So, how does Depop make money now? Depop used to make money the simple way: take 10% of every sale. That model is gone, and how Depop makes money now looks nothing like it did two years ago: buyer fees, optional advertising, and a bet that removing friction for sellers would grow the marketplace faster than the old commission ever did.
eBay has since completed its purchase of the business from Etsy for $1.4 billion, closing a deal first agreed at $1.2 billion a sign that growth continued, even if it doesn't settle whether the new model is actually more profitable than the old one.
How Does Depop Make Money From Buyers Now?
Depop makes money today by charging buyers a marketplace fee rather than charging sellers a flat commission, though sellers still cover payment processing and optional Boost costs.
Sellers in the UK, US, and Australia now pay no Depop selling fee at all, according to Depop's own Help Centre a sharp reversal from the flat 10% cut the platform charged UK sellers for more than a decade. In its place, buyers in the US and UK pay the Depop marketplace fee: up to 5% of the item price plus up to $1 or £1, shown at checkout and on the receipt, per Depop's own site.
Sellers aren't entirely off the hook, though: payment processing still applies, at 2.9% + £0.30 in the UK, 3.3% + $0.45 in the US, and 2.6% + A$0.30 in Australia and sellers outside those three markets still pay the old 10% selling fee. It's a genuine structural shift in Depop seller fees, but the cost hasn't disappeared so much as moved to different parties.
The 2024 Fee Overhaul Explained
Depop scrapped its 10% selling fee for UK sellers on 20 March 2024, for US sellers on 18 July 2024, and, most recently, for Australian sellers on 22 July 2026 market by market rather than all at once. The UK version of the Depop marketplace fee followed on 15 April 2024; the US equivalent landed alongside the American selling-fee change.
When it made the Australian change, Depop said removing seller fees in the UK and US had driven a 30–45% increase in listings in the following weeks, and that Australian sellers who make at least one sale go on to earn an average of $502 in their first year both figures from Depop's own announcement.
The framing has stayed consistent across all three markets: in 2024, CEO Kruti Patel Goyal said the goal was to "make fashion circular" by encouraging more people to choose secondhand over new; in 2026, Depop CEO Peter Semple used similar language for the Australian change, saying it was designed to make selling on Depop "as rewarding as possible."
Depop seller fees weren't tweaked at the edges here; the whole revenue model was rebuilt around buyer-side monetisation, market by market, which is really how Depop makes money differently today than it did before 2024.
Boosted Listings as the New Revenue Lever
Boosted Listings is Depop's paid promotion feature and a meaningful part of how Depop makes money from its most active sellers, charging a fee only when a promoted listing actually results in a sale.
Per Depop's Help Centre, the boosting fee is 12% for sellers in the UK and US on new listings boosted from 23 March 2026 onwards, and 8% for sellers in Australia and everywhere else. Depop's own developer documentation confirms the fee applies whenever a buyer views, clicks, or likes a boosted listing and then purchases the item within 28 days a view alone is enough to trigger it; the buyer doesn't need to click or like anything further.
If there's no purchase within that window, no fee applies at all. That performance-based structure sits on top of the wider changes to Depop seller fees since 2024, and Depop positions it as an optional monetisation channel for sellers who want extra visibility, rather than a cost every seller will encounter.
Growth Since the Switch
Depop's 2025 numbers show a business that grew sharply after the fee overhaul, though growth alone doesn't prove the zero-selling-fee policy caused it. The platform generated $1,074.9 million in gross merchandise sales (GMS) in 2025, up 36.3% year-over-year, according to Etsy's own annual filing with the SEC, with registered sign-ups up 46% year-over-year over the same period. Etsy's Q2 2025 earnings materials separately reported that Depop's quarterly GMS grew 35.3% year-over-year to $249.6 million, putting it on a $1 billion annualised run-rate at that point a distinct measure from the full-year total.
GMS is the total value of goods sold through the platform, not Depop's own revenue, and Etsy doesn't disclose how much of that activity converts into profit under the new fee structure the closest we can get to how Depop makes money at scale without full profit disclosure. The growth is real; it doesn't on its own show that the buyer-fee model is more profitable than the old 10% commission, only that the platform kept growing after the switch.
The growth wasn't evenly spread, either: 74% of GMS came from US buyers versus 26% from the rest of the world, and 92% of sales happened through the app rather than the desktop site. Then, on 18 February 2026, eBay and Etsy jointly announced that eBay would acquire Depop for approximately $1.2 billion in cash; the deal closed on 30 July 2026, with eBay's own SEC filing confirming it paid $1.4 billion in cash, inclusive of preliminary purchase-price adjustments.
That final figure is still below the roughly $1.6 billion Etsy paid for Depop in 2021, though the gap is narrower than the originally announced $1.2 billion suggested. As of 31 December 2025, Depop had 7 million active buyers and more than 3 million active sellers, and eBay has said the platform will keep its name and brand.
How It Stacks Up Against Vinted's Model
The Depop vs Vinted fees picture looks completely different depending on whether you're the buyer or the seller. Vinted has the lower explicit seller fee of the two platforms: it charges sellers no commission at all, while Depop sellers still pay payment processing even at 0% selling fee.
Vinted's Buyer Protection fee, usually 3% to 8% of the item price plus £0.30 to £0.80 according to Vinted's own official Price List, falls entirely on the buyer, with no seller-side commission whatsoever. Narrow the Depop vs Vinted fees comparison to the buyer side, though, and the gap closes considerably: the Depop marketplace fee (up to 5% + up to $1/£1) sits in a broadly similar range to Vinted's protection fee.
Vinted's own 2025 results show why the comparison matters commercially: the company reported €1.1 billion in revenue, up 38% year-over-year, and €10.8 billion in gross merchandise value, up 47%. It also launched in the US on 23 January 2026, starting in New York, meaning Depop and Vinted are, for the first time, about to compete head-on in the same home market rather than largely separate territories.
That overlap is likely to reshape how Depop makes money in markets where the two now compete directly, and any updated Depop vs Vinted fees comparison from here will need to account for it.
FAQs
1. Is Depop free to sell on?
Yes, in the sense that matters most sellers in the UK, US, and Australia now pay no Depop selling fee, with Australia added most recently on 22 July 2026. It's not entirely free, though: payment processing still applies on every sale (2.9% + £0.30 UK, 3.3% + $0.45 US, 2.6% + A$0.30 Australia), so "free" means no commission, not zero cost.
2. What is Depop's Boost fee?
Depop's Boost fee is 12% for UK and US sellers on listings boosted from 23 March 2026, and 8% for sellers in Australia and elsewhere, charged whenever a buyer views, clicks, or likes a boosted listing and then buys within 28 days. Depop treats it as an optional monetisation channel for sellers who want extra visibility, not a fee applied to every sale.
3. Is Vinted cheaper than Depop?
On the seller side, yes Vinted charges no seller fees at all, while Depop sellers still pay processing even at 0% commission. For buyers, the gap narrows: Vinted's Buyer Protection fee (3–8% + £0.30–£0.80) and the Depop marketplace fee (up to 5% + up to £1) sit in a broadly similar range.
Also Read: What UK Founders Need to Know About the Redundancy Process for Employers
Sources: Data drawn from Depop's own Help Centre, newsroom, and developer documentation; Etsy's 2025 Form ARS and eBay's Q2 2026 Form 10-Q filed with the SEC; Etsy's Q2 2025 earnings materials; the joint eBay/Etsy acquisition announcement (February 2026) and eBay's completion announcement (July 2026); and Vinted Group's own 2025 annual results and official Price List. Figures reflect the most recent available data at the time of writing.
The EP+ Editorial Desk covers UK startups, founder stories, and venture capital. All editorial content is independently produced and human-reviewed before publication.
