Understanding Stripe Fees (Simple Breakdown)

Note this is not financial advice. If you’d like a more detailed breakdown of Stripe’s pricing and structure, you can visit Stripe’s official pricing page.

Stripe charges two types of fees when processing payments. It's important to understand both — because they appear in different places.

Fee Type 1: Transaction / Processing Fees

These are the fees charged every time a payment is made.

They cover the cost of processing the transaction, such as:

Credit card payments
ACH / bank payments

Example:

For credit card payments, Stripe charges a transaction fee — typically around 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction

👉 These fees apply to every payment, no matter what.

Fee Type 2: Product Fees

These are additional fees based on how you use Stripe features.

They apply when using tools like:

Recurring payments (subscriptions)
Invoices sent to parents

Example:

~0.7% for subscriptions
~0.4% for one-time invoices

👉 These are separate from processing fees and are deducted from your Stripe balance (not always tied to a single payment).

Key Difference at a Glance

Fee Type	What It Covers	When It's Charged
Transaction / Processing Fee	Cost of processing each payment (card or ACH)	At the time of payment
Product Fee	Cost of using Stripe features like invoices or subscriptions	Up to 96 hours after payment, deducted from payout

Where Each Fee Appears

Transaction Fees → Visible on the Invoice

Transaction fees are deducted at the invoice level and are visible to both the school and the parent at the time the invoice is generated. They appear as a line item on the invoice itself.

✅ Where to find it: On the invoice, listed as a separate line item when the invoice is created.

Product Fees → Deducted from Your Payout

Product fees are not shown on the invoice. Instead, they are deducted directly from your Stripe account balance at the payout level. This means:

They do not appear as a line item on any invoice
They are deducted from your available Stripe balance before your bank deposit is sent
They may be posted within up to 96 hours of when they are incurred

✅ Where to find it: In your Stripe Dashboard under Payouts or Balance transactions — not on individual invoices.