Open the balance screen on Depop and you'll usually see more than one number. There's a headline balance, and underneath it the money is split into Pending and Available. New sellers often assume they mean the same thing, then wonder why a transfer or a purchase won't go through for the full amount. Here's what each figure means and which one actually matters.
Total balance: everything you've earned that hasn't left yet
The headline figure is the sum of every sale that has reached your Depop balance, after Depop's fees, minus anything you've already transferred out or spent. It includes money that is still on hold, so it's the biggest number on the screen and the least useful one for planning.
Pending: sales that haven't cleared yet
Pending funds come from sales that are still inside Depop's hold period. Depop holds money while an order is shipped and delivered, and while the buyer still has time to raise a problem. How long that takes depends on your account, your verification status and whether the parcel was shipped with tracking. See how long Depop takes to pay for the details.
While money is pending, you can't:
- transfer it to your bank or card
- spend it at checkout on someone else's listing
- count on it, because a return or a dispute can still reduce it
Available: the money you can actually use
Available balance is the part that has cleared its hold. This is the number to look at when you want to:
- transfer your Depop balance to your bank account
- use your Depop balance to buy items on Depop
- decide how much you can put back into stock this week
If you try to withdraw or spend more than the available figure, Depop will only let you use what has cleared.
Why available is lower than you expected
The most common reasons the available number looks too small:
- Recent sales are still pending. A busy weekend can leave most of your balance on hold for a few days.
- A new account or a first payout. New sellers often have longer holds while Depop verifies them. See why your first Depop payout is delayed.
- An open case. A return, a dispute or an item marked not received holds that sale's money until it's resolved.
- Shipping wasn't marked or scanned. If a parcel never gets a tracking scan, the hold can run longer.
- The screen hasn't refreshed. Close and reopen the app before assuming anything is wrong.
If money seems to be missing rather than just pending, work through Depop balance not showing up.
Balance is not profit
Even the available figure only tells you what Depop will let you move right now. It doesn't tell you what you made. Your balance is already net of Depop's fees, but it still includes what you paid for the item, your packaging and any shipping shortfall you absorbed. A healthy-looking available balance can still hide items that sold at a loss.
That's why sellers who are scaling up track profit separately from the balance screen. DepopAutomation.com's profit tracker logs what each item cost you when you list it and works out the fee-adjusted margin when it sells, on Depop or Vinted. You see real profit per sale instead of a pending/available split that changes every day.
Keep money moving into "available"
Available balance grows fastest when items sell steadily rather than in rare bursts. The rest of the toolkit is built for that:
- The AI listing tool writes titles and descriptions from your photos and tidies the photos with Google's Nano Banana model.
- The bulk lister lists a whole haul in one go.
- The relist feature brings older stock back to the top of search without retyping anything.
Conclusion
Your total Depop balance includes everything you've earned, pending funds are sales still inside the hold period, and available balance is the only part you can withdraw or spend. If available looks low, check for recent sales, open cases and first-payout holds before assuming something is broken. Then track profit separately so you know what the money is actually worth.