TikTok Shop's referral fee: the table says 6%, the blogs say 8%. Your settlement report decides

The short answer

As of November 2, 2026, TikTok has not published an 8% US referral fee. Its "Referral Fees by Category" table on Seller University, page dated October 8, 2026, lists 6% for almost every US category, 5% for five fine-jewelry sub-categories and the Pre-Owned categories, and 3% on the part of a Collectibles or Pre-Owned sale above $10,000. We re-read it this morning.

The 8% comes from third-party sellers' guides. Delzonic (August 28, 2026) and FBA Tactics (August 25, updated September 5) say most non-food US categories moved from 6% to 8% on August 4, 2026. beBOLD Digital (September 8, updated September 14) repeats the figure but calls it a reported change and notes TikTok's public table had not caught up. Ecommerce Times (August 16) gives a different date, October 1, 2026. None of them links a TikTok notice, and we found none. So 8% is a report, not a confirmed rate. It is also not something we can rule out for an individual shop, which is why the check below matters.

On a $20 sale with no shipping, discount or tax, TikTok's fee is $1.20 at 6% and $1.60 at 8%: 40 cents more per order, a third more in fees. That is the same answer our TikTok Shop $20 sale page gives at 6%, and the 8% case comes from our 6% vs 8% explainer.

What changed, and what didn't

TikTok's side of the record has not moved since our October 21 check. The category table carries the same October 8, 2026 date and the same 6%, 5% and 3% rates. Its companion page, "TikTok Shop Referral Fee Updates - 2024" (page dated 05/08/2025), still says the referral fee moved to 6% per order on April 1, 2024, that new sellers on promotional plans stay on them until the promotion ends, and that TikTok will use "reasonable efforts" to notify sellers by email or in their account 30 days before a material change.

The reports have not converged either. They disagree on the date (August 4 or October 1) and on the extras: Delzonic adds 9.5% to 11% for select beauty and electronics sub-categories, and Ecommerce Times adds a 1.5% creator facilitation fee. FBA Tactics tells readers to treat 8% as the working figure. beBOLD tells them to verify first. Independent fee guides checked this week, including z.media (November 1) and Nolyn (November 2), still list 6% from TikTok's table.

Our own pages follow the primary source. Since October 21, our TikTok Shop fee page models 6% in every category and notes the reported 8% beside it, and the switch is logged on the fee change log. Our October Intelligence Dossier listed the 6% to 8% move under "what we could not verify" and named TikTok's official fee table as the signal to watch monthly. That is still the status.

Why it matters: what each rate takes from a $20 sale

TikTok's formula is Referral Fee Rate × (Customer Payment + Platform Discount − Tax), and the base includes shipping the customer paid, per its category table. That means a buyer-paid shipping charge raises your fee, a TikTok-funded discount does not lower it, and sales tax never enters it.

The rows below are our arithmetic from that formula. The first row is a plain $20 sale. The other two are hypothetical orders, labeled as such, to show how the base moves.

• Per $10,000 of fee base, 6% is $600 and 8% is $800, so the reported change would cost $200 more per $10,000 sold (our arithmetic).
• Hypothetical: a $20 item that cleared $2.00 profit per unit at 6% would clear $1.60 at 8%, a 20% cut in profit from a two-point fee move. The thinner the margin, the bigger the share.
• Hypothetical: add a 15% creator commission, which TikTok's settlement report defines as (product price excl. tax − seller discount) × rate, and the $20 sale carries $3.00 in commission. Fees plus commission come to $4.20 (21% of the sale) at 6% and $4.60 (23%) at 8%.

How to tell which rate you are paying

Your settlement report is the only document that answers this for your shop. TikTok's help article "How to Access Your Settlement Report" (page dated 09/11/2025) says to go to Finances > Statements or Payouts in Seller Center, click Export, pick a date range and download the file from Export History. The Order details sheet breaks settlement down by SKU, fees included. Our fee-change explainer walks through it step by step; here is the short version.

• Export a range that spans August 4, 2026, so you have orders from before and after the reported change date, and ideally after October 1 too, the other date in the reports.
• Pick clean orders: completed, no refund, no adjustment, and an empty Ads referral fee discount column. TikTok's column definitions say that discount lowers the referral fee on orders from the Shop Ads incentive, so it will make your rate look lower than it is.
• Rebuild the base: Customer payment + Platform discounts − Sales tax payment. On Colorado orders, also subtract the Retail delivery fee payment, which TikTok's worked example groups with tax.
• Divide the Referral fee (ignore the minus sign) by that base. About 0.06 is the published rate. About 0.08 is the reported one. About 0.05 fits fine jewelry or Pre-Owned. Anything well below 0.05 suggests a promotional plan, which TikTok says continues until its promotional period ends. On small orders, rounding to the cent can move the result slightly, so check five or six orders, not one.
• Compare by order created date. If orders created before August 4 read 0.06 and later ones read 0.08, your rate changed. Then look for the notice in your Seller Center messages and email, since TikTok says it notifies sellers about 30 days before material changes, and screenshot it.
• Check the category each SKU is listed under. A product mapped to a different category can carry a different rate, and the category table is the reference for which rate goes with which category.

What to do this week

One settlement export and a spreadsheet column. No new tool.

• Run the check above on five or six clean orders from before and after August 4. Write down the implied rate and the order dates.
• If you read 0.06: keep pricing at 6%, but keep an 8% stress case for any SKU you are about to scale into Q4. A low-ticket item with a thin margin is where 40 cents an order hurts first.
• If you read 0.08: re-run unit economics at 8% for every SKU under $25, starting with your best sellers. Creator commission is a rate you set, so it is the line you can move fastest; re-price only after you know the new floor.
• If you are on a promotional rate: find its end date now. A shop that has never paid 6% should plan for the standard rate, not the promotion.
• Compare channels at your real price points on the fee comparison by item price, which uses TikTok's published 6%.

What we're watching next

We re-check TikTok's fee pages every time we update the TikTok Shop fee page. The signals that would settle this:

• A new date or new rates on TikTok's "Referral Fees by Category" table. It has read October 8, 2026 since before our October 21 check.
• A dated Seller Center notice or email to US sellers announcing 8%. If TikTok publishes one, we will update our fee pages and log it on the fee change log.
• Whether any of the trade reports adds a primary source, or whether the August 4 and October 1 accounts converge on one date.
• Our forecast scorecard tracks one TikTok Shop call, F4, on full-year 2026 US GMV. This fee question does not change it, so we have not tied it to this piece. Follow the intelligence hub for updates.

Questions sellers ask

Answers as of November 2, 2026.

Is the TikTok Shop referral fee 6% or 8% in 2026?

TikTok's own US category table, page dated October 8, 2026, says 6% for most categories, with 5% for five fine-jewelry sub-categories and Pre-Owned. Delzonic and FBA Tactics report 8% for most non-food categories from August 4, 2026, but TikTok has not published that rate.

How much does TikTok Shop take from a $20 sale?

$1.20 at the published 6%, or $1.60 if your shop is being charged the reported 8%, on a $20 order with no shipping, discount or tax. Buyer-paid shipping is added to the base, so a $20 item with $4 shipping costs $1.44 at 6% (our arithmetic from TikTok's formula).

How do I check my TikTok Shop referral fee rate?

Export a settlement report from Finances > Statements or Payouts in Seller Center, open the Order details sheet, and on a completed order with no refund divide the Referral fee by (Customer payment + Platform discounts − Sales tax payment). About 0.06 means 6%, about 0.08 means 8%.

When did the reported 8% start?

Reports disagree. Delzonic and FBA Tactics say August 4, 2026; Ecommerce Times says October 1, 2026. TikTok has published neither date.

Does a TikTok-funded discount lower my referral fee?

No. TikTok adds platform discounts back into the base, so the fee is charged as if the buyer paid full price. Discounts you fund yourself do reduce what the customer pays, and with it the base.

How this was made

AI-assisted, human-reviewed. TikTok's pages and every third-party report were re-read on November 2, 2026, and are dated as shown. Fee amounts, the per-$10,000 figure and the profit and commission examples are our arithmetic from TikTok's published formula. Examples labeled hypothetical are illustrations, not quotes or measured results.