See exactly what Stripe keeps and what hits your bank for each sale.
Your sale
Or your average order value
Calculates monthly + annual cost
Fee breakdown by Stripe rate
Stripe product
Rate
Fee on sale
You keep
% lost
Cheapest option for your sale—
About this calculator
Stripe's pricing is straightforward in headline form (2.9% + $0.30) but has three layered surcharges that can take the effective rate well above 4% for cross-border sales. The base rate is 2.9% + $0.30 for US-issued cards on US accounts. International cards add 1.5%. Currency conversion (when the customer pays in their local currency and Stripe converts it for you) adds another 1.0%. So a UK customer paying in GBP on a US store hits an effective rate of 4.9% + $0.30, plus the spread on the FX itself.
For most US ecommerce brands selling primarily to US customers, Stripe Standard (2.9% + $0.30) is the cheapest large-platform processor. PayPal Standard charges 3.49% + $0.49. Square Online charges 2.9% + $0.30 (matching Stripe) but has worse international handling. Shopify Payments — which is Stripe under the hood — charges 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic Shopify dropping to 2.4% + $0.30 on Shopify Plus, and using it exempts you from the 0.5 to 2 percent third-party gateway penalty.
Once you process more than $50K to $80K per month, Stripe will negotiate. Achievable rates depend on category, AOV, and chargeback rate but typically land between 2.2% and 2.6% plus the $0.30 flat fee. Reducing your effective rate from 2.9% to 2.4% on $200K monthly volume saves $1,000 every month — enough to fund a meaningful CRO experiment or a part-time email manager. Apply through your Stripe account dashboard or contact sales directly.
For a side-by-side view across all major processors see the payment processing comparison. To see how processing fees flow into overall unit economics, run your numbers through the contribution margin calculator — Stripe fees should be modeled as a variable cost alongside COGS, shipping, and packaging.
Frequently asked questions
What does Stripe charge for online card payments?
Stripe Standard is 2.9% + $0.30 per successful card transaction in the US. On a $65 sale that is $2.19 in fees, leaving $62.81. There is no monthly fee, no setup fee, and no chargeback fee on the standard plan (though chargebacks themselves cost $15).
How much extra does Stripe charge for international cards?
International cards add 1.5% to the standard rate (so 4.4% + $0.30). If the customer also pays in their local currency Stripe charges another 1% for currency conversion. A $65 sale paid by a UK customer in GBP costs you about $3.49 in fees instead of $2.19.
Can I negotiate a lower Stripe rate?
Yes. Stripe will quote custom volume rates starting around $50K to $80K monthly processing. Achievable rates are 2.2% to 2.6% depending on your category, average ticket, and chargeback history. Apply through your account manager or sales contact.
Stripe vs PayPal — which is cheaper?
Stripe is cheaper for almost every ecommerce store. Stripe Standard (2.9% + $0.30) beats PayPal Standard (3.49% + $0.49) by about $0.57 per order at a $65 average order value. The exception is sales under $12 where PayPal Micropayments (4.99% + $0.09) wins because of the lower fixed fee.
Does Shopify Payments use Stripe under the hood?
Yes — Shopify Payments is powered by Stripe. The published rates are similar (2.9% + $0.30 on Basic Shopify, dropping to 2.4% + $0.30 on Shopify Plus). Using Shopify Payments also exempts you from Shopify's additional 0.5 to 2% transaction fee that applies when you use a third-party processor.