You’ve made art and want it earning money. The short answer on how to sell digital art online: pick one marketplace for discovery, add print on demand or your own store, and check each platform’s fees first.
For the wider picture, see the digital art hub on this site.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Etsy listing fee | $0.20 per listing |
| Etsy fee when an item sells | 6.5% of the sale price |
| Etsy digital listing file limit | Up to five files of 20MB each |
| Saatchi Art commission | 40% of the final sales price |
| Society6 artist payout | 10% of every sale |
| ArtPal commission on your own prices | None |
The Etsy figures come from Checkout Page’s guide to selling digital art, published October 31, 2026. The Saatchi Art, Society6 and ArtPal figures come from the US Chamber of Commerce’s CO- guide, published August 2023. Fees change, so check each platform’s own page before you rely on them.
Where can you sell digital art online?
Digital art can be sold as a download, printed on products, or both. The best route depends on whether buyers already know your work, whether you want to sell files or physical items, and how much of each sale you want to keep, as Checkout Page’s guide puts it.
These routes cover most artists:
- File marketplaces: Etsy has its own shoppers searching for art, and ArtStation is a portfolio site for artists with a marketplace for digital products such as brushes, tutorials and art packs.
- File shops: Gumroad and Payhip give you a product page and deliver the files after payment, for a percentage of each sale.
- Print on demand: sites such as Redbubble print your art on products when someone orders, then ship them.
- Your own store: you set your prices and licenses, and you keep the buyer’s email address.
Etsy and file marketplaces: what you pay and upload
Etsy charges $0.20 per listing and 6.5% of the sale price when an item sells, with payment processing through Etsy Payments added on top, according to Checkout Page’s guide. Each digital listing can hold up to five files of 20MB each, so high-resolution art is worth checking before you list.
Etsy’s rules also shape what you can upload. Digital downloads must be “Original content created by the seller”, and a bundle, collection, scan or PDF of someone else’s work is not allowed.
Fee figures are a snapshot. The US Chamber’s August 2023 article described a different, higher Etsy cut per sale than the later guide above, so check Etsy’s own fee page before you price your work.
Tax is the other cost to plan for. Etsy collects and pays VAT on digital items for buyers in the EU, the UK and a list of other countries, and US sales tax in the states where it’s registered, while Gumroad acts as the merchant of record for sales made through its platform. With some other platforms, you’re responsible for registering, collecting, reporting and paying the tax yourself, per Checkout Page.
Print on demand and gallery sites: how the payouts differ
With print on demand, you earn a markup rather than the full amount the buyer pays. Redbubble, for example, says its products are printed one at a time by third-party producers, so you don’t hold stock or pack orders, as Checkout Page reports.
Amazon draws a line here. In the same October 2026 guide, it says “You can’t sell digital artwork in the Amazon store”, though you can sell your art on products through Merch on Demand, its print-on-demand service.
As of the US Chamber’s August 2023 article, the payouts looked like this:
- Society6: pays artists 10% of every sale and charges a $5 verification fee on the first payment.
- Zazzle: the standard royalty rate is 5%, and you can raise it to 99%. There isn’t a monthly fee.
- Displate: you earn $4 on medium posters, $8 on large and $13 on extra large, with a $50 payout threshold. It accepts only work “in line with the vision of Displate”.
- ArtPal: free to create an account, and it doesn’t take a commission on the prices you set.
- Saatchi Art: takes a 40% commission from the final sales price.
- Artfinder: deducts 35% to 42% depending on your plan, with a free version for up to 30 listings.
- FineArtAmerica: a free account allows up to 25 images, and a Premium account costs $30 annually.
Those figures are not like-for-like. Some are a share of the sale, some are a fixed amount per product, and some are a markup on a base price, so work out what you would keep from one sale before you compare.
Should you sell from your own store?
A store of your own gives you control over pricing and customer data, but you bring the traffic. The eCommerce Website Design guide says Shopify pricing starts at $29 per month for the basic plan when paid annually, and lists full ownership of your store, brand and customer data as a benefit.
The same guide describes Fourthwall as a free-forever plan that does charge a digital download fee. Its Pro plan costs $19 per month and removes digital download fees.
Its advice is to mix routes: the smartest approach is to combine multiple platforms, using marketplaces for visibility while driving customers to your own online store for repeat sales. For artists who haven’t made a first sale, it suggests starting on Etsy because the built-in audience removes the hardest part, getting discovered.
AI art, licences and contracts
If you use AI tools, disclosure matters. As of Checkout Page’s guide published October 31, 2026, Etsy allows “Seller-prompted AI creations”, and its rules say “Sellers must disclose within their listing description if an item is created with the use of AI” (source).
Copyright is a separate question. In its report on AI and copyright, the US Copyright Office concluded that “prompts alone do not provide sufficient human control” for the person writing them to be the author, so art made from prompts alone may not be protected in the US. This is a summary of published guidance, not legal advice.
What buyers may do with your files is a licensing question, so read up on digital art licensing before you set terms. Private client work is a different route from selling files, and an art commission contract is the usual way to put scope and payment in writing.
A simple order for choosing where to start
- Decide whether you are selling files, products or both.
- Work out what you keep from one sale: the price minus listing fees, commission or markup.
- Start with one marketplace where shoppers already search, such as Etsy.
- Add print on demand if you want your art on physical products without handling printing or shipping.
- Open your own store once you have an audience to send there.
Nothing stops you from running two routes at once. You can still sell your files from your own checkout alongside a print-on-demand shop, per Checkout Page’s guide.
Frequently asked questions
Can you sell digital art online for free?
Show answer
You can start without a monthly fee on several sites. As of the US Chamber’s August 2023 article, ArtPal was free to join and took no commission, and Zazzle had no monthly fee, though other costs such as royalties and fees still apply.
Can you sell AI-made art?
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Etsy allows it as of Checkout Page’s October 31, 2026 guide, as long as the listing says AI was used. Copyright protection in the US depends on how much of the work is yours, so see the guide for the Copyright Office quote.
Do you have to handle sales tax yourself?
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It depends on the platform. Etsy collects and pays VAT on digital items in several regions, and Gumroad acts as the merchant of record, while with other platforms you may be responsible for registering, collecting, reporting and paying it, per Checkout Page.
Can you use print on demand and sell files too?
Show answer
Yes. Print on demand pays you a markup on a base price, and you can still sell your files from your own checkout alongside it, according to Checkout Page’s guide.
