Stripe pricing, price hikes and cheaper alternatives
Stripe (stripe.com) is a payment provider. Pay-as-you-go per successful transaction (2.9% + 30¢ for US domestic cards), with no monthly fee; Billing, Invoicing and other products add percentage fees.. No free plan.
What Stripe costs
- $10k/mo sales: $350/mo (200 x ($50 x 2.9% + $0.30) = 200 x $1.75 = $350; no monthly fee, Checkout/Payment Links included)
- $10k/mo, 50% intl: $425/mo (100 US x $1.75 + 100 intl x ($50 x 4.4% + $0.30 = $2.50) = $175 + $250 = $425 (international cards +1.5%))
- $1k/mo sales: $41/mo (40 x ($25 x 2.9% + $0.30) = 40 x $1.025 = $41)
Plan compared: Standard pricing (pay as you go). Total fees in USD per month at standard published rates for one-off online card payments at each sales level: percentage and fixed per-payment fees plus any monthly or gateway fee. Merchant-of-record prices include sales tax and VAT handling, while processor prices cover payment processing only, without tax, billing or fraud add-ons.
Stripe price hikes
- Stripe raised US Instant Payouts fees from 1% to 1.5% · Jun 1, 2024
Instant Payouts for US businesses went from 1% to 1.5% of payout volume; standard payouts stay free. - Stripe raised its US international card surcharge from 1% to 1.5% · Jun 2023
The extra fee on cards issued outside the US rose from 1% to 1.5%, so an international card payment costs 4.4% + 30¢ instead of 3.9% + 30¢; at $10k/mo with half international sales, fees rise from $400 to $425. - Stripe raised fees on manually keyed card payments to 3.4% + 30¢ · Nov 2022
US (and Canadian) standard-pricing businesses pay an extra 0.5% on cards entered manually in the Dashboard, taking the US rate from 2.9% + 30¢ to 3.4% + 30¢.
Cheaper alternatives to Stripe
At $10,000 a month in card sales, Stripe costs $350/mo. 1 payment provider costs less:
- PayPal: $347/mo (Advanced Credit and Debit Card Payments (2.89% + $0.29))
Stripe alternatives: 4 payment providers compared, at every size.
Every change we logged
- Jun 1, 2024 · Price increase: Instant Payouts for US businesses went from 1% to 1.5% of payout volume; standard payouts stay free.
- Jun 2023 · Price increase: The extra fee on cards issued outside the US rose from 1% to 1.5%, so an international card payment costs 4.4% + 30¢ instead of 3.9% + 30¢; at $10k/mo with half international sales, fees rise from $400 to $425.
- Nov 2022 · Price increase: US (and Canadian) standard-pricing businesses pay an extra 0.5% on cards entered manually in the Dashboard, taking the US rate from 2.9% + 30¢ to 3.4% + 30¢.
Sources
Pricing page: stripe.com/pricing. Prices last checked Oct 16, 2026. Rates from Stripe's US pricing page; changes from Stripe support notes and third-party reports (the June 2023 international-fee rise is from a third-party blog, not a Stripe announcement). None of the changes affect the headline domestic-card scenario.