Stripe Fee Calculator: What Stripe Costs You vs Interchange Plus
Enter your monthly card volume and average sale. The calculator shows what you pay Stripe at 2.9% plus 30 cents, what the same volume costs on interchange plus 5 basis points, and the difference over one year and five.
Adjust the assumptions
Over five years: $44,400.
Stripe side: Stripe’s published US online rate of 2.9% plus 30 cents, plus 0.5% on keyed cards and 1.5% on international cards. 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. Your actual interchange depends on your card mix.
Stripe charges the same 2.9% plus 30 cents 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 Stripe at every volume.
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 your account is priced the way this calculator assumes is to check the statement line by line.
Why your IT team wants Stripe, and what it costs you
Programmers and IT departments often push for Stripe. It is easy to connect, the documentation is excellent, and one integration does everything. That ease is exactly how Stripe grew so fast.
But easy is not the same as affordable. Choosing a processor because it is easy to connect 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 integration work happens once. The price difference in the calculator above is paid every month, on every sale, for as long as you stay.
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, not lock in a higher one so the IT team has less to do.
How the calculator works
- Stripe: 2.9% of your volume, plus 30 cents for every transaction (volume divided by average sale), plus 0.5% on the keyed share and 1.5% on the international share.
- 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.
The smaller your average sale, the bigger the gap. Stripe’s 30 cents is 1.2% of a $25 sale, on top of the 2.9%.
For the full list of what Stripe charges, including disputes, invoicing, billing and instant payouts, see our page on Stripe fees.
Take most of your payments in person on Square? The Square fee calculator runs the same comparison for Square, and Stripe vs Square puts the two side by side.
Common questions
How do I calculate Stripe fees?
Multiply the payment by 2.9% and add 30 cents. On a $100 payment that is $2.90 plus $0.30, or $3.20. Add 0.5% if the card was keyed in by hand and 1.5% if it was issued outside the US.
What is interchange plus 5 basis points?
It is a pricing structure where you pay the card networks’ actual interchange and assessment fees at cost, plus a markup of 0.05%. Because the cost is passed through card by card, a debit card costs you less than a rewards card, which a flat rate never allows.
Is interchange plus always cheaper than Stripe?
Priced at interchange plus 5 basis points with network fees passed through at cost, yes. If an interchange-plus quote does not beat Stripe, the markup or the fees inside it are too high.
What interchange rate does the calculator use?
It starts at 2.25%, which is typical of the blended interchange we see in audits. Your own rate depends on how many of your customers pay with debit, rewards, business and international cards. You can change it under “Adjust the assumptions.”
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. Stripe rates are taken from Stripe’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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