Lemon Squeezy fees explained: 5% + 50¢ in 2026

Lemon Squeezy charges 5% + 50¢ per transaction. There is no monthly charge for its ecommerce features, and as merchant of record it collects and remits VAT and sales tax for you. Three surcharges can stack on that base rate, and separate fees come off your payouts. This guide sets out each one as Lemon Squeezy publishes it, with worked examples computed by the same engine as the Lemon Squeezy fee calculator. Every rate below is quoted from Lemon Squeezy's official pricing page and its help-centre fees article, and was verified on 3 September 2026.

What Lemon Squeezy charges per order

One thing to get right first: the fee is charged on the total order value, including tax, not on your product price. Lemon Squeezy states that "the platform fee is calculated on the total order value and collected when the order is placed", and as merchant of record it adds VAT or sales tax on top of your price where a customer's country requires it. The fee lands on that larger figure.

On a $100 order from a customer in the United States paying by card, the fee on $100.00 is $5.50 and you keep $94.50, an effective rate of 5.5%.

The three surcharges

Each surcharge is additive on the base rate rather than a replacement for it, and they combine: a PayPal subscription payment from a customer abroad costs 8.5% + 50¢.

On a $100 order from a customer in France paying by card, the fee on $100.00 is $7.00 ($5.50 platform fee — card payment plus $1.50 international transaction surcharge) and you keep $93.00, an effective rate of 7%. On the same $100 order paid with PayPal, the fee on $100.00 is $7.00 and you keep $93.00, an effective rate of 7%. On a $100 subscription renewal from a customer abroad, the fee on $100.00 is $7.50 ($5.50 platform fee — card payment plus $1.50 international transaction surcharge plus $0.50 subscription / recurring payment surcharge) and you keep $92.50, an effective rate of 7.5%.

Lemon Squeezy's own documentation works through one example: a customer in France on 20% VAT buys a $20.00 product, the total is $24.00, and the fee is $2.06 — $0.50, 5% of the full $24.00, and 1.5% for the international payment.

On that $24.00 order, the fee on $24.00 is $2.06 ($1.70 platform fee — card payment plus $0.36 international transaction surcharge) and you keep $21.94, an effective rate of 8.58%.

Lemon Squeezy's table then subtracts the $4.00 of VAT it remits and calls the remaining $17.94 your net profit; the calculator stops at the payout figure, because the tax was never yours.

Payout fees

Charged on each payout rather than each order, and Lemon Squeezy pays out twice a month, so one fee covers many sales.

Outside the US the Stripe fee is 1% with no ceiling, while PayPal's 3% stops at $30, so which costs less depends on the size of the payout.

Pricing so you keep a round number

The fee comes out of what the customer is charged, so adding 5% to what you want back never quite gets there. Work backwards instead:

• Card, customer in the US: To keep $100.00 you charge $105.79, and the fee is $5.79.
• Card, customer abroad: To keep $100.00 you charge $107.48, and the fee is $7.48.

The calculator's "I want to net" mode does this for any amount, payment method and customer location. One caveat: the price you set is pre-tax, and the fee is charged on the total after tax, so a customer in a high-VAT country costs a little more.

What this guide leaves out

The schedule covers the platform fee, its three surcharges and the four payout fees. Out of scope: the extra percentages charged on payments recovered through abandoned-cart emails and on affiliate referrals; the VAT and sales tax itself, which is the customer's money passing through rather than a fee; email-marketing plans, priced by subscriber count; and volume-based custom pricing, quoted on request. Chargeback and refund handling are not published as numbers.

Lemon Squeezy was acquired by Stripe in 2024 and its pricing page now carries a banner about Stripe Managed Payments. The page states no change to this schedule and no shutdown date, so the rates above are what it publishes today.

When these rates last changed

This schedule was first verified on 3 September 2026 against Lemon Squeezy's pricing page, cross-checked against its help-centre fees article. Confidence is medium, not high: only the base 5% + 50¢ appears on both pages, and the surcharges and payout fees are stated in numbers on the help-centre article alone. The Lemon Squeezy fee changelog holds that entry; later changes are added there with the date and the rule affected, and the schedule is re-verified every 60 days. The methodology explains the check; if a figure here disagrees with what Lemon Squeezy shows you, report it.

Frequently asked questions

Does Lemon Squeezy charge a monthly fee?

No. Its ecommerce features carry no monthly charge and you pay only when you make a sale. Email marketing is a separate plan priced by how many subscribers you have.

Is Lemon Squeezy cheaper than PayPal or Stripe?

On headline rate, no: 5% + 50¢ is well above a plain payment processor's rate. Compare it at your own order value with the PayPal fee calculator, and the PayPal fees guide for its international surcharges. What the difference buys is merchant-of-record status: Lemon Squeezy registers, collects and files VAT and sales tax in every jurisdiction, which a processor does not.

Where do these numbers come from?

Every figure is quoted from Lemon Squeezy's own pages, saved as a dated snapshot and checked by a person. The schedule is quoted line by line, with the verbatim source text behind every rule, in the calculator's fee table, and the Square fees guide covers the same ground for a conventional processor.