TikTok Shop publishes its standing fee policy for US sellers through its Seller University knowledge base: a referral fee that runs about 6% of the fee base for most categories, calculated from the customer's payment plus any platform-funded discount and minus tax — not from what eventually lands in a seller's bank account. On a return, TikTok's own Returns and Refunds policy refunds the referral fee back to the seller minus a refund administration fee of 20% of that referral fee, capped at $5 per SKU since 15 May 2025. That schedule and policy are free to read for any seller and are the right place to check what a stated rate currently is.
After an order has shipped, TikTok's own Finance & Settlement pages in Seller Center itemize what was actually withheld from a payout — a real, useful, and free resource, but a retrospective one: it reports what a sale already cost, not what a listing decision in front of you will cost. Neither of TikTok's own resources is a standalone what-if calculator a seller can run before listing.
Between a schedule that states rates and a statement that reports what already happened sits the arithmetic on decisions still open: does an affiliate listing beat an organic one once the creator's commission is paid, does that commission still get paid when the buyer returns the order, what list price breaks even or hits a target margin, what does a bundle discount cost against selling the same units separately, and what does TikTok's own announced 1 October 2026 move to an 8% referral fee plus a 1.5% creator facilitation fee on affiliate-sourced orders do to all of the above on the same SKU. This calculator does not try to reproduce TikTok's rate card as a stored table — every fee here is a box you type from your own Seller Center numbers, so it never drifts out of date the way a hard-coded schedule would, and TikTok's published rates can change without this page needing an update.
| Question | Where to answer it |
|---|---|
| What does TikTok Shop currently charge in referral and refund-admin fees? | TikTok's own Seller University fee schedule. |
| What was actually withheld from a payout that already happened? | TikTok's own Finance & Settlement pages, inside Seller Center. |
| Does an affiliate listing still beat organic after the creator's cut? | This calculator's organic-vs-affiliate comparison on the same SKU. |
| Does the creator still get paid when the order comes back? | The affiliate-commission-on-returns worked example, with a toggle for claw-back policy. |
| What list price breaks even, or hits a target margin? | This calculator's break-even and target-margin fields. |
| Does charging shipping, folding it into the price, or eating the label leave more? | The free-shipping comparison. |
| Does a multi-buy bundle discount still beat selling the units separately? | The bundle-discount ceiling. |
| What does the announced 1 October 2026 schedule do to this SKU's margin? | The fee-change comparison, mid-2026 vs announced October rates side by side. |
This tool needs no TikTok Shop account and no live listing to exist yet:
it is a static page, the arithmetic runs in your browser, and once it has
loaded it keeps working with the connection off. Nothing you type is
uploaded anywhere, and a Copy scenario link carries your
inputs after the # in the URL — never to a server,
reproduced only in whoever's own browser opens that link.
Both, for different jobs. TikTok Shop's Seller University knowledge base publishes the standing policy: the referral fee schedule by category, how the fee base is defined (customer payment plus any platform-funded discount, minus tax), and the refund administration fee taken back on a return (20% of the referral fee refunded, capped at $5 per SKU since 15 May 2025). It is the right place to check what a stated rate currently is. It does not compare an organic listing against paying a creator commission, does not price a return where the creator keeps their commission anyway, does not compute a break-even or target-margin list price, and does not put today's rates beside TikTok's own announced 1 October 2026 schedule on the same order. This calculator does not try to reproduce TikTok's rate card as a stored table — every rate here is a box you type — and instead runs the seven decisions the schedule itself leaves open.
Not that TikTok publishes for sellers to use ahead of a listing. Seller University states the fee schedule and policy in prose and tables, and the Seller Center's own finance and settlement pages itemize what was actually withheld after an order has already shipped and any return window has passed. Neither is a standalone what-if tool: seeing what a hypothetical order nets before you list it, with a creator commission that survives a return, is the gap this calculator fills.
No. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by TikTok Inc. or ByteDance Ltd. TikTok, TikTok Shop, and Seller University are trademarks of TikTok Inc. or its affiliates, named here only to describe what this calculator is for.
Open the TikTok Shop fee calculator to run the comparison on your own numbers. Rates change; verify the live schedule in Seller Center before you reprice.