A store that collects money for other sellers has a different job than a normal store. This page covers card fees only. How vendor payouts work and what the legal setup looks like are questions for your payment provider and your own business adviser, and we give you the questions to ask them in writing. On the fee side, as read on Stripe’s pricing page on November 13, 2026, a domestic online card sale lists at 2.9% plus 30 cents. On a made-up month of 2,000 orders at $60, that is $4,080.
The short answer
- This page is about card fees, and nothing else. We do not say how to pay vendors, how to set up a marketplace, or what rules apply to one. Those depend on the provider and your situation.
- Our arithmetic: 2,000 orders at $60 is $120,000 in sales. At 2.9% plus 30 cents, the card fees are $4,080 a month, or $2.04 an order. That is made-up math to show the method, not a promise.
- The study is a model. NPS’s 2026 pricing study finds interchange pass-through costs 19% to 31% less than flat rate for online sales. NPS sells pass-through, so treat that as a reason to get a quote, not proof of your savings.
- Before you compare fees, compare the setup. Ask every provider the written questions below. A low fee on a setup that does not fit how you pay vendors is not cheap.
Why a marketplace is a different job
A normal store sells its own products. The customer pays, the store keeps the money, and the fee is a cost of the sale. A marketplace or multi-vendor store sells products that belong to other sellers. The customer pays the store, and part of that money is meant for someone else.
That changes the questions. For a normal store, the main one is “what does each card sale cost?” For a store that collects money for other sellers, there are more: who holds the money between the sale and the payout, when and how vendors are paid, who handles a refund on a vendor’s product, and who answers a dispute.
We are a card-processing company, and we are going to stay inside what we can speak to. This page does not state any law, licensing or compliance rule, because those depend on where you operate, how the money moves and how the provider is built. It also does not say that any provider, including NPS, offers a particular marketplace or payout product. If a provider says it does, ask for that in writing.
What the card fee looks like on a normal online sale
Whatever setup you land on, a customer’s card payment has a cost, and that is the part we can show with numbers. We took prices from each company’s own pages as we read them on November 13, 2026. Prices change and accounts can differ, so open the page yourself for today’s price.
- Stripe pricing page: 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful domestic card transaction. It also lists 0.5% extra for manually entered cards, and $15.00 for each dispute received, $15.00 for each dispute you respond to manually (refunded for won disputes) and $15.00 for each dispute appealed (not refunded).
- Square fees page: 3.3% plus 30 cents for online sales or invoices, 2.9% plus 30 cents for its online API, and 3.5% plus 15 cents for manual entry or card on file.
Listed card rates
Stripe vs. Square for online card sales
- Online card sale
- Stripe2.9% + 30¢
- Square3.3% + 30¢ (online sales/invoices)
- Online API rate
- Stripe2.9% + 30¢
- Square2.9% + 30¢
- Manually entered card
- Stripe0.5% extra on top of base rate
- Square3.5% + 15¢
Check each page for today’s price.
These are the headline prices for the card payment itself. A marketplace setup may add other charges, such as a fee per payout, and we do not list any because we did not read any provider’s marketplace pricing. Ask for them, as the question list below shows.
A made-up month: 2,000 orders at $60 (our arithmetic)
Here is the method, with made-up numbers. A store takes 2,000 orders a month at $60 each. That is $120,000 in sales.
- At 2.9% plus 30 cents: the percentage part is $3,480 and the 30 cent part is $600 (2,000 orders times 30 cents). The total is $4,080 a month, which is 3.4% of sales. On one $60 order, that is $1.74 plus 30 cents, or $2.04.
- At 3.3% plus 30 cents: the percentage part is $3,960 and the 30 cent part is $600. The total is $4,560 a month, or $2.28 an order, which is 3.8% of sales.
- The gap between those two: $480 a month, or $5,760 a year, on the same sales. That is why it matters to read which line of a price page applies to your kind of sale.
Made-up month math
What 2,000 orders at $60 actually costs
- At 2.9% + 30¢$4,080/moStripe listed rate$2.04 an order; 3.4% of $120,000 in sales
- At 3.3% + 30¢$4,560/moSquare online sales listed rate$2.28 an order; 3.8% of sales; $480 more a month than 2.9%
Two things to notice. The 30 cent part is $600 of the bill here, because it is charged on every order, and it is a bigger share at a $60 ticket than at a $500 ticket. And all of this is the fee for taking the customer’s card. It says nothing about the cost of paying your vendors, which is a separate question.
One more made-up addition. If 200 of those 2,000 orders were typed in by hand rather than entered by the customer, those 200 orders total $12,000, and Stripe’s listed extra 0.5% for manually entered cards would add $60 a month. A store where customers enter their own cards online will not see that, but it is worth asking any provider what it charges for typed-in cards.
What the study’s model suggests for online sales
The study is called “The Flat-Rate Tax” (2026 Edition), and it was written by Allen Kopelman, the CEO of NPS. It is a model built from published rate schedules, not a survey of real merchants. For online and invoice sales, across average tickets from $15 to $2,500, it finds interchange pass-through costs 19% to 31% less than flat rate. It also says flat rate can still win for very small tickets, and for brand-new businesses with very low volume.
Here is that range applied to our made-up month, again as our arithmetic and not a promise. Take the $4,080 flat-rate figure. If a pass-through setup came in 19% to 31% lower, as in the model, the monthly cost would fall to between about $2,815 and $3,305. That is about $775 to $1,265 a month in the model, or roughly $9,300 to $15,200 a year.
Please read that with care. The model does not know your card mix. Interchange varies by card type, and business and commercial cards can cost more. Some payments, like those carrying extra data, can cost less. And the model is about the cost of taking card payments, not about a marketplace payout setup. We cannot tell you your number. Only your statement and a written quote can.
The wider picture of how interchange pass-through and flat rate differ is in where Stripe fees actually go, and the full cost comparison is in our guide to cheapest payment processing in 2026.
Questions to ask any provider, in writing
For a marketplace store, the fee per card sale is only one line. These questions bring the rest into view. Ask each provider to answer in an email or a written quote, so you can compare them side by side and keep a record.
Who holds the funds?
- Between the customer’s payment and the vendor’s payout, whose account does the money sit in?
- Is that how it works for every order, or does it change by order size or vendor?
- What does the provider say you need to have in place to be set up this way?
Ask in writing
Questions to ask every provider before you sign
- Ask who holds the funds between the customer’s payment and the vendor’s payout
- Ask how long after a sale a vendor can be paid, and whether timing differs by vendor or country
- Ask who receives a dispute, who responds, and who pays the dispute fee on a vendor’s product
- Ask whether there is a fee each time a vendor is paid, and whether it is flat or a percentage
- Ask whether the card price is flat or interchange plus a markup written in the agreement
- Ask to see a sample statement with every fee on its own line
Payout timing
- How long after a sale can a vendor be paid?
- Can the timing differ by vendor, by country or by payment method?
- Is there a minimum balance or a hold period for new sellers?
Disputes and refunds
- When a customer disputes a sale of a vendor’s product, who receives the dispute, who responds and who pays the dispute fee?
- If a refund is issued after the vendor was paid, how does the money come back?
- Are card fees returned when you refund an order, or kept?
Fees per payout
- Is there a fee each time a vendor is paid, and is it a flat amount or a percentage?
- Is there a monthly fee, per-vendor fee, onboarding fee or statement fee?
- What does an instant payout cost compared with a standard one?
The card fee itself
- Is the card price flat, or interchange plus a markup written in the agreement?
- What does a manually entered card cost, and what does a dispute cost?
- Can I see a sample statement with every fee on its own line?
If an answer is “it depends,” ask on what. A provider that will not put a fee in writing is telling you something. And questions about the legal side of holding or moving other people’s money belong with your own adviser, not with a provider’s sales team and not with us.
How to compare two quotes without fooling yourself
- Use the same month for both. Take your real or planned order count and average ticket and run both quotes through it.
- Add up all the lines. Card fees, payout fees, monthly fees, dispute fees and any per-vendor fees.
- Convert to a cost per order. Divide the month’s total by your order count. It is easier to compare $2.04 with $2.28 than a pile of percentages.
- Check what is not in the quote. If payouts or fund-holding are not mentioned, ask, and do not assume they are free or included.
- Multiply by twelve. The yearly figure is the one that changes decisions.
Compare two quotes
How to compare quotes without fooling yourself
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Use the same month for bothTake your real or planned order count and average ticket and run both quotes through it.
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Add up all the linesCard fees, payout fees, monthly fees, dispute fees and any per-vendor fees.
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Convert to a cost per orderDivide the month’s total by your order count.
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Check what is not in the quoteIf payouts or fund-holding are not mentioned, ask, and do not assume they are free or included.
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Multiply by twelveThe yearly figure is the one that changes decisions.
Our guides on how to read your merchant statement and on how much you are really paying on Stripe, Square, PayPal or QuickBooks show how to find each line. If you also run a regular online store, see cheaper alternatives to Shopify Payments for a growing online store, and for debit-heavy sales, whether the debit cap applies to small-bank cards. In the study’s findings, large-bank debit is capped, but the cap does not apply to small-bank debit, so the mix of cards your customers use matters.
When staying put is the right call
Do not move because a fee looks high on paper. Staying where you are can be the better choice when:
- Your current setup already handles vendor payouts in a way that works for you, and moving would mean redoing that part.
- You are new and have very low volume. The study itself says flat rate can win there.
- The cost of changing, in time and risk, is bigger than the monthly gap.
Switching deserves a look when the monthly card fees have grown into a real number, and when a provider will put in writing how it handles funds, payouts, disputes and fees. If you want a second opinion on the card-fee side, you can contact our team.
You can also run your own numbers through our savings calculator.
Who wrote this, and where NPS fits
Nationwide Payment Systems (NPS) publishes this guide. We are a payments company based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in business since 2001, and we sell merchant accounts and invoicing software, so we are not neutral. We offer interchange pass-through, ACH, a payment gateway and Smart Invoicing, and we also offer flat-rate options. We do not publish a price list. The study we cite was written by our CEO. NPS offers a free statement review. This page is about card fees only, and it does not say that NPS offers split payments, vendor payouts or a marketplace product. Browse more in our payments guides.
Bottom line
A store that collects money for other sellers has more to compare than the card fee. Start by asking each provider, in writing, who holds the funds, when vendors are paid, who handles disputes and refunds, and what each payout costs. Then compare the card fees on the same month. On a made-up 2,000 orders at $60, a listed 2.9% plus 30 cents is $4,080, and the study’s model suggests pass-through could be lower, which only your own statement can confirm. Check each company’s current price page, get quotes in writing, and take the legal and setup questions to your own adviser.
Frequently asked questions
Does this page cover how to pay vendors?
No. This page covers card fees only. How vendor payouts work, and the legal setup for holding or moving other people’s money, is a question for the payment provider and your own business adviser. This page does not say NPS offers a split-payment or vendor-payout product.
What do Stripe and Square list for an online card sale?
As read on Stripe’s pricing page on November 13, 2026, Stripe lists 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful domestic card transaction. As read on Square’s fees page on November 13, 2026, Square lists 3.3% plus 30 cents for online sales or invoices and 2.9% plus 30 cents for its online API. Check each page for today’s price.
What would 2,000 orders at $60 cost at 2.9% plus 30 cents?
Our arithmetic, made-up math to show the method, not a promise: 2,000 orders at $60 is $120,000. The 2.9% part is $3,480 and the 30 cent part is $600, so $4,080 a month, which is 3.4% of sales or $2.04 an order.
What does the study say about interchange pass-through?
NPS’s 2026 pricing study is a model built from published rate schedules, not a survey. It finds interchange pass-through costs 19% to 31% less than flat rate for online and invoice sales across average tickets from $15 to $2,500. NPS sells pass-through, so we are not neutral.
Who holds the money in a marketplace?
That depends on how the provider sets up the account and the payouts, and we do not state how any provider does it. Ask each provider in writing who holds the funds, and ask your own adviser what that means for your business.
Are refunds and disputes handled differently when there are many vendors?
Ask. Stripe’s pricing page, as read on November 13, 2026, lists $15.00 for each dispute received. What happens when the sale was for another seller’s product is something to get from the provider in writing.
Does NPS review my current statement for free?
Yes. NPS offers a free statement review.
