Online Card Processing Fee Statistics: September 2026
Cost per online card sale for a US business across six products at Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Square and Authorize.net, from published pricing checked on September 23, 2026.
Whenever the customer pays with a card, the business pays a card processing fee. Online, most small or mid-sized businesses in the US start from a provider's flat rate, as published: a percent of that sale and one fixed fee per transaction. What a sale costs comes from those two numbers, and on small orders the fixed fee matters most.
Providers publish rates across different pages, and each page covers its own products and its own extras. So a like-for-like comparison is slow by hand, and many of the comparisons online are no longer current.
On September 23, 2026 we recorded, for our Fintech Index Card Fee Check, the published US standard pricing on online card payments from official pricing pages: five providers and six products in all. We applied every rate on the same sales, and we logged the extra fees stated on each page.
Fee for one card sale online, domestic US card
| Place | Provider and product | Published rate | $20 sale | $100 sale | $500 sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BraintreeCards and third-party digital wallets, standard merchants | 2.89% + 29¢ | $0.87 4.35% | $14.74 2.95% | |
| 2= | Authorize.netAll-in-one option | 2.9% + 30¢ | $0.88 4.40% | $14.80 2.96% | |
| 2= | SquareOnline API payments, Square Free plan | 2.9% + 30¢ | $0.88 4.40% | $14.80 2.96% | |
| 2= | StripeStandard pricing, online card payments | 2.9% + 30¢ | $0.88 4.40% | $14.80 2.96% | |
| 5 | PayPalAdvanced Credit and Debit Card Payments | 2.89% + 49¢ | $1.07 5.35% | $14.94 2.99% | |
| 6 | SquareOnline store and invoices, Square Free plan | 3.3% + 30¢ | $0.96 4.80% | $16.80 3.36% |
Equal fees hold one rank.
Insights
- Fees on a $100 online sale run from $3.18 to $3.60 over the six products, and the gap is 42 cents.
- Braintree posts the lowest fee at each sale size the check includes: $0.87 for $20, $3.18 for $100 and $14.74 for $500.
- Exactly 2.9% + 30¢ is what three products charge: Stripe's standard pricing, Square's Online API and Authorize.net's all-in-one option.
- PayPal carries the highest fixed fee in the check, $0.49. PayPal charges $1.07 on a $20 sale, equal to 5.35% of the sale, versus $0.87 at Braintree.
- Under the Square Free plan, taking a card payment in the online store or by invoice costs 40 cents more on each $100 than that same payment via Square's payments API.
Monthly bill on 100 sales at $100, with stated monthly fees included
| Provider and product | Fee / month | Total for 100 sales at $100 | Share of sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| BraintreeCards and third-party digital wallets, standard merchants | No figure | 3.18% | |
| SquareOnline API payments, Square Free plan | $0.00 | 3.20% | |
| StripeStandard pricing, online card payments | $0.00 | 3.20% | |
| PayPalAdvanced Credit and Debit Card Payments | $0.00 | 3.38% | |
| Authorize.netAll-in-one option | $25.00 | 3.45% | |
| SquareOnline store and invoices, Square Free plan | $0.00 | 3.60% |
Insights
- In a month of 100 sales at $100, bills span $318 for Braintree and $360 for the online store on the Square Free plan.
- The $25 monthly gateway fee at Authorize.net lifts that bill to $345, $25 above Stripe and above Square's API, which share the same per-sale rate.
- No monthly fee is stated on Braintree's pricing page, so the figure is transaction fees alone.
Further fees stated by the pricing pages
| Provider and product | Card from outside the US | Converting currency | Dispute cost | Extra fees stated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BraintreeCards and third-party digital wallets, standard merchants | +1% $4.18 per $100 sale | +1% | $15.00 | No figure |
| Authorize.netAll-in-one option | No figure | No figure | No figure | No figure |
| SquareOnline API payments, Square Free plan | No figure | No figure | No figure | No figure |
| StripeStandard pricing, online card payments | +1.5% $4.70 per $100 sale | +1% | $15.00 | Cards entered manually: +0.5% |
| PayPalAdvanced Credit and Debit Card Payments | No figure | No figure | $20.00 | No figure |
| SquareOnline store and invoices, Square Free plan | No figure | No figure | No figure | Same payments under Square Plus ($49 monthly per location): 2.9% + 30¢ |
No figure means the pricing page states no number for this fee on the product.
Insights
- Beside these rates, a surcharge is stated by Stripe and by Braintree for cards from outside the US: 1.5% and 1%. A $100 sale on that card is $4.70 at Stripe, $4.18 at Braintree.
- Dispute fees run $15 at Stripe and at Braintree, with PayPal at $20. Neither Square nor Authorize.net states one on the pages we checked.
- Stripe adds 0.5% on cards entered manually and 1% if currency conversion is required. Braintree adds 1% on payments whose currency is other than USD.
Methodology
Sources
We opened the official US pricing page of each provider on September 23, 2026 and noted the online card rate on standard pricing, the monthly fee and the extra fees given for that same product. Stripe sends visitors based outside the US onto a regional page, and the figures are its US pricing page, held by the Internet Archive in a capture dated September 21, 2026.
Products
If a provider sells more than one product, we selected whichever sits closest to card payments taken online by a business: the PayPal product Advanced Credit and Debit Card Payments; Braintree's standard rate covering cards and digital wallets; Square's Online API, and the rate on Square Free for the online store and for invoices; and Authorize.net's all-in-one option.
Calculation
A sale fee equals the percentage times the amount, plus the fixed fee, with rounding to the cent. The monthly bill sums 100 sales at $100, plus a monthly fee when the page states one. The international example adds the surcharge stated for cards from outside the US and does no currency conversion.
What is left out
Negotiated pricing, volume pricing and interchange-plus pricing, a path many larger businesses tend toward; in-person rates; taxes, refunds and payouts; optional add-ons like fraud tools; and unstated fees from the pricing pages. Providers pricing cards on interchange-plus terms, Adyen among them, stay out of the comparison, since the cost depends on the interchange fee of each card.
Limits
The figures are list prices. Larger volumes let businesses negotiate lower rates often, and conditions attach to some offers: eligibility applies to Authorize.net's all-in-one rate.
Sources
- Braintree, Cards and third-party digital wallets, standard merchants: https://www.paypal.com/us/enterprise/paypal-braintree-fees (As of September 23, 2026)
- Authorize.net, All-in-one option: https://www.authorize.net/sign-up/pricing.html (As of September 23, 2026)
- Square, Online API payments, Square Free plan: https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees (As of September 23, 2026)
- Stripe, Standard pricing, online card payments: https://stripe.com/pricing (As of September 21, 2026, Archived copy)
- PayPal, Advanced Credit and Debit Card Payments: https://www.paypal.com/us/business/paypal-business-fees (As of September 23, 2026)
- Square, Online store and invoices, Square Free plan: https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees (As of September 23, 2026)