Take Rate Calculator
Take rate is the number that decides whether a marketplace is a business or a billboard. Enter the revenue your platform keeps and the gross merchandise value flowing through it — the tool returns the cut you take on every dollar transacted.
Take rate = platform revenue ÷ gross merchandise value (GMV) × 100%. It is the share of every transaction a marketplace keeps as its own revenue, and it is the central monetisation lever for any platform business. Large, high-volume marketplaces often run take rates under 5%; established marketplaces commonly sit in the 5% to 15% range; rates above 30% maximise revenue per transaction but sharpen the incentive for participants to transact off-platform. The right take rate balances revenue against the value the platform genuinely adds.
Take Rate Calculator inputs and result
| Take rate | What it suggests |
|---|
How to use this calculator
- Enter platform revenueUse only the revenue the marketplace keeps — commissions, listing fees, payment fees and service charges. Do not count the full sale price of goods that belong to third-party sellers.
- Enter gross merchandise valueGMV is the total value of everything transacted through the platform in the period, before your cut. Keep the period the same as the revenue figure.
- Read the take rateThe tool divides revenue by GMV to give the share of every transaction you keep. Compare it to marketplace norms, but weigh it against the value your platform actually adds.
- Watch the disintermediation lineA very high take rate maximises revenue per transaction but tempts buyers and sellers to go direct. Read your rate against the lock-in your platform genuinely provides.
- Export your numbersCopy a share link, download the CSV for your marketplace model, or print a one-page PDF for the monetisation review.
RGM Expert Says
Take rate is the marketplace founder’s favourite lever and the one most often pulled too hard. It is tempting to read a low take rate as money left on the table and raise it, but a marketplace lives on liquidity, and every point of take rate is a point of incentive for participants to find each other and transact off-platform. We treat take rate as a balance between what you capture and what you risk pushing away.
The number only means something against GMV growth. A platform can lift take rate and watch revenue rise while GMV quietly stalls, because the higher cut deterred marginal supply or demand. The healthier pattern is take rate that holds or rises slowly while GMV compounds — evidence the platform is adding enough value to earn its cut. We always read take rate and GMV trajectory together, never in isolation.
Where take rate connects to acquisition is GMV per user. A thin take rate can fund aggressive acquisition if each user transacts a large lifetime GMV; a fat take rate on low per-user volume cannot. Before sizing marketplace acquisition budgets, we translate take rate and GMV per user into the lifetime platform revenue a cohort actually generates, then hold CAC against that.
How it works
Take rate measures monetisation efficiency: how much of the value flowing across the platform the platform keeps.
- Platform revenue — the marketplace’s own revenue: commissions, fees and service charges, not the full value of third-party goods.
- GMV — gross merchandise value: total value of all transactions through the platform before the cut.
- Take rate — the share of GMV the platform keeps as revenue.
Take-rate norms vary widely by category; a16z’s widely cited marketplace writing notes most successful marketplaces land somewhere in a roughly 10% to 30% range, while high-volume models run far lower. Treat any single benchmark as directional, not a target.
Take rate is the balance between capture and liquidity
Every marketplace faces the same tension: a higher take rate captures more of each transaction, but it also raises the reward for buyers and sellers to bypass the platform. The art is setting a rate high enough to build a real business and low enough that participants keep coming back. Read take rate as a pricing decision about your own value, not just a revenue dial.
Take rate is meaningless without GMV alongside it. Lifting the rate can grow revenue while quietly suppressing the volume that feeds it, so a rising take rate on flat or shrinking GMV is a warning, not a win. The pattern to want is a stable or gently rising take rate as GMV compounds — proof the platform earns its cut.
For acquisition, what matters is lifetime platform revenue per user, which is take rate multiplied by the GMV a user transacts over their life. A thin take rate funds aggressive growth when per-user GMV is large; a thick take rate on light users does not. Translate take rate into per-user revenue before you benchmark a marketplace CAC against it.
Typical take rates by platform type
Take rate spans an enormous range by category. These directional bands orient the figure; they are rules of thumb drawn from public reporting, not targets to hit.
| Platform type | Typical take rate | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Payments / high-volume | Under 3% | Razor-thin cut on huge transaction volume |
| Large general marketplaces | 8% to 15% | Established liquidity, moderate value-add |
| Services / vertical marketplaces | 15% to 30% | Higher value-add, matching and trust services |
| Managed / full-stack | Over 30% | Platform handles delivery, payments and risk |
What operators say about marketplaces
Most thriving marketplaces capture a meaningful but not punitive slice of each transaction; push take rate too far and you simply teach your two sides to find each other without you.
Liquidity is the real product of a marketplace; take rate has to be set so it funds the business without starving the volume that makes the network valuable.