To sell an NFT on OpenSea, you connect a crypto wallet, navigate to the NFT in your profile, click “List for sale,” set your price and duration, and confirm the transaction. The process takes just a few minutes if you already own the NFT, though you’ll want to understand the fees and blockchain costs involved before you list.
What You Need Before Listing
You need two things to sell on OpenSea: a crypto wallet and an NFT in that wallet. If you already have both, you can skip ahead to the listing steps.
For the wallet, OpenSea lets you create a self-custodied wallet directly on its website using a service called Privy, or you can connect a wallet you already use (MetaMask and Coinbase Wallet are popular choices). Your wallet is what holds your NFTs and receives payment when a sale goes through.
If you don’t yet have an NFT to sell, you’ll need to mint one first. OpenSea retired its old lazy minting tool in October 2023 and replaced it with OpenSea Studio. To mint through Studio, you deploy a smart contract (the platform walks you through this), name your collection, upload a logo, and then upload the artwork or file you want to turn into an NFT. Deploying the smart contract and minting both require gas fees, which vary depending on the blockchain you choose.
How to List Your NFT for Sale
Once your NFT is in your connected wallet, follow these steps:
- Open your profile. Click the Profile icon in the top right corner of the OpenSea website.
- Select your NFT. Find the NFT you want to sell in your wallet’s collection and click on it to open the item page.
- Click “List for sale.” This button appears on the right side of the item page.
- Choose your sale type. A fixed price sale lets you set exactly what you want for the NFT. Buyers can purchase immediately at that price.
- Set your price. Enter the amount in the cryptocurrency that applies to your NFT’s blockchain (ETH for Ethereum-based NFTs, for example).
- Set a duration. Use the dropdown to choose how long your listing stays active. You can pick from preset windows or set a custom end date.
- Reserve for a specific buyer (optional). If you’ve already arranged a sale with someone, click “Reserve” and paste their wallet address. Only that wallet will be able to purchase.
- Confirm the listing. You may need to approve a transaction in your wallet. On some blockchains, this step involves a small gas fee.
Fees You’ll Pay as a Seller
OpenSea charges a service fee of 2.5% on each sale. This is deducted from the sale price automatically, so if you list an NFT for 1 ETH, OpenSea takes 0.025 ETH when it sells.
On top of the platform fee, many collections have creator fees (sometimes called royalties). These are set by the original creator of the collection and typically range from 5% to 10%, though they vary. Using the same 1 ETH example with a 5% creator fee, you’d net 0.925 ETH after both fees. You can check the fee breakdown on any collection’s page before you list, so there are no surprises.
Not all collections carry the same fees. OpenSea’s documentation notes that fees differ across collections, so it’s worth reviewing the specific numbers for yours before setting a price.
Understanding Gas Fees
Gas fees are the transaction costs charged by the blockchain network itself. OpenSea doesn’t set or receive these fees. They go entirely to the validators who process transactions on the network.
How much you pay in gas depends heavily on which blockchain your NFT lives on. Ethereum is the most established chain for NFTs but tends to have higher gas costs, especially during periods of heavy network activity. OpenSea supports over 20 blockchains, and EVM-compatible chains like Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base run more efficiently and often have significantly lower transaction fees. If you’re minting new NFTs and gas costs are a concern, choosing one of these lower-fee chains can save you a meaningful amount.
For listing an existing NFT, the gas cost depends on the blockchain and whether you’ve previously approved OpenSea to interact with that collection. The first time you list from a particular collection, you may need to pay a one-time approval transaction. After that, listings on some chains can be gasless or nearly so.
Pricing and Timing Tips
Setting the right price is the hardest part. Check the floor price of your collection on OpenSea, which is the lowest current listing. If your NFT has rare traits, you can price above the floor, but look at recent sales of similar items rather than just active listings. Listings that never sell don’t tell you what buyers are actually willing to pay.
Listing duration matters too. Short durations (a day or two) create urgency but give your NFT less time to find a buyer. Longer durations (weeks or months) cast a wider net. If your NFT doesn’t sell before the listing expires, you can relist at no additional platform cost, though some blockchains may charge a small gas fee for the new transaction.
You can also accept offers. Even without an active listing, buyers can place offers on your NFT. You’ll see these on the item page and can accept at any time. This is worth checking periodically, especially for NFTs in popular collections where buyers actively bid below the floor price hoping for quick sales.
After Your NFT Sells
When someone buys your NFT, the payment (minus the 2.5% OpenSea fee and any creator fees) goes directly to your connected wallet. There’s no waiting period or manual withdrawal. The funds appear as soon as the blockchain confirms the transaction, which typically takes seconds to a few minutes depending on the network.
Keep in mind that your proceeds arrive in cryptocurrency. If you want to convert to dollars or another fiat currency, you’ll need to transfer the crypto to an exchange and sell it there. That step involves its own gas fees and exchange fees, so factor that into your pricing if your end goal is cash.