What does Stripe charge per transaction?
US list pricing is 2.9% plus 30 cents for a standard online card payment, with no monthly or setup fee on the standard plan. Manually keyed cards cost more at 3.4% plus 30 cents, in-person payments through Stripe Terminal are 2.7% plus 5 cents, and ACH direct debit is 0.8% capped at $5. Rates differ by country, so check the pricing page for yours rather than assuming the US figures apply.
Why is my effective rate higher than 2.9%?
Because the fixed 30 cents is a much larger share of a small sale. On a $100 payment the total fee is $3.20, an effective 3.2%. On a $5 payment it is 44.5 cents — an effective 8.9%, more than triple the headline rate. Anyone selling low-value items is paying far more than the advertised percentage suggests, which is why bundling small purchases into one larger transaction can meaningfully change the economics.
What add-ons increase the fee?
An international card adds 1.5%, currency conversion adds 1%, instant payouts cost 1.5%, and Stripe Billing adds 0.7% for recurring invoices. These stack: a foreign card paid in another currency on a subscription can reach 6.1% plus the fixed fee before you have accounted for anything else. Each is toggled separately in the calculator because most sellers only ever encounter one or two of them.
How much do chargebacks and disputes cost?
Stripe charges $15 per dispute, and that fee applies whether or not you ultimately win. You also lose the original transaction amount while the dispute is open. A run of disputes is expensive twice over: the direct cost, and the effect on your dispute rate, which card networks monitor and which can put your account under review if it climbs above roughly 1% of transactions.
Can I pass Stripe's fees on to my customer?
Sometimes, but the rules are genuinely complicated and not yours to decide unilaterally. Card-scheme rules, national law and — in the US — individual state law all constrain surcharging, and several states restrict or prohibit it. Where it is permitted there are usually disclosure requirements and caps. Many sellers instead raise prices slightly across the board, which avoids the issue entirely. Check the position where you trade before adding a surcharge line.
Can I negotiate a lower rate?
Yes, above a certain scale. Stripe publishes list pricing but negotiates custom rates for larger merchants, commonly cited from around $80,000 a month in volume, where something near 2.2% plus 30 cents becomes achievable. Interchange-plus pricing is also worth asking about, since it exposes the underlying card-network cost separately from Stripe's margin. Below that volume the list rate is what you pay, and the lever available to you is transaction mix rather than the rate itself.