A $25 product. It costs you $8 and another $4 to ship. TikTok Shop's referral fee is 6%, so TikTok takes $1.50 and you keep $11.50. Now add a creator who sells it for a 15% commission. The same sale leaves you $7.75.
Same product, same price. That gap is the reason to do the sums before you set a price. Everything below is for US sellers.
What is the referral fee?
The referral fee is TikTok's cut of each order. On the TikTok Shop US seller page I could read, it is 6% per order from 1 April 2024, with a range of 5% to 6% depending on the category.
That page is old, so the rate may have moved. Some seller guides say the standard fee went from 6% to 8% for most non-food categories on 4 August 2026. I couldn't find that on a TikTok page. Treat 8% as reported but unconfirmed until your own Seller Center shows it. In the table below I show both.
What is the fee worked out on?
TikTok gives a formula: referral fee rate x (customer payment + platform discount - tax). In plain words, it is the price the buyer paid, plus any discount TikTok funded, minus tax. Sales tax and retail delivery fees are left out.
The useful bit is the middle one. If TikTok pays for part of a discount, the fee is still charged on the price before that discount.
Is the creator commission part of TikTok's fee?
No. It's separate. Creators earn a commission when their video or link sells your product, and you set the rate for each product when you open it up to creators. The rates I've seen quoted run from about 5% up to 30%, mostly in third-party guides, so check what creators in your category expect before you pick a number.
What does a $25 sale look like?
Product cost $8, shipping $4, no other fees. "You keep" is after product cost and shipping.
| Setup | Referral fee | Creator commission | Total fees | You keep | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6% referral, no creator | $1.50 | $0.00 | $1.50 | $11.50 | 46.0% |
| 8% referral (reported), no creator | $2.00 | $0.00 | $2.00 | $11.00 | 44.0% |
| 6% referral, 15% creator | $1.50 | $3.75 | $5.25 | $7.75 | 31.0% |
| 8% referral (reported), 15% creator | $2.00 | $3.75 | $5.75 | $7.25 | 29.0% |
Look at the last two rows. The creator costs you more than the whole referral fee. If your margin is thin, a 15% creator deal can turn a decent product into a break-even one. The jump from 6% to 8% costs you 50 cents here, which is small next to the creator's cut.
What is the lowest price I can charge?
Your product ($8) and shipping ($4) cost $12 before any fee. Divide by what's left of each dollar after the percentage fees.
| Setup | Lowest price (zero profit) |
|---|---|
| 6% referral, no creator | $12.77 |
| 6% referral, 15% creator | $15.19 |
| 8% referral (reported), 15% creator | $15.58 |
So a creator deal adds about $2.40 to the price you need just to break even. If you can't charge that much, the creator deal doesn't work for this product.
What happens when a buyer returns it?
After a refund, return or cancellation, TikTok gives back the referral fee minus a refund administration fee. That fee is 20% of the referral fee, capped at $5 per SKU from 15 May 2025.
On our $25 sale at 6%, the referral fee is $1.50. The admin fee is 30 cents, so you get $1.20 back. The 30 cents is the cost of the return itself. You still carry whatever you can't recover on the product and shipping. TikTok's page says there is no admin fee for some buyer-initiated refunds that meet the auto-cancel rules before shipment, so not every refund costs you.
Is there a lower rate for new sellers?
TikTok has run a new seller referral fee promotion. Guides describe it as 3% for the first 30 days. I haven't confirmed the current terms, so look in your own account to see whether it applies to you and when it ends.
What would I do before setting a price?
- Open Seller Center and look up the referral rate for your category. Write it down with today's date.
- Decide your creator commission. Even if you don't plan to use creators yet, price as if you will, so a good creator deal doesn't catch you out later.
- Put the numbers into a calculator and check the margin at 6% and at 8%. If the product only works at 6%, it's a risky product.
Who is writing this?
I'm Saqib, the developer behind PayoutCalc. I haven't sold on TikTok Shop. The figures here come from TikTok's own US seller pages, which I read on 20 October 2026, plus the arithmetic. Where I couldn't confirm something, I've said so. If you see a rate that has changed, send me a message.
You can test your own numbers in the TikTok Shop calculator. It has fields for the referral fee and the creator commission, so you can try 6% and 8% side by side.