Stripe Fee Calculator

Stripe's pricing page shows one line: 2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge. That number is accurate and incomplete. Depending on where your customer's card was issued and what currency they pay in, the real rate on a transaction can be 5.4% or higher — nearly double the headline.

This guide breaks down every Stripe fee that touches a normal business, shows what each one costs on a real charge, and covers the practical decisions that reduce them.

Stripe's core pricing (2026, US accounts)

Standard online card payments: 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge.

That base rate covers a domestic card, paid in your account's currency, on a standard integration. On a $100 charge you pay $3.20 and receive $96.80.

The other headline numbers:

Payment type	Rate
Online cards (standard)	2.9% + $0.30
In-person (Stripe Terminal)	2.7% + $0.05
ACH direct debit (US)	0.8%, capped at $5.00
International cards	+1.5% on top of the base rate
Currency conversion	+1% on top
Failed ACH / disputes	Fixed fees (see below)

Stripe charges no monthly fee, no setup fee, and no minimum on standard pricing — you pay per transaction. That is why it dominates SaaS and Shopify backends despite not being the cheapest option on paper.

The surcharges that catch people out

International cards: +1.5%

If the card was issued outside your Stripe account's country, Stripe adds 1.5%. This is not optional and not negotiable on standard pricing. A US business charging a UK customer's card pays 4.4% + $0.30, not 2.9% + $0.30.

For businesses with a global customer base this single line can be the difference between healthy and thin margins. If 40% of your customers are international, your blended rate is around 3.5%, not 2.9%.

Currency conversion: +1%

If you charge in one currency and settle in another, Stripe adds 1% for the conversion — on top of the international card fee if both apply.

Worst case, all three stack: 2.9% + 1.5% + 1% = 5.4% + $0.30. On a $200 charge that is $11.10 in fees, leaving $188.90. The Stripe Fee Calculator lets you toggle each surcharge so you can see the real number for your customer mix rather than the best case.

Disputes and chargebacks: $15

Every dispute costs $15, and you lose the disputed amount while it is being investigated. Win the dispute and the $15 is returned; lose it and you are out the goods, the payment, and the fee.

Businesses with dispute rates above roughly 0.75% risk card network monitoring programs, which carry far larger penalties. Clear billing descriptors, obvious refund policies, and prompt customer service are cheaper than any dispute-fighting tool.

Instant Payouts: 1%

Standard payouts (2 business days in the US) are free. Instant Payouts cost 1% of the amount, minimum $0.50. If cash flow allows, waiting two days is worth more than most businesses realize — a business paying out $50,000/month instantly is spending $6,000 a year to be paid slightly sooner.

The fixed fee matters more than you think

The $0.30 is flat, so its impact depends entirely on order size:

Charge amount	Fee (2.9% + $0.30)	Effective rate
$5.00	$0.45	9.0%
$10.00	$0.59	5.9%
$25.00	$1.03	4.1%
$50.00	$1.75	3.5%
$100.00	$3.20	3.2%
$500.00	$14.80	3.0%

On a $5 transaction you lose 9%. This is why micro-transaction businesses either batch charges, set minimum order values, or move to ACH. If your average order is under $15, the fixed fee is one of your largest cost lines and the fastest thing to fix by raising AOV.

What to charge to net a specific amount

Freelancers and agencies invoicing through Stripe often need a specific amount to land. You cannot simply add 2.9% — the fee applies to the higher amount too.

The correct formula is:

Charge = (Target net + Fixed fee) ÷ (1 − Rate)

To net $100 at 2.9% + $0.30: (100 + 0.30) ÷ 0.971 = $103.30. Charge $103.30, Stripe takes $3.30, and exactly $100 arrives.

Adding a naive 2.9% would give $102.90, which nets $99.61 — a small shortfall that compounds across hundreds of invoices. The calculator does this gross-up automatically.

Stripe vs PayPal vs the rest

Provider	Domestic rate	International	Notes
Stripe	2.9% + $0.30	+1.5% (+1% FX)	Best developer experience, strong Shopify integration
PayPal	2.99% + $0.49	~4.49% + fixed	Higher fixed fee; buyer familiarity is the trade-off
Square	2.9% + $0.30	Similar	Better for in-person retail
Shopify Payments	2.9% + $0.30 (Basic)	Varies	Lower on higher Shopify plans; avoids Shopify's extra transaction fee

On raw rates Stripe and Shopify Payments are close. PayPal's $0.49 fixed fee makes it meaningfully more expensive on small orders — compare directly with the PayPal Fee Calculator.

If you sell on Shopify, using Shopify Payments (which is Stripe underneath) avoids Shopify's additional 0.5–2% third-party gateway fee. Using external Stripe on Shopify means paying both.

How to reduce what Stripe costs you

Raise average order value. Bundles, minimum orders, and volume tiers all dilute the fixed fee. Moving AOV from $20 to $50 cuts your effective rate from 4.4% to 3.5%.

Use ACH for large B2B invoices. At 0.8% capped at $5, a $5,000 invoice costs $5 via ACH versus $145.30 on a card. For recurring enterprise billing this is the single biggest saving available.

Bill international customers in their own currency where practical. You still pay the 1.5% international fee, but presenting local currency lifts conversion enough to usually outweigh it.

Apply for volume pricing. Stripe negotiates below-standard rates for businesses processing meaningful volume — commonly discussed from around $80,000/month upward. It is worth asking; the answer is sometimes yes lower than expected.

Reduce failed payments. Card retries, dunning emails, and updating expired cards recover revenue at no extra processing cost. A 2% involuntary churn reduction usually beats any rate negotiation.

Keep disputes low. A recognizable billing descriptor is a free change that measurably reduces "I don't recognize this charge" disputes.

Taxes, refunds, and the details

Refunds: Stripe returns the refunded amount to the customer but does not return the original processing fee. A refunded $100 order costs you $3.20 with nothing to show for it. High-return categories should build this into pricing.

Partial refunds: the percentage fee is refunded proportionally in some regions but the fixed fee generally is not — check your region's terms.

Stripe Tax: optional, 0.5% per transaction where it calculates tax. Useful if you have multi-state or EU VAT obligations; unnecessary if you sell in one jurisdiction.

Radar: included on standard pricing. Radar for Fraud Teams adds $0.07 per transaction for advanced rules.

Billing: Stripe Billing for subscriptions adds 0.5% (Starter) or 0.8% (Scale) on recurring charges, on top of processing.

Each add-on is defensible individually and they accumulate quietly. Audit your Stripe dashboard's fee breakdown quarterly — most businesses find at least one product they enabled once and never evaluated again.

Working out your true blended rate

Rather than assuming 2.9%, take a month of real Stripe data: total fees ÷ total volume. That blended figure is what belongs in your margin calculations and your breakeven ROAS.

Most businesses find their blended rate sits between 3.1% and 4.2% once international cards, conversions, disputes, and refunded fees are counted. Using 2.9% in your unit economics overstates margin on every single order.

Related calculators

• PayPal Fee Calculator — compare the two most common gateways
• Shopify Fee Calculator — full Shopify cost including payment processing
• Wise vs PayPal vs Payoneer — for receiving cross-border payouts
• Profit Margin Calculator — feed your blended rate into real margin numbers