Selling on Mercado Libre from the US: Global Selling requirements, fees and fulfillment
Updated · Ecomsellertool
US brands sell on Mercado Libre through Global Selling, its cross-border program. One account lists in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina from English listings priced in US dollars, and pays out in USD every two weeks. You need a US business with an EIN and a verified primary contact. Listing is free; each sale pays a selling fee set by country, listing type and, outside Brazil, category, plus a share of shipping. Orders ship direct from the US or from Full warehouses in Mexico and Chile.
- Global Selling lets one account list in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina, with listings created in English and priced in US dollars.
- Listing on Mercado Libre is free; in Brazil the selling fee is 12.5% per order for Classic listings and 16.5% for Premium, while Mexico, Chile and Colombia set it by category.
- Payouts arrive as a USD wire to a bank or Payoneer account every two weeks, and balances under USD 500 roll over until they reach that minimum.
- Mercado Envios Full warehouses operate in Mexico and Chile; direct-to-consumer orders must be handed to the carrier within 3 business days.
- Listing caps are set per country by reputation. Mercado Libre's example: up to 10,000 active listings for a green seller in Mexico, 1,000 for an orange seller in Brazil, with exceptions.
- For stock shipped direct from the US, a global item has one count shared by every country it is listed in. Full stock is counted separately, by inventory ID, in Mercado Libre's Full warehouses in Mexico and Chile.
What Mercado Libre requires
- A US-registered business with its legal name, entity type, EIN, a short business description and the principal place of business in the US.
- A primary contact (legal representative or beneficial owner) who uploads ID and passes a selfie and facial recognition check; non-residents need a passport and the latest W-8 form.
- A bank account or Payoneer account that can receive USD wires, paid every two weeks once the balance reaches USD 500.
- Listings in English priced in USD, with category attributes, product identifiers, package dimensions and weight, plus a Spanish or Portuguese title per country, because titles are not translated automatically.
- Products allowed in each destination country and, for direct shipping, parcels within the partner carriers' size and weight limits.
- Prices at or above the minimum listing price: USD 3 for direct shipping (USD 13 in Argentina) and USD 4 for Full in Mexico and Chile.
What we automate
- Publish each product once and push per-country price, listing type and Spanish or Portuguese titles to Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Colombia, the sites Mercado Libre's publishing docs name today.
- Keep the shared stock count for direct-shipped items in step with your warehouse, 3PLs and other marketplaces, and watch per-country listing caps before they block new items.
- Pull orders, shipments, questions and claims from each Mercado Libre site you sell on into one queue with your other channels, and flag direct orders near the 3-business-day handover.
- Model margin per SKU and country from selling fees, per-unit fees, shipping share and FX, or set Net Proceeds on direct listings.
- Size Full inbound shipments for Mexico and Chile from sell-through, and track storage cost and unit age so aged stock sells or leaves before long-term fees apply.
- Match USD payouts to orders and fees, and reconcile the withholdings you pull from Seller Central, since the API does not expose them.
Mercado Libre's Global Selling program gets a US brand into Latin America without a company in each country. The hard part is keeping five sets of prices, one shared stock count and two logistics models in step with your other channels.
Can you sell on Mercado Libre from the USA?
Yes. Global Selling is Mercado Libre's cross-border trade (CBT) program; its verification guide covers sellers based in the US, China and Hong Kong. One account publishes to Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina. You create each listing once, in English and US dollars, and pick the countries where it goes live.
Mercado Libre operates in 18 countries, and Global Selling reaches buyers in five of them before you open an entity in Mexico or Brazil.
What do you need to register for Global Selling?
Every seller passes a legal information check (KYC) first, and submitted data cannot be edited, only corrected after a rejection. A US seller gives company data with the EIN and names a primary contact who verifies their own ID with a selfie and facial recognition; non-residents need a passport and the latest W-8 form. Payouts go to a bank or Payoneer account that can receive USD wires.
How much does it cost to sell on Mercado Libre?
Listing is free and listings never expire. You pay on each sale: a selling fee by country, category and listing type, plus a share of shipping. Premium adds interest-free installments for buyers.
| Marketplace | Selling fee (Classic / Premium) | Per-unit fee, low-priced items | Minimum price, direct | Full available |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico | By category | MXN 33 on items up to MXN 299 | USD 3 | Yes, minimum USD 4 |
| Brazil | 12.5% / 16.5% per order | BRL 9.6 on items up to BRL 79 | USD 3 | No |
| Chile | By category | CLP 1,650 on items up to CLP 15,650 | USD 3 | Yes, minimum USD 4 |
| Colombia | By category | COP 7,200 on items up to COP 60,000 | USD 3 | No |
| Argentina | TBD | TBD | USD 13 | No |
Your share of shipping depends on seller reputation, origin and destination country, and whether the order ships from Full or direct. Mercado Libre says a good reputation can cut shipping costs by up to 60%. Reputation also sets your active listing cap per country: in Mercado Libre's example, up to 10,000 for a green seller in Mexico and 1,000 for an orange seller in Brazil, with exceptions.
How does fulfillment work: Full, direct or Texas?
Three ways to reach a buyer:
- Mercado Envios Full (Mexico and Chile). You send stock in bulk to Mercado Libre warehouses, which pick, pack, aim for same-day or next-day delivery and answer after-sales messages. Full listings are highlighted in search.
- Direct-to-consumer (all five countries). Stock stays in the US and you ship each order on a label from your account. The parcel must reach the carrier within 3 business days.
- US fulfillment in Texas, by arrangement with Mercado Libre's team. You ship bulk stock to its Texas warehouse and it delivers to Latin America, quoting 2 to 3 days to Mexico.
Full's published fee schedule, labeled for Mexico, charges a small daily fee per unit by size. Aged units add a monthly long-term fee: the text says after 60 days, the rate table shows nothing until month four, then USD 0.77 for a small unit at four to six months up to USD 25.32 for an extra large unit held over a year. Removal and discard are charged by volume. It is Amazon's aged stock problem in a second warehouse network.
How do you get paid, and where do the numbers drift?
Buyers pay in local currency (pesos, or reais in Brazil); you receive a USD wire, net of fees, every two weeks. Balances under USD 500 roll over to the next cycle.
Tax withholdings are the usual reconciliation gap. Mercado Libre's developer FAQ says they show in Seller Central, while the matching API fields return 0 or null. Where a withholding comes out of your payout, a margin report built only on API data misses it and overstates your contribution margin.
How does Growth OS sync Mercado Libre listings and orders?
Growth OS runs on your own Global Selling credentials and treats Mercado Libre as one site per country, fed from one catalog. Mercado Libre's publishing docs name Mexico, Brazil, Chile and Colombia as listing sites. Mercado Libre is one of the 20+ marketplaces we have shipped integrations for.
- Listings. Built for the User Products model, which Mercado Libre told integrators to adopt by July 31, 2026: one product record, with price, listing type and a local-language title (family name) per country, since Mercado Libre does not translate titles. Listing agents mirror Grow8, which audits, rewrites and publishes listings.
- Stock. Direct-shipped stock is one count shared by every country a global item is live in. Growth OS is built to write it from your warehouse, 3PLs and other channels, to keep a unit sold on Amazon from selling again in Brazil. Full stock is counted separately in Mexico and Chile by inventory ID.
- Orders. Orders, shipments, questions and claims join one queue with your other channels, on the order layer behind Ecom Global, whose connectors span 20+ marketplaces, Mercado Libre among them, and 13+ carriers. Mercado Libre wants each notification acknowledged within 500 milliseconds and stops retrying after an hour, so Growth OS is built to acknowledge first, fetch details later and check the missed-notifications feed on a schedule. Routing rules flag direct orders near the handover deadline.
- Margin. Fees, shipping share and FX feed a margin view per SKU and country, the approach behind Amazify's margin-aware metrics. Withholdings are reconciled from Seller Central, outside the API.
What the base system lacks, such as a customs broker feed, we build on top, and you own the code.
Find your Mercado Libre gap
Test it: match last month's Mercado Libre payouts to orders, fees and withholdings, country by country. If the difference takes more than an hour to explain, the problem is likely in operations, not demand.
The Ops Gap Diagnostic starts with a free Quick Scan of your top three Amazon gaps; the paid Deep Diagnostic covers Mercado Libre and your other channels, mapping where cross-border orders lose time and margin and which fixes come first. The base system is Growth OS.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sell on Mercado Libre from the USA?
Yes. Businesses registered in the US can join Mercado Libre Global Selling and list in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Argentina from one account. You need an EIN, a verified primary contact and a bank or Payoneer account for USD payouts.
How much does it cost to sell on Mercado Libre?
Listing is free. When an item sells you pay a selling fee set by country, category and listing type (12.5% Classic or 16.5% Premium in Brazil), a fixed per-unit fee on low-priced items, and part of the shipping cost. In Mexico, Mercado Libre's published Full schedule also charges a small daily storage fee per unit, a monthly long-term fee once units age, and fees to remove or discard units.
How do I get paid on Mercado Libre Global Selling?
Buyers pay in local currency and Mercado Libre sends you a USD international wire, net of fees, every two weeks to your bank or Payoneer account. If less than USD 500 is pending, the transfer waits until the balance reaches that amount.
Does Mercado Libre have fulfillment like Amazon FBA?
Yes. Mercado Envios Full stores your stock in Mercado Libre warehouses in Mexico and Chile and handles picking, packing, delivery and after-sales messages. Mercado Libre also runs a fulfillment center in Texas that ships to Latin America, quoting 2 to 3 days to Mexico; you arrange it by contacting its team.
How big is Mercado Libre in Latin America?
Mercado Libre describes itself as Latin America's leading ecommerce and fintech platform, with operations in 18 countries. In its Q2 2026 results it reported 89 million unique active buyers in commerce and about $22 billion in gross merchandise volume for the quarter. Global Selling opens five of those markets to US sellers.
Do I need to translate my Mercado Libre listings?
Yes, at least the titles. You create listings in English and Mercado Libre translates descriptions, but it does not translate titles, so send a Spanish or Portuguese title (the family name under User Products) for each country rather than relying on the platform. Edits made to a single country's listing must be written in that country's language.
Sources
- Mercado Libre Global Selling | Sell in Latin America, Mercado Libre Global Selling (accessed 2026-09-24)
- Pricing and Fee Structure, Mercado Libre Global Selling (accessed 2026-09-24)
- Shipping solutions to Latin America, Mercado Libre Global Selling (accessed 2026-09-24)
- How Global Selling Platform works, Mercado Libre Global Selling (accessed 2026-09-24)
- What you should know about the Legal Information Validation, Mercado Libre Global Selling Learning Center (accessed 2026-09-24)
- What are the listing limits?, Mercado Libre Global Selling Help (accessed 2026-09-24)
- Publish items, Mercado Libre Global Selling Developers (accessed 2026-09-24)
- User Products: Introduction, Mercado Libre Global Selling Developers (accessed 2026-09-24)
- Update items, Mercado Libre Global Selling Developers (accessed 2026-09-24)
- CBT publication: titles/descriptions and rendering, Mercado Libre Global Selling Developers (accessed 2026-09-24)
- Fulfillment stock, Mercado Libre Global Selling Developers (accessed 2026-09-24)
- Receive notifications, Mercado Libre Global Selling Developers (accessed 2026-09-24)
- Manage orders, Mercado Libre Global Selling Developers (accessed 2026-09-24)
- Taxes/withholdings and reconciliation, Mercado Libre Global Selling Developers (accessed 2026-09-24)
- Mercado Libre Q2 2026 Revenue Surpasses $10 Billion as Deepening Engagement Strengthens Competitive Advantage, MercadoLibre Investor Relations (accessed 2026-09-24)