Stripe Fees Explained
For a standard US online card payment, Stripe charges 2.9% of the amount plus a fixed $0.30. That's a pure payment-processing cost, not a marketplace commission, Stripe never takes a cut of what you're selling, only of moving the payment from the buyer's card to your account.
Standard rate by payment amount
| Payment | Stripe fee | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | $0.59 | $9.41 |
| $25.00 | $1.03 | $23.97 |
| $50.00 | $1.75 | $48.25 |
| $100.00 | $3.20 | $96.80 |
| $500.00 | $14.80 | $485.20 |
| $1,000.00 | $29.30 | $970.70 |
Standard US card-not-present rate, verified 2026-09-12. Use the Stripe fee calculator for your own numbers.
What changes the rate
Three things push the cost above the standard 2.9% + $0.30, each stacking on top of the last rather than replacing it:
- International cards add 1.5% for any card issued outside the US.
- Currency conversion adds another 1% when Stripe converts the payment to your account's currency.
- A US business charging a European customer in euros, worst case, stacks all three: 2.9% + 1.5% + 1% = 5.4%, plus the fixed $0.30.
ACH direct debit is the cheap alternative, for US bank payments
Instead of a card, Stripe supports ACH direct debit from a US bank account, at 0.8%, capped at $5 per transaction. The cap means the saving grows with the invoice, a $10,000 payment costs $5 on ACH against $290.30 on a standard card. The tradeoff is settlement time (several business days, not instant) and it only works for domestic bank-account payments, not cards or international transfers.
How this compares to a marketplace fee
Because Stripe only charges for moving the payment, it's usually cheaper than a marketplace's all-in commission, which also covers buyer traffic, listing infrastructure and dispute handling that a standalone Stripe integration doesn't provide. See Stripe vs PayPal fees for a direct comparison against another payment processor, or the platform comparison tool against a full marketplace.