About
Who is behind these numbers
Maker Numbers is an independent Etsy profit calculator for handmade sellers. It is free, it runs entirely in your browser, and it is not affiliated with Etsy, Inc.
It exists because the answer to “did that sale actually make money?” is genuinely hard to get. Etsy charges several fees on several different bases, a shipping label rarely costs what you charged for it, and the largest cost in most handmade shops — the maker's own hours — usually never appears in the math at all.
How the numbers are kept honest
We would rather you were able to check this than take our word for it, so every part of the method is published:
- Every formula is on the methodology page, including which base each Etsy fee is charged on — the detail most hand estimates get wrong.
- The worked case in the guides runs on the same engine as the calculator: not one figure on that page is typed by hand, so it cannot quietly stop being true.
- Every default rate is dated and linked to the Etsy page it was read from. When a rate is re-checked, the date and the change are recorded below.
- Money is handled in whole cents throughout, and each fee is rounded on its own before anything is added, which is how Etsy does it.
- The worked example on the calculator page is the same scenario the code's own tests run against, so the page and the engine cannot quietly disagree.
What it deliberately cannot do
This is an estimator, not a copy of your Etsy ledger. It cannot see your shop, your orders or your payment account, and it never will — nothing you type is sent anywhere.
That means it cannot tell you about a fee that was charged to a specific order, a subscription, a shipping label adjustment, or a rate that differs in your country. Where this page and your Etsy Payment account disagree, your Payment account is the record.
It is also not tax, accounting or legal advice. It does the arithmetic; the decisions stay yours.
Why we built it, plainly
The calculator is free and will stay free. We are also trying to find out whether handmade sellers want something that tracks these numbers continuously rather than one sale at a time — a profit logger, or a small production planner.
That is why the page asks what you would find useful, and why two cards near the result describe things that do not exist yet. No payment is taken for anything, and signing up gets you an email before a launch, not a charge.
We would rather say that here than have you work it out.
Tell us where this is wrong
The single most useful thing you can send us is an order where our figure did not match your Etsy Payment account, with the gap. That is how a fee we do not model gets found.
The accuracy question under every result is the fastest route, and it takes one tap.
Rate verification history
Every time the US defaults are checked against Etsy's published pages, the date and the outcome are recorded here — including the checks where nothing had changed.
First verification of the US defaults against Etsy's fees policy, the payment processing article and the Offsite Ads article. No rate changed.
Contact
Write to hello@makernumbers.com. It is a monitored mailbox, not a form that goes nowhere.
Data deletion requests, corrections and questions about the method all go to the same place.
Not affiliated with Etsy, Inc.