Before you set commission rates or plan margins, you need to know what TikTok Shop takes off the top. Here is a plain rundown of the main seller fees.
Quick answer
TikTok Shop charges sellers a referral (commission) fee on each order, plus a transaction or payment processing fee, and creator commissions come out of your margin on affiliate sales. Referral fees vary by category and by promotions TikTok runs for new sellers, so check your current rate in Seller Center. On top of TikTok's cut, you pay product cost, shipping, samples, and any affiliate commission you set.
The main fees to plan for
Referral fee. TikTok's commission on each sale, set by product category. New sellers sometimes get reduced rates for an intro period.
Transaction fee. A payment processing charge applied per order.
Affiliate commission. The percentage you pay creators on sales they drive, which you control.
Your own costs. Product, shipping, and samples you send creators.
Because rates change and vary by category, confirm the current numbers in your TikTok Seller Center rather than relying on a fixed figure.
Why this matters for your commission
Your affiliate commission has to sit on top of everything TikTok already takes and still leave a margin. If you set commission without accounting for referral and transaction fees, product cost, and samples, a program that looks profitable on paper can lose money per order. Model the full stack before you launch.
Keeping the math straight at scale
Once you are running many creators at different commission rates, tying it all back to real margin gets hard. Hubfluence's GMV and affiliate reporting shows what each creator drives, so you can see which commission levels actually pay back after fees and adjust from there.
Want to see whether your affiliate program actually clears after TikTok's fees? Book a demo and we'll show you how to tie each creator's GMV back to real margin so nothing loses money per order.