You sold something for $847. Stripe takes its cut before the money hits your account. This calculator shows you the exact fee, your net payout, and — if you need to pass fees to your customer — the gross-up price to charge so you keep every dollar you intended.
All fee rates sourced directly from Stripe's official pricing page. Standard US domestic rate of 2.9% + $0.30 verified from stripe.com/pricing. International card surcharge of 1.5% and currency conversion rate of 1% verified from Stripe documentation. ACH Direct Debit rate of 0.8% capped at $5 verified from Stripe's bank transfers pricing. Last verified May 2026.
Most new Stripe users make the same mistake: they look at their Stripe dashboard balance and think that's their gross revenue. It isn't. Stripe deducts its fee from every transaction before depositing anything. The "Available balance" in your dashboard is already your net — after fees. You never see a separate monthly bill. The fee is gone before the money arrives.
For a standard US card transaction, the fee is 2.9% of the transaction amount plus a flat $0.30. On a $100 sale, Stripe takes $3.20. On a $500 sale, it takes $14.80. The flat $0.30 component is what makes small transactions disproportionately expensive — on a $5 sale, that $0.30 represents 6% by itself before the percentage even kicks in.
Freelancers and SaaS businesses often want to pass processing fees to clients so they receive a clean target amount. To figure out what to charge, you reverse the calculation. This is called a gross-up.
| Transaction Amount | Stripe Fee (US Card) | You Receive | Effective Rate | ACH Fee (if applicable) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | $0.59 | $9.41 | 5.90% | $0.08 |
| $25.00 | $1.03 | $23.97 | 4.10% | $0.20 |
| $100.00 | $3.20 | $96.80 | 3.20% | $0.80 |
| $500.00 | $14.80 | $485.20 | 2.96% | $4.00 |
| $625.00 | $18.43 | $606.58 | 2.95% | $5.00 ← ACH cap |
| $1,000.00 | $29.30 | $970.70 | 2.93% | $5.00 |
| $5,000.00 | $145.30 | $4,854.70 | 2.91% | $5.00 |
The ACH crossover point is $625. Above that, ACH's $5 cap makes it dramatically cheaper than card processing. On a $5,000 invoice, ACH saves $140.30 in a single transaction. Most B2B businesses leave significant money on the table by not offering ACH to US customers.
You invoice a client $2,500 and they pay by card. Stripe takes 2.9% + $0.30 = $72.80. You receive $2,427.20. If instead you send them a bank transfer request (ACH), Stripe charges 0.8% capped at $5 — you receive $2,495. The difference is $67.80 on a single invoice. Over 20 invoices per year that's $1,356 back in your pocket, just from switching payment method.
Monthly revenue: $14,500. Standard card fees at 2.9% + $0.30: each transaction costs $1.14, so 500 × $1.14 = $570/month in processing fees. Add Stripe Billing at 0.7%: $14,500 × 0.007 = $101.50/month. Total monthly Stripe cost: $671.50. Annual: $8,058. This is why SaaS businesses at scale contact Stripe's enterprise team — negotiating from 2.9% to 2.4% on that volume saves $870/year just on the percentage alone.
Monthly revenue $50,000. Domestic 70%: $35,000 × (2.9% + $0.30 avg effective) ≈ $1,082. International 30%: $15,000 × 4.4% + $0.30 avg effective ≈ $697. Total monthly fees: $1,779. The international surcharge alone costs $340 per month. Encouraging international customers to pay in their local currency and using Stripe's local payment methods reduces this by accepting more domestic-priced transactions on their end.
Stripe charges a flat $15 per disputed charge — win or lose. Most merchants assume winning a dispute means getting everything back. You get the transaction amount back if you win. The $15 fee stays with Stripe. At a typical 0.3% dispute rate on 500 monthly transactions, that's 1.5 disputes per month, or $22.50 in chargeback fees even in months where you win every single one. Over a year: $270 in fees purely from the dispute process, regardless of outcome.
| Payment Type | Rate | Fee on $100 | Fee on $1,000 | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Domestic Card | 2.9% + $0.30 | $3.20 | $29.30 | Consumer purchases, small transactions |
| International Card | 4.4% + $0.30 | $4.70 | $44.30 | Global customers paying in USD |
| Intl + Conversion | 5.4% + $0.30 | $5.70 | $54.30 | Avoid if possible — price in USD |
| ACH Direct Debit | 0.8%, cap $5 | $0.80 | $5.00 | US B2B invoices above $600 |
| Stripe Billing | +0.5-0.8% on top | +$0.50-0.80 | +$5-8 | Recurring subscriptions |
If you accept in-person payments through Stripe Terminal, the rate drops to 2.7% + $0.05 per swipe — lower than online because card-present fraud risk is lower. On a $100 in-person sale you pay $2.75 versus $3.20 online. Stripe Tax, if you use it for automated sales tax collection, adds $0.50 per transaction where tax is calculated. At 1,000 monthly transactions in taxable jurisdictions, that is $500 per month — $6,000 per year — just for the calculation layer. And one fact that surprises merchants: Stripe determines whether a card is international by the card-issuing country, not the customer's billing address. A Canadian customer who enters a US billing address but pays with a card issued by a Canadian bank still triggers the 1.5% international surcharge.
| Payment Type | Rate | Fee on $100 | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online Card (standard) | 2.9% + $0.30 | $3.20 | US domestic Visa/MC/Amex/Discover |
| Terminal (in-person) | 2.7% + $0.05 | $2.75 | Lower fraud risk = lower rate |
| Manually keyed | 3.4% + $0.30 | $3.70 | Highest risk = highest rate |
| ACH Direct Debit | 0.8%, cap $5 | $0.80 | Cap hits at $625 transaction |
| Stripe Billing | +0.7% | +$0.70 | Single plan since July 2024 |
| Stripe Tax | $0.50/transaction | $0.50 | Where tax must be calculated |
| Stripe Radar Teams | $0.02/screened | $0.02 | Basic Radar included free |
This single change is the highest-impact, zero-risk way to cut Stripe costs. Any US business-to-business payment above $625 is cheaper via ACH. The customer needs a US bank account. The settlement takes 3-5 days longer. Everything else — reliability, security, Stripe dashboard visibility — is identical. Build ACH into your invoice email as the default option and most B2B clients will use it.
Instead of absorbing fees, build them into your invoice. The formula: charge (your desired net + $0.30) / 0.971. If you want to receive $2,000, charge $2,062.10. Stripe takes $62.10 and you receive exactly $2,000. Many freelancers add a line item called "payment processing" to make this transparent to clients.
Stripe doesn't advertise it, but custom pricing starts at around $80,000 in monthly processing. Typical negotiated rates land between 2.2% and 2.6% + $0.25. Come to the call with 3 months of processing data and a competitive quote from Square or Braintree. Stripe competes for this business. A 0.3% reduction on $200,000 annual volume saves $600 per year — enough to justify a 30-minute call.
The 1% currency conversion fee on top of the 1.5% international card surcharge adds up to 2.5% extra on international transactions. Pricing your product in USD and letting your international customers see the price in their currency at checkout — without actually collecting in a foreign currency — eliminates the conversion fee entirely.
Basic Stripe Radar (fraud detection) is included free. Radar for Fraud Teams costs $0.02 per screened transaction — at 1,000 transactions per month that's $20/month. If it prevents even 2 chargebacks per month (saving $30 in dispute fees plus recovered revenue), it pays for itself. The ROI gets better as volume increases.
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