Etsy AI Policy: What Sellers Must Disclose in 2026

October 7, 2026

Etsy’s AI policy allows items you create with AI tools, as long as the item comes from your own original prompts and you disclose the AI use in the listing description. That rule sits in Etsy’s Creativity Standards, under the “designed by a seller” category, and as of the August 2026 version of that page it is one sentence long. This guide explains what the sentence covers, what Etsy lists as not allowed, how to write the disclosure, and where AI help with your titles, tags and description fits in.

The short version: AI-made items are allowed, AI prompt bundles are not, and the disclosure belongs in the description. Everything below is detail on those three points.

What the Etsy AI policy actually says

Etsy groups every item it allows into four categories: made by a seller, designed by a seller, handpicked by a seller, and sourced by a seller. AI-generated work belongs to the second one. The Creativity Standards page (read as of August 2026) lists it this way:

Seller-prompted AI creations: Creations that were generated using AI tools (e.g., AI image generators such as Dall-E) based on a seller’s original prompts. Sellers must disclose within their listing description if an item is created with the use of AI.

The same page gives two examples that qualify: “A fantasy scene based on a seller’s original prompt or inputs, produced by an AI generator; a custom portrait of a buyer’s pet generated using AI tools.” In its list of example items that count as designed by a seller, it simply says “Seller-prompted AI art”.

Three words in that rule carry the weight:

• Seller-prompted. The prompt or input has to be yours. Running someone else’s prompt, or reselling output you did not direct, falls outside the category.
• Original. The creative input is what makes the item yours in Etsy’s framing, so the prompt should be your own idea and not a copy of another artist’s work.
• Disclose. The disclosure is required, and Etsy names the place for it: the listing description.

What Etsy does not allow

The Creativity Standards list examples of items that do not qualify as designed by a seller. Two of them matter for anyone working with AI:

AI prompt bundles are the clearest line. Selling a pack of prompts for other people to run is listed as not qualifying, even though prompts are text you wrote. If your shop sells prompt packs, that is the part of the policy to read twice.

The page also frames the whole category with Etsy’s mission line, “Keep Commerce Human”, and says “all items must incorporate a human touch”. AI work is allowed inside that framing. The human touch is your original prompt, your selection, and in most shops the editing you do before anything is listed.

How to write the AI disclosure in your listing

Etsy says where the disclosure goes. It does not publish required wording on the Creativity Standards page, so the goal is a sentence a buyer cannot miss or misread. A few patterns that work:

1. Put it early in the description. Many buyers read only the first lines on mobile. One sentence near the top is safer than a note at the bottom.
2. Say what the AI did. “The artwork was generated with AI from my original prompt, then edited and upscaled by me” tells the buyer more than “AI was used”.
3. Say what you did. Selection, editing, colour work, layout, printing. This is honest and it is also the reason a buyer picks your shop.
4. Keep it consistent across listings. If you sell twenty AI prints, use the same sentence on all twenty so nothing reads as hidden.

Example disclosure lines you can adapt:

• “This design was created with AI image tools from my own prompt, then edited by hand for colour and composition.”
• “Created with the use of AI. The concept, prompt and final edits are mine.”
• “Your pet portrait is generated with AI from the photo you send, then checked and retouched by me before delivery.”

If you list the item as a digital download, the same rule applies. Our guide to listing digital downloads on Etsy walks through the rest of that form.

Does the policy cover AI-written titles, tags and descriptions?

This is the question most sellers actually have, and the answer is narrower than it looks. The disclosure rule on the Creativity Standards page is written about the item: “if an item is created with the use of AI”. The page, as read in August 2026, does not set a separate rule for using AI to help write the listing text itself.

That does not make the text a free-for-all. Every Etsy listing still has to describe the item accurately, and an AI draft is the place where inaccuracy creeps in. A language model will happily invent a material, a size or a care instruction that sounds right. So treat AI help with listing copy the way you would treat help from anyone else:

• Give it facts, not a brief. Size, materials, colours, what is included, who it is for.
• Check every fact it returns against the product in front of you.
• Check Etsy’s field limits. Titles have a 140-character limit and you get 13 tags, each up to 20 characters. Models often miss both.
• Remove claims you cannot back up, such as “best selling” or “hypoallergenic” on a metal you have not tested.

Our ChatGPT for Etsy listings guide has prompts that keep a model to your facts and a checklist for each field.

If the item itself was made with AI, the disclosure still has to be in the description, no matter who or what wrote the rest of the text. An AI-written description for an AI-made print still needs the AI sentence. Some generated drafts leave it out because the notes you gave did not mention it, so add it yourself.

A listing workflow that keeps you inside the rules

Here is one way to use AI across a listing without drifting outside the policy:

1. Decide which category the item is in. Made by you, designed by you (including AI art from your prompts), handpicked vintage, or sourced supplies. If it is a prompt bundle, stop: it does not qualify.
2. Write rough notes about the item. What it is, size, material or file format, what the buyer receives, and whether AI was used to create it.
3. Draft the title, tags and description, by hand or with a tool.
4. Add the AI disclosure in the first lines of the description if the item was created with AI.
5. Check the draft against the item and Etsy’s limits. Every fact true, title under 140 characters, 13 tags of 20 characters or fewer.
6. Use original photos or mockups that match the real item. The Creativity Standards also set image rules, such as showing a finished customized item rather than a blank with placeholder text.

For step 3, ListingBrief AI is one way to speed up the writing. You give it rough notes about a product and it drafts an Etsy title inside the 140-character limit, all 13 tags and a description, plus the matching Shopify fields. If your notes say the artwork was created with AI from your prompt, keep that sentence in the description it returns, and read the draft before you publish it, as you would any draft. Every account gets 5 free generations a day without a card, and the free Etsy title generator and Etsy tag generator work without an account if you only want help with one field.

When doing it by hand is enough

You do not need any tool to follow the AI policy. If you list a few items a month, writing the description yourself and adding one honest sentence about AI use is the whole job. A tool helps when you have many listings to write or refresh at once, and even then it only drafts the words. The decisions that keep you compliant stay with you: which category the item is in, whether to sell it at all, and what the disclosure says.

For a shop-wide pass, the Etsy listing optimization audit is a good place to add missing AI disclosures to older listings while you fix titles and tags.

Common questions about the Etsy AI policy

Can I sell AI art on Etsy? Yes. Etsy lists seller-prompted AI art as an item “designed by a seller”, provided it comes from your original prompts and the listing description discloses the AI use.

Where does the AI disclosure go? In the listing description, according to the Creativity Standards. Putting it near the top makes it hard to miss.

Can I sell AI prompts on Etsy? Etsy lists “AI prompt bundles” among the examples that do not qualify as designed by a seller.

Do I have to disclose that AI helped write my description? The Creativity Standards disclosure rule is written about items created with AI, and the page does not set a separate rule for listing text. Whatever writes it, the text must describe the item accurately, and an AI-made item still needs its disclosure.

Does the policy change? Etsy updates its policies from time to time. This guide reflects the Creativity Standards page as of August 2026, so check Etsy’s current page before you rely on any single sentence here.