Gumroad Fees in 2026: What You Actually Keep From a $15 PDF
Worked examples at $9, $15 and $29: what Gumroad takes on a direct sale and on a Discover sale, line by line, and how the fixed $0.50 changes the answer by price.
Gumroad Fees in 2026: What You Actually Keep From a $15 PDF
"Gumroad takes 10%" is only half the sentence. The fee is 10% plus a flat $0.50, it comes before card processing, and it becomes 30% when Gumroad's marketplace finds the buyer. This post puts those rules through three realistic prices for a PDF guide so you can see what lands in your account.
Last updated: October 19, 2026.
The Rules, From Gumroad's Own Pages
Gumroad's pricing page (read October 19, 2026) lists two rates and no monthly fee:
- Direct sales: "10% + $0.50" on "all sales through your profile or direct links to your customers."
- Discover: "30%" when new customers find and buy from you through its Discover marketplace.
Gumroad's fees article says the 10% does not include credit card or PayPal processing. The processing rate used below, 2.9% + $0.30, is the one in the PDFLaunch fee calculator, which last checked that article on October 14, 2026; the article itself could not be re-opened for this post, so check it if the rate matters to you. The 30% Discover rate includes processing.
On tax, the pricing page says that since January 1, 2025 Gumroad handles all your tax obligations, and its FAQ says you don't need to worry about VAT, GST or other international tax requirements. Tax is added on top of the price for the buyer, so none of the numbers below include it.
Three Prices, Two Ways to Sell
These are calculations from the rates above, for a US buyer paying by card. "Kept" is what is left after Gumroad and processing.
| Price | Direct: fees | Direct: you keep | Discover: fees | Discover: you keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $9 | $1.96 | $7.04 (78%) | $2.70 | $6.30 (70%) |
| $15 | $2.74 | $12.26 (82%) | $4.50 | $10.50 (70%) |
| $29 | $4.54 | $24.46 (84%) | $8.70 | $20.30 (70%) |
The $15 Guide, Line by Line
A direct sale of a $15 guide:
- Gumroad's 10%: $1.50
- Gumroad's flat fee: $0.50
- Card processing, 2.9% of $15 plus $0.30: about $0.74
- Total fees: $2.74. You keep $12.26.
The same guide sold through Discover costs 30% of $15, which is $4.50, and you keep $10.50. The difference between the two is $1.76 per sale. That is what Gumroad charges for sending you a buyer you did not have to find.
Why the $0.50 Matters More at Low Prices
The percentage parts of the fee scale with the price, and the fixed parts do not. At $9 the flat $0.50 and the flat $0.30 of processing together take 8.9% of the sale on their own, on top of the percentages, so you keep 78%. At $29 the same fixed amounts are 2.8%, and you keep 84%. Across these three prices a direct sale costs between about 16% and 22% of the price, and Discover is always 30%.
This is why a guide priced at $9 has to sell noticeably more copies than one at $15 to earn the same: $500 of take-home needs about 71 direct sales at $9, about 41 at $15 and about 21 at $29. Our post on how much to charge for a PDF guide covers choosing between them.
What a Month of 30 Sales Looks Like
Per-sale numbers hide how the direct and Discover split changes a month. For 30 sales of a $15 guide, from the same rates:
- All 30 direct: 30 × $12.26 = $367.80 kept, $82.20 in fees.
- Half direct, half Discover: 15 × $12.26 + 15 × $10.50 = $341.40 kept.
- All 30 through Discover: 30 × $10.50 = $315.00 kept, $135.00 in fees.
The gap between the best and worst case is $52.80 a month. For a seller with no audience, the Discover case is not a loss against the alternative of selling nothing. For a seller who already has an email list, sending that list to a direct link is the cheaper route.
At the other prices, 30 direct sales keep $211.20 at $9 and $733.80 at $29.
If the Buyer Pays With PayPal
Gumroad's fee article says PayPal's own fees apply to PayPal payments. The PDFLaunch calculator uses PayPal's standard US rate of 3.49% + $0.49 for domestic transactions (from PayPal's merchant fees page, checked by the calculator on October 14, 2026). On a $15 direct sale that is $1.50 + $0.50 + about $1.01, so Gumroad plus PayPal take about $3.01 and you keep about $11.99, roughly 27 cents less than on a card. Discover stays at a flat 30%.
Three Ways to Pay Less
- Bring the buyer yourself. The only way to move a sale from 30% to the direct rate is to send the buyer to your own link. A list, a blog post or a social profile all count.
- Raise the price before you chase volume. The fixed $0.50 and $0.30 make low prices cost more as a share. Going from $9 to $15 moves the share you keep from 78% to 82%.
- Check an alternative once you have traffic. Payhip and Lemon Squeezy both charge less per sale on a $15 guide, at the price of having no marketplace.
Direct or Discover: Which Will You Get?
You don't pick. Gumroad classes a sale as direct when it comes through your profile or a link you shared, and as a Discover sale when a new customer found you in the marketplace. In practice that means two things:
- If you bring the traffic yourself (email, social, a blog), you pay the direct rate.
- If you bring none, the sales you do get will mostly come from Discover, at 30%. A 70% share of a sale you would not otherwise have made is not a bad deal, but it is not a 90% one.
To estimate a month, put your price, your sales and your Discover share into the fee calculator. It also shows the same sales on Payhip and Lemon Squeezy, and the three-way comparison explains the differences in payouts and VAT.
What You Keep If You Sell Elsewhere
For the same $15 guide, Payhip's free plan (5% plus Stripe or PayPal processing, per its pricing page) leaves about $13.51 and Lemon Squeezy (5% + $0.50 per its pricing page) leaves about $13.75. Neither has a marketplace, so those figures only apply to buyers you bring yourself.
How a PDFLaunch Guide Gets to Gumroad
On Gumroad, PDFLaunch creates the product, uploads and attaches the PDF, and checks it before it goes live. Gumroad only puts it on sale once your account has a payout method. Free: one complete guide and one publish per account, no card needed. A generation that fails doesn't count. The PDF includes a small "Made with PDFLaunch" page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Gumroad take from a $15 PDF?
On a direct sale to a US buyer paying by card, about $2.74: $1.50 (10%) and $0.50 from Gumroad plus about $0.74 card processing, leaving $12.26. On a Discover sale, $4.50 (30%), leaving $10.50.
What is the difference between a direct sale and a Discover sale?
A direct sale comes through your own profile or link. A Discover sale is when a new customer finds you through Gumroad's marketplace, and the fee is a flat 30%.
Does Gumroad charge a monthly fee?
No. Gumroad's pricing page lists no monthly cost for its fees; they are taken per sale.
Sources
- Gumroad pricing, read October 19, 2026
- Gumroad Help Center: Gumroad's fees (processing rate via the PDFLaunch calculator, checked October 14, 2026)
- Payhip pricing and Lemon Squeezy pricing, read October 19, 2026
Check your own price in the Gumroad fee calculator, then try PDFLaunch free →