Etsy Design Awards 2026: you can still vote until October 8

By The mySHOP Team · 2026-10-04 · 7 min read

People's Pick voting for the 2026 Etsy Design Awards stays open through October 8, 2026, and your vote is a favorite on a finalist item at etsy.com/etsydesignawards. You cannot enter, because submissions closed on August 3, 2026. And there are no winners yet: Etsy has not named them, and it has given no announcement date.

Your vote is a favorite: how People's Pick works

Etsy announced the 150 global finalists of the 2026 Etsy Design Awards on September 24, 2026, at Etsy Up. Etsy's Trend Expert wrote it up as a post in the Etsy Success forum, so if you want the announcement in Etsy's own words, start there: the 2026 Etsy Design Awards finalists are here.

Voting is open on the finalists page through October 8, 2026, and anyone can vote. The whole process fits in one breath. Open the Etsy Design Awards page, find the finalist you want to win People's Pick, and favorite it. That favorite is your vote. If you can open that page and favorite a finalist item, you can vote.

Once October 8, 2026 passes, the voting window Etsy announced is closed. Etsy has not mentioned a later round, so don't plan on one.

Here is the part that trips people up: a favorite is not an application. The finalist list is the 150 Etsy already announced. Favoriting a listing from your own shop, or from any shop that is not on the finalists page, won't add it to the awards. The favorite that counts is a favorite on the finalists page.

If your item is already one of the 150, people vote for it the same way, by favoriting it on the finalists page. You don't file anything else to be considered for People's Pick. If your item is not a finalist, you can still vote for one that is. You just can't use that vote to get yourself in. September 24, 2026 was the day Etsy announced finalists, not a new call for entries.

Keep one more split in mind while you browse. Your favorite counts toward People's Pick. It does not choose the $25,000 USD Grand Prize, which is up to Dayna Isom Johnson and Lisa Bühler. Mix the two up and you will either go hunting for a ballot that isn't there, or read a judge's decision as a count of favorites.

Etsy has not said whether there is a limit on how many finalist items you can favorite, or whether a new favorite replaces an earlier one. So stick to the rule Etsy did publish: favorite your pick on the finalists page through October 8, 2026.

And the two links do different jobs. The forum post is the Trend Expert's announcement that the finalists are here. The awards page is where you actually vote. Reading the forum post does not cast a vote. Favoriting a finalist item on the awards page does.

The $25,000 Grand Prize is up to two judges, not your favorites

The Grand Prize is a judged award. Dayna Isom Johnson and Lisa Bühler pick the winner, and the prize is $25,000 USD. A favorite on the finalists page does not choose this winner. People's Pick is the award the public votes on, and the Grand Prize is a separate one.

Etsy has set the size of the winner list but has not filled in the names. There are 15 winners in total: 1 Grand Prize, 1 People's Pick, and 13 others. You don't have the names, categories, or prize amounts for those other 13 yet.

No winner has been named for any of the 15, and there is no date yet for when they will be. The dates you do have each mark something else, so it helps to know which is which.

August 3, 2026 is the day submissions closed. September 24, 2026 is the day Etsy announced the 150 global finalists. October 8, 2026 is the last day of People's Pick voting, when the favorite window closes. December 31, 2026 is the date a finalist item has to stay on hold through. As far as Etsy has said, none of those is the day winners get named.

If you want the rules in Etsy's own wording, read the 2026 Etsy Design Awards submission terms. That is the place to go when you need the written rule rather than a summary. One rule from those terms is worth knowing in plain language: a finalist item must stay on hold through December 31, 2026.

That hold rule is narrow. It applies to a finalist item. If one of yours is among the 150, that item has to stay on hold through December 31, 2026. If you are not a finalist, this award is no reason to put your listings on hold. Voting does not put an item on hold, and favoriting an item as a shopper doesn't either. Only the seller who has the finalist item needs to follow it.

The short version fits on a sticky note. Through October 8, 2026, you can vote by favoriting a finalist item. If you are a finalist, you also keep that item on hold through December 31, 2026. You don't need a winner's name to do either one.

"favorite your pick for this year's People's Pick Award winner now through October 8."

Missed Etsy Up? The full recording is free

You can watch the whole thing at no cost. It runs about 78 minutes. Etsy published it on September 24, 2026, on the official Etsy Success YouTube channel, under the title Etsy Up 2026. Here it is: Etsy Up 2026 on the Etsy Success YouTube channel.

If you would rather stay on Etsy, the event page embeds the same video: Etsy Up 2026 on the Etsy events page. It is one recording in two places, not two different programs.

For the watch list we put together before the event, read Etsy Up 2026 Is Tomorrow: What Sellers Should Actually Watch For.

Frequently asked questions

So how do I actually vote for People's Pick?

Favorite a finalist item at etsy.com/etsydesignawards. Voting stays open through October 8, 2026. That favorite is the vote. There is no separate ballot.

Is it too late to enter?

No. Submissions closed on August 3, 2026. The 150 global finalists are already announced. Favoriting an item does not reopen entries, and voting is not a way to enter.

I missed Etsy Up 2026. Where can I watch it?

The full recording is free on the Etsy Success YouTube channel, and the event page embeds the same video. It is about 78 minutes, titled Etsy Up 2026, and it was published on September 24, 2026. The event page says you can check out the video here or on the Etsy Success YouTube channel right after the event. This page does not describe what was said in the video.