GMV vs TPV
GMV is the total value of goods sold through a marketplace; TPV is the total value of payments processed. Why they diverge — and why neither one is revenue.
GMV (gross merchandise value) is the total value of goods and services sold through a marketplace; TPV (total payment volume) is the total value of payments processed through a platform. Related, but not the same number.
How it works
- GMV counts sales value — what buyers bought — regardless of who moved the money.
- TPV counts payment flow — what actually ran through the payment rails, including tips, taxes, and sometimes off-platform items.
- A marketplace that processes its own payments will see GMV and TPV converge; one that doesn’t can post high GMV with low TPV.
Neither is revenue. The platform’s actual income is its take rate applied to the volume. How that rate is set — and collected — is its own discipline: marketplace take rate, explained.
Why it matters
Investors and operators use GMV and TPV as headline scale metrics, but they flatter easily — a big GMV says nothing about what the platform keeps. Confusing volume with revenue, or double-counting payments as sales, is how a growth story hides thin economics.
How Fynex does it
When Fynex processes a marketplace’s payments, GMV moves through as real settlement and the platform keeps its cut at that moment — platform commission taken at settlement, every share traceable back to the books.