💳 Payment Processing Fee Calculator

Compare Stripe, Razorpay, and PayPal fees side-by-side for India / US / UAE / UK / EU. Forward and reverse calculation, GST on fees, currency conversion, payout timeline, annual savings.

What is Payment Processing Fee Calculator?

A side-by-side fee comparison tool that answers the only question that matters: "How much will I actually receive?" Picks every applicable rule from each processor (Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal) for your country and payment method, runs the math correctly — including 18% GST on fees for India, currency conversion fees on cross-border, and ACH/UPI special cases — and shows you the net you receive in one clean view, ranked by who pays out the most. Handles both directions: forward ("I charge $1,000, what do I get?") and reverse ("I want exactly $1,000 in my bank, what should I charge?"). The reverse mode solves a closed-form equation that accounts for percentage + fixed + GST + conversion fees correctly — most calculators get this wrong by just adding the fee back to the desired amount. The annual savings panel multiplies the per-transaction difference by your real monthly volume so you can quantify exactly what switching processors costs or saves over a year.

How to Use

  1. Pick the country your business is registered in (this drives which fee schedule applies)
  2. Pick the payment method your buyer will use (domestic card, UPI, ACH, international card, PayPal wallet, etc.)
  3. Pick the calculation mode — forward (you charge X, see what arrives) or reverse (you want X to arrive, see what to charge)
  4. Enter the amount; if buyer is paying in a foreign currency, tick the conversion box to add the FX fee
  5. Read the side-by-side comparison — the highest net (or lowest gross in reverse mode) is highlighted in green
  6. Use the Annual savings panel to multiply per-transaction difference by your actual monthly volume

How payment processor fees actually work

A payment processor charges three kinds of fees. The headline rate (e.g., "2.9 % + 30¢") is the most visible, but the others can dominate at certain volumes.

  1. Variable rate — a percentage of the gross amount. Typically 1.5 % – 4.99 % depending on country, card type, and rail. International cards add 1–2 percentage points on top of the domestic rate.
  2. Fixed fee — a flat amount per transaction, typically 20–50 cents in the US/UK/EU. Significant on small transactions: at $1, the fixed 30¢ fee is 30 % of revenue. PayPal's "micropayments" tier flips this — 4.99 % + 9¢ — designed for transactions under about $12 where the lower fixed fee outweighs the higher percentage.
  3. Conversion / FX fee — when the buyer pays in a different currency to your settlement currency, the processor sells you a worse exchange rate. Stripe charges 1 % above the wholesale rate; PayPal charges 3–4 %. This is invisible in the headline rate but is often the biggest single fee component on cross-border payments.

India adds a fourth: GST on fees. Both Razorpay and Stripe India charge 18 % GST on their fees, which means a 2 % headline rate is really 2.36 % effective. Most generic calculators forget this and undercount by roughly 0.4 %. Our calculator surfaces GST as a separate line so you can see exactly what the GST on fees costs you.

Forward vs reverse — and why the reverse math matters

Most calculators only do forward: you charge the buyer X, here is what arrives. Useful, but not the question freelancers and SMBs actually ask. The real question is: "I want exactly $1,000 in my bank for this project. What should I invoice?"

Naive reverse: take the fee on $1,000 (e.g., 2.9 % + $0.30 = $29.30) and add it back. That gives $1,029.30 invoice — but Stripe will then charge 2.9 % of $1,029.30, not of $1,000, so you receive only $999.55. Not the worst error, but for invoiced services where you owe a specific amount to your subcontractor or supplier, that 50¢ of slippage repeats every transaction.

Correct reverse uses the closed-form solution: gross = (desired + fixed × (1 + gst)) / (1 − rate × (1 + gst) − conversion_fee). For $1,000 desired on Stripe US: gross = $1,030.20, you receive exactly $1,000.00. The calculator does this automatically when you flip to reverse mode.

For India + Razorpay where GST applies, the difference is bigger: a naive reverse on ₹10,000 desired understates by ₹40–60 per transaction. Across 500 transactions a year, that is ₹20,000–30,000 the freelancer was leaving on the table.

Choosing between Stripe, Razorpay, and PayPal in India

Indian businesses have all three available but for different use cases. Quick guide:

  • Razorpay for domestic INR collection from Indian customers — cards, UPI, netbanking, wallets. The 2 % standard rate (+18 % GST = 2.36 % effective) is competitive, settlement is T+2, and it is wired into every Indian payment method out of the box. Default choice for India-only Indian-rupee businesses.
  • Stripe India for Indian businesses that need to also accept international cards, especially for SaaS or digital exports where 60–80 % of buyers are outside India. Stripe handles the export-INR flow and FIRC/FIRA reporting that RBI requires. Domestic rate is similar to Razorpay; international rate is 4.3 % + 18 % GST = 5.07 % effective.
  • PayPal India only for cross-border export receipts (FCY → INR with FIRC). Domestic INR through PayPal India is not really possible. Rate is 4.4 % + ₹3 + 18 % GST + 4 % FX spread = roughly 8 – 9 % effective. PayPal is the most expensive but is sometimes the only practical option when the buyer insists on PayPal (common in US/EU SaaS B2C). For B2B export, push buyers to wire / Stripe / Wise instead.

The TL;DR: domestic Indian B2C → Razorpay. Cross-border SaaS → Stripe India primary, PayPal secondary. If you can avoid PayPal, do — its FX spread is the worst of the three by a wide margin.

When the fixed fee dominates — and the micropayment tier

For high-ticket transactions ($500+) the percentage rate dominates and the fixed fee is rounding error. For low-ticket transactions the math reverses. At a $5 transaction, Stripe US 2.9 % + $0.30 is $0.45 — 9 % effective, not 2.9 %. That is why payment processors all offer "micropayment" tiers for low-value goods.

PayPal micropayments (US, opt-in): 4.99 % + 9¢. Compare to standard 2.99 % + 49¢:

  • $1 transaction: standard = 52¢ (52 %), micro = 14¢ (14 %)
  • $5 transaction: standard = 64¢ (12.8 %), micro = 34¢ (6.8 %)
  • $12 transaction: standard = 85¢ (7.1 %), micro = 69¢ (5.7 %)
  • $20 transaction: standard = $1.09 (5.4 %), micro = $1.09 (5.4 %)
  • $50 transaction: standard = $1.99 (4.0 %), micro = $2.59 (5.2 %)

Crossover is around $12. Below that, opt into micropayments; above, standard wins. Stripe does not offer a public micropayment tier but their flat structure handles it acceptably for transactions over about $3.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are these the actual current fees?

Yes — verified April 2026 against the official pricing pages of Stripe, Razorpay, and PayPal. The big rates do not change often (Stripe US has been 2.9% + $0.30 since 2014) but small changes happen yearly. The bottom of the calculator links to the official pricing pages so you can re-verify before signing a contract. Note that this calculator shows <strong>standard published rates</strong>; if you process meaningful volume you can negotiate enterprise rates that are 0.3–0.8 percentage points lower.

Why is reverse calculation harder than just adding the fee back?

Many free calculators do reverse by computing fee on the desired amount and adding it back. That is wrong because the fee is computed on the gross, not the net — adding it back leaves you short. The correct formula solves a closed-form equation: gross = (desired + fixed × (1 + gst)) / (1 − rate × (1 + gst) − conversion_fee). For typical rates the error of the naive method is around 0.1–0.3 % — small per transaction, but for a $5,000 invoice that is $5–15 you would be undercharging.

Why is GST shown only for India?

India levies 18 % GST on the processor fee itself (not on your customer's payment). So Razorpay's headline 2 % is really 2.36 % effective for the merchant. The other countries either do not tax payment-processor fees or include it implicitly. Stripe India also charges GST on its fees; the calculator handles both correctly.

What does "PayPal Checkout" mean — why two PayPal rates for the US?

PayPal has two different US fee tiers: <strong>2.99% + $0.49</strong> when the buyer pays with a credit/debit card directly, and <strong>3.49% + $0.49</strong> when the buyer logs into PayPal and pays from their PayPal balance or with Venmo. The latter is called PayPal Checkout. Both are valid US rules and the calculator shows them as two rows so you can see the difference based on what your buyer actually does.

Why does Razorpay show 0% MDR for UPI on some sites but 2% here?

Indian government rules mandate that bank-to-bank UPI transfers carry zero MDR (Merchant Discount Rate), which the bank waives. But Razorpay charges a separate "platform fee" of around 2 % to cover its dashboard, fraud protection, settlement, and reconciliation infrastructure. Some merchants get partial subsidies or zero platform fee for UPI under specific schemes; if that is your case, treat the 2 % shown as a worst-case ceiling.

How is the annual savings calculated?

It multiplies the per-transaction fee difference between the best and worst rail by an estimated number of transactions per month. The estimate is your monthly volume divided by the per-transaction amount, which is roughly correct if your average ticket is the amount you entered. If your ticket sizes vary widely, switch to the average and rerun, or just treat the figure as a rough guide rather than an exact forecast.

Can I save my comparisons?

Yes — click "Save current" in the Saved scenarios block. Up to 50 scenarios are kept in your browser's localStorage. Useful for comparing "domestic card vs international card vs UPI" within the same view, or for sharing a comparison with a teammate by exporting the configuration manually.

Is my data uploaded?

No. The fee schedule is bundled with the page; the calculator runs entirely in your browser; saved scenarios live in your local storage. Nothing is transmitted to any server.

Related Tools

Related: stripe fee calculator, paypal fee calculator, razorpay fee calculator, payment processing fee calculator, how much does stripe charge, how much does paypal charge, how much does razorpay charge, stripe vs paypal fees, stripe vs razorpay fees, reverse paypal calculator, reverse stripe calculator, payment gateway fee comparison, gst on razorpay fees, paypal currency conversion fee, stripe india fees, stripe uae fees