Payment processing fee calculator
Enter any percentage and fixed fee: this calculator returns the fee, your net and the effective rate, forwards or in reverse, in any currency. Every figure comes from the rate you enter. Updated 5 September 2026.
No published fee schedule sits behind this page. Every figure below is worked out from the rate you enter. Page updated .
Showing the $100.00 example until you type an amount.
Showing the 2.9% + $0.30 example until you change it.
- Percentage of the amount
- $2.90
- Fixed fee
- $0.30
- Total fees
- $3.20
- Effective rate
- 3.2%
How this is worked out
The percentage is taken from the amount and rounded half-up to the smallest unit of the currency; the fixed fee is added whole. What you keep is the amount less the two. Reverse runs the same arithmetic backwards and reports the smallest amount to charge that still leaves you what you asked for.
At 2.9% + $0.30, a $100.00 payment costs $3.20 in fees and leaves $96.80 — an effective 3.2%.
| Percentage of the amount | $2.90 |
|---|---|
| Fixed fee | $0.30 |
| Total fees | $3.20 |
| You keep | $96.80 |
| Effective rate | 3.2% |
A percentage and a fixed fee
Most payment processing is priced the same way: a percentage of the amount, plus a fixed amount per transaction. That shape is the whole reason a small payment is expensive and a large one is not. A 30 cent fixed fee on a $100 sale is three tenths of one percent. The same 30 cents on a $3 sale is ten percent, and the percentage rate barely matters.
The effective rate this calculator reports, total fee divided by the amount, is the figure to compare between providers, and it moves with the size of the payment. Setting one quoted rate against another tells you very little until you say how large your typical payment is.
Forward and reverse
Forward is the ordinary question: I charge this, what do I keep? Reverse is the one that catches people out: I need to keep this, what do I charge?
Reverse is not "add the fee back on". Adding the fee to the amount you want to keep leaves you short, because the fee is charged on the larger amount you end up billing, not on the amount you wanted. The right answer divides rather than adds, and this calculator finds it by searching for the smallest amount to charge whose fee leaves you exactly your target.
Rounding
Fees are rounded to the smallest unit of the currency, one line at a time, half up. That is not a detail: half a cent charged a thousand times is five dollars. Every figure here is computed in whole minor units, cents or pence or yen, and rounded once at the end of each line, which is how a processor's own statement arrives at its number.
Currency is a choice, not a conversion. Changing the currency changes what your numbers mean; nothing on this site is ever converted from one currency into another.
When a named calculator is better
If your provider is on this site, use its calculator instead. Those pages carry the provider's own published rates, quoted from the official pricing page, dated and re-checked on a schedule, and they model the parts a single percentage cannot: international cards, currency conversion, payout fees, category rates and plan tiers.
This page is for the provider that is not on the list, for a rate you negotiated, and for the invoice you are checking after the fact.
Frequently asked questions
How do I work out what to charge to receive an exact amount?
- Switch the calculator to reverse and enter the amount you want to keep. Adding the fee to that amount is not enough, because the fee is then charged on the larger amount you bill: you end up short by the fee on the fee. The reverse mode finds the smallest amount to charge whose fee leaves you exactly your target, rounding the way a real fee rounds.
Why is the fee on a small payment so high in percentage terms?
- Because of the fixed part. A fixed fee is the same on a $3 payment as on a $300 one, so it is a tenth of the small payment and a thousandth of the large one. The effective rate this calculator reports is the number that shows it: it is the total fee divided by the amount, and it falls as the payment grows.
Which is better, a lower percentage or a lower fixed fee?
- It depends entirely on the size of your typical payment. Below roughly the point where the fixed-fee difference and the percentage difference cancel, the lower fixed fee wins; above it, the lower percentage does. Run both quotes through this calculator at your own typical amount rather than comparing the two headline rates.
Does this calculator know my provider's rates?
- No, and it does not pretend to. It has no fee schedule behind it and no verification date; you supply the rate and it does the arithmetic. If your provider is one of the platforms on this site, use its own calculator instead: the rate there is quoted from the provider's official pricing page and carries the date it was last checked.
Why does my provider's total differ by a cent?
- Rounding. This calculator rounds the percentage to the smallest unit of the currency, half up, once, and then adds the fixed fee whole, which is what most processors do. A provider that rounds down, or that rounds a whole day's fees together rather than each payment, will land a cent either side. Over a month the difference is real but small; if it is large, the gap is a charge you have not entered.
Cite this page
Everything above is worked out from the rate you entered, not from any provider’s published schedule. Check that rate on your own contract or statement before you rely on it. See the methodology and the disclaimer.
Cite this page
Fees.tools. "Payment processing fee calculator". https://fees.tools/payment-processing-fee-calculator. Page updated 2026-09-05. No fee data: figures come from the rate the reader enters.APA: Fees.tools. (2026). Payment processing fee calculator. Retrieved 2026-09-05, from https://fees.tools/payment-processing-fee-calculator