TPT's Exclusive Seller tier, in plain English

What changed

• Premium Seller is closed to new sign-ups as of October 1, 2026, and ends on January 1, 2027 [1], [5].
• Exclusive Seller is the new paid tier. It keeps the Premium tools and a higher payout rate, and adds one condition: any resource that is eligible to be sold on TPT must be sold only through TPT [2].
• Basic Seller is unchanged and has no exclusivity condition [1].
• The exclusivity condition lives in TPT’s help-center articles and the Seller Fees and Payout Rates policy, which the Terms of Service incorporate by reference; the Terms themselves were last updated December 8, 2025 [7].

The three tiers

The $29 Basic fee cannot be applied toward an Exclusive subscription later [1]. Seller fees are “generally non-refundable” [6]. Premium memberships that renew between October 1, 2026 and January 1, 2027 renew as Premium at 80% through December 31 [5].

What a sale pays

Using the rates that apply from January 1, 2027:

• A $5 resource pays a Basic seller $2.45 (55% minus the $0.30 fee) and an Exclusive seller $3.88 (77.5%, no fee because the order is over $3).
• A $2 resource pays a Basic seller $0.80 and an Exclusive seller $1.40 ($1.55 minus the $0.15 fee on orders under $3).

Arithmetic from the published rates [1]. Check it against your own prices; low-priced resources feel the per-resource fee most.

What you can still do off TPT

This is the part most sellers ask about. From the Exclusive Seller FAQ [2] and the products-outside-TPT article [3]:

Allowed as an Exclusive seller

• Your own website or storefront, “as long as you send the final purchases to TPT to process.” TPT’s own example is a shop whose Buy Now buttons link to the matching TPT product [2].
• Promotion anywhere. Social media, a newsletter, a blog: “the final purchase must be processed through your TPT store” [5].
• Free resources as a lead magnet for a mailing list, on or off TPT. The one rule: you cannot charge on TPT for something you give away off TPT [2].
• Non-education digital goods such as clip art and fonts; physical products; courses and professional development; Boom Cards on the Boom platform; Kindle books; hard-copy workbooks on Amazon [2], [3].

Not allowed as an Exclusive seller

• Selling digital educational resources anywhere else, including memberships or subscriptions that include them, resource licenses, and payment plans [2], [3].

Other rules worth knowing

• All of a seller’s stores must be on the same tier [2].
• Leaving Exclusive: switch to Basic in settings, no refund of the annual fee, and a one-year wait before rejoining Exclusive [2], [5].
• Enforcement: “If TPT determines that you’re not meeting those requirements, we may take action.” What action is not stated [2].

Dates

How to decide

Strip it down and the choice is one comparison. From January 1, Exclusive pays 77.5 cents of every TPT sales dollar and Basic pays 55 cents, minus 30 cents per resource [1]. So Exclusive gives up the right to sell digital resources elsewhere in exchange for about 22.5 cents more per dollar of TPT sales, plus the lower per-resource fee, minus $59.95 a year.

Three questions settle it for most sellers:

1. 1Do you sell digital resources anywhere other than TPT today? Etsy, Payhip, Shopify, your own site, a membership. If no, Exclusive takes nothing away from what you currently do. If yes, add up what those sales netted you in the last twelve months.
2. 2Is that off-TPT net more than about 22.5% of your TPT gross, plus $59.95? If it is, Basic keeps more of your money even at the lower rate. If it is not, Exclusive pays more, and you would be giving up sales channels that were not carrying their weight.
3. 3Could that change in the next year? Leaving Exclusive means a one-year wait before rejoining [2]. If you are building something off TPT that you expect to grow, weigh that lock against this year’s rate.

Two smaller factors: orders under $3 pay a per-resource fee on both tiers, so low prices favor Exclusive more; and only Exclusive includes the Premium tools [1].

Either way, own the audience

Notice what both tiers leave alone. TPT’s own FAQ permits a page of your own with buy buttons that send the purchase to TPT, a free resource off TPT as a lead magnet, and a mailing list you build from it [2]. Those three things are the part of a selling business that no platform change can touch, and they cost nothing on either tier.

If you don’t have them yet, that is the thing to set up before December 31, whichever tier you pick. Homeroom is a free page built for exactly this: resource cards that link to your TPT store, a subscribe form with a freebie behind it, and a list you can export any time. You can build one in a minute at homeroom.page/try, and the Promise says what we will never do with it.