Stripe Fees Explained: Every Charge, With Real Examples (2026)

As a freelancer, I get paid through platforms like Stripe and PayPal, and the thing that kept surprising me was how much more an overseas client's payment cost than a local one. "2.9% + 30¢" is only the starting point — a $1,000 invoice from abroad can land in a US account as roughly $946. This guide is what I wish I'd read first: every Stripe fee, in plain English, with real numbers.

1. The basic formula

Every standard Stripe card payment is priced the same way — a percentage of the amount plus a small fixed fee:

That fixed 30¢ is easy to ignore, but it changes everything for small payments. On a $5 sale it's more than the percentage fee. Here's what the same rate really costs at different amounts:

The takeaway: Stripe is cheap on larger payments and expensive on tiny ones. If you sell low-priced items, bundle them or bill less often — I cover that in how to reduce Stripe fees.

2. Every Stripe fee in one table (US account)

These are Stripe's standard, pay-as-you-go prices for US accounts as listed on stripe.com/pricing. Other countries use the same structure with different numbers (see section 4).

3. International clients: where the fees stack up

This is the part that caught me out. Stripe's extra charges are added together, so a payment from abroad can cost nearly double a local one. Here's the same $1,000 invoice paid three ways to a US Stripe account:

That last row is where the "$946" comes from: $25.00 more in fees than a local client paying the same amount. The international card fee is about where the card was issued — you can't avoid it by charging in dollars. The conversion fee, though, only applies when Stripe converts money for you, which is why it matters what currency you invoice in.

4. Stripe fees by country

Stripe sets prices per country. These are the standard online card rates for the most common markets, checked against each country's Stripe pricing page in October 2026:

European rates look low because "1.5%" applies to standard European consumer cards. Premium and business cards cost more (2.8% + fixed fee in most of the EU), so your average rate will usually be a bit higher than the headline number. You can try any of these in the Stripe fee calculator.

5. Refunds, disputes and the fees you don't get back

Stripe doesn't charge anything extra to refund a card payment. But it also doesn't give you back the fee from the original sale. So if a customer pays $100 and you refund the full $100, you're out the original $3.20.

Disputes are more expensive. In the US you pay $15 when a customer opens a dispute, and another $15 if you choose to contest it. If you lose, the payment amount goes back to the customer too. A few habits keep disputes rare:

• Use a statement descriptor customers will recognise (your brand, not a legal company name they've never heard of).
• Send a receipt with a clear description of what they bought.
• Make refunds easy — a customer who can get a refund from you won't go to their bank.

6. Three real-world examples

Freelancer, $2,000 invoice. Paid by US card: $58.30 in fees. Paid by ACH Direct Debit: 0.8% would be $16, but the fee is capped at $5. Same client, same invoice — $53.30 saved just by offering bank payment.

SaaS app, $20/month subscription. Card fee $0.88 plus Stripe Billing's 0.7% ($0.14) = $1.02 per month, or 5.1% of revenue. Billing yearly at $240 instead: $8.94 per year instead of $12.24.

Online shop, $45 average order. $1.61 per order, or 3.58%. If a third of orders come from abroad, the blended rate creeps closer to 4%. That's worth knowing before you decide on free international shipping.

7. How to see exactly what Stripe charged you

Open any payment in your Stripe Dashboard and you'll see the fee broken down line by line — processing fee, international card fee, currency conversion — next to the net amount. Your Balance and payout reports show the same thing in bulk. If a number in your dashboard doesn't match our calculator, it's almost always one of: a premium card, currency conversion, custom pricing, or tax charged on the fee itself.

What Stripe doesn't charge

• No monthly or setup fee on standard pricing
• No fee for failed card payments
• No refund fee on card payments (but the original fee isn't returned)
• No fee for standard payouts to your bank
• Fraud screening with Radar is included

Sources: Stripe US pricing, Stripe payment-method pricing, Stripe refund fees, and each country's local Stripe pricing page. Standard pricing only — negotiated rates will differ.