Stripe Fees Explained: Every Rate, Surcharge, and Hidden Cost (2026)

Published August 2, 2026

Stripe’s headline rate is simple: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful online card payment in the US. The real number on your statement is almost always higher, because surcharges stack on top of that base rate depending on the card, the currency, and how the payment was made.

Here is every fee that matters, verified against Stripe’s official US pricing page.

The core card rate

The surcharges are additive. A payment from a European customer paying in euros that Stripe settles to you in dollars costs 2.9% + 1.5% + 1% = 5.4% + 30¢. On a $100 charge that is $5.70 — nearly double the headline rate.

Amex has no special pricing on Stripe in the US: it is the same 2.9% + 30¢ as every other major brand. That is unusual among processors and genuinely useful if your customer base skews toward Amex-heavy corporate cards.

Cheaper payment methods

• ACH Direct Debit: 0.8%, capped at $5.00. Above $625 the cap kicks in and the fee stops growing. On a $5,000 invoice, ACH costs $5 versus $145.30 on a card — a 96% saving. If you invoice B2B, pushing customers toward ACH is the single biggest fee lever you have.
• Link Instant Bank Payments: 2.6% + 30¢ — cheaper than cards, more expensive than raw ACH, but with an instant checkout experience.

Fees people forget to budget for

• Disputes: $15 per dispute received, and another $15 if you counter it manually. The fee applies even to disputes you win in some flows, so prevention beats response.
• Currency conversion: 1% whenever Stripe converts a charge into your payout currency.
• Refunds: the original processing fee is not returned. Refund a $100 sale and you are out the $3.20 you already paid Stripe.
• Payouts to US bank accounts are free on the standard schedule; instant payouts cost extra.

What’s your effective rate?

The only number that matters is total Stripe fees ÷ total volume. Most stores discover their effective rate is 3.2–4% once international cards, disputes, and refunds are counted — not 2.9%.

Run your own numbers with our Stripe fee calculator — it handles international and conversion surcharges, ACH, and the reverse “what should I charge to receive $X” calculation.

How to actually pay less

1. Move B2B volume to ACH. The $5 cap makes it nearly free at invoice sizes.
2. Charge in your settlement currency where you can, to avoid the 1% conversion fee.
3. Fight fewer, better disputes. At $15 each, countering hopeless chargebacks costs more than it recovers.
4. Negotiate at volume. Stripe offers custom pricing for large businesses — typically meaningful north of $1M/year in card volume. You will not get interchange-plus pricing, but the blended rate drops.
5. Route around the flat rate entirely. Flat-rate pricing means cheap debit cards subsidize expensive rewards cards. Merchants at scale route payments across multiple processors and their own merchant accounts (interchange-plus pricing) and commonly land 50–100 basis points below Stripe’s blended rate. See our guide to payment orchestration for how that works.

Stripe fees at a glance vs competitors

Rates verified against each provider’s official US pricing page on August 2, 2026. If you’re weighing a switch, read our breakdown of Stripe alternatives.