Payment Gateway Fee Calculator

Compare real costs of Stripe, Dodo, Paddle & LemonSqueezy

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Built by WOWHOW Team · 14+ yrs engineering

Payment Gateway Fee Calculator is a free, browser-based tool that lets you compare real costs of stripe, dodo, paddle & lemonsqueezy — with zero signup, zero installation. Your data never leaves your browser. Part of 138+ free developer and business tools at wowhow.cloud, built and maintained by a team with 14+ years of hands-on development experience.

TOOLPayment Gateway Fee Calculator

Your Business Parameters

Monthly Revenue$5,000

$100$100,000

Average Transaction Value$49

$5$2,000

Monthly Transactions102

Auto-calculated from Revenue / Avg Transaction

Refund Rate2%

0%20%

Chargeback / Dispute Rate0.5%

0%5%

Business Type & Market

Payment Type

Primary Market

Your Scenario

Annual Revenue: $60,000
Annual Transactions: 1,224
Expected Refunds/yr: 24
Expected Disputes/yr: 6

Best for India

Dodo Payments is the only MoR with UPI + RuPay support. Save ~$737/year vs Paddle.

Annual Cost Comparison — sorted cheapest first

Dodo Payments

MoR

Merchant of Record — Global Tax Handled

Cheapest

Annual Cost

$2,967

Effective rate: 4.95%

44.56% of max cost

Processing fees$2,700

Per-transaction fees$59

Refund costs$24

Dispute / chargeback fees$184

Tax compliance (DIY est.)$0

✓Tax collection in 190+ countries handled automatically
✓UPI and RuPay supported natively for India
⚠$30 per chargeback (non-refundable)
⚠+0.5% subscription surcharge

Paddle

MoR

Merchant of Record — Global Coverage

Annual Cost

$3,704

Effective rate: 6.17%

55.63% of max cost

Processing fees$3,000

Per-transaction fees$612

Refund costs$0

Dispute / chargeback fees$92

Tax compliance (DIY est.)$0

⚠Known for account suspension issues — 3.6/5 Trustpilot
⚠$15 per dispute
⚠No refund fee, no international surcharge
✓Tax compliance fully handled as MoR

LemonSqueezy

MoR

Merchant of Record — Stripe Acquired

Annual Cost

$3,704

Effective rate: 6.17%

55.63% of max cost

Processing fees$3,000

Per-transaction fees$612

Refund costs$0

Dispute / chargeback fees$92

Tax compliance (DIY est.)$0

⚠Acquired by Stripe in 2024 — future pricing uncertain
⚠$15 per dispute
⚠No refund fee, no international surcharge
✓Tax compliance fully handled as MoR

Stripe

Limited

Payment Processor — Tax DIY

Most Expensive

Annual Cost

$6,658

Effective rate: 11.10%

100.00% of max cost

Processing fees$2,820

Per-transaction fees$1,346

Refund costs$0

Dispute / chargeback fees$92

Tax compliance (DIY est.)$2,400

⚠Stripe India is invite-only — limited access for Indian founders
⚠Stripe Billing: +0.7% + $0.80 per subscription cycle
⚠Stripe Tax add-on: +0.5% of revenue
⚠Manual tax filing estimated at $200/month for multi-country sales
⚠$15 per dispute (partially refunded if won)

Dodo PaymentsSponsored

The only Merchant of Record built for Indian and global SaaS founders. UPI, RuPay, cards, and 190+ country tax compliance — zero setup cost.

Start Free with Dodo →

Fees calculated based on publicly available pricing as of April 2026. Tax compliance estimates are based on typical accountant costs for handling VAT/GST in multiple jurisdictions (~$200/month). Actual costs may vary. This tool does not constitute financial advice.

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About Payment Gateway Fee Calculator

Payment gateway selection is one of the most consequential infrastructure decisions for a SaaS or digital product business. The advertised rate (2.9% + $0.30 for Stripe) rarely reflects the true cost, which includes tax compliance tools, billing platform fees, accounting costs for multi-country tax filing, chargeback/dispute fees, and refund processing costs. Merchant of Record (MoR) platforms like Dodo Payments and Paddle bundle all tax compliance into their fee, which can make their higher headline rate cheaper than Stripe's all-in cost for businesses selling globally.

How It Works

The calculator models the total cost of each payment processor as: processing fee (percentage of revenue) plus fixed fee per transaction multiplied by transaction count, plus tax compliance costs (zero for MoR platforms, Stripe Tax rate plus estimated accounting cost for Stripe), plus refund processing costs (refund rate multiplied by revenue multiplied by refund fee), plus dispute costs (dispute rate multiplied by transaction count multiplied by dispute fee).

Monthly transaction count is derived from monthly revenue divided by average transaction value. Annual cost is monthly cost multiplied by 12. Net revenue is annual revenue minus annual processing cost, giving the actual amount retained.

MoR platform classification determines tax compliance cost: Dodo Payments, Paddle, and LemonSqueezy include global VAT/GST collection and remittance in their fee. Stripe does not — US-focused businesses pay 0.5% for Stripe Tax; globally-selling businesses additionally need accounting support for each tax jurisdiction, modeled as a configurable monthly cost.

Who Is This For

An Indian indie developer compares Dodo Payments against Stripe to discover whether Dodo's MoR model is cheaper given that Stripe India is invite-only and requires separate VAT handling.

A SaaS founder projecting revenue growth models annual gateway costs at $10K, $50K, and $200K MRR to identify at which scale each processor becomes cheapest.

A developer comparing Paddle and LemonSqueezy for a digital product store enters their average order value and expected chargeback rate to see which platform has lower true costs.

A startup CFO builds a three-year cost comparison across processors to include in a board presentation on payment infrastructure strategy.

How to Use

Enter your monthly revenue and average transaction value

Select your subscription type and primary market

Adjust refund and dispute rates for your industry

Compare annual costs across all payment processors

Frequently Asked Questions

A Merchant of Record legally becomes the seller on your transactions, handling all global tax collection, VAT/GST remittance, and compliance across 190+ countries. Dodo Payments and Paddle are MoRs — Stripe is not.

Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30, but you also need Stripe Tax (0.5%), Stripe Billing (0.7%), and manual tax filing in each country you sell to — which can cost $200–500/month in accounting fees. Total effective rate often exceeds 4%.

Stripe India became invite-only in 2024–2025. New Indian businesses cannot sign up without an invitation. Dodo Payments is fully open to Indian founders and supports UPI and RuPay natively.

Dodo Payments charges $30 per disputed transaction (chargeback). This is non-refundable. For businesses with low average order values, factor this into your pricing. Stripe charges $15 per dispute (partially refunded if you win).

LemonSqueezy is a Merchant of Record platform acquired by Stripe in 2024. It handles global tax compliance like Paddle but is positioned for indie developers selling digital products. Its base rate is 5% + $0.50 per transaction with no monthly fee, making it cost-effective at low revenue but expensive at scale compared to Paddle and Dodo Payments.

For Merchant of Record platforms (Dodo Payments, Paddle, LemonSqueezy), tax compliance is included in the platform fee — no separate cost. For Stripe, the calculator adds an estimated Stripe Tax fee (0.5% of revenue) plus an accounting cost estimate for manual tax filing in each country you sell to. The exact accounting cost varies by region and advisor.

At very high revenue, MoR fees (3-5%) can exceed Stripe's fully-loaded cost (2.9% + tax tools + accounting). The crossover point depends on your geographic spread, chargeback rate, and whether you can negotiate volume discounts with Stripe. Use the calculator to find the crossover point for your specific assumptions.