Stripe vs Wise Business fees
What a US freelancer or creator keeps from a domestic payment of 100, 500, 1,000 and 5,000 US dollars: a card or a bank debit through Stripe against a bank transfer or a wire to Wise Business account details, from the fees each one publishes.
The rows are not like for like. Stripe takes a card or debits your client's bank account for you. Wise Business is an account your client pays by bank transfer; it does not take a card payment for you. The Wise rows only help if your client is willing to pay by bank transfer.
The short answer
Receiving a domestic bank transfer that is not a wire costs nothing at Wise Business, so it beats every Stripe rate at every amount. A US dollar wire or Swift payment to Wise costs a fixed 6.11 US dollars: that is 2.91 more than the Stripe card fee on 100, but 8.69 less on 500, 23.19 less on 1,000 and 139.19 less on 5,000. Stripe ACH Direct Debit never costs more than 5.00 US dollars, which is below the wire fee at every amount.
Stripe: worked examples
| Provider and rate | Client pays | Fee | Effective % | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe online card payment, 2.9% + $0.30 | $100.00 | $3.20 | 3.20% | $96.80 |
| Stripe ACH Direct Debit, 0.8%, fee capped at $5.00 | $100.00 | $0.80 | 0.80% | $99.20 |
| Stripe online card payment, 2.9% + $0.30 | $500.00 | $14.80 | 2.96% | $485.20 |
| Stripe ACH Direct Debit, 0.8%, fee capped at $5.00 | $500.00 | $4.00 | 0.80% | $496.00 |
| Stripe online card payment, 2.9% + $0.30 | $1,000.00 | $29.30 | 2.93% | $970.70 |
| Stripe ACH Direct Debit, 0.8%, fee capped at $5.00 | $1,000.00 | $5.00 | 0.50% | $995.00 |
| Stripe online card payment, 2.9% + $0.30 | $5,000.00 | $145.30 | 2.91% | $4,854.70 |
| Stripe ACH Direct Debit, 0.8%, fee capped at $5.00 | $5,000.00 | $5.00 | 0.10% | $4,995.00 |
Source: Pricing & Fees (stripe.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
Wise Business: worked examples
| Provider and rate | Client pays | Fee | Effective % | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wise Business, domestic non-wire bank transfer, no fee to receive | $100.00 | $0.00 | 0.00% | $100.00 |
| Wise Business, USD wire or Swift payment, $6.11 fixed | $100.00 | $6.11 | 6.11% | $93.89 |
| Wise Business, domestic non-wire bank transfer, no fee to receive | $500.00 | $0.00 | 0.00% | $500.00 |
| Wise Business, USD wire or Swift payment, $6.11 fixed | $500.00 | $6.11 | 1.22% | $493.89 |
| Wise Business, domestic non-wire bank transfer, no fee to receive | $1,000.00 | $0.00 | 0.00% | $1,000.00 |
| Wise Business, USD wire or Swift payment, $6.11 fixed | $1,000.00 | $6.11 | 0.61% | $993.89 |
| Wise Business, domestic non-wire bank transfer, no fee to receive | $5,000.00 | $0.00 | 0.00% | $5,000.00 |
| Wise Business, USD wire or Swift payment, $6.11 fixed | $5,000.00 | $6.11 | 0.12% | $4,993.89 |
Source: Fees for Getting Paid & Adding Money - Wise Business Account (wise.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
Costs outside the per-payment fee
- Wise set-up fee. Wise Business publishes a one-time 31 US dollar fee to get account details. It is paid once and is not in the rows above. On a single payment it outweighs the Stripe card fee at 100, 500 and 1,000.
- Moving money out of Wise. No fixed figure was read for sending US dollars from Wise to a US bank account, so none is recorded here. That is a gap in what was read, not a statement that it is free.
- Stripe payouts. 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.
- Your client's bank. A bank may charge its own customer to send a transfer or a wire. That fee is the client's, and it is not in these figures.
Source: Fees for Getting Paid & Adding Money - Wise Business Account (wise.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
Source: Pricing & Fees (stripe.com), fees last verified 2026-10-06
What these figures leave out
- Payers and cards outside the US and currency conversion. Both publish figures for them; they are part of the Pro page.
- Taxes, chargebacks, disputes and refunds. A card payment can be disputed in ways a bank transfer cannot; that risk is not priced here.
- 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 Wise page, and the method is on the methodology page.