Stripe Fee Calculator with Billing, Tax and Reverse Mode

How Stripe's US pricing adds up

Each successful card payment pays a percentage of the amount and a fixed fee. Surcharges stack on the percentage: one for a card issued outside the US, one when Stripe has to convert the currency, and one for a card number typed in by hand. Billing, Stripe Tax and Managed Payments each add their own percentage or flat amount on top.

Stripe does not publish how it rounds, so the calculator adds every rate first and rounds the fee to the cent once per payment, half up.

Charging so you keep an exact amount

To keep an amount K after a fee of rate r plus a fixed fee f, charge (K + f) / (1 − r). Adding the percentage to K falls short, because Stripe takes its percentage of the whole charge, including the part you added to cover it.

The reverse mode starts from that formula and then tries the cents around it, so the charge it shows is the smallest one that leaves you at least K after the rounding above.

Billing, Tax and Managed Payments

• Billing prices subscriptions as a share of Billing volume, which leaves out one-off invoices, or as a monthly plan on a contract.
• Stripe Tax Basic calculates and collects tax where you are registered. The no-code version, through Checkout, Billing, Invoicing or Payment Links, takes a percentage; the API version charges per payment. Registering and filing stay with you, unless you move up to Tax Complete.
• Managed Payments makes Stripe the merchant of record. It collects and remits sales tax, VAT and GST, deals with disputes and answers buyers. Stripe tells you to drop automatic tax from a Managed Payments checkout, so it replaces Stripe Tax rather than adding to it. Billing is priced separately, so a Managed Payments subscription pays both.

Refunds and disputes

A refund sends the whole charge back to the buyer, and Stripe keeps the processing fee from the original payment. A dispute costs a fee when it arrives, and countering it yourself costs a second fee that comes back if you win. Put the refunds and disputes you expect into the monthly view to see them against your volume.

When a merchant of record costs less

Stripe's base rate is lower than any merchant of record's, but the tax work is then yours: registering where you owe tax, filing returns on each schedule and paying over what you collected. A merchant of record folds that work into a higher rate. Run your price through the merchant of record comparison to see both sides for your volume.