Credit Card Processing Fee Calculator
Enter what you sell and how customers pay. See what 11 processors would charge you each month at their published rates, which one is cheapest for you, and the volume where that changes.
By Riley Park · Last verified: October 2026
More options: typed-in cards, bank transfers, international, card mix
Monthly cost = processing fees + the cheapest published plan for your mix + a card reader spread over 36 months (in-person only). Leaves out sales tax, chargebacks, refunds and instant payouts. "Built for" labels come from DDR's feature checks for each way of selling. Cheapest isn't the same as best: DDR's payments scores also weigh features, user sentiment and company credibility. New to this? Credit card processing basics explains how fees work, deposit timing and what to check before you sign.
What decides your cost
- Every card payment costs a percentage plus a few cents. A processor keeps a share of each sale (around 2.3% to 3.5%) and usually a fixed fee of 5¢ to 30¢ on top. At 2.6% + 15¢, a $100 sale costs $100 × 2.6% = $2.60, plus $0.15, so $2.75; you receive $97.25. The percentage depends on how the card is used: tapped or inserted in person is cheapest, online costs more, and a card number typed in by hand costs the most.
- Two ways processors set their price. Flat rate (Square, Stripe, PayPal and most others): one published rate for every card, simple to predict. Interchange plus (Helcim) and membership (Stax): you pay what the card's bank charges, called interchange, plus the processor's own markup or a monthly fee. The quoted markup looks small, but it sits on top of a cost that changes with every card, so compare the monthly total below, not the quote: in DDR's model it comes out a few tenths of a point cheaper on mid-sized and large sales at steady volume, and no cheaper on small sales.
- Your size changes the winner. Flat-rate processors cost the same percentage however much you take. Membership and interchange-plus pricing gets cheaper as you grow, because the fixed monthly fee is spread over more sales. In person at $45 sales, Stax's monthly membership becomes the cheapest option from about $47.5K a month.
- A paid plan can cost less than a free one. Square Plus ($49 a month) lowers the per-sale rate, and that saving outweighs the fee from about $52K a month in person and about $12.5K a month online.
- Bank transfers are cheap, unless there's no cap. Paying an invoice from a bank account usually costs 1% with a ceiling of $5 to $10. A $2,500 bank payment costs $10 with PayPal (1%, capped at $10) and $25 with QuickBooks Payments (1%, no cap).
- How the customer pays changes the price. PayPal's online price ranges from 2.89% + 29¢ (a card through its advanced card processing) to 3.49% + 49¢ when the customer pays with a PayPal or Venmo account.
How the calculator works
You tell the calculator how much you take in a month, how big a typical sale is, and how customers pay (in person, online or on invoices). For every processor, it adds up the percentage fee and the fixed fee on each sale, any monthly plan fee, and the price of a basic card reader spread over 36 months if you take payments in person. The result is a monthly cost and an effective rate, which is that cost divided by what you took in: one number that makes different pricing models comparable.
Every rate comes from the processor's own US pricing page, fee schedule or help article, read on the date shown in the vendor list at the bottom of the page. Where a processor's pages disagree, the calculator uses the page the vendor treats as its fee schedule and DDR's fact registry records the conflict. Where a processor publishes several plans, the calculator prices all of them for your mix and shows the cheapest.
Two assumptions you can change under More options: in person, 5% of cards are typed in by hand at the keyed rate; on invoices, half of customers pay by card and half by bank transfer, with each bank payment's fee capped where the processor publishes a cap.
Helcim and Stax don't publish one rate, because they charge what the card's bank charges (interchange) plus their own markup. For them the calculator uses Visa's and Mastercard's April 2026 US interchange tables plus the card networks' fees, with a default mix of cards (more debit in person, more rewards and business cards online and on invoices). Changing the card mix changes their cost. The same engine sets the Cost pillar of DDR's payments scores; DDR re-checks every rate monthly and interchange each April and October.
Cite or link to this page
You're welcome to quote the figures here. Please name Data Driven Reviews and link to this page, so readers can see the date each fee was checked.
Data Driven Reviews. (2026, Oct 13). Credit Card Processing Fee Calculator. https://datadrivenreviews.com/tools/credit-card-processing-fee-calculator/
<a href="https://datadrivenreviews.com/tools/credit-card-processing-fee-calculator/">Credit Card Processing Fee Calculator</a> (Data Driven Reviews)