Payout fee calculator for creators and freelancers
Enter an amount in US dollars and compare what seven payment and creator platforms deduct from a domestic US payment, using the fees each one publishes on its own pricing page.
| Provider | What the rate covers | Client pays | Fee | Effective % | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Payoneer | Receiving from a client via a receiving account in your local currency (USD for a US account) | $100.00 | $0.00 | 0.00% | $100.00 |
| Wise Business | Receiving a domestic USD payment (non-Swift, non-wire, e.g. ACH) to Wise Business account details | $100.00 | $0.00 | 0.00% | $100.00 |
| Stripe | Online card payment, domestic card, standard pricing | $100.00 | $3.20 | 3.20% | $96.80 |
| PayPal | Invoicing, paid with PayPal Checkout, Pay with Venmo or PayPal Guest Checkout | $100.00 | $3.98 | 3.98% | $96.02 |
| Lemon Squeezy | Sale through Lemon Squeezy (merchant of record), US buyer paying by card | $100.00 | $5.50 | 5.50% | $94.50 |
| Patreon (partial) | Platform fee on what you earn on Patreon | $100.00 | $10.00 | 10.00% | $90.00 |
| Gumroad (partial) | Sale through your profile or a direct link | $100.00 | $10.50 | 10.50% | $89.50 |
- Source: Fees | Merchant and Business | PayPal US (www.paypal.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Pricing & Fees (stripe.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Fees for Getting Paid & Adding Money - Wise Business Account (wise.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Pricing | Payoneer (www.payoneer.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Pricing (gumroad.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Patreon Pricing Plans — Patreon (www.patreon.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Pricing • Lemon Squeezy (www.lemonsqueezy.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
Read this before comparing rows. The rows are not like for like:
- Wise Business and Payoneer are accounts your client pays by bank transfer, so the 0% row is a bank transfer, not a card payment. Payoneer publishes a 1.50 US dollar fee to withdraw to a US bank and a 29.95 US dollar annual fee for accounts that receive less than 6,000 US dollars in 12 months. Wise publishes a one-time 31 US dollar fee to get account details. None of those is in the per-payment fee above.
- Patreon (partial): only the 10% platform fee could be read. Patreon states that payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees are charged in addition, without a number on the page read, so the real deduction is higher than shown.
- Gumroad (partial): only the 10% + 0.50 US dollar Gumroad fee could be read. Whether a separate payment processing fee is added could not be read on a Gumroad page, so the real deduction may be higher than shown.
- Gumroad and Lemon Squeezy act as merchant of record and handle sales tax; PayPal and Stripe do not. That service is part of what their higher fee pays for.
- The rate you actually pay often depends on how your client chooses to pay. The second table shows the other rates each provider publishes.
Other published rates
The same amount through the other rates each provider publishes for a domestic US payment. A row marked as a maximum is published by the provider as "up to", so it is a ceiling, not a fixed rate.
| Provider | Rate | Client pays | Fee | Effective % | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PayPal | Invoicing, paid with a standard credit or debit card, Apple Pay or another third-party wallet | $100.00 | $3.48 | 3.48% | $96.52 |
| PayPal | Invoicing, paid with Pay by Bank (ACH) (fee capped at $10.00) | $100.00 | $1.00 | 1.00% | $99.00 |
| PayPal | Send/Receive Money for Goods and Services | $100.00 | $2.99 | 2.99% | $97.01 |
| Stripe | ACH Direct Debit (fee capped at $5.00) | $100.00 | $0.80 | 0.80% | $99.20 |
| Wise Business | Receiving a USD wire or Swift payment | $100.00 | $6.11 | 6.11% | $93.89 |
| Payoneer | From a payer using a credit card (published as a maximum) | $100.00 | $4.48 | 4.48% | $95.52 |
| Payoneer | From a payer using ACH bank debit (US only) | $100.00 | $1.00 | 1.00% | $99.00 |
| Gumroad | Sale to a new customer who finds you through the Discover marketplace | $100.00 | $30.00 | 30.00% | $70.00 |
- Source: Fees | Merchant and Business | PayPal US (www.paypal.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Pricing & Fees (stripe.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Fees for Getting Paid & Adding Money - Wise Business Account (wise.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Pricing | Payoneer (www.payoneer.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
- Source: Pricing (gumroad.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
How the numbers are computed
Fee = amount × percentage + fixed fee, rounded to the nearest cent, limited by the cap or minimum the provider publishes. What you keep = amount − fee. To find what to charge, the calculator looks for the smallest amount that leaves at least your target. A provider may round a fee one cent differently. The full method, the list of sources and what is left out are on the methodology page.
What is not covered
Upwork, Fiverr and Ko-fi are not in the calculator: their pages refused the automated reader on 2026-10-06, so no fee could be read from them, and this site does not publish a number it could not read at its source. Fees for payers outside the US, currency conversion and yearly cost are part of the Pro page.
What each provider takes
One page per provider, with worked examples at 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 US dollars.
- How much does Stripe take? Card payment and ACH Direct Debit
- How much does Wise Business take to receive a payment? Bank transfer and wire
- How much does Gumroad take? Direct sale and Discover sale (partial)
- How much does Patreon take? The published platform fee (partial)
- How much does Lemon Squeezy take? Base fee, surcharges and payouts
Worked comparisons
- PayPal vs Stripe fees at 100, 500 and 2,000 US dollars
- PayPal vs Wise Business fees: card or PayPal payment against a bank transfer
- Stripe vs Wise Business fees: card or bank debit against a bank transfer or wire
- Stripe vs Gumroad fees for selling a digital product, from 5 to 2,000 US dollars
- Stripe vs Lemon Squeezy fees: card processor against merchant of record
- Gumroad vs Lemon Squeezy fees for selling a digital product
- Gumroad vs Patreon vs Ko-fi fees for creators
- Patreon vs Ko-fi fees for memberships, from 5 US dollars a month
- Upwork vs Fiverr fees, and what you keep from direct clients
- How much does Fiverr take? A calculator for the rate on your own account