Etsy draft listings: how they work and when to use them
A draft is a listing that exists in your shop but is not for sale and not visible. It costs nothing until you activate it. For anyone adding listings in bulk, drafts are the review step.
What a draft is
- Saved in Shop Manager under Listings, in the Drafts tab.
- Not visible to buyers and not in search.
- No listing fee until it is activated. Activating charges the $0.20 listing fee and starts the four-month listing period.
- Can be edited as often as you like.
Drafts or live from a listing tool
When a tool publishes through the Etsy API it can create the listing as a draft or as active. SpeedList asks each time. Publish to drafts when you want to open a few on Etsy and check photos, variations and shipping before the whole batch goes live; publish live when the batch is already reviewed.
Activating drafts in bulk
- 1In Shop Manager, open Listings, then Drafts.
- 2Select the drafts, or select all on the page.
- 3Choose Publish from the editing options. Etsy charges the listing fee for each one as it becomes active.
When to skip drafts
Publishing changes to listings that are already active does not go through drafts: the edit updates the live listing. Drafts matter for new listings, and for a batch you would rather see on Etsy once before it is on sale.
Questions
- Do Etsy drafts expire?
- No. Drafts stay until you activate or delete them.
- Can I move a live listing back to draft?
- Deactivating an active listing makes it inactive rather than a draft. Reactivating it before its four months are up costs nothing.
- Does publishing 100 drafts at once cost $20?
- Yes. $0.20 each, charged on activation, the same as publishing one at a time.
Try it on your own shop, free.
Upload photos, get the title, 13 tags and description, edit in bulk, and publish to Etsy through the official API. The Free plan includes 10 generations a month and one shop.
Start for free