How We Calculate Fees

How the calculators work

Every calculation runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to us or stored. Most payment fees follow the same basic formula:

Fee = (amount × percentage rate) + fixed fee

For example, a $100 in-person Square payment on the Free plan costs $100 × 2.6% + $0.15 = $2.75, so you receive $97.25. The effective rate we show is the total fee divided by the sale amount, which is how you compare platforms fairly: a fixed fee that barely matters on a $500 sale can be several percent of a $5 sale.

The "charge buyer instead" figure

If you want to receive a specific amount, you can't simply add the percentage on top, because the fee is charged on the higher total too. The correct formula is:

Amount to charge = (amount you want + fixed fee) ÷ (1 − percentage rate)

To receive exactly $100 from an in-person Square payment: ($100 + $0.15) ÷ (1 − 0.026) = $102.82. Square's fee on $102.82 is $2.82, leaving you $100.00.

Platform-specific rules we model

Some platforms don't follow the simple formula, and a calculator that ignores the exceptions gives wrong answers. Where the official rules include them, we model:

• What the fee is charged on. eBay's final value fee applies to the total amount of the sale, including shipping and the sales tax the buyer pays, even though the tax never reaches you.
• Thresholds and tiers. eBay's per-order fee is $0.30 on orders of $10 or less and $0.40 above that, and most eBay categories drop to 2.35% on the portion of a sale above $7,500.
• Minimums and caps. Venmo's instant transfer fee is 1.75% with a $0.25 minimum and a $25 maximum.

Results are shown to the nearest cent. Platforms sometimes round each fee component separately, so your statement can differ from our figure by a cent.

Where our rates come from

We use each platform's own published pricing and help pages as the source for every rate: for example eBay's Seller Center fee table, Square's Support Center fee page, and the equivalent official pages for PayPal, Stripe, Etsy, Amazon, Shopify, Venmo, and Cash App. Third-party articles are only ever a signal that a rate may have changed; they are never the source of a number on this site.

Our calculators use standard US pricing. Businesses with negotiated or custom rates, accounts in other countries, and legacy plans can pay different amounts.

How we keep rates current

• Each calculator shows the month its rates were last checked and names its source.
• When a rate changes, we update the calculator, its fee tables, and every article that mentions that rate at the same time, so the site never contradicts itself.
• Every correction is recorded in our changelog, including mistakes we find in our own data.

What the calculators don't include

To keep results clear, the calculators show the platform's own selling and processing fees. Unless a calculator has a field for it, they don't include:

• Income tax or the sales tax you may owe
• Chargeback, dispute, or refund fees
• Currency conversion, unless the calculator says so
• Optional advertising such as eBay Promoted Listings
• Shipping labels, packaging, subscriptions, and your product costs (use our profit margin calculator for those)

Your platform's statement is always the final word. Treat our results as a reliable estimate for pricing decisions, not an invoice.

Found an error?

If a number on CalcFees doesn't match what a platform charges you, please contact us or email support@calcfees.net. It helps most if you include the page, the figure, and a link to the official source. Confirmed corrections are published in the changelog.