Square Fee Calculator: What Square Costs You vs Interchange Plus
Enter your monthly card sales, average sale and Square plan. The calculator shows what you pay Square, what the same sales cost on interchange plus 5 basis points, and the difference over one year and five.
Adjust the assumptions
Over five years: $14,550.
Square side: Square’s published US rates by plan. In person 2.6% plus 15 cents on Free, 2.5% on Plus, 2.4% on Premium. Online 3.3% plus 30 cents on Free, 2.9% plus 30 cents on Plus and Premium. Keyed in or card on file 3.5% plus 15 cents on every plan. Plan subscription fees are not included. Interchange-plus side: your blended interchange, card network assessments, about 2 cents per transaction in network per-item fees, and a 0.05% markup. Estimates only.
Square charges the same flat rate on every card, cheap debit and premium rewards alike. Interchange plus 5 basis points passes the card networks’ actual cost straight through and adds five hundredths of one percent. Priced that way, interchange plus beats Square at every sales volume.
Why Square feels cheap, and what it costs you
Square is easy. The reader arrives in the mail, the app works in minutes, and there is no contract and no monthly fee on the Free plan. That ease is how Square signed up millions of small businesses.
But easy is not the same as affordable. Choosing a processor because it is easy to set up is like doing your Thanksgiving shopping at the corner convenience store. Everything is right there, and you pay a premium on every item in the cart. The setup happens once. The price difference in the calculator above is paid every month, on every sale, for as long as you stay.
Square also works differently from a merchant account. It is a payment aggregator: your business processes under Square’s own master account, and Square’s terms give it wide discretion over holds, reserves and payouts. We score all of that in our Square rating.
The timing matters too. With some economists forecasting a 2030 Great Depression, now is the time to fix your cost structure before the storm arrives.
Do Square Plus and Premium lower your fees?
They lower the rate, but you pay for it. Square Plus costs $49 a month per location and Premium costs $149, according to Square’s pricing page. Here is the monthly card volume each plan needs before the lower rate covers its own fee.
| Plan change | Rate saved | Break-even monthly volume, per location |
|---|---|---|
| Free to Plus, in person | 0.1% | $49,000 in person |
| Free to Plus, online | 0.4% | $12,250 online |
| Free to Premium, in person | 0.2% | $74,500 in person |
Plus and Premium also include software features, so the rate is not the only reason businesses upgrade. But if the lower rate is the reason, run the numbers first. At interchange plus 5 basis points, there is no plan to buy.
A low rate is not the same as a low cost
The number in the green box assumes an account priced honestly: real interchange, network fees passed through at cost, and a 5 basis point markup. That is the benchmark, explained in full in our guide to interchange plus pricing. It is not what most merchants get, even when the rate they were quoted looks this good.
Processors can quote a low discount rate and win the money back elsewhere. They mark up the network fees that are supposed to pass through at cost. They add fees with official-sounding names that no card network charges. They raise fees a few months after the contract is signed, when nobody is watching the statement.
Card processing pricing is largely unregulated, and overbilling is common. Negotiating a lower rate does not stop any of it.
We explain how that works in How can I have the lowest discount rate and the worst deal? The only way to know whether an account is priced the way this calculator assumes is to check the statement line by line.
How the calculator works
- Square: your in-person, online and keyed sales, each at your plan’s published rate, plus the per-sale fee on every transaction (sales divided by average sale). Plan subscription fees are left out.
- Interchange plus 5 bps: your blended interchange, plus card network assessments, plus about 2 cents per transaction in network per-item fees, plus 0.05% of volume.
- Savings: the difference each month, times 12 for a year and times 60 for five years.
Take payments online as well as in person? The Stripe fee calculator runs the same comparison for Stripe, and Stripe vs Square compares the two sale by sale. For what card processing should cost a small business in general, see our guide to credit card processing fees for small business.
Common questions
How much does Square charge per transaction?
On the Free plan, Square charges 2.6% plus 15 cents in person, 3.3% plus 30 cents online, and 3.5% plus 15 cents for keyed-in or card-on-file payments. Plus lowers the in-person rate to 2.5% and the online rate to 2.9% plus 30 cents. Premium lowers the in-person rate to 2.4%.
How do I calculate Square fees?
Multiply the sale by your rate and add the per-sale fee. A $100 in-person sale on Square Free costs $2.60 plus $0.15, or $2.75. The same $100 taken online on Square Free costs $3.30 plus $0.30, or $3.60.
Is Square Plus worth it for the lower rate?
Only at higher volume. Plus costs $49 a month per location and saves 0.1% on in-person sales, so it pays for itself on the rate alone at about $49,000 a month in person. Online, where it saves 0.4%, the break-even is about $12,250 a month.
Is interchange plus cheaper than Square?
Priced at interchange plus 5 basis points with network fees passed through at cost, yes, at every volume. If an interchange-plus quote does not beat Square, the markup or the fees inside it are too high.
Why might my savings be smaller than the calculator shows?
Because many interchange-plus accounts are not priced honestly. Processors mark up network fees, add fees no card network charges, and raise prices after the contract is signed. A low quoted rate does not protect you from any of that.
Cite this page
How these figures were built. Square rates and plan prices are taken from Square’s published US pricing page as checked in September 2026. The default interchange rate reflects the blended interchange weAudit typically sees in client audits. Network assessment and per-item figures are estimates. Results are estimates, not quotes.
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