Etsy rules for selling in 2026: the complete seller requirements guide

Etsy's rules are spread across multiple policy pages, some of which conflict in practice. This piece consolidates what actually matters for sellers in 2026 — what you need to sell, what you can sell, what's prohibited, and what costs you money.

Seller account requirements

To open an Etsy shop, you must:

• Be 18 or older (minors need a parent or guardian to open the account)
• Provide a valid credit card for registration
• Provide valid bank account information for Etsy Payments
• Provide your taxpayer ID (SSN or EIN for US, equivalent for other countries) once you cross Etsy's tax reporting threshold
• Accept Etsy's seller policy and terms
• Have a verifiable physical address
• Comply with your local tax and business registration laws

Etsy itself doesn't require you to register a business to open a shop — that depends on your local jurisdiction. In the US, you can operate as a sole proprietor under your SSN at low volumes, but most sellers form an LLC once their shop becomes a meaningful revenue source.

What you can sell on Etsy

Etsy allows exactly three categories. Your product must fit into one of them.

1. Handmade items

Items you design and make yourself, or design and have made with disclosed production partners.

Handmade includes:

• Physical items you craft yourself (jewelry, pottery, clothing, art)
• Items you designed that are produced by a disclosed production partner (e.g., you design a t-shirt, a POD company prints it)
• Digital products you design (SVGs, templates, printables, fonts, Canva templates, planners, ebooks)
• Custom or personalized items where you do the customization

Handmade does NOT include:

• Items you bought from another seller and are reselling
• Mass-produced items purchased wholesale and resold as-is
• AliExpress or Alibaba items dropshipped under your name

2. Vintage items

Items that are at least 20 years old. In 2026, that means 2006 or earlier.

Etsy tightly enforces the 20-year rule. "Vintage style" or "retro-inspired" doesn't count — the actual item must be 20+ years old. Dating modern items as vintage gets listings removed.

3. Craft supplies and tools

Materials and tools intended for creative use — yarn, beads, fabric, craft paper, jewelry findings, woodworking tools, sewing patterns, etc. This is the only category where mass-produced resale items are allowed, as long as they're crafting-related.

Intellectual property rules

This is where more shops get banned than any other category:

• No copyrighted characters — Disney, Marvel, Nintendo, etc. Your hand-drawn rendition of Mickey Mouse is still copyright infringement.
• No trademarks you don't own — can't use "Nike" or "Starbucks" in listings or designs
• No licensed sports teams logos, university names, band names unless you have a licensing agreement
• Public domain is okay — Shakespeare, classic art prints, traditional patterns
• Fair use is narrow — commentary and parody sometimes qualify but you're defending yourself in a dispute

If you get a DMCA takedown notice, your listing is removed and you get a strike. Multiple strikes lead to account suspension.

AI-generated art (2026 rules)

This is new territory and Etsy's policy has evolved. As of 2026:

• Allowed: AI-generated art where you are the creator (prompted and produced the work yourself), you disclose that AI was used, and the work doesn't infringe copyrights
• Restricted: bulk-output AI art that appears to be mass-generated from templates or trending prompts — Etsy has tightened enforcement here
• Prohibited: AI art in someone else's style if you didn't create the original style yourself (style mimicry of living artists)

Practical rule: AI-generated art is fine as a creative tool if you're treating each piece as your work. It's not fine as a "generate 1000 things and spam them as listings" strategy.

Prohibited items

Etsy's prohibited items list:

• Alcohol, tobacco, drugs, drug paraphernalia
• Medical products, supplements, anything making health claims
• Weapons, firearms, ammunition
• Live animals
• Hazardous or illegal materials
• Human remains or parts
• Used cosmetics, used underwear/swimwear
• Items promoting hate speech, violence, or discrimination
• Items violating intellectual property
• Stolen goods

The production partner rule

If you design products that someone else manufactures, you must disclose the production partner. This is the rule that makes POD (print-on-demand) compliance specific:

• You designed a t-shirt, Printful manufactures it → disclose Printful as production partner
• You designed an SVG, the buyer cuts it themselves → no production partner needed
• You designed a mug, RedBubble prints and ships it → disclose RedBubble

Setting up production partners is a one-time task per manufacturer. After that, they appear as an option on listings that use them.

Fees you'll pay

Quick reference:

• $0.20 per listing (at creation and each 4-month auto-renewal)
• 6.5% transaction fee on each sale (including shipping)
• 3% + $0.25 payment processing for US sellers (varies by country)
• 12% or 15% Offsite Ads fee on Offsite-Ads-driven sales (only if applicable)
• 2.5% currency conversion fee if buyer pays in different currency

See the full fee breakdown for exact math.

Multi-shop rules

Summarized:

• Multiple shops allowed — no upper limit
• Each shop needs its own Etsy account with unique email
• Same taxpayer ID, credit card, and bank account allowed across accounts
• Must disclose other shops in each account's Public Profile
• Duplicate shops (identical items in multiple shops to game search) are prohibited

See the multi-shop rules article for details.

Offsite Ads rules

The one rule that traps new sellers:

• Shops under $10,000 USD annual revenue: can opt out of Offsite Ads
• Shops over $10,000 USD annual revenue: automatically enrolled, cannot opt out, pay 15% on Offsite-Ads-driven sales

If you're growing, the $10K threshold is a real business decision — crossing it triggers mandatory 15% Offsite Ads fees on a portion of your sales. Plan pricing accordingly.

Tax reporting

Etsy reports your sales to the IRS (US sellers) or your country's tax authority once you cross certain thresholds. For US sellers in 2026:

• $20,000+ in sales AND 200+ transactions → Etsy issues 1099-K
• Below that → no 1099 issued, but you're still responsible for reporting

Note that sales tax collection on Etsy is handled by Etsy itself under marketplace facilitator laws — you don't collect or remit sales tax yourself. But income tax on your profit is your responsibility.

Photography and listing rules

• Images must be at least 2,000 px on shortest side (first photo must be 635 px+)
• Images must accurately represent the actual product
• Stock photos are generally not allowed — buyers want to see the actual item
• Maximum 10 photos per listing, 10 MB per photo
• Maximum 140 characters in titles
• 13 tags per listing, 20 characters per tag

Customer service rules

Etsy measures seller quality partly on customer service:

• Respond to buyer messages within 24 hours
• Fulfill orders within the processing time you set
• Maintain a low refund/case rate (above 2-3% hurts seller stats)
• Don't include external links or contact info in listings (Etsy wants communication to stay on-platform)

The rules that sound like rules but aren't

Common myths:

• "You have to handmake everything yourself" — false if you disclose production partners
• "You can't sell digital products" — false, digital is explicitly allowed as handmade
• "You can only have one shop" — false, multiple shops allowed with separate accounts
• "You need an LLC to sell on Etsy" — false, but recommended once you're serious
• "Etsy charges $30 just to open a shop" — false, opening is free; you pay per listing

Most shop suspensions come from three causes: IP violations, selling mass-produced items not in craft supplies, and repeated customer service failures. Everything else is typically recoverable with a policy review.

When rules change

Etsy updates its policies periodically. Major changes in recent years:

• 2022: Transaction fee raised from 5% to 6.5%
• 2024: Regulatory operating fee introduced in several countries
• 2025-26: Tightened enforcement on AI-generated items and mass resellers

Check the Etsy Seller Handbook periodically (quarterly is fine) for policy updates that might affect your shop. Most changes are telegraphed in advance.