NFT marketplace fees come in three layers: the platform’s own cut, the creator royalty, and the blockchain network fee (gas). As of October 2026, OpenSea’s widely reported seller fee is 1%, Rarible charges 1% to each side, Magic Eden on Solana is reported to charge buyers 2%, and SuperRare takes 15% of a first sale plus a 3% buyer fee. Royalties and gas can be bigger than all of these. Below you will find a dated fee table, worked examples of what a seller actually receives, and the smaller costs people forget.
Key takeaways
- Platform fees for open marketplaces are low (roughly 0–2%). Curated art platforms take far more on primary sales.
- Creator royalties (often 0–10%) are frequently the largest deduction, but on many collections they are optional rather than enforced.
- Gas depends on the chain. Ethereum mainnet is the expensive one; Solana, Polygon and Ethereum L2s cost a small fraction.
- Approvals, wrapping ETH, cancelling listings and cashing out to a bank all add costs that never show in the headline fee.
- Fees change often, and venues close. Confirm the figure on the checkout screen before signing.
The three layers of NFT marketplace fees
Every NFT sale passes through the same three deductions, though each venue arranges them differently.
- Platform (marketplace) fee. A percentage the venue keeps. Depending on the platform, it is taken from the seller’s proceeds, added on top for the buyer, or charged to whoever accepts an existing order (the “taker”).
- Creator royalty (OpenSea calls it “creator earnings”). A percentage of secondary sales paid to the collection’s creator. Whether it is mandatory depends on the collection’s contract and the marketplace. We cover the concept in NFT royalties explained, so this page only deals with how royalties change your numbers.
- Network fee. Paid to the blockchain’s validators or miners, not to the marketplace. It depends on the chain and how congested it is, not on the sale price.
The order matters when you compare venues. A “0% fee” marketplace on Ethereum can still cost a buyer more than a 2% venue on Solana once gas is added.
NFT marketplace fees compared (as of October 2026)
We checked these figures against each platform’s help pages where they exist, and against recent reporting where they do not. Where we could only find third-party figures, the table says so. Always treat the fee shown at checkout as the final word.
| Venue (chain) | Platform fee | Who pays it | Royalties | Status, October 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenSea (Ethereum, EVM chains, Solana) | 1% (raised from 0.5% on 15 Sept 2025; 2.5% before the OS2 relaunch) | Seller | Optional, or enforced on collections using ERC-721C/ERC-1155C | Active |
| Magic Eden (Solana) | 2% reported by several 2026 reviews; no official fee page found | Reported as buyer | Optional unless the collection enforces them (e.g. programmable NFTs) | Active; non-Solana markets closed 9 Mar 2026 |
| Rarible (multichain) | 1% buyer + 1% seller (per Rarible’s own announcement) | Both sides | As set by the creator | Active |
| SuperRare (Ethereum, curated) | 15% of primary sales to the SuperRare DAO treasury; 3% buyer marketplace fee on all sales | Artist (primary), buyer (3%) | 10% to the artist on every secondary sale | Active |
| Objkt (Tezos) | 2.5% cited by third-party guides; no official confirmation found | Unclear; check at checkout | As set by the creator | Active |
| Exchange Art (Solana) | Historically 2.5% | n/a | n/a | Closed 1 Aug 2026 |
| Blur (Ethereum) | 0% marketplace fee | n/a | Optional | Website closes 12 Nov 2026; contracts stay live |
| UniSat (Bitcoin Ordinals) | 0.5% per a mid-2026 comparison; ran a 90-day zero-fee promotion from 1 Mar 2026 | Check at checkout | Generally not enforceable on Ordinals | Active |
For which venue suits which kind of collector, see our best NFT marketplaces comparison. This page sticks to the money.
Royalties: when the buyer or seller pays
Royalties are where net proceeds vary the most, because the same collection can pay 0% or 10% depending on how it was deployed.
- Optional royalties. Since 2023, most major venues have let traders skip or reduce royalties on collections that do not enforce them on-chain. On OpenSea, sellers on such collections can choose whether to pay the creator. In practice, many sales pay little or nothing.
- Enforced on EVM chains. Collections built on ERC-721C or ERC-1155C (Limit Break’s standard) can make royalties compulsory. OpenSea has supported this since April 2024. These collections can only trade on marketplaces that honour the rules. The royalty comes out of the seller’s proceeds, and turning on enforcement cancels existing listings.
- Enforced on Solana. Metaplex programmable NFTs (pNFTs) and the newer Metaplex Core standard let creators attach rules that require royalties on transfer. Older Solana NFTs without these rules trade with optional royalties.
- Curated platforms. SuperRare pays a fixed 10% royalty to the artist on every resale. Its help centre also describes a 1% collector royalty, funded from the 3% buyer fee, for earlier owners.
Practical tip: before listing, open the collection page or the item’s checkout preview. It shows the creator fee that will be deducted, and whether you can change it.
Network fees by chain
Gas is quoted in the chain’s own coin and moves with demand, so a fixed dollar figure would be out of date within hours. Our NFT gas fees guide explains how to time transactions. In relative terms:
| Chain | Typical cost of an NFT action, relatively | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum mainnet | Highest of the major NFT chains | Approvals, purchases, offer acceptance and on-chain cancellations each cost gas |
| Ethereum L2s (Base, Arbitrum) and Polygon | Usually a small fraction of mainnet | Bridging there and back adds its own fee |
| Solana | Usually fractions of a cent per transaction | New token accounts require a small refundable rent deposit (about 0.002 SOL) |
| Tezos | Low | Small storage fees apply to some operations |
| Bitcoin (Ordinals) | Varies widely with mempool demand | A purchase is a full Bitcoin transaction, and costs rise sharply in busy periods |
Who pays gas depends on the action. On Seaport-based venues such as OpenSea, a seller whose fixed-price listing is bought usually pays no gas for that sale; the buyer submits the transaction. If the seller accepts an offer instead, the seller submits it and pays.
Worked examples: what a seller really nets
These examples use the fee rates in the table above and a hypothetical 5% creator royalty. They leave out gas, which varies, and they are illustrations, not quotes.
Same 1 ETH sale, three venues
| Venue | Buyer pays | Platform takes | Royalty | Seller nets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenSea, royalty enforced (ERC-721C) | 1.00 ETH | 0.01 ETH | 0.05 ETH | 0.94 ETH |
| OpenSea, royalty optional and skipped | 1.00 ETH | 0.01 ETH | 0 | 0.99 ETH |
| Rarible, 5% royalty | 1.01 ETH | 0.02 ETH (1% each side) | 0.05 ETH | 0.94 ETH |
| SuperRare, secondary sale | 1.03 ETH | 0.03 ETH (buyer fee) | 0.10 ETH (fixed 10%) | 0.90 ETH |
A first (primary) sale on SuperRare is different. The artist receives 0.85 ETH from a 1 ETH sale, the DAO treasury keeps 0.15 ETH, and the collector pays 1.03 ETH. On curated art platforms, the primary commission is the dominant cost for creators. On open marketplaces it is the royalty.
A 10 SOL sale on Magic Eden
Assume Magic Eden’s reported 2% buyer fee applies and the collection is a pNFT with an enforced 5% royalty. The buyer pays about 10.2 SOL. The seller receives 10 SOL minus the 0.5 SOL royalty, leaving 9.5 SOL, less a tiny network fee. If the collection’s royalties are optional and the seller does not pay them, the seller keeps close to 10 SOL. If the seller accepts a collection bid rather than waiting for a buyer, check the confirmation screen, because the fee split for accepting offers can differ.
The lesson: on open marketplaces the headline platform fee is the smallest number in the calculation. Whether royalties apply, and which chain you are on, decide most of the difference.
Fees people forget
- Approvals. The first time you list a collection on Ethereum, you sign an on-chain approval that lets the marketplace’s contract move that collection. It costs gas once per collection per contract. It also leaves a permission behind, which you should revoke when you stop using the venue.
- Wrapping ETH for offers. Offers on EVM marketplaces are made in WETH, not ETH. Wrapping costs gas, and approving WETH for the marketplace is another transaction.
- Cancelling listings. Cancelling a Seaport listing on-chain costs gas. Lowering a price usually does not, but it leaves the old, higher listing valid until it expires or you cancel it.
- Bridging. Moving funds to an L2 or sidechain to buy cheaply, then back to mainnet, adds bridge fees in both directions.
- Cashing out. Converting sale proceeds to dollars on an exchange involves a deposit, a trading fee or spread, and a bank withdrawal fee.
- Venue closures. If a marketplace shuts (Blur’s website on 12 November 2026, Exchange Art in August 2026), moving or relisting items elsewhere costs fresh approvals and gas.
If you are listing for the first time on OpenSea, our OpenSea walkthrough shows where each of these prompts appears. More cost and royalty guides are collected in our NFT guides hub.
FAQ
What are OpenSea fees in 2026?
As of October 2026, OpenSea’s marketplace fee is widely reported as 1% of the sale price, deducted from the seller. It was raised from 0.5% on 15 September 2025. On top of that come any creator earnings the collection sets, which are optional on most collections and enforced on ERC-721C ones, plus gas. OpenSea shows the exact breakdown on the listing screen before you sign.
Do you pay a fee to list an NFT?
Listing itself is usually free on major marketplaces, because a listing is an off-chain signed order. The costs come earlier and later. There is a one-time approval transaction per collection on EVM chains, then the platform fee and royalty when the item sells. Cancelling a listing on-chain also costs gas. On Solana, listing costs only a tiny network fee.
Who pays NFT royalty fees, the buyer or the seller?
On most open marketplaces, the royalty is deducted from the seller’s proceeds. The buyer pays the listed price, and the seller receives less. On curated platforms such as SuperRare, the royalty also comes out of the sale amount, while the buyer pays a separate 3% marketplace fee on top. Whether a royalty applies at all depends on whether the collection enforces it.
Is gas included in NFT marketplace fees?
No. Gas goes to the blockchain network, not the marketplace, and it is shown separately in your wallet when you confirm a transaction. Its size depends on the chain and how busy it is. An Ethereum mainnet purchase can cost more in gas than the platform fee itself, while a Solana purchase costs a fraction of a cent.
Crypto is volatile and risky; this is education, not financial advice. Do your own research.
