The 1.65% international fee
Kept by eBay, deducted straight from the seller's payout on the sale — the same way any of eBay's other selling fees are collected.
eBay sellers
The three fees hiding in an eBay international sale
"eBay international fee" is actually two unrelated charges wearing one name — a seller-side percentage on the sale, and a buyer-side bundle of duties and handling — plus the one real cost neither of them is: the postage itself. eBay's own fee and program pages, read 2026-08-30, spell out all three.
eBay's own numbersRead 2026-08-30Seller fee vs. buyer charge
The payout and the customs bill never meet
One comes out of the seller's payout. The other is a separate charge to the buyer entirely.
The seller-side fee: 1.65% of the sale
eBay's own selling-fees page, read 2026-08-30, names the figure directly: “This fee is calculated as 1.65% of the total amount of the sale and is automatically deducted from your sales.” It applies when a seller's registered address is in the US but the buyer's registered or delivery address is outside it, and the sale is not moving through eBay International Shipping. It rides on top of eBay's regular final value fee — the same page puts most categories' base final value fee at 13.6% of the total amount of the sale, with the international fee stacking on top of that, not replacing it.
This fee has nothing to do with distance, weight or what a carrier actually charged. It is a flat percentage of the sale total, and a seller pays it whether the package went two miles over a border or two thousand.
The buyer-side charge: "import charges"
A completely separate figure appears on the buyer's side of an eBay International Shipping order. eBay's own buyer terms, read 2026-08-30, state: “Import charges are in addition to the customs duties and taxes imposed by country tax and customs officials.” The same terms list what can sit inside that figure: sales, goods and services taxes, value added taxes, duties, tariffs, excise taxes, and third-party brokerage fees including a customs broker's own handling and filing fees.
A buyer pays that whole bundle upfront, at checkout, rather than being surprised by a customs bill on delivery — which is the actual point of the eBay International Shipping program, distinct from the seller-side 1.65% fee above and unrelated to it.
Who keeps which piece of money
Import charges
eBay's own buyer terms state the International Shipping Fees will be paid to eBay, covering the program's own services and any taxes eBay itself is required to remit — not passed through to the seller.
What the seller is actually paid
The item price and, per eBay's own buyer terms, any amount the seller charges to ship the item to eBay's own US, Canadian or UK shipping center — that portion is what lands with the seller, separate from either fee above.
Three different pockets, three different purposes. Confusing any two of them is how a seller ends up thinking a customs bill came out of their own payout, when it never touched it.
Neither fee is what shipping actually costs
Both figures above are eBay's own charges layered on top of a sale. What a seller actually pays to move the box — whether that is the short domestic leg to eBay's own international shipping center, or a full international label sent outside that program entirely — is priced by weight, box and lane the same as any other parcel, and it is worth quoting separately from either fee rather than assuming one covers it.
Our page on shipping internationally on eBay already prices that domestic-leg cost with a live example, so it isn't repeated here — this page exists to name the two fees sitting alongside it, which that page does not cover.
Price your own domestic leg See the eIS domestic-leg example
Where these figures come from
- eBay, Selling fees — the 1.65% international fee, its trigger condition, the eBay International Shipping exemption, and the base final value fee rate. Read 2026-08-30.
- eBay, Buyer Terms & Conditions for eBay International Shipping Program — the import charges definition, its components, and who is paid what. Read 2026-08-30.
eBay revises its fee schedule and program terms without notice. Treat the figures above as what those two pages stated on the date shown, and check eBay's current fee page before pricing a live international listing.
eBay international fees, answered
What is eBay's international fee?
A seller-side fee eBay adds on top of the final value fee when a sale crosses a border. eBay's own selling-fees page, read 2026-08-30, states this fee is calculated as 1.65% of the total amount of the sale and is automatically deducted from your sales, applying when the buyer or delivery address is outside the US and the sale is not routed through eBay International Shipping.
Is the international fee the same thing as postage?
No. The international fee is a percentage eBay takes from the sale total, charged to the seller regardless of what shipping actually cost. It has nothing to do with what a seller pays a carrier to move the box — that cost is set separately, by weight, box and lane, the same as any domestic shipment.
What are the “import charges” a buyer sees on an international eBay order?
A separate, buyer-side charge under eBay International Shipping that bundles the international leg with duties, taxes and handling. eBay's own buyer terms, read 2026-08-30, state import charges are in addition to the customs duties and taxes imposed by country tax and customs officials, and list VAT, duties, tariffs and third-party brokerage fees as components eBay can include in that figure.
Who actually keeps the import charges money?
eBay, not the seller. eBay's own buyer terms state the International Shipping Fees will be paid to eBay, which uses them to cover the program's own services and any taxes eBay itself is required to remit on the buyer's behalf — separate from whatever the seller is paid for the item and the domestic leg to the shipping center.
Does avoiding eBay International Shipping avoid the international fee too?
No — it's the opposite. eBay's own fee page states sales through the eBay International Shipping program are exempt from the 1.65% fee; a seller who ships internationally outside that program is the one who pays it. Either way, the seller's own real cost stays whatever the domestic leg to eBay's shipping center or the destination actually costs to ship.