How to start print on demand on Etsy in 2026.

How Etsy print on demand works

1. You make a design and put it on a product (a t-shirt, mug, poster and so on) in your POD partner's app.
2. The partner publishes the listing to your Etsy shop, with its mockup images.
3. A buyer orders on Etsy. The order goes to the partner, you pay the partner for the product and shipping, and it prints and ships the item to your buyer.
4. Etsy pays you the sale minus its fees. Your profit is what's left after paying the partner.

You don't hold stock, but you're still the seller. Buyers contact you about late or wrong orders, and Etsy holds you to its rules.

Step 1: Pick a print-on-demand partner

These are the three POD partners in our directory. All three are free to start.

Our take: if you want the most products and price options, start with Printify. If you'd rather have one company print everything and get a free mockup generator, start with Printful. Gelato is worth a look if you sell a lot outside the US, since it routes orders to a partner near the buyer. Full side-by-side: Printify vs Printful for Etsy.

Step 2: Make designs you have the rights to sell

Your designs are the product. Use your own art, or tools whose terms let you sell what you make. If you use AI, read each tool's commercial-use terms first. We compare them in best AI design tools for print on demand, and Kittl and Canva are popular starting points.

To check what people actually search for before you design, an Etsy SEO tool helps. eRank has a free plan; see the best Etsy SEO tools.

Step 3: Connect your Etsy shop and order a sample

Set up your Etsy shop first. Gelato's help center, for example, says your Etsy shop has to be fully set up, with at least one listing, before you can connect it, and its connect flow is Stores → Etsy → Connect, then you approve access on Etsy (Gelato Help). Printify and Printful also connect from their dashboards. Gelato adds new products to Etsy as drafts, so you aren't charged the listing fee until you publish. Create your first product and check how it looks on Etsy. Then order a sample of each product you plan to sell. Print quality and shipping times vary, especially between Printify's providers, and a sample lets you take real photos.

Step 4: Use mockups the way Etsy allows

Since Oct 22, 2026, most Etsy listings need one unedited photo of the real item. Print on demand has its own exception: If a production partner prints your original design on a standard base product (like a t-shirt or mug), you may use a stock photo mockup, if the stock photo's owner has authorised its use (Etsy Listing Image Requirements). Mockups from your POD partner or a licensed mockup tool fit that. If a mockup shows a realistic AI-generated person, there's a disclosure catch; see AI models in mockups. More in Etsy's October 2026 AI update.

Step 5: Add your production partner (and disclose AI)

1. Production partner. Etsy requires sellers who work with a production partner, like a printing service, to share it on the listings (Etsy Help). Step by step: how to add a production partner.
2. AI. If AI helped make the design, say so in the description. Etsy: Sellers must disclose within their listing description if an item is created with the use of AI (Etsy Seller Handbook). How to word it.

Step 6: Price for Etsy's fees and the holiday surcharge

Etsy charges $0.20 per listing, a 6.5% transaction fee on your price plus the shipping you charge, and payment processing (3% + $0.25 per order in the US) on the total including tax (Etsy Fees & Payments Policy, Etsy Help). Orders from Etsy's Offsite Ads add 15% (or 12%).

Example (made-up numbers, US shop): a $25 shirt with $5 shipping is a $30 order. Etsy's fees come to about $3.30, so Etsy pays you $26.70. If your POD partner charges you $14 for the shirt and shipping, plus the $0.40 surcharge, you keep about $12.30. Try your own numbers in the Etsy fee calculator.

The $0.40 holiday surcharge. Printful and Printify add $0.40 to every order with a US address from Oct 15, 2026 to Jan 17, 2027, on all shipping methods. For Etsy, Printful suggests creating a new shipping profile (or duplicating a Printful-generated one) that adds $0.40 to US shipping rates, because Printful-generated profiles get overwritten during product updates (Printful Help, Printify).

Holiday fee break. If you send buyers to your shop yourself, from Pinterest, a newsletter or social media, use Etsy's Share & Save links. Until Jan 4, 2027, Etsy refunds the full 6.5% transaction fee on eligible orders that come through them (Value Added Resource).

Before you publish: a quick checklist

• You have the rights to every design (and you've read your AI tool's terms).
• You've ordered a sample and checked print quality.
• Your mockups are ones you're allowed to use, and any AI-generated people are disclosed.
• Your production partner is added to the listing, and AI use is disclosed in the description.
• Your price covers the product, shipping, Etsy's fees and, until Jan 17, 2027, the $0.40 US surcharge.

Etsy's AI rules change often. We log every change with dates and sources in the Etsy AI rules tracker, including the new AI training terms that start Dec 16, 2026.