Essay · Short reference entry, a few minutes
The Marketplace Glossary: Take Rate
Li Jin · Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Free Beginner
This is the reference definition founders actually cite when they argue about take rate, and it gives you the honest benchmark band in one line: take rate usually runs from a low single-digit percent up to the mid-30s, depending on how fragmented your market is and how much work the platform does. Instead of chasing a magic number, it points you at the real levers (fragmentation, substitutes, operational value-add), which is the right way to reason about where your rate should sit. Read it as a starting point, not a verdict, then pressure test your own number against it.
- Take rate (also called rake) is simply the percentage of gross merchandise value the marketplace keeps, so define your GMV clearly before you argue about the percent.
- Benchmarks span a low single-digit percent to the mid-30s, so there is no single right number, your fair rate depends on how much matching and operational work you do.
- Managed marketplaces that do more of the work (logistics, trust, guarantees) can justify a higher take rate because they add more value to both sides.
