How Much Are Stripe Fees? A Plain-English Breakdown

Short answer: standard Stripe fees in the US are 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful card charge, and a little more for some cards and situations. Here is exactly what you pay, where the extra costs hide, and how to keep more of every dollar you earn.

What are the standard Stripe fees?

For online card payments in the US, Stripe fees are 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful transaction. So on a $100 charge you keep about $96.80, and Stripe takes roughly $3.20. There are no monthly fees or setup costs on the standard plan; you only pay when you get paid. In-person card payments through Stripe Terminal are cheaper, around 2.7% plus 5 cents, because card-present transactions carry less risk.

The extra Stripe fees people forget

The headline rate is not the whole story. International cards add about 1.5%, and currency conversion adds roughly another 1%. Instant payouts cost a percentage to move money faster. Chargebacks carry a $15 dispute fee that you lose even if you win the dispute. And subscriptions billed through Stripe Billing can add a small percentage on top. None of these are hidden exactly, but they add up, so it pays to know they exist.

How to reduce what you pay in Stripe fees

You cannot negotiate the standard rate until you are processing serious volume, but you can trim the edges. Encourage local-currency payments to avoid conversion costs, take card-present payments where you can, and keep chargebacks low, because each one costs you $15 plus the sale. That last point is the big one, and it is more within your control than most owners realise.

Reviews increasingly shape which businesses buyers and search engines trust. For context, see Google’s guidelines on reviews.

Why a Review Request After Payment Protects Your Cash Flow

Here is the connection most owners miss. The single most expensive Stripe fee is the chargeback, $15 gone plus the sale reversed, and chargebacks usually happen when a customer is unhappy or confused and disputes the charge with their bank instead of contacting you. Catch that unhappiness early and you avoid the dispute entirely.

A review request sent right after a Stripe payment does exactly that. It gives the customer a friendly place to speak up while they are still your customer, not their bank’s. A happy one leaves you a 5-star review; an unhappy one tells you privately, so you can fix it before it becomes a costly dispute. It is a quiet, automatic early-warning system for your cash flow.

Trophy Jar sends that request automatically the moment a Stripe payment clears, and alerts you the moment a reply needs your attention. You collect more reviews and prevent more chargebacks, from $9/month.

Frequently Asked Questions

Keep going: see automated review collection, Stripe review automation.