Stripe fees are a percentage plus a fixed amount per payment, paid by whoever receives the money. What catches people out is that the percentage changes with where the customer's card was issued: on a European account it runs from 1.5% to 3.15%, and a 2% currency conversion fee can sit on top.
What are Stripe fees in Europe: the four card rates
Stripe's pricing page for Spain (checked on 19 October 2026) publishes four card rates, all with the same fixed fee of €0.25:
| Card used to pay | Rate | On €1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Standard EEA card | 1.5% + €0.25 | €15.25 |
| Premium EEA card (commercial, rewards) | 2.8% + €0.25 | €28.25 |
| UK card | 2.5% + €0.25 | €25.25 |
| International (non-EEA) card | 3.15% + €0.25 | €31.75 |
The advertised one is the first, 1.5% + €0.25, and it is among the lowest in Europe. The other three are not small print: a commercial or rewards card issued in Germany already falls under the premium rate, and plenty of companies pay their invoices with exactly that kind of card. Between a standard Spanish card and a German corporate card the fee almost doubles, and you do not get to choose which one the client uses.
How much does Stripe charge per transaction
On the standard rate, a domestic payment works out like this:
| Customer pays | Stripe fee | Effective | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| €10.00 | −€0.40 | 4% | €9.60 |
| €50.00 | −€1.00 | 2% | €49.00 |
| €200.00 | −€3.25 | 1.63% | €196.75 |
| €1,000.00 | −€15.25 | 1.52% | €984.75 |
| €5,000.00 | −€75.25 | 1.5% | €4,924.75 |
On €10.00 Stripe keeps 4% because of the fixed fee; on €1,000.00, 1.52%, barely more than the headline percentage. If you charge small amounts repeatedly, your real cost is nothing like the advertised 1.5%. And to net €100.00 you have to invoice €101.78: (amount + €0.25) / (1 − 1.5%).
Stripe fees on international payments
When the customer pays with a card from outside your region, two things are added: the international card rate and, if the currency is not yours, the conversion. Here is a $2,000 card payment from a US client into a Spanish account, layer by layer:
| Fee layer | Stripe |
|---|---|
| Card fee | −$30.25 |
| Cross-border surcharge | −$33.00 |
| Currency conversion | −$38.74 |
| Total cost | $101.98 (5.1%) |
That is $101.98, an effective 5.1%, a long way from the 1.5% on the pricing page. Even so, the same payment through PayPal would cost $155.21:
- Card fee
- Cross-border
- Conversion
- Payout
I compare them across more scenarios in Stripe vs PayPal for freelancers.
The Stripe currency conversion fee
Stripe publishes an extra 2% "if currency conversion is required" on European and UK accounts; on US accounts it is 1%. It is charged on top of the card fee, not instead of it, so the two compound. In the $2,000 payment above, conversion alone is $38.74 of the $101.98 total.
The way not to pay it is not to convert: if your Stripe account can settle in dollars into a dollar bank account, that layer disappears and the only conversion left is the one you choose to do, when the rate suits you. I go through it in the currency conversion markup.
Stripe fees in the UK and the US
Same structure, different numbers. A UK account pays 1.5% + £0.20 on UK cards, 2.5% on EEA cards and 3.15% on international ones, plus the 2% conversion fee. A US account pays 2.9% + $0.30 on domestic cards, 1.5% more on international ones and 1% to convert: the base rate is much dearer than the European one, but the international surcharge and the conversion are cheaper. The same business pays very different fees depending on where it is incorporated.
What the headline rate leaves out
- Disputes: €20.00 for every dispute received (£20.00 in the UK). Stripe refunds the response fee on disputes you win, not on the ones you lose.
- Instant payouts: 1% of the amount, with a minimum of €0.50. Payouts on the standard schedule are free.
- Multi-currency payouts: 1% of the transferred volume.
- Stripe Billing (subscriptions): 0.7% of billing volume on the pay-as-you-go plan.
- Stripe Invoicing: from 0.4% per paid invoice on the Starter plan.
- SEPA Direct Debit: €0.35 per payment, a very cheap alternative to cards for recurring European clients.
None of these lines are in this site's calculator, which models the payment itself. If you sell on subscription, add that 0.7% on top of everything else before comparing with another provider.
How to pay less
- Charge in your own currency when the client does not mind: the whole conversion layer goes away.
- Offer bank transfer on large B2B invoices. As a freelancer in Tarragona I invoice clients in the US, the UK and the EU, and on four-figure invoices cards do not pay off: that $2,000 payment through Wise would cost $5.80 instead of $101.98. I compare them in card or bank transfer.
- Use SEPA Direct Debit with recurring European clients: €0.35 flat per payment instead of a percentage that grows with the invoice.
- Negotiate once your volume is steady: Stripe does custom pricing, and this site only models the public rate.
For your own amount and your client's country, there are the Stripe fee card and the calculator.
Sources: Stripe's pricing pages for Spain (stripe.com/es/pricing) and the UK (stripe.com/gb/pricing), checked on 19 October 2026; the card and conversion rates the calculator uses were verified on 25 October 2026. Stripe can change them: the figure that counts is the one in your dashboard.
Every figure in this guide is calculated from the providers' public pricing pages, with the same function as the calculator. See the methodology for what the model includes and leaves out.