Stripe · CHI Company Investigation · Money
Conclusion: Partially supports · Mechanism: core rate held; refund, dispute, international, payout and billing economics changed · No score assigned
The payment stayed the same price. The costs around it did not.
Stripe held its core US online-card rate at 2.9% + 30¢ while changing the economics of refunds, disputes, international cards, instant payouts and subscription billing. Stripe did not raise the headline payment-processing rate. It changed the economics around the transaction.
Stripe’s headline US online-card rate has remained 2.9% + 30¢ throughout the period examined. That stability matters. The strongest CHI findings are not in Stripe’s base rate. They sit around what happens before, after and beside the payment.
Standard pricing lists 2.9% + 30¢ for domestic cards, with no setup, monthly or closure fees.1
The same rate appears on an archived copy of Stripe’s US pricing page from the 2018–19 period.2
There’s no change to our standard 2.9% + $0.30 pricing for US card transactions.
3
Custom pricing. Large merchants can negotiate custom or interchange-plus pricing, which is not public. Every figure on this page is Stripe’s published standard US pricing.1
What Stripe keeps on a $100 card payment for a US merchant, before and now. The plain domestic payment is unchanged. Every outcome around it shown here costs more.
DerivedDerived from Stripe’s published standard pricing; custom pricing may differ. “Original terms” applied to accounts opened before September 2017, until March 2020. An uncontested dispute costs $15, then and now.1,3,5,8
Stripe once returned its processing fees when a merchant refunded a payment. It now keeps them. The change reached new accounts in 2017 and older accounts on 6 March 2020.
When a merchant refunded a customer, Stripe returned its own fees from the original payment. Early accounts kept that treatment until March 2020.5,6
Stripe’s later notice: “In 2017, we updated our fee handling for refunds and international payments”. Accounts opened earlier kept the old terms.5,6
“We’ll no longer return Stripe’s fees from the original transaction when you refund a customer.”5
“The payment processing, Connect and currency conversion fees from the original transaction are not returned.”1,4
Stripe says much of the cost of a payment comes from banks and card networks, and that “in many cases banks and card networks keep the entire upfront cost of a refunded transaction.”4
It adds that its standard fees include fraud protection, reporting and other tools, and that “Stripe does not return our fees when a payment is refunded” in order to cover those costs and keep providing those services.4
Stripe keeps its full fee, not only the network portion. Whether the network’s cost equals Stripe’s fee is not established here.
Evidence. The current rule is on Stripe’s pricing page and support centre. The 2017 and 2020 history comes from Stripe’s own notice to early accounts, reproduced by a merchant who received it and summarised independently by a second recipient.5,6 Notice for the 2020 change was about one month.
A merchant who successfully fought a dispute once paid $0 in dispute fees. Today that same successful dispute costs $15. A contested loss can cost $30. These are Stripe’s fees only; the disputed amount itself is separate.
“If the customer’s bank resolves the dispute in your favor, the fee is fully refunded.”Archived Stripe US pricing page2
“Starting June 1, Stripe will no longer return the $15 dispute fee for successfully contested disputes.”Stripe Support, June 2023 pricing updates3
Stripe’s documentation today: “Stripe returns the dispute countered fee if you win the dispute. Unless otherwise stated in your Stripe contract, we never return the dispute received fee.”7 If part of a dispute is won, neither $15 fee is returned.8
Stripe added a surcharge for international cards and later raised it, while cutting the currency-conversion fee from 2% to 1%. The two are separate fees and are shown separately.
The 2017 restructuring was neutral for converted payments: the FX fee fell as the surcharge arrived. The rise came in June 2023.
“Over the past few years, card networks have increased the total fees that Stripe pays for card processing. Because of these costs, starting June 1, Stripe’s additional fee for international card transactions will change from 1.0% to 1.5%.”Stripe Support, June 2023 pricing updates3
Evidence. The 1.5% rate, the June 2023 date and Stripe’s reason are on Stripe’s own support page. The +1% surcharge and the 2% FX fee on original terms come from Stripe’s 2020 notice to early accounts, reproduced by recipients; the archived pricing page shows the +1%.2,3,5
Stripe added functionality along the way, but existing subscription businesses ultimately moved from no separate Billing fee to 0.7% of billing volume.
Recurring payments ran through the processing relationship with no separate Billing fee for these users.10,11
Stripe’s co-founder: “For existing customers, there’s no pricing change.”9,10
In November 2020 Stripe ended the free treatment for users who started before 2018; charging followed in 2021.11
Existing Starter and Scale users kept 0.5% until 30 June 2025. No opt-out.12
At the 2018 launch, Stripe’s co-founder wrote on Hacker News: “For existing customers, there’s no pricing change. You just get more functionality than before for free.” A Stripe employee wrote in the same thread that “classic subs are free forever for existing users.”10
In November 2020 the co-founder described the change as “ending the several-year grace period where we didn’t charge anything for Stripe Billing for businesses who started to use this functionality before 2018.”11
A subscription business on standard pricing that uses Billing pays 2.9% + 30¢ for processing plus 0.7% of billing volume, or 3.6% + 30¢ per recurring card payment.1
Derived from Stripe’s published standard pricing
Former Starter users gained usage-based billing, Smart Retries, quotes, multiphase schedules and recovery automations. Former Scale users saw their rate fall from 0.8% to 0.7%, with Revenue Recognition and one-off invoicing priced separately. A monthly plan from $620 can lower the effective rate for higher volumes.1,12
Evidence. The 0.5% and 0.7% rates, the 10 July 2024 date and the 30 June 2025 promotional end are on Stripe’s support page. The 2018 and 2020 statements are public comments by Stripe staff; “free forever” was one employee’s comment, not a published Stripe term. The exact 2021 start date is not verified.10,11,12
Reading. Instant Payouts is a convenience a merchant can avoid by using the free standard schedule. This is a price increase on an existing optional feature; Stripe’s notice gave no reason for it.13
Beginning 22 January 2027, Stripe plans to charge by default for fraud screening that had been included with standard processing, while offering a reduced free tier. Nothing on this page counts it as a charge already levied.
“Radar’s advanced machine learning algorithms for fraud prevention are included with every standard Stripe account.”2 In 2023 Stripe said Radar was “free for users like you on our standard pricing.”3
Lite, Standard, Plus and Pro. Existing Radar users were placed on a free trial of Radar Standard; Radar for Fraud Teams users moved to Radar Plus.14
“Radar will remain enabled for your account and you’ll be charged at standard pricing on January 22, 2027.” A merchant can instead move to Radar Lite, free, “in one click”.14
Stripe’s explanation. Stripe cites the acceleration of internet fraud and the functionality it has added: “With so much new functionality, we’re introducing four tiers… and updating pricing.” Notice is about six months.14
This is why the conclusion is partially supports: the base rate and several terms held or improved while specific workflows around the payment got more expensive.
Public evidence confirms Stripe made that explanation. It does not establish whether each fee increase exactly matches Stripe’s underlying cost increase.
Stripe’s notice says it changed refund and international fee handling in 2017 “to account for changes in our underlying costs”.Stripe notice to early accounts, 2020, as reproduced5
“Card networks have increased the total fees that Stripe pays for card processing.”Stripe Support, June 20233
“Whether you win or lose a dispute, card networks charge Stripe a fee in either case.”Stripe Support, June 20233
“In recent years, card networks have increased fees for handling disputes.”Stripe Support, June 20258
Stripe says manually entered payments see higher fraud rates, “leading to higher costs for Stripe.”Stripe Support, manually entered cards16
Stripe gave advance notice of each major change, and older accounts sometimes kept earlier terms for years. Notice periods differed from change to change.
Sources. Stripe’s support pages for 2023, 2024, 2025 and Radar; Stripe’s 2020 notice as reproduced; the 8 March 2023 announcement date is as reported.3,5,8,12,13,14
A change-over-time analysis of what an existing merchant pays when the same payment gets refunded, disputed, processed internationally, paid out instantly or billed as a subscription.
The customer here is the merchant or business paying Stripe, not consumers paying merchants through Stripe. Figures are Stripe’s US standard pricing.
CHI’s institutional signal taxonomy, applied without forcing a fit and without inferring intent. These describe observed economic effect.
Three completed cases: the return of fees on refunds was removed (2017 / 2020); the dispute-fee refund on successful disputes was removed (2023); subscription billing moved from included to paid (2018 → 2021).3,5,11
Radar: announced / future. Not counted as an implemented event.
Repeated increases or new charges on existing merchant workflows while the base rate stayed unchanged: refunds, disputes (twice), international cards (twice), Instant Payouts, Billing and manual entry. All applied automatically to existing accounts.
Limit: observed economic effect only. No motive is inferred, and no claim is made about Stripe’s overall take rate.
Only the retirement of Billing Starter and Scale in 2024, with no option to stay on the old plans.12
Stripe explicitly links the refund, international, dispute and manual-entry changes to network fees, dispute-handling costs, underlying costs and fraud costs.3,5,8,16
Limit: the link is Stripe’s stated reason. It is not shown that the external costs equal the size of Stripe’s charges.
Final CHI assessment · Partially supports
A domestic US card transaction still costs 2.9% + 30¢. But the same merchant now pays more when that payment is refunded, successfully disputed, made with an international card, paid out instantly or run through subscription billing.
Stripe also kept standard payouts free, cut its FX fee, gave notice of major changes and says several increases reflect higher network costs.
The evidence therefore partially supports customer hostility: the base rate stayed flat, but multiple existing merchant workflows became more expensive over time. No numerical CHI, CVI or CFS score has been assigned.
The payment stayed the same price.
The costs around it did not.
Sources
Every statement on this page comes from the Stripe CHI research dossier and its publication verification (both 12 October 2026), and traces to a source below. Where the two differ, the verification controls. Quotation marks are used only for wording read on the original page or in a reproduction of Stripe’s own notice. Reproduced marks Stripe wording published by a recipient rather than read on a Stripe page. Dollar examples are arithmetic from Stripe’s published standard pricing and are labelled as derived.
Limits carried onto this page. All figures are Stripe’s published US standard pricing; custom and interchange-plus pricing is not public and may differ. The 2017 and 2020 refund, international and FX history rests on Stripe’s own 2020 notice as reproduced by two independent recipients, and on an archived pricing page whose snapshot date is not shown. The exact September 2017 date, the 2021 Billing start date, Billing’s 2018 launch rate for new users and the earlier Instant Payout minimum were not verified and are not given. Radar’s 2027 change is announced, not in effect, and no US per-transaction Radar price is given. Stripe’s cost explanations are reported as Stripe’s; whether each increase matches an underlying cost was not tested.
Status. Research frozen 12 October 2026 and publication-verified the same day. No numerical CHI, CVI or CFS score has been assigned; scoring is reserved for a later calibration stage.
Reading this beside the rest of the index
Stripe is assessed here from the merchant’s side. PayPal and Cash App show payments platforms from other angles; Klarna and Affirm show the credit side of checkout. Read the methodology for why no score is assigned yet.