Stripe fees vs Shopify Payments and PayPal, for brands doing $10M+

The headline is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card payment. International cards add 1.5%, and another 1% applies when the payment needs currency conversion. Manually entered cards add 0.5%.

The fees that sit on top are where the total creeps up:

• Dispute received: $15 per dispute, plus $15 to counter one manually (refunded if you win)
• Stripe Billing: 0.7% of billing volume on pay as you go
• Radar fraud screening: From $0.05 per screened transaction

Stripe also lists interchange-plus and custom pricing for businesses with large payment volume. You have to ask for it.

Shopify ties the card rate to your plan, from 2.9% + 30¢ on Basic down to 2.25% + 30¢ on Plus. If your store uses a third-party payment provider instead of Shopify Payments, Shopify adds its own fee on every order on top of what that provider charges:

• Basic: 2%
• Grow: 1%
• Advanced: 0.6%
• Plus: 0.2%

At $10M+ the plan fee is small next to the rate. On the published rates, the gap between Advanced and Plus is a quarter of a point, which is $125K a year at $50M.

PayPal Checkout and Pay with Venmo cost 3.49% + 49¢. Card payments through PayPal run 2.99% + 49¢ on the standard product and 2.89% + 29¢ on the advanced one. Pay Later is 4.99% + 49¢. International transactions add 1.5%, and a chargeback costs $20.

PayPal is usually the most expensive way a customer can pay you. It's also the button some customers won't check out without, so the number worth tracking is the share of your volume that goes through it.

A flat rate like 2.9% + 30¢ bundles three costs into one number. Interchange goes to the bank that issued the card, and it varies by card type: regulated debit cards cost far less than premium rewards credit cards. The card networks take a smaller assessment fee. The processor keeps what's left.

Interchange-plus (IC+) pricing passes interchange and network fees through at cost and adds a fixed markup on top, so you can see exactly what the processor earns. Stripe offers it for large volume, and PayPal lists an interchange-plus-plus option at interchange + 0.49% + 39¢ on its advanced card product.

Whether IC+ saves you money depends on your card mix. Lots of debit cards and you'll usually come out ahead. Mostly premium rewards cards and the saving shrinks. The only way to know is to price your own last few months of transactions both ways, which any processor quoting IC+ should do for you.

Most brands are still on the rate they signed up with at a tenth of their current volume. The same checkout also loses money to declined orders, failed subscription renewals, and chargebacks. The Payments Leak Calculator adds all four up.

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