On a $75 debit sale, a flat rate of 2.6% plus 15 cents costs $2.10. In the inputs of NPS’s 2026 pricing study, the card-side cost of the same sale on a large-bank debit card is about 38 cents under pass-through pricing, before the provider’s markup. Small-bank debit costs more, about 88 cents in person in the same model. This guide puts those per-sale numbers side by side for tickets from $15 to $300, shows how to read them, and lists what a table like this leaves out, so you can ask a provider for the same view of your own sales.
Pricing models
Flat rate vs pass-through on a $75 debit sale
- Cost on a $75 in-person sale
- Flat rate$2.10
- Pass-through$0.38 large-bank / $0.88 small-bank
- How cost grows with ticket size
- Flat ratePercentage keeps climbing
- Pass-throughCapped fee barely moves
- What drives the price
- Flat rateOne rate on every card
- Pass-throughActual interchange and network fees per card
The gap is widest online and on invoices, and narrowest on very small in-person sales.
The short answer
- Per sale, before any provider markup, the modeled gap grows from cents to dollars as the ticket passes about $40. A flat percentage grows with the sale. A capped debit fee barely moves.
- These are modeled card costs, not a quote. The pass-through figures are interchange plus network fees from the study’s inputs. They exclude any provider markup and monthly fees.
- Two kinds of debit appear in the table. Debit from large banks is capped by federal rule. Debit from smaller banks and credit unions is not, and costs more.
- Where the sale happens changes the line. In person, online and invoice sales have different flat-rate prices and different interchange.
- Use it as a template. Ask any provider to price your own tickets this way, with every fee listed.
In-person debit costs
Cost of one debit sale in person, by ticket size
| Sale amount | Flat rate 2.6% + 15¢ | Pass-through large-bank |
|---|---|---|
| $15 | $0.54 | $0.27 |
| $40 | $1.19 | $0.32 |
| $75 | $2.10 | $0.38 |
| $150 | $4.05 | $0.53 |
| $300 | $7.95 | $0.81 |
Where these numbers come from
The figures below are arithmetic on the inputs published in NPS’s 2026 pricing study, “The Flat-Rate Tax”, which you can read here. It is a cost model built on published rate schedules by a processor that sells pass-through pricing. It is not a survey of real merchants and it is not a price quote. We did the multiplication. The inputs are the study’s.
- Large-bank (regulated) debit interchange: 0.05% plus 22 cents.
- Small-bank (exempt) debit interchange: 0.80% plus 15 cents in person, 1.65% plus 15 cents online and by invoice.
- Card network assessments and per-item fees: 0.14% plus 2 cents on every sale.
- Flat-rate benchmarks: 2.6% plus 15 cents in person (Square’s Free plan), 2.9% plus 30 cents online (Stripe), 3.3% plus 30 cents for invoices (Stripe with its Invoicing fee, and Square invoices). The study took these from published U.S. pricing, accessed October 2026. Prices change, so read each provider’s current page.
Flat-rate benchmarks
What flat-rate debit costs by channel
- In person2.6% + 15¢In-person saleSquare’s Free plan; e.g. $2.10 on a $75 sale
- Online2.9% + 30¢Online saleStripe published U.S. pricing, accessed October 2026
- Invoice3.3% + 30¢Invoice saleStripe with its Invoicing fee, and Square invoices
Interchange is the fee paid to the bank that issued the customer’s card. Network assessments go to the card brands. Pass-through pricing, also called interchange plus, means you pay those two actual costs for each sale plus a disclosed markup from your provider. The markup is the one line we cannot show you here, because it is set provider by provider. We leave NPS’s out on purpose, and the study treats it as a modeled input rather than a published rate.
Debit cost per sale when the customer pays in person
This table shows the cost of one debit sale, in dollars, by size of sale. “Pass-through, large-bank debit” is interchange plus network fees for a capped card. “Pass-through, small-bank debit” is the same for an exempt card. Neither includes the provider’s markup.
| Sale | Flat rate 2.6% + 15c | Pass-through, large-bank debit | Pass-through, small-bank debit |
|---|---|---|---|
| $15 | $0.54 | $0.27 | $0.31 |
| $40 | $1.19 | $0.32 | $0.55 |
| $75 | $2.10 | $0.38 | $0.88 |
| $150 | $4.05 | $0.53 | $1.58 |
| $300 | $7.95 | $0.81 | $2.99 |
Read across the $15 row. On a very small sale, the flat rate costs $0.54 and the card-side cost is $0.27 to $0.31. The gap is a few cents, and a provider markup of even a few cents would erase much of it. That matches what the study says about in-person businesses with tickets around $15 and under: they save little by switching.
Now read the $150 row. The flat rate costs $4.05. Large-bank debit costs about $0.53 on the card side, and small-bank debit costs about $1.58. The flat percentage keeps climbing with the sale while a capped fee does not. This is the reason ticket size matters so much in this debate.
Debit cost per sale online and on invoices
The flat-rate price is higher online and higher again on invoices, and small-bank debit interchange is higher online too. Here is the same table for sales that are not in person. The pass-through column for large-bank debit does not change between in-person and online in the study’s inputs.
| Sale | Flat rate online 2.9% + 30c | Flat rate invoice 3.3% + 30c | Pass-through, large-bank debit | Pass-through, small-bank debit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15 | $0.74 | $0.80 | $0.27 | $0.44 |
| $40 | $1.46 | $1.62 | $0.32 | $0.89 |
| $75 | $2.48 | $2.78 | $0.38 | $1.51 |
| $150 | $4.65 | $5.25 | $0.53 | $2.86 |
| $300 | $9.00 | $10.20 | $0.81 | $5.54 |
The study found its largest savings in online and invoice sales: pass-through cost 19% to 31% less than flat rate across average tickets from $15 to $2,500 in the model. The table shows why. On a $300 invoice paid by debit, a 3.3% plus 30 cent flat rate costs $10.20, and the card-side cost of a small-bank debit card is about $5.54 in the model. Even the less favorable debit card costs about half.
The invoice column also carries a warning. The study quotes Stripe’s Invoicing fee as adding 0.4% to 0.5% per paid invoice, while Stripe’s own page, read November 13, 2026, lists 0.4%, and Square charges 3.3% plus 30 cents for invoices against 2.6% plus 15 cents in person. If you invoice, check which of those lines your flat rate adds. We look at those costs in how much you are really paying on Stripe, Square, PayPal or QuickBooks.
A month of sales, worked through
Per-sale numbers are easier to feel as a month. Take a shop with 100 in-person sales a month at $75 each. In the study’s model, 30% of sales at that ticket are debit, so 30 of the 100 are debit. The study also assumes 35% of debit volume comes from small banks that are not capped.
On a flat rate of 2.6% plus 15 cents, each of those 30 debit sales costs $2.10, which comes to $63.00. On pass-through, about 65% of them are capped cards at about $0.38 and about 35% are small-bank cards at about $0.88, which averages about $0.55 a sale and about $16.65 for the 30. The difference on debit alone is about $46 a month in the model, before the provider’s markup on every sale and before any monthly fees. That is the portion the markup has to come out of, which is why the right comparison is total cost, not the headline rate.
Notice what this example does not say. It does not say you will save $46. Your markup, your fixed fees, your real debit share and your real mix of issuers will move the answer in either direction. It says where to look.
Why a capped fee barely moves while a percentage keeps climbing
The shape of the table comes from how the two prices are built. A flat rate has a percentage part and a fixed part. On a $15 sale, 2.6% is about 39 cents and the fixed 15 cents is a large slice of the total. On a $300 sale, 2.6% is $7.80 and the fixed part barely registers. The percentage does most of the work as tickets grow.
The large-bank debit interchange in the study’s inputs is 0.05% plus 22 cents. On $15 that is about 23 cents. On $300 it is about 37 cents. Almost all of that cost is the fixed 22 cents, so a bigger sale hardly changes it. Add the network fees of 0.14% plus 2 cents and the total for a $300 sale is still under a dollar, about 81 cents. That is why a business with larger average tickets and a lot of capped debit sees the biggest difference, and why a business with $15 tickets sees the smallest.
Small-bank debit sits between the two. Its percentage part is bigger, 0.80% in person and 1.65% online, so its cost does grow with the sale, but from a much lower base than the flat rate. It is the reason we show two debit columns instead of one.
If most of your sales are small
Small tickets deserve their own note, because they are where the table is least kind to pass-through pricing. At $15 the card-side saving in person is about 23 to 27 cents a sale in the study’s inputs. A provider that charges a per-transaction markup of a few cents leaves you with a smaller saving, and a provider that also charges monthly fees may leave you with none. That is consistent with the study’s own finding that in-person businesses with tickets around $15 and under save little by switching.
If your average sale is low and you like the simplicity of a flat rate, the honest answer may be to stay where you are. If your average sale is closer to $75 or above, the numbers deserve a closer look.
What the table leaves out
A per-sale table is a teaching tool. Several things sit outside it.
- Credit cards. A flat rate can be a fair price for an expensive rewards card. This guide looks at debit only, so it understates how flat rate and pass-through compare on credit. Business and commercial cards can cost more, which narrows the gap for B2B sellers.
- The provider’s markup. This is the number you negotiate. Ask for it in writing.
- Monthly and fixed fees. Gateway, statement, compliance and minimum fees can change the total. Our guide on transparent merchant pricing lists the lines to ask about.
- Add-on fees on flat plans. Invoicing, keyed-in cards, instant payouts and disputes. The study excludes chargeback, instant payout and other add-on fees from its flat-rate figures, so real flat-rate bills can run higher.
- Rule changes. The study says the Federal Reserve has proposed lowering the debit cap, and that proposal remains unresolved, so capped debit costs could fall.
- Your own card mix. The study says interchange varies by card type, industry and how the transaction is processed.
How to get this table for your own business
You can ask a provider to build the same view from your statements. The steps are short.
- Pull three months of statements and list your total card sales, sale count and average sale.
- Find your debit sales. If the statement does not split debit from credit, ask for a report that does.
- Ask what share of that debit came from large issuers and what share from smaller ones.
- Ask for the total cost of those three months under pass-through pricing, with the markup and every monthly fee in writing.
- Set it beside your actual total fees. Do not compare the headline rates alone.
Run it yourself
How to get this table for your own business
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Pull three months of statementsList your total card sales, sale count and average sale.
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Find your debit salesIf the statement does not split debit from credit, ask for a report that does.
-
Ask about your debit mixAsk what share of that debit came from large issuers and what share from smaller ones.
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Get pass-through costs in writingAsk for the total cost of those three months under pass-through pricing, with the markup and every monthly fee in writing.
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Set it beside your actual total feesDo not compare the headline rates alone.
NPS offers a free statement review if you want a second opinion. Our guide to reading your merchant statement shows where each number sits, and flat-rate versus cost-plus processing compares the two models more broadly.
Related questions this page does not answer
This page is about cost per sale. Three neighboring questions have their own guides. If you want to decide whether a flat rate is costing you too much given your sales mix, read mostly debit sales: flat rate versus interchange plus. If you want to see where the extra dollars in a flat rate go, read where Stripe fees actually go: interchange plus versus flat rate. And if you want to know which debit cards the federal cap covers, read whether the debit cap applies to small-bank cards. For the background on where each fee goes, see where Stripe fees actually go.
For the full picture across every sales channel and average ticket, read our guide to cheapest payment processing in 2026.
Who wrote this, and where NPS fits
Nationwide Payment Systems publishes this guide. We are a payments company based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in business since 2001, and we sell interchange-plus processing, so we are not neutral. We do not publish a rate, because the right price depends on your volume, ticket size, card mix and industry. The numbers above are our arithmetic on the inputs of a model written by our CEO, and they are not a quote. Browse our payments guides for more on fees and pricing.
We are not the right fit for everyone. A brand-new or very low-volume business may be better served by a simple flat-rate plan. Ask any provider for pricing in writing, based on your own statements.
Bottom line
Under a flat rate, a debit sale costs more as the sale grows. Under pass-through pricing, a capped debit card costs under a dollar even at a few hundred dollars, and a small-bank debit card costs more but still less than the flat price in the study’s inputs. The gap is widest online and on invoices, and narrowest on very small in-person sales. Treat the table as a template, not a promise: add your provider’s markup and fixed fees before you compare. If you want to run it on your own statements, contact our team, and if a flat rate fits you better, we will say so.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a debit card cost a small business to accept?
It depends on the issuer, the sale size and where the sale happens. In the inputs of NPS’s 2026 pricing study, a $75 large-bank debit sale costs about 38 cents on the card side, and a small-bank debit sale about 88 cents in person, before the provider’s markup. A flat rate of 2.6% plus 15 cents would cost $2.10 on the same sale.
Why is debit cheaper under pass-through pricing?
Pass-through pricing charges the actual interchange and network fees for each card. Debit cards from large banks have capped interchange, so the card-side cost is low. A flat rate charges one percentage on every card regardless.
Do these numbers include NPS’s fees?
No. They show interchange plus card network fees only. Any provider also adds a markup and may add monthly fees, so ask for those in writing.
Is the table a quote?
No. It is arithmetic on the inputs of a model published by NPS, a processor that sells pass-through pricing. Your cost depends on your own statement.
Does the federal debit cap apply to every debit card?
No. It covers debit cards from large banks. Smaller banks and credit unions are exempt, so their debit cards can cost more to accept.
Where are the savings largest?
In the study’s model, online and invoice sales showed the largest gap, 19% to 31% less on pass-through across tickets from $15 to $2,500. Very small in-person tickets showed the least.
Could these costs change?
Yes. Card network rates change, flat-rate providers change their prices, and the study notes the Federal Reserve has proposed lowering the debit cap, which remains unresolved.
