering why something is not selling as fast as expected.
What Pro Starter Sellers Pay
If you cross the $25,000 threshold or choose to opt into Pro, here is the maths on a typical sale.
Take a $100 item sold domestically with $12 shipping:
The total sale amount is $112. The transaction fee at 13.4% is $15.01. The per-order fee is $0.30. Your shipping label cost might be $10.50. Your total eBay costs on that sale are approximately $25.81.
If you bought the item for $40, your actual net profit is $112 minus $40 (cost) minus $25.81 (fees and shipping) = $46.19.
That is a 41% margin on the sale price, or a 115% ROI on your purchase cost. Not bad, but very different from the $72 "profit" you might have assumed by just subtracting your purchase price from the sold price.
Fees That Apply to Everyone
Regardless of your tier, these costs exist:
GST on fees. All eBay fees include 10% GST. If you are registered for GST, you can claim input tax credits on these fees.
Below Standard penalty. If your seller performance drops to Below Standard, you cop an extra 5.5% (incl GST) surcharge on top of your transaction fees. For free sellers, this means you go from zero to 5.5%.
Dispute fees. If a buyer files a chargeback or payment dispute and you are found responsible, eBay charges $24.20 per dispute.
Currency conversion. If eBay needs to convert currencies for any reason, a conversion fee applies.
What Changed in May 2026 (Quick Reference)
Before May 2026, all sellers paid 13.4% (incl GST) on the first $4,000 per item, plus a $0.30 per-order fee. Store subscriptions offered slightly lower rates.
After May 2026: casual sellers under $25k pay nothing, the Buyer Protection Fee shifted costs to buyers for non-Pro listings, advanced selling features (multi-quantity, variations, bulk tools, third-party integrations) became Pro-only, mandatory eBay shipping labels for non-Pro sellers, cash-on-pickup was banned, and "Stores" were rebranded to "Pro" plans.
How to Calculate What You Actually Keep
For free sellers, the formula is simple: Sold price minus purchase cost minus shipping label cost minus any other costs (packaging, cleaning, fuel) = your profit.
For Pro sellers: Sold price minus purchase cost minus transaction fee (13.4% of total sale) minus $0.30 per-order fee minus shipping cost minus other costs = your profit.
In both cases, the number that matters is net profit after everything, not the sold price.
If you are doing more than a handful of flips per month, tracking this manually gets tedious fast. That is where a dedicated tracker helps, something that knows the fee structure and calculates your real margin automatically.
Flipdex is in early access and does exactly this for Australian flippers. You can join the waitlist at flipdex.dev.