Guide · By DQ · November 3, 2026
You had a strong year. Then demand cooled, you raised prices, or you simply made fewer pieces—and your trailing sales sit well under $10,000. You open Shop Manager → Settings → Offsite Ads looking for Opt out, and it is gone. Or Help answers your ticket with the FAQ line: Why can't I opt out of Offsite Ads? — because the shop already crossed the threshold.
That is not a glitch. Etsy's Help Center states that once a shop has made $10,000 USD or more in any consecutive 365-day period, Offsite Ads participation is required for the lifetime of your shop, at the 12% rate. Sales dropping later does not reopen the exit. This guide is about that one-way door: what Help and the Advertising & Marketing Policy actually say, how the $10k is measured, and how to price when 12% is permanent. Full program mechanics (channels, dashboard, multi-order attribution) live in our sibling guide Etsy Offsite Ads Explained. Facts verified November 3, 2026 against Help How Etsy's Offsite Ads Work and Etsy's Advertising & Marketing Policy.
Help splits shops into two columns based on revenue in any consecutive 365-day period:
| Always under $10,000 USD in every consecutive 365-day window | Ever $10,000 USD or more in any consecutive 365-day window |
|---|---|
| 15% Offsite fee on attributed orders | 12% ("discounted") Offsite fee on attributed orders |
| Auto-enrolled, eligible to opt out | Auto-enrolled, required for the lifetime of your shop |
The fee base is the amount you made from the sale before the advertising fee. The fee on any one order never exceeds $100 USD. You pay only when a buyer clicks an Offsite Ad and purchases from your shop within 30 days; a click with no purchase costs nothing. A single click can attribute multiple orders in that window. If the buyer's final click before purchase is an Etsy Ad, Help says only the Etsy Ads fee applies for that order.
The lifetime column is the part sellers miss after a soft year: the 12% is framed as a discount versus 15%, but the trade is you lose the right to leave.
Help's FAQ is blunt: you cannot opt out if the shop has made $10,000 USD or more in any consecutive 365-day period. Under Are Offsite Ads optional?, Help adds that once you have made that amount in a 365-day period, you are required to participate from then onwards, and Etsy looks at your sales each month.
The Advertising & Marketing Policy matches the permanence language: if the shop made $10,000 USD or more total sales in any consecutive 365-day period after February 20, 2019, you are required to participate for the lifetime of your shop even if you fall below that threshold at a later period. Policy also states that prior opt-outs while under $10k no longer apply after you cross. Leap years use 366 days for the window.
So a ceramics shop that cleared $12k in one gift season, then deliberately slowed to $4k the next year, still sits in the lifetime column. Production schedule can change; the Offsite exit cannot.
Practical checks sellers need:
If you are still under the door, opt-out steps (Help) are: Shop Manager → Settings → Offsite Ads → Opt out of Offsite Ads → confirm. Re-enroll later with Turn on Offsite Ads. After the door closes, those controls are not available as an exit.
Assume a US shop, one physical item, no gift wrap. Standard selling fees from Help Fees & Taxes for context: $0.20 listing renewal on sale, 6.5% transaction on item + shipping, typical US processing 3% + $0.25. Offsite sits on top when attributed.
Order A: item $80, shipping $8 → sale base for % fees $88.
If Offsite attributes the order:
Lifetime shops pay less per attributed order than 15% shops, but they cannot choose zero. On this order, 12% Offsite alone is larger than the combined 6.5% + processing + listing stack.
Order B — thin margin after the drop: item $28, shipping $5 → base $33.
A shop that priced when Offsite was optional (or rare) and then locked into 12% on every attributed sale—including custom and repeat orders inside the 30-day shop-wide window—feels the squeeze hardest after volume falls. Cap reminder: Offsite never exceeds $100 on a single order; small tickets never hit the cap, so the full 12% usually applies.
Stress both paths in the free Canopio calculator with the Offsite toggle on 12% versus off. Sibling math: How to Price Etsy Listings for Profit, fees on shipping, custom / repeat Offsite fees.
Peak season is when shops most often first cross $10k in a consecutive 365-day window. Help's monthly check means a strong October–December can enroll you for life even if January–September were quiet. The Advertising Policy's "even if you fall below later" line is written for exactly the post-peak hangover.
If you have never hit the threshold:
If you are already lifetime-enrolled:
You cannot: set an Offsite spend cap, pick which SKUs run offsite, or opt out after the $10k door. You can:
Run attributed vs clean orders on the free fee & profit calculator. Free listing score; paid rewrites $2.99/10 or $9.99/40 if titles bury margin or shipping. After you reprice a whole catalog, Shop Audit ($9.90) via Etsy OAuth ranks listings worst-first (14-day refund; independent of Etsy).
Help's FAQ: if your shop has made $10,000 USD or more in any consecutive 365-day period, participation in Offsite Ads is required. That is the lifetime lock—not a temporary high-sales season.
No. Help says once you crossed $10k in any consecutive 365-day period you are required to participate for the lifetime of your shop at the 12% rate. Falling below later does not restore opt-out. Policy language matches: required even if you fall below at a later period.
Help lists a discounted 12% Offsite Ads fee on attributed orders (on the amount you made from the sale before the advertising fee), capped at $100 USD per order. Shops that have always stayed under $10k pay 15% and may still opt out.
Help and the Advertising & Marketing Policy look at any consecutive 365-day period (366 in a leap year), reviewed monthly. Policy: sales = item price × quantity minus discounts or formally cancelled orders, after February 20, 2019. Non-USD shops are converted to USD at the rates Etsy used when each sale processed.
No. Policy says once you hit the threshold you may no longer opt out, and prior opt-outs while under $10k no longer apply. Help: you are required to participate from then onwards.
You cannot set an Offsite budget or pick which listings run. You can price for a 12% attributed hit, improve listing quality, watch the Offsite dashboard, and remember last-click Etsy Ads replace Offsite on that order only. Share & Save own-traffic credits do not apply when Offsite took the final click.
Canopio is independent and not affiliated with Etsy, Inc. Examples are round-number illustrations. Confirm live Help, Policy, and your Payment account before changing prices.