The built-in payment gateway in Sharetribe, Stripe Connect with Custom Accounts, charges fees for using their online marketplace payment processing service.
What are Stripe's fees?
Stripe charges 3 different types of fees:
Payment processing fee
Active account fee
Payout fee
Payment processing fee
Stripe charges a fee for each transaction that happens within your marketplace. The fee is typically a combination of a percentage of the total transaction value and a fixed fee. The fee depends on the country where your Stripe account is located, the country related to the payment card, and the type of card used.
Active account fee
A Connected Account is created in Stripe when your marketplace provider connects their bank details to the marketplace to start selling. A fee is charged for every Connected Account that is active within the month's period. An account is considered active in any month if it receives a payout from your marketplace. This fee varies depending on the country your account is located in and the currency that it settles.
Payout fee
A payout is when money is sent to the seller's bank account. Stripe charges a payout fee every time money is paid out from your Stripe account to your bank account or one of the Connected Accounts. The fee is a combination of a percentage of the total payout value and a fixed fee. The exact numbers vary depending on the country of your bank account.
When are these fees charged by Stripe?
Processing fee: charged every time there is a payment using Stripe in your marketplace.
Active Account fee: be charged once per month and only for each active account in your marketplace.
Payout fee: charged every time money is transferred from your Stripe account to a bank account.
Who pays the fees?
The marketplace is responsible for paying fees. This payment happens automatically.
In practice, the fees are charged to your Stripe admin account and typically deducted from your commission earnings. Sometimes, if you refund the payment or receive a chargeback, your available Stripe balance from recent earnings may not be enough to cover Stripe fees. Depending on the country where your bank account is located, Stripe will take some money from your bank account to cover the negative balance, or your account balance will stay negative, and subsequent payments will go toward paying off the difference. You can learn more about this from Stripe support pages.
You can find the fees you paid in the Payments tab in your Stripe Dashboard (All transactions section). To find the Stripe fees specifically, filter the table by Type and select "Stripe fees."
Do I pay fees if there is a refund?
If a customer's payment is refunded, Stripe fees are not refunded. You must still pay the payment processing fees for their transaction. You will not pay a payout fee, as there is no payout during this transaction. You only pay the active account fee if the provider has received a payout during the month.
What are the exact fees?
The exact fees depend on the country of your marketplace, currency, and country of your provider's bank account. Below are some examples:
Country | Payment processing fee | Active Account fee | Payout fee |
USA | 2.9% + 30¢ | US$2 | 0.25% + 25¢ |
UK | 1.5% + 20p | £2 | 0.25% + 10p |
Canada | 2.9% + C$0.30 | C$2 | 0.25% + C$0.25 |
Australia | 1.75% + A$0.30 | A$2 | 0.25% + A$0.25 |
Germany | 1,5 % + 0,25 € | 2 € | 0,25 % + 0,10 € |
France | 1,5 % + 0,25 € | 2 € | 0,25 % + 0,10 € |
Japan | 3.6% | ¥200 | 0.25% + ¥250 |
Singapore | 3.4% + S$0.50 | S$2 | 0.25% + S$0.50 |
Switzerland | 2.9% + CHF0.30 | CHF2 | 0.25% + CHF0.55 |
The fees listed above are current as of January 2024. The processing fee applies to payments made with domestic cards specific to each country; fees will be higher for payments made with international cards. Please refer to the Stripe pricing page for your country to know the most accurate and recent payment processing fees, as well as the Stripe Connect page for the most accurate and recent Active Account and Payout fees.
Stripe fees example
We are going to use a basic example of a Stripe transaction for this, however, bear in mind that Stripe fees would vary depending on the country of origin of the connected account, the country of credit card used and whether or not there is currency conversion needed.
Your marketplace is in the US and your bank account is also in the US. A provider in the US has a listing price of $100 and the provider commission is 10%. The customer pays with a US credit card, which means that the processing fee would be 2.9% + 30¢. The processing fee for this transaction would be $3.20 ($100 x 2.9% + 30¢).
You are responsible for paying the fees, so the basic fund distribution would be:
The provider receives $90 ($100 dollars minus commission of $10)
The marketplace receives $6.80 ($10 dollars minus Stripe fee of $3.20)
Stripe keeps $3.20 in Stripe processing fees.
Besides this basic fund distribution, at the end of the month Stripe would charge your platform account additional fees per active accounts and payout sent depending specifically on the number of active accounts and payouts sent in the previous month. Following the example above, the fees for this month would be an additional $2.47 ($2 for the active provider connected account + 47¢ for the payout fee ≈ $90 x 0.25% + 25¢). If you have a single provider that has multiple transactions, your fees would be significantly lower than if you have multiple providers with a single transaction each.
Assuming the same transaction as above
For a single provider with 2 transactions, Stripe's fee would be: $2.94 ($2 for the active account fee + 47¢ x 2 for the payout fee).
For 2 providers with 1 transaction each Stripe's fee would be: $4.94 ($2 x 2 for each active account + 47¢ x 2 for each payout fee)
Stripe would bundle this extra fee in a single exhibition at the end of the month.