How do Artist Earnings work?

Calculating Artist Earnings

Artist Shops

Retail Price - Base Cost = Your Artist Shop Earnings

Each Artist Shop product has a Base Cost, which is equal to the Product Cost plus a 5% processing fee based on your retail price for that product. For your Earnings, subtract the Base Cost from the Retail Price that you set and you keep the difference as Artist Earnings.

Threadless Marketplace

Purchase Price x 10% = Your Threadless Earnings

Starting February 3, 2025, we’re introducing a simplified 10% royalty rate for all sales made from the Threadless Marketplace only. This allows you to earn a fixed 10% royalty on the purchase price of any product featuring your designs sold on Threadless.

This change is based on artist feedback to make earnings easier to understand while creating more opportunities for full-price marketplace sales.

Find the full outline of base costs for Threadless, Artist Shop, and Threadless Marketplace earnings in the Policy Concerning Payments to Artists and Artist Shop Owners section of the Terms & Conditions.

Download a list of Product Costs as PDF or Excel

Setting Up Artist Earnings

To start, set up your Payment Information in your Artist Dashboard.

Artist Dashboard is essentially your hub for all things Threadless and Artist Shops. This is where you can open and manage your Artist Shop, submit and manage designs in the Threadless challenge, set up payments and view your earnings, and find the help you need to do any of those things. To find your Artist Dashboard, log in to your Threadless account and select 'Dashboard' from the menu.

In the Payment Information, enter your Full Legal Name, Date of Birth, and your Mailing Address. Select whether you are a U.S. Citizen/ U. S. Resident Alien. If you are, you'll be required to fill out and sign the W-9 Form.

All Artist Earnings from Artist Shops are paid through PayPal. To ensure you receive your Earnings, add the email address associated with your Paypal account in the Paypal Email field. If you don't have a Paypal account, you can get one here.

Make sure your Payment Information and Paypal address are correct and hit 'Update'. Once you see the confirmation message below, your Payment Information was successfully added!

Artist Earnings Details

Artist Earnings are separated into 3 sections:

Pending Earnings

Pending Earnings appear as 'Pending' when a sale for your design is made and the customer's order is sent to be printed and fulfilled. To account for customer cancellations and order changes, there may be a slight delay (think 1-2 hours) from the time the order is placed to when it appears in Pending Earnings. The sale of your design will remain in 'Pending' for 15 days.

Cleared Earnings

If not returned or canceled during the 15 days 'Pending', the sale will move to Cleared Earnings. Any Cleared Earnings will be paid out in the next Artist Earnings monthly payment.

Paid Earnings

Paid Earnings are all Artist Earnings paid out in the lifetime of your shop. Once Cleared, Earnings are paid out between the 15th and 20th of each month.

Orders With No Earnings

There may be some orders in your Artist Dashboard that show no earnings at all! These are most likely an exchange for a previous order or a replacement for a lost shipment. Since we provide replacements and exchanges to no cost to you or your customers, there won't be any additional earnings for these orders and they are completed at the base cost. If you have any questions about any orders feel free to contact us and we can clarify!