How Stripe's add-ons stack on one order
Manually entered cards add 0.5%, and each dispute you receive costs $15 [1]. Stripe's add-on fees are added to the base rate, not swapped in for it. A $100 online order from a U.S. customer costs $3.20 (2.9% + 30¢). The same order on a card issued abroad adds 1.5%, so $4.70. If that customer also pays in a currency that needs converting, add another 1%: $5.70 [1].
| Situation | Stripe fee | Share of the sale |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic card | $3.20 | 3.2% |
| Domestic card, typed in by you | $3.70 | 3.7% |
| International card | $4.70 | 4.7% |
| International card with currency conversion | $5.70 | 5.7% |
Typed-in cards cost more because they carry more fraud risk. If your team keys in phone orders, sending the customer a payment link usually keeps the sale at the regular online rate.
What Stripe costs a month at $10,000, $30,000 and $75,000
Here is an online store with a $50 average order: 200 orders at $10,000 a month, 600 at $30,000 and 1,500 at $75,000. The first row is all domestic cards. The second assumes 5% of sales are on international cards, so 1.5% more on that slice [1].
| Card mix | $10,000 a month | $30,000 a month | $75,000 a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| All domestic, 2.9% + 30¢ | $350.00 (3.50%) | $1,050.00 (3.50%) | $2,625.00 (3.50%) |
| 5% international | $357.50 (3.58%) | $1,072.50 (3.58%) | $2,681.25 (3.58%) |
On a $50 order, the 30¢ adds 0.6 points, so your real cost is 3.5% of sales, not 2.9%. In person the per-sale fee is only 5¢ [1]: a pop-up with $20 sales pays 2.95% of sales, or $885 on $30,000 a month.
Refunds, disputes and payouts: the costs after the sale
Stripe charges nothing extra to issue a card refund, but it keeps the original fee. Its pricing page says the processing, Connect and currency conversion fees from the original transaction are not returned [1]. Refund a $50 order and you are out the $1.75 fee. If 3% of 600 monthly orders come back, that is 18 refunds and $31.50 a month.
- A dispute (chargeback) costs $15 when you receive it [1].
- If you respond to it manually, Stripe charges another $15, which you get back only if you win [1]. A lost, contested dispute costs $30 plus the sale.
- Instant Payouts cost 1.5% of the amount, with a 50¢ minimum. Payouts on Stripe's standard schedule are free [1].
- Klarna buy now, pay later costs 5.99% + 30¢ per successful payment [1].
Instant Payouts are the costly habit to watch. Paying out $5,000 instantly costs $75. Over a month of daily instant payouts, that can rival a plan fee at another processor.
When interchange-plus usually costs less than Stripe
Stripe itself lists interchange-plus (IC+) among its custom pricing options [1], so this is a question you can put to Stripe as well as to other processors. To size it, we built an example from published numbers. Online interchange uses Visa's April 2026 card-not-present rates as a stand-in for all cards: 40% regulated debit at 0.05% + 21¢ plus 1¢, 30% basic credit at 1.89% + 10¢ and 30% Visa Infinite at 2.60% + 10¢ [3]. The markup is Helcim's published online margin: 0.50% + 25¢ under $50,000 a month and 0.45% + 20¢ above [2]. Network fees are extra and not included.
| Monthly card sales | Stripe standard | Interchange-plus example | Gap before network fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $350.00 | $266.30 | $83.70 |
| $30,000 | $1,050.00 | $798.90 | $251.10 |
| $75,000 | $2,625.00 | $1,884.75 | $740.25 |
Online, the gap is larger than in person because Stripe's 30¢ is a big share of a $50 order. Once network fees are added, a small store may save little, but at $30,000 to $75,000 a month the gap is often worth a quote. Your card mix matters: a store whose buyers use premium rewards cards sees less of a gap. Before you switch, count what Stripe does for you, such as built-in fraud tools, subscriptions or a platform that only supports Stripe. Changing processors can mean rebuilding checkout.
How to check your own Stripe costs
- Export last month's balance report from your Stripe Dashboard: gross volume, fees and refunds.
- Divide total fees by gross card volume to get your effective rate. Compare it with the 3.5% in our $50-order example.
- Count how much of your volume is international or converted. Each slice adds 1.5% to 2.5% [1].
- Add disputes and Instant Payout fees, which sit apart from card fees.
- If your effective rate is well above the examples, or your volume is large, ask Stripe about custom or IC+ pricing [1] and get at least one other quote.
BatchOut is our own processing service. If we show it as one of your options, we label it as ours, and we show Stripe's price next to it.