Where do the rates in the pricing buttons come from?

On public pricing pages from banks and payment services, the verification date and source link appear below the chips after you make a selection. This is an “starting at” rate: it applies to good transaction volumes and standard cards, while your contract will almost certainly specify a different rate. That’s why the inserted values remain editable—adjust them to match your contract, and the calculation will update.

Why is the markup to cover the fee higher than the fee itself?

Because the percentage is charged on the new price, which has already increased. Add three percent to 10,000 and you get 10,300, but the fee on that amount is 309, leaving 9,991 in your account. The correct approach is to divide by 0.97, so exactly 10,000 remains after the fee is deducted. That is how the “buyer pays the fee” mode works.

What is the break-even point, and why does it matter?

This is the transaction amount at which two pricing plans cost the same. A plan with a fixed fee loses on small payments and wins on large ones, so choosing “2.9% plus 30 cents” over “4.99% plus 9 cents” depends on your average transaction amount, not on which percentage looks better. It takes one division: divide the difference between the fixed fees by the difference between the rates.

Why is the actual effective rate higher than the rate in the contract?

Because the contract lists only the percentage fee per transaction. You may also pay a surcharge for cards from another country, currency conversion fees, chargeback penalties, a monthly fee, a payout fee, and fees on refunded payments that are not returned. The calculator combines all of this into the “total monthly payment processing cost” line and divides it by your transaction volume.

Is the fee refunded when a payment is refunded?

Usually, it is not. The buyer gets the full amount, while the payment processing fee stays with the bank or service. Sometimes there is also a separate fee for processing the refund itself. In the calculation, this appears as “of which lost to refunds”: it is not added to expenses separately because it is already included in the monthly fee, but it is shown separately so you can see what you paid for nothing.

Can I compare a Russian plan with a foreign plan in one table?

The rates are, but the fixed fees are not: $0.30 and ₽0.30 are different amounts. If the comparison includes plans in different currencies, a warning appears above the table: the calculator does not apply exchange rates and never will, because they change every day and the calculation must remain verifiable.

Does any data leave the page?

No. The entire calculation runs in your browser: after the page loads, it makes no requests at all—you can verify this in the “Network” tab of your developer tools. Only the numbers you enter are placed in the address bar, so you can share the calculation by link.

Payment system fee calculator

/en/calc/payment-fees/ works Calculated in your browser

Select a bank or payment service rate with a button—the percentage and fixed component will be filled in automatically, and you can adjust them to match your agreement. The calculator shows how much reaches your account, what price to set so you receive the full amount, and the total monthly cost of accepting payments, including refunds, chargebacks, subscription fees, and withdrawal fees. Below, you can compare four rates side by side and find the break-even point: the transaction amount below which one is cheaper and above which the other is. Calculations run in your browser, and no data is sent anywhere. Your field values are stored in the address bar so you can share the calculation by link.

Payment calculation

There is no “calculate” button: edit the numbers on the left, and the result on the right recalculates as you type.

How it's calculated

Preset tariff — the rate and fixed fee will be inserted into the fields, and you can edit them however you like Russia, online acquiring

International services

Payment amount What the customer pays for one purchase. The amount must be greater than zero.

Such payments per month The first row in the stream. Add other transactions below in the collapsed section. The number of payments must be greater than zero.

Typical transactions — see how the fixed fee eats into a small payment

Fee The rate from the contract. The tariffs available through the button above use the public “from” rate; the contract rate is usually higher. The rate must be between 0 and 100.

Fixed fee The per-transaction fee in addition to the percentage. Russian banks usually have none; Stripe and PayPal do. The fixed fee must be zero or higher.

The fee is paid by Seller Customer The seller pays — the fee is deducted from the payment. The customer pays — the price increases so that your amount remains after the fee is deducted; all monthly rows are recalculated as well.

Different transactions: add rows to the monthly stream Collapse transaction rows

A stream rarely consists of identical payments, and “one transaction × quantity” becomes more misleading as the amounts vary: the fixed fee has a very different impact on small and large payments. Fill in the rows you have; empty rows are not counted.

Transaction 2

Such payments

Transaction 3

Such payments

Transaction 4

Such payments

Transaction 5

Such payments

Surcharges and fixed costs: cards from other countries, refunds, chargebacks, subscription fees, payouts Collapse surcharges and fixed costs

While these values are zero, this section has no effect. Fill in what you know: “total payment processing cost per month” and “actual effective rate” are calculated from these values, and they are usually noticeably worse than the contract rate.

Surcharge for a card issued in another country How much is added to the rate when the card was issued in a different country than the one where the store is registered. For Stripe, it’s 1.5%.

Share of these payments The surcharge doesn’t apply to the entire payment volume. If you don’t know the share, leave 100 for a conservative estimate.

Currency conversion surcharge Applied when a payment arrives in one currency but is deposited in another. For Stripe, that’s an additional 1%.

Share of payments with currency conversion The same applies here: if only part of the payment volume is converted, enter its share.

Refund rate How many out of every 100 payments are refunded to the customer. The payment itself is returned, but the fee is almost never refunded, so it remains a net loss.

Chargebacks per month Disputed payments. They’re counted individually, and each one has its own dispute fee.

Cost per chargeback The dispute fee. For Stripe, it’s $15; for Russian banks, it’s usually ₽500–2,000.

Monthly subscription fee Account maintenance, terminal rental, a paid payment service plan—anything charged once a month regardless of payment volume.

Payout fee The percentage a payment service charges when transferring money to your account.

Fixed fee per payout The fee for the transfer itself. Payoneer and Wise charge one; Russian banks usually don’t.

Payouts per month The fixed payout fee is multiplied by this number. Daily deposits amount to approximately 30.

Margin The share of gross profit in the price. Fill this in to show how much of your profit is consumed by payment processing. If you don’t know yours, calculate it in the margin and markup calculator.

Printing shows only the result: fields and buttons are not included on paper.

Amount deposited

—₽

Payment fee —

Effective payment rate —

Set price so the full amount arrives —

Markup to the price for this —

Payments per month —

Monthly payment volume —

Monthly acquiring fee —

Lost to refunds —

Returned to customers —

Monthly chargebacks —

Monthly subscription fee —

Monthly withdrawal fee —

Total monthly payment processing cost —

Actual effective rate —

Remaining from monthly revenue —

Total annual cost —

Remaining from annual revenue —

The “eats into gross profit” line appears when the margin field in the markup section is filled in; if you don't know your margin, calculate it with the margin and markup calculator. Your browser does the math: neither amounts nor rates are sent anywhere. After the page loads, it makes no requests, as you can see in the “Network” tab of the developer tools. Only the numbers you entered are added to the address bar so you can share the calculation by link.

Four plans side by side

The same payment flow calculated under four plans. “Current plan” is the plan set in the fields above; the other three are taken from the list and calculated using your transactions, markups, and refunds. The “cheapest of all” line marks the winner by total monthly cost, and the last line shows how much more you pay for each of the others.

Plan 1

Plan 2

Plan 3

Plan 4

The same month under different plans
Metric

Break-even point for two plans

The “lower percentage, but with a fixed fee” and “higher percentage, but no fixed fee” options switch places at a certain transaction amount. Below this amount, the plan with the lower fixed fee is cheaper: on a small payment, the fixed fee weighs more than any percentage. Above it, the plan with the lower rate is cheaper. Choose two plans, and the calculator will calculate their break-even amount.

Plan A

Plan B

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Your transaction — break-even point —

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The formula is short: divide the difference between the fixed fees by the difference between the rates. If neither plan has a fixed fee, there is no break-even point—the plan with the lower rate is always cheaper.

How to use it

Select a plan with the button—the rate and fixed fee will be inserted, and the verification date and pricing-page link will appear below the chips. Then adjust the values to match your contract: the contract rate almost always differs from the public “starting at” rate.
The “who pays the fee” switch rebuilds the entire calculation. When the seller pays, the fee is deducted from the payment. When the buyer pays, the price increases so that your amount remains after the fee is deducted—both the monthly transaction volume and the final lines change.
If your transaction amounts vary, open the “Different transaction amounts” section and enter the individual rows. The “one transaction × number of transactions” calculation becomes less accurate as the spread grows: a fixed fee has a very different impact on a 100-ruble payment than on a 10,000-ruble payment.
In the surcharges section, enter refunds, chargebacks, the monthly fee, and the payout fee. The “actual effective rate” line answers the question “what does it cost us to accept payments?” It is usually noticeably higher than the rate in the contract.
The “Four plans side by side” section applies your own transaction flow to other plans and shows how much extra you pay. The “Break-even point” section shows the transaction amount up to which the plan with a fixed fee is cheaper, and from which point the plan with the lower percentage is cheaper.
You can share the completed calculation by link, download it as CSV, or print it. Only the result will appear on paper; the form fields will not be printed.

The formula and what it includes

Rate with all surcharges = Rate + Surcharge₁ × Share₁ + Surcharge₂ × Share₂ Fee = Amount × Rate ÷ 100 + Fixed fee Amount credited = Amount − Fee Buyer pays the fee: Price = (Amount + Fixed fee) ÷ (1 − Rate ÷ 100) Monthly cost = Fee + Chargebacks + Monthly fee + Payout Break-even point = (Fixed fee_A − Fixed fee_B) ÷ ((Rate_B − Rate_A) ÷ 100)

Amount — the price of one purchase. In “buyer pays” mode, this is the amount you want to receive, not the amount the buyer sees
Rate — the percentage withheld by the bank or payment service
Fixed fee — the fee charged per transaction, if there is one in addition to the percentage
Surcharge and share — a card from another country and currency conversion cost more than a standard payment. The surcharge does not apply to the entire transaction flow, so it has a share
Effective payment rate — the fee for one payment divided by its amount. With a fixed fee, it is higher than the contract rate, and the smaller the payment, the higher it is
Total cost — everything spent during the month to accept payments: fees on all payments, chargeback penalties, the monthly fee, and the payout fee
Actual effective rate — the total cost divided by transaction volume after refunds. This is the rate you actually pay
Break-even point — the transaction amount at which two plans cost the same. Below it, the plan with the lower fixed fee is cheaper; above it, the plan with the lower rate is cheaper

You cannot cover a fee by adding the same percentage: the percentage is charged on the new, higher amount. That is why the formula divides by (1 − rate) instead of multiplying by (1 + rate). At 3%, the difference is small; at 10%, it is noticeable. The fee on a refunded payment is not added as a separate line because it is already included in the monthly fee. It is shown separately because you received nothing for that money—the product was returned, the payment went back, and the bank kept the fee.

Example breakdown: 100 payments of ₽3,000 through YuKassa

The input data is the same as the default field values: you can calculate it mentally and confirm that the tool is telling the truth.

Payment amount: ₽3,000
Fee: 2.8%
No fixed fee
Payments per month: 100
Refunds: 3%
Monthly fee: ₽0

Fee per payment: 3,000 × 2.8% = ₽84. The amount credited is ₽2,916.
Monthly transaction volume: 3,000 × 100 = ₽300,000. Monthly fee: 84 × 100 = ₽8,400.
A 3% refund rate means three payments out of 100. Buyers receive ₽9,000 back, but the ₽252 fee on those payments is not refunded: it is a pure loss.
Total monthly payment processing cost: ₽8,400. Transaction volume after refunds: ₽291,000. Actual effective rate: 8,400 ÷ 291,000 = 2.89%—already higher than the 2.8% stated in the contract.
To have exactly ₽3,000 credited to your account, you need to charge 3,000 ÷ 0.972 = ₽3,086.42. That is 2.88% more, not 2.8%.
If the same transaction flow has a 25% margin, monthly gross profit is ₽72,750, and payment processing consumes 11.5% of it.

The rate in the contract and the actual cost of accepting payments are different numbers. Refunds, the monthly fee, and payouts add several tenths of a percentage point to the 2.8% rate. On small transactions with a fixed fee, the gap can be several times larger.

Frequently asked questions

Where do the rates in the pricing buttons come from?

On public pricing pages from banks and payment services, the verification date and source link appear below the chips after you make a selection. This is an “starting at” rate: it applies to good transaction volumes and standard cards, while your contract will almost certainly specify a different rate. That’s why the inserted values remain editable—adjust them to match your contract, and the calculation will update.
Why is the markup to cover the fee higher than the fee itself?

Because the percentage is charged on the new price, which has already increased. Add three percent to 10,000 and you get 10,300, but the fee on that amount is 309, leaving 9,991 in your account. The correct approach is to divide by 0.97, so exactly 10,000 remains after the fee is deducted. That is how the “buyer pays the fee” mode works.
What is the break-even point, and why does it matter?

This is the transaction amount at which two pricing plans cost the same. A plan with a fixed fee loses on small payments and wins on large ones, so choosing “2.9% plus 30 cents” over “4.99% plus 9 cents” depends on your average transaction amount, not on which percentage looks better. It takes one division: divide the difference between the fixed fees by the difference between the rates.
Why is the actual effective rate higher than the rate in the contract?

Because the contract lists only the percentage fee per transaction. You may also pay a surcharge for cards from another country, currency conversion fees, chargeback penalties, a monthly fee, a payout fee, and fees on refunded payments that are not returned. The calculator combines all of this into the “total monthly payment processing cost” line and divides it by your transaction volume.
Is the fee refunded when a payment is refunded?

Usually, it is not. The buyer gets the full amount, while the payment processing fee stays with the bank or service. Sometimes there is also a separate fee for processing the refund itself. In the calculation, this appears as “of which lost to refunds”: it is not added to expenses separately because it is already included in the monthly fee, but it is shown separately so you can see what you paid for nothing.
Can I compare a Russian plan with a foreign plan in one table?

The rates are, but the fixed fees are not: $0.30 and ₽0.30 are different amounts. If the comparison includes plans in different currencies, a warning appears above the table: the calculator does not apply exchange rates and never will, because they change every day and the calculation must remain verifiable.
Does any data leave the page?

No. The entire calculation runs in your browser: after the page loads, it makes no requests at all—you can verify this in the “Network” tab of your developer tools. Only the numbers you enter are placed in the address bar, so you can share the calculation by link.

Payment system fee calculator

Payment calculation

Four plans side by side

Break-even point for two plans

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How to use it

The formula and what it includes

Example breakdown: 100 payments of ₽3,000 through YuKassa

Frequently asked questions

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LTV and CAC

Margin and markup

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