A credit card processing fee calculator shows exactly what accepting cards costs your business. Enter your monthly card volume, rate, transaction count and fees to see your true monthly and yearly costs, your effective rate and your cost per transaction. Then compare a zero-fee or surcharge program against what you pay today, or model what a surcharge adds to a single sale.
What you pay now
The example values above are an illustration, not industry averages. Replace them with your own statement numbers.
Zero-fee / surcharge program comparison
Savings are shown honestly: if the program costs more than your current fees, the savings figures turn negative.
Surcharge a sale
How the math works
Your current fees are (volume x rate / 100) + (transactions x per-transaction fee) + other monthly fees. The example above, $50,000 x 3.2 / 100 + 850 x $0.10, comes to $1,685 per month, an effective rate of 3.37%.
Effective rate is total fees divided by volume, times 100. Cost per transaction is total fees divided by the transaction count. Fees per $100 of sales is the effective rate expressed in dollars. Program savings are your current fees minus the program cost, and the 5-year impact is monthly savings times 60. A surcharge adds sale x surcharge% / 100 to the sale; what you keep is the total minus the processing cost on that total (total x your rate / 100 + your per-transaction fee).
Rounding: fees are rounded to cents, effective rates to 2 decimals, and the percent of fees eliminated to the nearest whole percent. Where a value cannot be computed (for example a rate with zero volume), the calculator shows a dash instead of a misleading number.
Surcharge rules, briefly
Visa lowered its maximum surcharge from 4% to 3% in April 2023, and a surcharge may not exceed your actual cost of acceptance. Mastercard's own cap is 4%, so most merchants stay at or below 3%.
- Debit and prepaid cards can never be surcharged; surcharges apply to credit cards only.
- Merchants must give the card networks written notice (typically 30 days) before starting a surcharge program, must disclose the surcharge before the customer pays, and must itemize it on the receipt.
- State rules vary and change, so check the current rules where you operate.
- Cash discounting, a discount off the card price for paying cash, is treated differently from surcharging.
This is general information, not legal or financial advice. Confirm the current rules with your processor or counsel before starting a surcharge program.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as processing fees?
Everything your processor takes out of a card sale: interchange paid to the cardholder's bank, network assessments, your processor's markup, per-transaction authorization fees, and monthly fees such as statement, gateway or PCI compliance fees.
How do I find my effective rate?
Divide one month's total processing fees by that month's card volume and multiply by 100. For example, $1,685 in fees on $50,000 of card sales is a 3.37% effective rate. Your monthly statement has both numbers; the effective rate is usually higher than your quoted rate because it includes every fee.
What is the difference between surcharging and cash discounting?
Surcharging adds a fee to the card price when a customer pays by credit card. Cash discounting lists one card price and offers a discount for paying cash. Card networks treat them as different programs with different rules, so read the current rules before choosing. This is general information, not legal advice.
Can I surcharge debit cards?
No. Debit and prepaid cards can never be surcharged. Surcharges apply to credit card transactions only.
Why does my effective rate differ from my quoted rate?
The quoted rate is usually just the percentage markup. Per-transaction fees, monthly fees, and a mix of higher-cost card types all push the effective rate above the quote. The illustration above uses example numbers, not industry averages.
Is my data uploaded anywhere?
No. All calculations happen in your browser with JavaScript. Nothing leaves your device.