Home / Margin calculator
What is actually left from a TikTok Shop sale?
Put your own numbers in. The calculator takes out the platform fee, creator commission, ad spend, fulfillment and returns, and tells you what is left — including when the answer is nothing.
Everything is worked out in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere or stored. Referral fee figures are TikTok’s published 2026 US rates via FastMoss; every other input is yours.
Most products that fail on TikTok Shop do not fail on content. They fail on margin.
Between the platform fee, creator commission, fulfillment, ads and returns, close to a third of the selling price can be gone before cost of goods. A brand that cannot absorb that will generate revenue and no profit, and usually finds out several months in.
How to read it
Left per unit
What remains after every channel cost and your cost of goods. This is what funds everything else — overhead, growth, and any help you bring in.
Returns are charged twice
A return costs you the sale and the outbound shipping, so the calculator applies the return rate to both. This is the line most spreadsheets understate.
Ad spend is a choice, not a fee
Set it to zero to see the organic picture. Most brands that scale end up spending something, so it is worth seeing both.
The monthly fee field is optional
Enter any figure — an agency quote, a hire, your own time costed out — and it shows the volume needed to cover it.
Common questions
What fees does TikTok Shop take from each sale?
As of 2026, US sellers pay a referral fee of 6% on most categories and 5% on jewelry, calculated on the customer payment plus platform discounts and excluding tax, with payment processing included. There are no listing or monthly fees for US sellers. Source: FastMoss, 2026.
What creator commission should I put in?
Use your category median as a starting point. FastMoss’s 2026 figures put the median at around 15% for beauty and personal care, 20% for health, 10% for womenswear and for sports and outdoor, and 8% for fashion accessories. Offering below the median makes recruitment considerably harder, because creators can see what everyone else pays.
What return rate should I assume?
Use your own figure if you have one. If you do not, 5% to 10% is a reasonable starting range for most consumer goods, and apparel runs higher. The calculator charges a return against both the lost sale and the outbound shipping, because you do not get the shipping back.
What margin do I actually need?
Roughly 20% or more left per unit gives you room to pay creators competitively and fund ad spend, which is what drives volume. Between 10% and 20% the channel works but is fragile. Below 10% there is very little room to grow, because every lever that increases sales also increases cost.
Does this include agency fees?
Only if you enter a monthly figure in the last field, which then shows the volume needed to cover it. Agency pricing varies widely by scope, so the calculator does not assume one. The structure matters as much as the number: ask whether a retainer is charged on top of a percentage of sales or credited against it.
If the numbers work, the rest is execution.
And if they do not, that is worth knowing before you spend three months finding out. Either way a short call will tell you quickly.