Stripe vs Lemon Squeezy fees
What each one deducts from one sale of 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 US dollars to a US buyer paying by card, computed from the fees Stripe and Lemon Squeezy publish on their own pages.
The two rows are not like for like. Stripe is a card processor: you are the seller, and sales tax is yours to handle. Lemon Squeezy is a merchant of record: it is the seller towards the buyer and handles sales tax and EU VAT. Part of the higher Lemon Squeezy fee pays for that.
The short answer
Stripe publishes 2.9% + 0.30 US dollars for a domestic card entered online; Lemon Squeezy publishes 5% + 0.50 per transaction. On those fees Lemon Squeezy costs 2.30 more on a sale of 100, 10.70 more on 500, 21.20 more on 1,000 and 105.20 more on 5,000. Whether that is worth it depends on what handling sales tax yourself would cost you, which this site does not estimate.
Worked examples
| Provider and rate | Buyer pays | Fee | Effective % | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe online card payment, 2.9% + $0.30 | $100.00 | $3.20 | 3.20% | $96.80 |
| Lemon Squeezy, 5% + $0.50 | $100.00 | $5.50 | 5.50% | $94.50 |
| Stripe online card payment, 2.9% + $0.30 | $500.00 | $14.80 | 2.96% | $485.20 |
| Lemon Squeezy, 5% + $0.50 | $500.00 | $25.50 | 5.10% | $474.50 |
| Stripe online card payment, 2.9% + $0.30 | $1,000.00 | $29.30 | 2.93% | $970.70 |
| Lemon Squeezy, 5% + $0.50 | $1,000.00 | $50.50 | 5.05% | $949.50 |
| Stripe online card payment, 2.9% + $0.30 | $5,000.00 | $145.30 | 2.91% | $4,854.70 |
| Lemon Squeezy, 5% + $0.50 | $5,000.00 | $250.50 | 5.01% | $4,749.50 |
Source: Pricing & Fees (stripe.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
Source: Pricing • Lemon Squeezy (www.lemonsqueezy.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
Surcharges each one publishes for a domestic sale
- Stripe: an extra 0.5% when the card number is keyed in by hand instead of being entered by the customer online.
- Lemon Squeezy: an extra 1.5% when the buyer pays with PayPal, and an extra 0.5% when the payment belongs to a subscription.
Each surcharge is added to the base fee and none of them is in the rows above.
Source: Pricing & Fees (stripe.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
Source: Fees • Lemon Squeezy (docs.lemonsqueezy.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
Getting the money to your bank
- Lemon Squeezy: a payout to a US bank account is listed with no fee, and a payout to a US PayPal account with a flat 0.50 US dollar fee.
- Stripe: an Instant Payout for US accounts is published at 1.5% of the payout with a minimum of 0.50 US dollars. No fee for a standard payout was read on the pricing page, so none is recorded here. That is a gap in what was read, not a statement that it is free.
Source: Fees • Lemon Squeezy (docs.lemonsqueezy.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
Source: Pricing & Fees (stripe.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
What these figures leave out
- Buyers and cards outside the US and currency conversion. Both publish surcharges for them; they are part of the Pro page.
- Taxes, chargebacks, disputes and refunds.
- The cost of the checkout, delivery or licensing software you would add to Stripe yourself.
- Rounding: fees are rounded to the nearest cent here. A provider may round one cent differently.
Use the calculator for any other amount. Each provider on its own is on the Stripe page and the Lemon Squeezy page, and the method is on the methodology page.