Facebook Marketplace allows users to buy and sell items directly on the platform. It’s free to list most items for sale, making it a popular option for individuals and small businesses looking to connect with buyers. However, Facebook does charge fees in certain situations.
Listing Fees
The majority of items can be listed on Facebook Marketplace for free. This includes used personal items, handmade goods, and items from small businesses. However, there are some product categories that do have fees:
- Vehicles: $5 per vehicle listed
- Housing rentals: $5 per rental listing
- Housing sales: $5 per house listed for sale
These listing fees apply to both individual sellers and businesses. The fees are non-refundable, even if the item doesn’t sell.
Seller Fees
For most transactions completed on Facebook Marketplace, there are no seller fees. Facebook does not charge any commission or percentage of the sale price. However, there are two scenarios where Facebook does charge seller fees:
- Real estate sales: For any real estate purchase made via Marketplace, Facebook charges a 2.5% fee from the seller. This applies to both agents/brokers and individual homeowners selling properties.
- Items shipped with Facebook Payments: If the buyer pays through Facebook Payments for an item being shipped, the seller is charged a 5% selling fee. This covers the cost of purchase protection for shipped items.
In both cases, the fee is deducted from the payment made to the seller. For real estate sales, the seller will receive 97.5% of the total after Facebook’s 2.5% seller fee. For shipped items paid through Facebook, the seller gets 95% of the payment amount.
Invoice Fees
Facebook Marketplace allows sellers to send invoices to buyers for orders and requested deposits. Sending invoices is free, but Facebook does charge a processing fee when buyers pay an invoice.
The invoice processing fee is 5% of the total payment amount, capped at a maximum of $10 per invoice paid. This allows sellers to request order payments or deposits outside of Facebook Payments while still providing purchase protection.
Facebook Shops
Facebook Shops are online storefronts that businesses can create on Facebook and Instagram. While Facebook Shops are integrated with Marketplace, they have a different fee structure:
- No listing fees or commissions
- Optional $2 daily advertising credit for running campaigns to promote products
- Standard credit card processing fees apply for checkout payments
So Facebook does not charge any specific fees for Facebook Shops – it mainly makes money when stores invest in paid advertising and promoted posts.
Selling Limits
In addition to potential fees, Facebook also imposes some limits on selling activity for both individuals and businesses:
- Individual sellers can list a maximum of 100 items at a time.
- Businesses are limited to listing 1,000 items for sale.
- No more than 100 vehicle listings permitted within a 365 day period.
- Real estate brokers cannot list more than 100 rental units.
These limits are intended to discourage sellers from treating Marketplace like a full ecommerce site and to reduce spam listings. Sellers will need to remove existing listings in order to add new ones above these limits.
Payment Processing Fees
If buyers and sellers use Facebook Payments to complete a purchase on Marketplace, there are standard payment processing fees:
- Domestic payments (within the same country): no fee
- International payments: Standard PayPal fees apply
For domestic transactions, there are no credit card processing fees when using Facebook Pay. But international purchases incur PayPal’s standard micropayment rates and cross border fees. Sellers would pay 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Policy and Listing Violations
Sellers should also be aware that violating Facebook’s commerce policies or listing prohibited items can result in fees. For example:
- Listing fees are non-refundable, even if the item is removed for a policy violation.
- $250 fee for each instance of selling regulated goods without required licenses.
- $500 fee per item for sale of prohibited items like illegal drugs.
Make sure to carefully review Facebook’s commerce policies and stay compliant to avoid expensive policy violation fees.
Advertising and Promotions
Facebook offers a range of advertising and promotion options to help sellers showcase items in Marketplace, including:
- Boosted Posts – Pay to promote Marketplace listings in the News Feed. Minimum bid is $1 per day.
- Marketplace Ads – Paid ads that are optimized for people browsing Marketplace specifically. Bid based on auction, average $0.18 per click.
- Instagram Shopping Ads – Paid ads to promote products from Instagram to interested shoppers on and off the platform.
Using these paid promotional tools is completely optional, but can help listings gain more visibility. Expect to pay at least $1 per day for basic advertising, with most sellers spending $5 to $15 daily to achieve optimal exposure.
Conclusions
In summary, selling on Facebook Marketplace is free for most individual and business sellers listing standard purchase categories. However, Facebook does charge fees in certain situations:
- Listing fees apply for vehicles, real estate rentals, and real estate sales
- Seller fees apply to real estate transactions and items shipped with Facebook Payments
- Invoice processing fees apply when sellers use Marketplace Invoices
There are also limits on the number of listings permitted within a given time period. And sellers must follow all commerce policies to avoid expensive non-compliance fees.
Optional advertising and promotions can boost visibility for an added cost. But overall, Facebook Marketplace’s fee structure is very competitive and geared towards enabling peer-to-peer commerce at low cost.