Check today’s fee-included lowest prices on Vivid Seats and Gametime for every NFL game on TicketScanner’s NFL page.
Vivid Seats Fees: Does Vivid Seats Include Fees, and How Its Prices Compared With Gametime
by TicketScanner Team
Update:
Key Takeaways
- Vivid Seats says its prices include fees once you start shopping; tax, where it applies, comes on top. It publishes no fee rate, and its checkout did not show the fee on its own line before asking for an email.
- Comparing fee-included lowest prices, Vivid Seats was lower more often than Gametime in NFL (58.8% of 8,327 daily checks).
- Gametime was lower more often in the final three days before completed games, but within the same NHL games Vivid Seats still led.
- The typical gap was small, so check both sites for the same game before you buy.
Does Vivid Seats include fees?
Yes. Vivid Seats says buyers see the cost of a ticket, including fees, once they start shopping, and that the listed price is per ticket before tax. Since fees are already included in the listed price, the best way to compare Vivid Seats with other ticket sites is to look at each site’s lowest price with fees included. In TicketScanner price data, Vivid Seats was lower than Gametime in 58.8% of 8,327 daily NFL price checks and in 45.4% of 38,659 NHL checks; Gametime was lower more often for NBA and MLB.
| League | Daily price checks | Vivid Seats lower | Gametime lower |
|---|---|---|---|
| NFL | 8,327 | 58.8% | 31.6% |
| NHL | 38,659 | 45.4% | 36.2% |
| NBA | 16,993 | 30.3% | 45.2% |
| MLB | 3,780 | 34.2% | 44.5% |
Source: TicketScanner price data.
| League | Same price | Median lowest, Vivid Seats | Median lowest, Gametime |
|---|---|---|---|
| NFL | 9.6% | $113 | $118 |
| NHL | 18.3% | $55 | $57 |
| NBA | 24.5% | $41 | $41 |
| MLB | 21.3% | $19 | $20 |
Periods differ by league: NFL July 29 to Oct. 7, 2026; NHL Aug. 29 to Oct. 6; NBA Aug. 29 to Oct. 5; MLB July 12 to Sept. 26. Across the four leagues that is 67,759 daily price checks on 2,513 games. Only 11 NBA games in the data had been played, all preseason, so the NBA figures are mostly listed prices for upcoming games.
What Vivid Seats says about its fees
Vivid Seats’ help center says it shows prices with fees included, so you can see the cost of a ticket, including fees, once you start shopping. Its event pages carry the line “All Prices are in USD and include fees.”
Three more points from Vivid Seats’ own pages:
- Tax is separate. A Vivid Seats blog post says “The price displayed with each listing indicates the price per ticket before tax (if applicable).”
- Sellers set the prices. “All ticket prices are set independently by the ticket resellers who list on Vivid Seats,” and they can be above or below face value.
- No rate is given. We found no fee percentage on the Vivid Seats pages we checked.
So on Vivid Seats, expect the listed price plus sales tax where it applies, plus any delivery charge or add-on you choose. The federal FTC rule in force since May 12, 2025, allows only taxes, shipping and optional add-ons outside the up-front total; how that rule and state rules work is covered in our ticket site fee comparison.
Timing changed which site was lower more often
TicketScanner records the lowest listed price on Vivid Seats and Gametime for each game once a day. Looking at completed games by days before the game, the split moved with time.
In the final three days (game day and the three days before), Gametime had the lower price more often in every league. A month or more out, Vivid Seats did in NFL and NHL; MLB has no data that far out, and NBA has just one game.
NFL, completed games:
| Days before | Vivid Seats lower | Gametime lower | Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 or more | 72.1% | 22.1% | 86 |
| 15-30 | 64.1% | 24.7% | 643 |
| 8-14 | 49.1% | 33.9% | 634 |
| 4-7 | 40.7% | 44.5% | 371 |
| Final three days | 33.3% | 55.8% | 303 |
NHL, completed games:
| Days before | Vivid Seats lower | Gametime lower | Checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 or more | 62.8% | 21.4% | 323 |
| 15-30 | 46.3% | 33.8% | 1,629 |
| 8-14 | 39.0% | 41.3% | 833 |
| 4-7 | 37.6% | 45.8% | 463 |
| Final three days | 35.2% | 51.6% | 372 |
Source: TicketScanner price data, completed games only.
Three details change how far to lean on those tables:
- The NFL month-out figure is small: Vivid Seats was lower in 72.1% of only 86 checks on 15 games. NHL’s 62.8% rests on 323 checks on 62 games.
- NFL completed games include preseason. For regular-season NFL games only, the late Gametime lead was smaller: 48.9% vs 41.6% of 178 daily price checks on 56 games. The 36 preseason games leaned harder to Gametime, at 65.6%.
- These time periods cover different groups of games. In the 62 NHL games tracked both a month out and in the final three days, Vivid Seats was still lower more often in the final three days, 49.1% vs 41.2% of 165 checks.
So the late Gametime lead shows up across all games but not within the same NHL games. Completed NHL games here were mostly played Sept. 19 to Oct. 5, 2026. The practical answer is to check both sites near game day, not to assume one wins. TicketScanner began recording MLB prices on July 12, so there is no month-out MLB data; in the final three days, Gametime was lower in 48.4% of 851 MLB checks and Vivid Seats in 34.3%.
For more on timing, see do tickets get cheaper closer to the game and Gametime last-minute tickets.
The gap is usually small
The median gap between the two sites’ lowest prices was 3.9% in the NFL, about $4, and 3.6% in the NHL. It was 3.1% in the NBA and 6.7% in MLB. On a typical day, the lower site saved a few dollars per ticket, not a large share.
The lowest price is not always a seat. On Oct. 8, 2026, Gametime’s cheapest listing at two Dallas Cowboys games and one Philadelphia Eagles game was standing room. Check the ticket type before you compare two lowest prices.
The fee inside the price: what Vivid Seats shows before you pay
Vivid Seats does not show its fee as a separate line before checkout asks for your email. On Oct. 8, 2026, we took the cheapest seat for two tickets at five NFL, NBA and NHL games to Vivid Seats’ checkout. The listing showed one price marked “Estimated fees included,” and the first checkout page asked for an email address with no split of ticket price, fees or tax. We stopped there. At the same checkout step for the same games, StubHub and SeatGeek listed fees on separate lines.
So a Vivid Seats fee share is not something a buyer can read off the screen, and we do not give one. The fee-included price can be compared, though. StubHub’s cheapest seat came in below Vivid Seats’ at all five games, by $0.15 to $19.51 per ticket before tax (the $0.15, at the Celtics game, is effectively a tie), while Vivid Seats was below SeatGeek at three. At the Bulls game, the same section and row, 306 Row 16, possibly as different listings, came to $64.99 on StubHub, $66.00 on Vivid Seats and $67.81 on SeatGeek.
Gametime, the other site in the tables above, does show the split on its listing page. At seven NFL, NHL and NBA games, Gametime’s fee on the cheapest seated listing was a median 16.3% of the seller’s price. Across all 1,754 seated listings it was 15.5%, and 15.1% to 15.9% per game. That is Gametime’s fee, not Vivid Seats’. Because each site builds a different fee into its price, comparing fee-included prices, as TicketScanner does, is fairer than comparing fee claims. For the game-by-game Gametime table, see the fee comparison.
Checking your Vivid Seats total
The figure to compare is the total on Vivid Seats’ last screen before payment, with tax, against the same section and quantity on Gametime or another site. The full step-by-step method is in our ticket site fee comparison.
What Vivid Seats reviewers say about fees
Vivid Seats has a Trustpilot score of 4.3 from 121,506 reviews. None of its 60 most recent English reviews named fees as the main complaint. One five-star reviewer wrote: “The price included all fees and the app was easy to use.”
All 60 of those reviews came through Vivid Seats’ own invitations, so they are a narrow snapshot. Trustpilot’s reply figure for Vivid Seats shows replies to 94.5% of negative reviews. For more, see our Vivid Seats reviews article. For the full price comparison, see Gametime vs Vivid Seats, and for other sites, Vivid Seats and Gametime alternatives.
How we measured
TicketScanner records the lowest listed price (the get-in price) for each tracked game once a day, around 9 a.m. ET, on each site it compares. These are the prices the sites show with their fees included; depending on the site and the state, sales tax may already be in the price or added at checkout. We compared Gametime and Vivid Seats only when both sites had a price for the same game on the same day. Each of those matches is one daily price check, and percentages use daily price checks, not games, as the base. Different time windows include different games, so compare windows with care. Listings named as season tickets or parking were excluded, but the lowest listing can still be a standing-room or other non-seat ticket. Source: TicketScanner price data.
On Oct. 8, 2026, we read each site’s own help, fee and terms pages and recorded what they state about fees. We also opened ticket listings without an account and without buying anything. Gametime shows the fee split on its listing page: we recorded the seller’s price, fees and total for 1,754 seated listings across seven NFL, NHL and NBA games. On StubHub, SeatGeek and Vivid Seats, we chose the cheapest seated listing for two tickets at five NFL, NBA and NHL games and went to the first checkout page, stopping at the email field without entering anything. StubHub and SeatGeek showed the ticket price and fees as separate lines there; Vivid Seats showed only the fee-included price. We could not view a fee breakdown on Ticketmaster or TickPick. Fee percentages here are fees divided by the seller’s price, per ticket, before tax. Vivid Seats dollar amounts are the fee-included prices from the listing data its page loaded, for the same listings shown on screen.
On some days TicketScanner has no Vivid Seats price for a league; those days drop out of the comparison rather than counting for either site.
Data as of Oct. 8, 2026 (prices recorded through Oct. 7, 2026).
FAQ
Does Vivid Seats include fees in the price?
Yes. Vivid Seats says it shows the cost of a ticket including fees once you start shopping, and its event pages say all prices include fees. Tax, where it applies, is added at checkout.
How much is the Vivid Seats service fee?
Vivid Seats does not publish a rate, and when we checked five games on Oct. 8, 2026, its checkout did not show the fee on its own line before asking for an email. The fee is already inside the listed price, so compare fee-included prices and final totals.
Is Vivid Seats cheaper than Gametime after fees?
It depends on the league. Comparing fee-included lowest prices, Vivid Seats was lower in 58.8% of 8,327 NFL checks, while Gametime was lower more often in NBA and MLB.
Why does my Vivid Seats total go up at checkout?
Vivid Seats says listed prices are per ticket before tax. Sales tax, plus any delivery charge or add-on you choose, can raise the final total.
When was Vivid Seats lower more often?
A month or more before completed NFL and NHL games. Close to game day the picture was mixed, so check both sites.
Compare today’s fee-included lowest prices for every NHL game on TicketScanner’s NHL page.
Sources
- https://support.vividseats.com/support/solutions/articles/1000210417-how-are-ticket-prices-determined- (prices shown with fees, sellers set prices, no fee rate given)
- Vivid Seats blog post on its fee-included pricing, vividseats.com/blog (listed price is per ticket before tax)
- https://www.vividseats.com/washington-capitals-tickets-capital-one-arena-10-9-2026/production/7301422 (event page line “All Prices are in USD and include fees”)
- https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/rule-unfair-or-deceptive-fees-frequently-asked-questions (effective date, exclusions)
- https://www.vividseats.com/philadelphia-eagles-tickets-philadelphia-lincoln-financial-field-3-9-2027/production/6495046 (Vivid Seats listing and checkout, Panthers at Eagles, Oct. 18, 2026)
- https://www.vividseats.com/kansas-city-chiefs-tickets-kansas-city-geha-field-at-arrowhead-stadium-3-3-2026/production/6491107 (Vivid Seats listing and checkout, Chargers at Chiefs, Oct. 18, 2026)
- https://www.vividseats.com/boston-celtics-tickets-td-garden-10-23-2026–sports-nba-basketball/production/7415526 (Vivid Seats listing and checkout, Knicks at Celtics)
- https://www.vividseats.com/new-york-rangers-tickets-madison-square-garden-10-19-2026/production/7301444 (Vivid Seats listing and checkout, Ducks at Rangers)
- https://www.vividseats.com/chicago-bulls-tickets-united-center-10-28-2026/production/7432931 (Vivid Seats listing and checkout, Knicks at Bulls)
- StubHub and SeatGeek checkout pages for the same five games, Oct. 8, 2026 (listed in our StubHub fees and SeatGeek fees guides)
- https://gametime.co/nhl-hockey/rangers-at-capitals-tickets/10-9-2026-washington-dc-capital-one-arena/events/6a5966642da5c11be1387f50 (Gametime fee breakdown on a listing page)
- https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.vividseats.com (Vivid Seats Trustpilot score, count, reply figure and recent reviews)
- TicketScanner price data (daily lowest listed prices on Gametime and Vivid Seats)
About TicketScanner
TicketScanner is an independent ticket price comparison platform built to help fans find the cheapest tickets available online. We aggregate publicly available ticket listing data from multiple marketplaces and present it in a structured, easy-to-compare format.
TicketScanner does not sell tickets and does not process payments. Instead, we provide pricing insights and redirect users to third-party marketplaces where transactions are completed.
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StubHub Fees: How StubHub Sets Its Buyer Fee and What Gets Added at Checkout
At StubHub’s checkout for five games, fees were a median 19.7% of the seller’s price on the cheapest seat, with tax on its own line. What StubHub says.
Ticketmaster Fees: The Service Fee, the Facility Charge and What Gets Added at Checkout
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