Stripe Fees for Software Sellers, Actually Calculated

Stripe fees for a US online card charge are 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction. On a $49 plugin license, that’s $1.72 in fees — you keep $47.28. That’s the whole headline rate. No monthly fee, no setup fee, no minimum.

The headline isn’t the whole story, though. International cards add roughly 1.5%, currency conversion adds roughly 1%, and when you refund a sale, Stripe keeps the original processing fee. If you’re pricing a plugin, theme, or digital download, those details change the math more than the 2.9% does.

I’ve sold WordPress products through Stripe for years. Here’s the math I actually run, at real price points.

The base rate, worked

The base Stripe fee is 2.9% of the charge plus a fixed 30¢, taken from every successful US online card payment. The percentage scales with your price; the 30¢ doesn’t. That fixed part is why cheap products pay a visibly worse rate than expensive ones — the 30¢ is 1.6% of a $19 sale but only 0.1% of a $249 sale.

The $1.72 on a $49 sale splits into a $1.42 percentage cut and the 30¢ flat fee.

Here’s the table at four common software price points:

Read the last column bottom to top. The effective rate climbs as the price falls, and it climbs fast below $20. A $9 add-on pays 6.2%. A $5 one pays 8.9%. If your catalog leans on small line items, Stripe’s fixed fee is quietly your biggest cost.

Your price probably isn’t in my table. Run your own price through the fee calculator and look at the effective rate, not the dollar figure.

What adds to 2.9% + 30¢

Three things stack on top of the base Stripe fees: international cards, currency conversion, and disputes. For a software seller, the first two matter most, because software buyers come from everywhere.

International cards add roughly 1.5%. A customer paying with a card issued outside the US pushes the rate to around 4.4% + 30¢. You can’t control this, and for a WordPress product, a third to half of your buyers may trigger it.

Currency conversion adds roughly 1% more. If the customer pays in euros and you settle in dollars, Stripe converts and charges for the conversion. Charging everyone in USD avoids it but costs you conversions at checkout — a trade, not a free win.

Disputes cost a flat fee, around $15, win or lose. A chargeback on a $19 sale can cost more than the sale did. Clear product names on the card statement and a fast refund policy prevent most of them.

These figures are approximate and vary by country. Before you build a pricing model on them, check the current numbers for your account country on Stripe’s pricing page — it’s the canonical source and the rates do differ by region.

The refund gotcha

When you refund a charge, Stripe returns the customer’s money but keeps the original processing fee. Refund that $49 sale and you’re out the full $49 plus the $1.72 you already paid. A refund doesn’t cost you nothing — it costs you about 3.5%.

Plan your refund policy knowing this. A 30-day money-back guarantee is still worth offering — it lifts conversions more than refunds cost, in my experience — but a 10% refund rate means roughly 0.35% of gross revenue evaporates in kept fees alone. Price it in.

It also means refund-heavy tactics, like “buy it and refund if the coupon didn’t apply,” bleed you twice. Fix the coupon instead.

How Stripe fees compare to merchant-of-record platforms

Stripe direct is the cheapest per-transaction option, and the comparison against merchant-of-record platforms isn’t really about fees — it’s about who handles global sales tax. Freemius, Lemon Squeezy, and Gumroad charge multiples of Stripe’s rate, and in exchange they become the legal seller and remit VAT and sales tax worldwide so you never think about it.

That last column is the honest one. If you sell into the EU, VAT obligations kick in from the first sale, and a merchant of record makes that someone else’s problem. That’s genuinely worth paying for at low volume. I wrote more about that trade-off in the Freemius alternative piece — Freemius’s 7% buys real work, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.

Going Stripe direct means tax compliance lands on you. Stripe Tax can calculate and file for an added fee, or an accountant handles it, or you’re small enough to register only where thresholds require. Selling with Core Forms works this way: the Stripe integration takes the payment at Stripe’s direct rate, and the licensing server issues keys, serves downloads, and runs renewals after Stripe’s verified paid webhook fires. Core Forms is not a merchant of record — the tax question stays yours.

The break-even is simple. On $2,000/month in sales, Gumroad’s 10% costs you about $130/month more than Stripe direct. If your tax compliance costs less than that, direct wins.

Keeping more of it

The single biggest lever is charging annually instead of monthly, because the 30¢ fixed fee hits every charge. A $9/month subscription pays Stripe twelve times a year: about $6.73, a 6.2% effective rate. The same customer on a $90/year plan pays one fee of $2.91 — 3.2%. Same customer, same product, half the fee rate.

The same logic favors fewer, bigger transactions everywhere. Bundle three $19 add-ons into a $49 pack and you pay one 30¢ fee instead of three. Nudge upgrades toward the annual tier. None of this is gaming Stripe — it’s just not volunteering to pay the fixed fee more often than you have to.

What I wouldn’t do: raise prices purely to dilute the fee. A 3.5% cost on a $49 product is a rounding error next to what pricing itself does to revenue. Get the price right for the market first, then arrange billing so Stripe takes its cut as few times as possible.

FAQ

How much does Stripe charge per transaction?

Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ per successful US online card transaction. International cards add roughly 1.5%, and currency conversion adds roughly 1% more. There’s no monthly or setup fee — you pay only when a charge succeeds. Rates vary by country, so check Stripe’s pricing page for yours.

Does Stripe refund its fees when I refund a customer?

No. Stripe returns the customer’s full payment but keeps the original processing fee. A refunded $49 sale costs you the $49 plus the $1.72 fee you already paid. Factor this into your refund policy — a generous guarantee is still worth it, but it isn’t free.

Is Stripe cheaper than Gumroad or Lemon Squeezy?

Per transaction, yes — 2.9% + 30¢ versus Gumroad’s 10% flat or Lemon Squeezy’s 5% + 50¢. But those platforms are merchants of record: they calculate and remit global sales tax for you. Stripe direct leaves tax compliance to you or to Stripe Tax at added cost.

Why do Stripe fees hurt more on cheap products?

The 30¢ fixed fee is the same on every charge, so it’s a bigger slice of a small price. A $19 sale pays an effective 4.48%; a $249 sale pays 3.02%. Annual billing and bundling reduce how often you pay that fixed fee.