Stripe's fees in full, including the ones people forget.
Stripe publishes 2.9% + 30¢ online and 2.7% + 5¢ in person, plus surcharges for international cards, currency conversion and manual entry that most comparisons omit. Its disclosure is among the best in the industry.
What this page settles.
Three questions, in the order most people ask them.
What it actually is
Stripe is payments infrastructure. An API, a hosted checkout, a billing engine, a fraud system, a marketplace product, a terminal product, and a dashboard built for whoever writes your code.
It is not a till and it is not a business platform. The businesses Stripe serves best are ones where payments are a feature of a product rather than a transaction at a counter: software companies, marketplaces, subscription businesses, platforms.
Structurally, Stripe underwrites you as a merchant in your own right rather than running you as a sub-merchant under a master account. That is a real advantage over an aggregator — the risk assessment happens before you trade rather than after — though it does not make holds impossible. Merchant account versus aggregator.
Its pricing is flat rate, with the usual consequence: one number for every card, which is an average across your card mix. Flat rate versus interchange-plus.
Every published price
| Stripe | |
|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat rate |
| In person | 2.7% + 5¢ Terminal, domestic cards; Tap to Pay adds $0.10 per authorization |
| Keyed | +0.5% on top of the base rate |
| Online | 2.9% + 30¢ domestic cards; +1.5% international, +1% currency conversion |
| Monthly | $0 on standard pricing |
| Contract | No contract stated. The page says no setup fees and no monthly fees on standard pricing. |
| Monthly minimum | Not stated |
| Funding | Rolling, weekly or monthly payouts, free on the standard schedule; instant payouts 1.5% with a 50¢ minimum |
| Chargeback fee | $15 per dispute received, plus $15 per dispute responded to manually (refunded on a win) |
| Hardware | Sold outright; Terminal cellular $10 per reader per month |
| Account type | Own merchant account through Stripe, underwritten |
Stripe publishes these at stripe.com. Read 2026-10-08.
Also published:
- ACH Direct Debit 0.8%, capped at $5.00
- Point-to-point encryption 5¢ per authorization, optional
- Custom domain on Payment Links and Checkout $10/mo
Published prices change. These are list prices for a business buying direct, read on the date above, and a quote you are given may differ.
What it costs in practice
Take the standard online rate, 2.9% + 30¢, and an online business with a $60 average order.
At $20,000 a month (333 orders): $580 + $99.90 = $679.90, an effective rate of 3.40%.
At $60,000 a month (1,000 orders): $1,740 + $300 = $2,040, still 3.40%.
That is high, and it is high for a structural reason rather than a Stripe reason: every online sale is card-not-present, and card-not-present interchange runs roughly 0.3% to 0.5% above the equivalent card-present tier. A coffee shop at 2.3% and an online store at 3.4% can be paying identical margins. Selling online.
The surcharges are where people get caught. International cards add 1.5%. Currency conversion adds 1%. Manually entered cards add 0.5%. An online business selling internationally can be paying 5.4% on some orders and have no idea, because the headline number everyone quotes is 2.9% + 30¢.
In person, 2.7% + 5¢ is competitive — at a $45 average ticket that is 2.81%, slightly better than Square. Tap to Pay adds $0.10 per authorization and optional point-to-point encryption adds $0.05.
What it is good at
Disclosure is among the best in the industry. Every surcharge, the dispute fees, the instant payout fee, the ACH cap, the Terminal cellular fee — all published, all specific. Most providers publish a headline and stop.
The billing engine is the product nothing else matches at this price. Proration, trials, dunning, usage-based pricing, plan changes. For a subscription business this is the reason to be on Stripe and the rate is beside the point. Subscription pricing.
You are underwritten, with your own merchant account, which is a meaningfully sturdier arrangement than being a sub-merchant.
International reach. Stripe operates directly in far more countries than most, and publishes what cross-border costs rather than surprising you with it. Cross-border fees.
No monthly fee on standard pricing, no contract, no setup fee.
The hosted products work without code — Checkout, Payment Links, Invoicing — so “you need a developer” is only true for the things that make Stripe worth choosing.
Where it costs you
The flat rate at volume. Above roughly $40,000 to $60,000 a month online — the crossover is higher online than in person because card-not-present interchange is higher — your own interchange-plus arrangement generally costs less, and the gap widens.
The surcharges, if your mix includes them. 1.5% international plus 1% conversion is 2.5% on top of 2.9%. For a business selling across borders that is the dominant cost and it is worth modelling before choosing.
Dispute fees are charged on receipt, not on outcome. $15 when a dispute arrives, plus $15 if you respond manually, refunded only if you win. A business with a dispute problem pays for it twice. How to fight a chargeback.
It is not a business platform. No inventory, no staff management, no appointments, no payroll. If you want those, you are buying something else alongside.
Holds still happen. Being underwritten reduces the likelihood and does not remove it. Held funds and reserves.
Who it suits, and who it does not
Stripe suits a software product, a marketplace, a subscription business, a platform, any business selling internationally, and any online store with a developer and a reason to control its own checkout.
Stripe does not suit a shop, restaurant or salon that needs a till — Square is a far better fit — nor a business with no technical resource that wants more than the hosted products, nor a high-volume store that should be on interchange-plus.
The honest test for an online business is not the rate. It is your decline rate and your dispute rate, both of which move more money than the gap between any two providers at this level. A store at $80,000 a month with a 9% decline rate is losing more to declines than it would save by switching processors at all. Selling online.
What we charge
Interchange + 0.50% + 10¢ in person, interchange + 0.75% + 25¢ keyed, with no contract, no monthly fee and no monthly minimum.
Stripe publishes its rate, which makes this easy to settle: work out your effective rate from a statement and compare it to interchange plus our published margin at your own card mix. Below roughly $12,000 a month in card volume we will usually tell you to stay where you are.
While we are on the subject
Why is my Stripe rate higher than 2.9%?
Almost always the published surcharges: 1.5% for international cards, 1% for currency conversion, 0.5% for manually entered cards. They are on the pricing page and most summaries leave them out.
Does Stripe charge a monthly fee?
Not on standard pricing. Some add-ons do, such as $10 a month for a custom domain on Payment Links and Checkout, and $10 per reader per month for Terminal cellular.
Do I get the dispute fee back if I win?
The $15 countered fee is refunded on a win. The $15 received fee is not.
Do I need a developer to use Stripe?
Not for hosted Checkout, Payment Links or Invoicing. For the things that make Stripe worth choosing over a simpler provider, yes.