What Credit Card Processing Fees Cost a Business
Every card sale takes a cut. Here are the fee types on a processing bill and what each processor's own pricing page says it charges.
A customer taps, swipes or types a card number, money moves, and a slice of it stays behind. That slice is what credit card processing fees for businesses come down to. Before you can judge any price list, you need to know which fees exist and why each one appears. This page lays out the fee types and reports what each processor's own pricing page says, side by side, with no winner declared. Your own sales mix picks the winner, not a chart.
Two parts to almost every card fee
Most card pricing is a percentage plus a fixed amount. The percentage scales with the sale, so a big ticket pays more. The fixed amount is the same on a $4 coffee and a $400 order, so it weighs heaviest on small tickets. Authorize.net's pricing page says the percentage fee depends on the card type used. Its page also says a fixed fee is added to every authorization, no matter the amount. So on Authorize.net's pricing, two cards of different types can carry different percentages on the same sale.
The fee types on a processing bill
Authorize.net's page lists the fee types a merchant account can carry. Beyond those two, there are monthly service or gateway fees. Its pricing page says these cover gateway access and account upkeep. There are batch or settlement fees, charged when a day's approved sales are sent to the bank together. There are cross-border surcharges. Its pricing page says these apply when the card was issued outside your home country. There are PCI compliance fees, which its pricing page says depend on the provider's security program. Authorize.net's page says these fee types together shape the total cost of payment acceptance and influence which pricing model fits a business. A rate quoted as a single number rarely tells the whole story.
What each processor's pricing page states
These numbers come straight from each company's own page, and each applies only to that company.
Stripe's pricing page says its standard online rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards. In-person card payments cost 2.7% + 5¢. Its page also says the standard plan has no setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees. Standard pricing is pay-as-you-go.
Square's pricing page says in-person card payments run from 2.6% + 15¢ to 2.4% + 15¢, depending on the plan. Online and invoice card payments run from 3.3% + 30¢ to 2.9% + 30¢. Its page says the monthly fee per location is $0, $49 or $149, and that with Square Free there are no monthly subscription costs.
PayPal's fee page says standard credit and debit card payments cost 2.99% plus a fixed fee. That fixed fee is 0.49 USD for US dollar transactions. Its page says PayPal Point of Sale card present transactions cost 2.29% + 0.09 USD.
Shopify's pricing page says the Basic plan is $29 a month with card rates starting at 2.9% + 30¢ USD. The Grow plan is $89 a month, starting at 2.7% + 30¢ USD. The Advanced plan is $359 a month, starting at 2.5% + 30¢ USD. Its page says there are no setup fees on any of its plans.
Authorize.net's page says the All-in-One plan is $25 per month plus 2.9% plus 30 cents per transaction. The Gateway Only plan is $25 per month plus 10 cents per transaction and a 10 cent daily batch fee.
So no, processors do not all charge the same rates, and their plans are not built alike. Some wrap everything into one rate. Others split a low transaction fee from a monthly fee. More detail on each company sits on our pages for Stripe's fees, Square's rates, PayPal's account fees, Shopify's card processing and Authorize.net's processing fees.
Why the same sale costs different amounts
How the card reaches you changes the fee. On Stripe's, Square's, PayPal's and Shopify's pages, a card taken in person carries a lower rate than one typed in by hand. Stripe's pricing page says manually entered cards add 0.5% to the online card rate. Square's pricing page says manual entry or card on file payments cost 3.5% + 15¢. PayPal's fee page says PayPal Point of Sale manual card entry transactions cost 3.49% + 0.09 USD. Shopify's pricing page lists in-person card rates of 2.6% + 10¢ and in-person manual rates of 3.5% + 10¢.
Where the card was issued matters too. Stripe's pricing page says international cards add 1.5% and currency conversion adds 1%. PayPal's fee page says international commercial transactions add a 1.50% fee. Square's pricing page says an additional fee applies to payments made on credit or debit cards issued outside of the United States. If your customers are local, these lines may never touch you. If you sell online to buyers abroad, they may be the lines that matter most.
Cheaper rails: debit, ACH and eCheck
Cards are not the only way to move money, and Authorize.net's page says some other rails cost less. Authorize.net's page says debit interchange fees are lower than credit card fees, which cuts merchant costs. Its page also says debit and ACH rails carry lower fees. Its page says ACH payments, also called eChecks, carry low percentage fees. The money moves straight from bank account to bank account.
The processors' own pages bear this out. Stripe's pricing page says ACH Direct Debit costs 0.8% with a $5.00 cap. PayPal's fee page says its domestic ACH Services rate is 0.80%, capped at $5.00 per transaction. Square's pricing page says ACH bank transfers on invoices cost 1% with a $1 minimum. Authorize.net's page says eCheck processing is an add-on at 0.75% per transaction. Its page says ACH eCheck payments are typically the most economical option for online transactions, especially for B2B invoices or high-ticket payments. On a large invoice, offering a bank-transfer option can save real money. Authorize.net's page also notes that cash skips the processor. Merchants pay zero processing fees on cash.
Monthly fees versus pay-as-you-go
Some plans charge nothing until you take a payment. Others charge every month and cut the rate in return. Square's pricing page says processing fees vary based on the Square plan you choose, and the monthly fee per location is $0, $49 or $149. Shopify's pricing page lists plans from $29 to $359 a month when paid yearly, and its starting card rate falls as the plan rises. Stripe's pricing page says standard pricing is pay-as-you-go with no monthly fees. Authorize.net's page charges $25 a month on both of its plans.
The trade-off comes down to simple math. A busy shop may pay a monthly fee and come out ahead on the lower rate. A slow month or a new venture may do better paying nothing fixed and a slightly higher rate per sale. Run both structures against your real monthly sales before you pick. If fixed monthly costs worry you, our page on processing with no monthly fees goes deeper. For the underlying account costs, see our pages on the merchant account fee and merchant account charges.
How to estimate what your business will pay
Pull last month's numbers and sort your sales into piles: tapped in person, keyed in by hand, taken online, and paid by invoice. Give each pile its rate from the pricing pages above, plus the fixed fee. Add any monthly fee your plan carries. Add the batch fee if your provider charges one. Authorize.net's page says the batch fee is $0.10 per settled credit card transaction batch. Add the surcharges on any foreign cards you accepted.
Then stress-test it. Price your smallest common sale, where the fixed fee bites hardest. Price your largest invoice, where the percentage dominates. Price a month where sales drop by half, and see what the monthly fee does to you then. Two businesses with the same revenue can pay very different totals. One takes cards at a counter. The other keys in phone orders all day.
One caution as you work: prices move, and a rate you read today may change by the time you sign. Check each processor's own pricing page on the day you decide. Our pages on Stripe's charge fees and Square's POS fees list the rest of the fees.