Digital product margin: Gumroad's real fees and your actual take (2026)
The short answer: Gumroad's direct-sale fee is 10% flat + $0.50 per transaction, and card processing (2.9% + 30¢) is a separate line — verified 12 June 2026 against Gumroad's published pricing. The widely repeated shorthand that folds the thirty-cent figure into the platform fee conflates the two lines. On a €29 product × 100 sales, the verified fee stack plus a 6% illustrative refund allowance leaves a net take of ≈ €2,252, i.e. ≈ €22.52 per unit — 78% of sticker, before your own income tax.
Sources: Gumroad pricing · Lemon Squeezy pricing · Stripe pricing
| Deduction (€29 × 100 sales) | Line | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Gumroad fee | 10% × €2,900 + $0.50 × 100 | €340 |
| Card processing | 2.9% × €2,900 + $0.30 × 100 | ≈ €114 |
| Refund allowance (illustrative 6%) | 6% × €2,900 + ~€20 unrecovered fees | ≈ €194 |
| Net take | €2,900 − deductions | ≈ €2,252 |
Last updated: 12 June 2026 · Data verified: Gumroad fee schedule 12 June 2026 against gumroad.com/pricing. Refund rates are NOT published by platforms — the 6% in the worked example is an explicit assumption, not data.
A €29 sticker price on a Gumroad ebook lands closer to €22–23 in your bank account after fees, refunds, and payment processing. Price the take, not the sticker. Pricing the sticker without modeling the deductions is how creators end up earning €4/hour on a "successful" launch.
The deduction stack, in order
Platform fee. Gumroad charges 10% flat + $0.50 per transaction on direct sales, with card processing (2.9% + 30¢ per transaction) listed as a separate line — both verified 12 June 2026 against gumroad.com/pricing. Two things follow. First, the often-quoted version that attaches the thirty cents to the platform fee is wrong: the 30¢ belongs to the processing line, and the platform's own fixed component is 50¢. Second, the fixed components dominate at low prices — on a €5 download, the combined $0.80 of fixed fees alone is a 16% haircut before the percentage fees even apply.
Other platforms structure it differently: Lemon Squeezy publishes a 5% + 50¢ fee plus payment processing, and Stripe direct runs region-dependent processing rates (lower for EU-domestic cards, higher for US/international) with no platform layer on top — at the cost of you becoming the merchant of record for VAT (next section). Check the platform's own pricing page on the day you decide; fee schedules change and a guide's snapshot ages.
VAT. Gumroad has operated as merchant of record on all sales since January 2025, so VAT on consumer sales is collected and remitted by the platform — the same applies to Lemon Squeezy and to Paddle in MoR mode. With Stripe direct, you are the seller of record: EU consumer sales fall under the OSS rules and the VAT you collect is not revenue. The VAT OSS guide covers which regime you are in; for margin math the rule is simple — deemed-supplier platform: sticker is VAT-handled; direct sales: strip VAT out before computing your take.
Refunds. Platforms do not publish category refund rates, so model them as an explicit assumption: the worked example uses 6%, and stress-testing 3–8% is a sensible range for digital goods. The refund costs you the revenue and, on some platforms, the non-refunded portion of the fees — read the platform's refund policy to see which fees come back.
Payment-method weighting. Where processing is not bundled (Stripe direct), PayPal / Apple Pay / SEPA / card mixes carry different rates and the effective average shifts with your buyer geography. The platform's payout report is the ground truth; reconcile against it after the first hundred sales.
The worked example, line by line
€29 course on Gumroad, 100 sales, EU consumer mix (Gumroad is merchant of record, so VAT is the platform's problem). Fixed fees are USD-denominated; the example treats $ ≈ € for readability — at current rates the difference is small and the structure is the point:
- Sticker: €29 × 100 = €2,900
- Gumroad fee: 10% × €2,900 + $0.50 × 100 = €290 + €50 = €340
- Card processing: 2.9% × €2,900 + $0.30 × 100 = €84 + €30 = ≈ €114
- Refund allowance (assumed 6% + ~€20 unrecovered fees): ≈ €194
- Net take: ≈ €2,252 → ≈ €22.52 per unit
If the course took 80 hours to make, that's ≈ €28/hour — well below a €1,000 day-rate (€125/hour at 8h). That comparison, not the launch-day revenue screenshot, is the decision input: price higher, sell more units, or accept that this launch buys audience rather than income. Your day-rate is the opportunity-cost line every product hour competes against.
What changes the math
Price point. Fixed fees make cheap products structurally worse: at €5, fixed fees alone take ~16%; at €99 they take under 1%. Bundling three small products into one €49 product is often the single biggest margin lever available.
Platform choice. A 10%-platform with VAT handled (Gumroad) versus a ~5%-platform plus processing with VAT handled (Lemon Squeezy) versus processing-only with VAT on you (Stripe direct) is a genuine three-way trade between fee level, VAT workload, and checkout control. Run your own volume assumption through each schedule — the ranking flips with volume and average order value.
Buyer geography. B2B buyers with valid VAT numbers are reverse-charged on direct sales (no VAT in your margin math); heavy non-EU consumer mixes change which VAT regimes even apply.
Frequently asked questions
Isn’t Gumroad’s fee “ten percent plus thirty cents”?
No — that widely repeated figure conflates two lines. Per Gumroad’s published pricing (verified 12 June 2026), the platform fee on direct sales is 10% + $0.50 per transaction, and 2.9% + 30¢ is the separate card-processing line. Collapsing them understates the fixed cost and hides the processing percentage.
Do I still owe VAT if I sell on Gumroad?
On Gumroad sales, no — Gumroad has been merchant of record on all sales since January 2025 and collects/remits VAT itself. You report the platform payout as your income. If you ALSO sell direct (Stripe/PayPal checkout on your own site), those direct sales follow the OSS rules — see the VAT OSS guide.
Where does the 6% refund rate come from?
It is an assumption, stated as one. Platforms do not publish per-category refund statistics, so the honest move is to model a range (3–8%) and watch your own number after launch. If your real rate runs above ~8%, the product page is over-promising — that is a copy problem before it is a margin problem.
Should I price tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive?
On merchant-of-record platforms, the buyer-facing price is typically VAT-inclusive and the platform deducts the VAT for the buyer's country before your payout — so your *received* per-unit revenue varies by buyer geography even at one sticker. On direct sales you choose, but B2C in the EU conventionally displays tax-inclusive prices. Model your payout on the platform's actual statement, not on the sticker.
Is the €22.52 figure my profit?
No — it is net revenue after platform-level deductions. Your income tax, social contributions, and the production cost of your time still come out. The day-rate guide covers the gross-up from net targets; the hourly comparison in the worked example is the bridge between the two.