The Trade Desk fees explained: platform, data and agency layers

How The Trade Desk charges, what its 10-K says about take rate and Kokai, what the 2026 Publicis dispute was about, and the cost report an advertiser should ask for.

The Trade Desk charges a platform fee that is generally a percentage of what a client spends through it, plus separate charges for data and value-added features, including those that came with its Kokai platform. In 2025 its revenue was about 21.6% of the gross spend on its platform, by our calculation from its 10-K, and that blended figure includes more than the platform fee. If you buy through an agency, the agency's own fee or markup sits on top, and you will only see it if your contract makes them show it.

None of that is hidden in the sense of secret. The Trade Desk describes its model plainly in its filings. The problem for an advertiser is that the fees stack across two or three contracts, and nobody hands you one page that adds them up.

The platform fee

From the company's fiscal 2025 10-K: it generates revenue "by charging our clients a platform fee generally based on a percentage of our clients' total spend on our platform and from providing value-added services and data to support their advertising campaigns."

Three details from the same filing matter for a buyer.

• Clients are mostly agencies. The Trade Desk says its clients are "advertising agencies, advertisers and other service providers." In 2025 two holding companies together accounted for 30% of its gross billings. If your agency holds the seat, the fee terms are in the agency's contract, not yours.
• There is no single public rate. The filing says revenue as a share of spend moves with pricing, volume discounts, client and channel mix, and how much of the value-added services and data clients use. Anyone quoting you "the" Trade Desk fee is guessing. Your rate is whatever your contract, or your agency's, says.
• The contracts are short. Its master services agreements generally run for one year, renew automatically and can be ended by either party on 60 days' notice. That is useful to know when someone tells you the terms can't move.

The take rate, as the numbers show it

The Trade Desk reports revenue net of what it pays suppliers for inventory and third-party data. It also reports gross spend, which it defines as client spend on inventory, value-added services and data, plus the platform fee.

Revenue grew 18% in 2025 while gross spend grew 11%. The company's explanation: more use of value-added services and data, "higher platform fees," and "increased pricing associated with value-added services and data," including from Kokai, which the filing calls "our most recent and major upgrade to our platform." Read that as a fair statement of direction. More of each dollar is going to platform features, and some of those features cost more than they did.

Data and add-on fees

This is where most of the cost variation between advertisers lives. Third-party audience data, measurement, and the platform's own features can each carry a charge, and they are usually priced as a percentage of media or a CPM. Some are switched on per campaign. The question to answer is which ones are on for your campaigns, who turned them on, and what each one cost last month.

The 2026 dispute

In March 2026, Publicis told select clients to stop using The Trade Desk. Digiday reported that, according to Publicis's account of an audit by FirmDecisions, the platform had applied its DSP fee to other fees it charged and billed clients for tools they were enrolled in without evidence of authorization. The Trade Desk disputed that characterization and said the data requested would have breached confidentiality agreements with other clients and partners. Omnicom then announced its own audit. In February, Digiday reported, WPP and Dentsu had exited OpenPath, The Trade Desk's direct connection to publishers, citing fee visibility and placement clarity.

In June 2026 Publicis and The Trade Desk issued a joint statement saying they had addressed the differences identified in the audit, and Publicis resumed recommending the platform. Neither side disclosed the terms.

Be careful with the lesson. These were allegations, contested and then settled privately. What is not in dispute: a holding company with an outside auditor needed months to agree on what had been charged. A mid-market advertiser has less access and less time. That argues for clear reporting in your own contract, not for avoiding any one platform.

The agency layer on top

If an agency trades for you, it charges for that work: a fee, a percentage of media, a technology fee, or a margin on principal-based products. That sits on top of everything above. The Trade Desk's 10-K also notes that some of its client agreements "may include joint business plans and other incentive programs." Ask your agency whether any such incentives exist on your spend and where they go.

What to ask to see

• The platform fee, in writing. Your contract's rate, or your agency's rate as applied to your spend.
• A monthly cost report by line. Media cost, platform fee, each data and feature charge, and the agency's fee, all separate. One blended CPM is not a report.
• The fee base. Whether the platform fee is calculated on media only or on media plus data and feature charges. This was the heart of the Publicis claim.
• What is switched on. Every paid feature active on your campaigns, who enabled it, and a rule that new paid features are opt-in.
• Log-level data. See log-level data, the clause worth more than the discount.
• Seat ownership. Whose name the platform contract is in, and what happens to your data if you change agencies. More on that in Should we bring programmatic media in-house?

Start here

Ask your agency for the last three months of platform cost reports for your campaigns, broken out by line, and divide total non-media cost by working media. If they can't produce it in two weeks, that is your answer about visibility. Our Second Opinion reviews the agency contract that governs it in five business days.

Sources: The Trade Desk, Form 10-K for fiscal 2025, Digiday, A cynic's guide to the most transparent dispute in programmatic history, ATDb, Omnicom launches audit of The Trade Desk's fees, Mediaweek, Publicis and The Trade Desk audit dispute resolved.