How Much Do Merchant Services Cost? Every Fee Explained (2026)

How much do merchant services cost?

As of September 2026, merchant services cost a small business about 2.3% to 4% of card sales, plus anywhere from $0 to about $200 a month in fixed fees, depending on how the provider prices. Flat-rate providers charge one number per sale and no monthly fee: Square is 2.6% + 15 cents in person on its free plan, Stripe is 2.9% + 30 cents online. Interchange-plus providers pass the card network's cost through and add a stated markup: Helcim starts at interchange + 0.40% + 8 cents in person. Subscription providers charge a monthly fee instead of a percentage markup: Stax starts at $99 a month plus 8 cents per in-person sale on top of interchange. Every one of those numbers was read from the provider's own page today. This page breaks the bill into its lines, puts six providers' published rates side by side, and does the math at $20,000 a month.

Sourcing note: Square figures are from squareup.com/us/en/pricing, Stripe from stripe.com/pricing, PayPal from paypal.com/us/business/paypal-business-fees (which PayPal marks "Last Updated: September 1, 2026"), Stax from staxpayments.com/pricing, and Authorize.net from authorize.net/sign-up/pricing, all read September 18, 2026. Helcim's pricing page refused our fetch today, so Helcim's rates are from Helcim's own help center article on volume discounts (learn.helcim.com, last updated September 26, 2025), read the same day. Visa interchange figures are from Visa's USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees schedule dated April 18, 2026, which is still the current file on usa.visa.com today. Processors change rates; confirm on the provider's page before you sign.

The lines on a merchant services bill

"Merchant services" is the bundle that lets a business take card payments: a merchant account or a payment facilitator that holds the money, a processor that routes the transaction, and often a gateway for online payments. Whatever the provider calls its plans, the cost always breaks into the same lines:

1. Interchange. Paid to the bank that issued the customer's card, set by the card network, and the largest single piece. Visa's own schedule says merchants do not pay interchange directly; they pay a "merchant discount" to their financial institution that typically includes it. It varies by card type, by whether the card was present, and by business category.
2. Network assessments. A small percentage the card network keeps. Helcim's help center gives "0.11% + 2 cents" as an example of the format.
3. Processor markup. The provider's margin, and the only line you can shop. Helcim's standard in-person markup is 0.40% + 8 cents; Stax advertises "0% markup on direct-cost interchange" and charges a subscription instead.
4. Monthly and account fees. Zero on Square's free plan and Stripe's standard pricing; $49 or $149 a month per location on Square's paid plans; $99 to $199 and up on Stax.
5. Gateway fees. What it costs to take cards on a website if the gateway is separate from the account. Authorize.net's Gateway Only plan is $25 a month plus 10 cents per transaction and a 10-cent daily batch fee; PayPal's Payflow Pro gateway is $25 a month plus 10 cents per transaction.
6. PCI compliance fees. The card industry's data security standard. Square describes "built-in PCI compliance" on every payment, and Stripe says it charges no setup, monthly, or hidden fees. Authorize.net's own page lists "PCI compliance fees, depending on the provider's security program" among the fee types that shape the total cost, which is where a traditional merchant account's PCI line comes from.
7. Chargeback and dispute fees. Stripe charges $15.00 for each dispute received and another $15.00 if you counter it manually, refunded only if you win. PayPal charges a $20.00 chargeback fee on card transactions and a $15.00 standard dispute fee on PayPal-account transactions.

Published merchant services rates from six providers

Three add-ons move the real rate on every one of them. Keyed cards cost more: Square charges 3.5% + 15 cents for a manually entered card and Stripe adds 0.5%. International cards cost more: Square, Stripe, and PayPal each add 1.5%, and Stripe adds another 1% when currency conversion is needed. Bank payments cost less: Stripe's ACH Direct Debit is 0.8% capped at $5.00, PayPal's ACH is 0.80% capped at $5.00, Authorize.net's eCheck is 0.75%, and Stax's ACH is 1% capped at $10.

The math at $20,000 a month

Assume $20,000 a month in in-person card sales at a $50 average ticket, so 400 transactions. For the two interchange-based providers, interchange is set at Visa's Small Merchant Services rate for all other products, 1.55% + $0.10, which works out to $350 on this volume; a debit-heavy card mix will cost less and a rewards-heavy mix more. Network assessments are left out of every row, because the flat-rate providers already include them and the others pass them through.

The spread is about $120 a month, or roughly $1,400 a year, at this volume. Online the order flips, and PayPal goes from the cheapest flat rate to the most expensive one: the same $20,000 across 400 online sales costs $700 on Stripe at 2.9% + 30 cents, $725 on Authorize.net's All-in-one plan including its $25 monthly fee, $780 on Square Free at 3.3% + 30 cents, and $794 on PayPal's standard card rate of 2.99% + 49 cents, where the 49-cent fixed fee is doing most of the damage. Run your own average ticket through it: at a $15 ticket the cents per transaction matter more than the percentage, and at a $500 ticket the percentage is everything.

What the pricing pages don't tell you

A flat rate is a price, and an interchange-plus rate is a formula. Helcim's 0.40% + 8 cents and Stax's 8 cents are what the provider keeps; the interchange underneath changes with every card, so the monthly total is only knowable after the statement arrives. Visa's own schedule shows how wide that range is: a regulated debit card from a large bank carries 0.05% + $0.21, while Non-Qualified Consumer Credit is 3.15% + $0.10. A flat-rate provider charges you the same 2.6% or 2.9% on both, which is why flat rate is simplest for a low-volume business and most expensive for a debit-heavy one.

The subscription model has its own threshold. Stax's fee steps up with annual processing volume, from $99 to $139 to $199 and up, and its own footnote says the subscription prices "do not include cents per transaction." At low volume a $99 fee is a large share of the bill; the model pays off once the percentage markup it removes is worth more than the subscription. Helcim's markup moves the other way, dropping automatically as your three-month average volume rises, with no call or new contract required according to its help center.

The lines that never appear on a rate card are the ones to ask about in writing before you sign: whether there is a monthly minimum, whether PCI compliance carries its own fee or a non-compliance penalty, what the early termination terms are, and whether the gateway is included or billed separately.

Which merchant services provider should you use?

That depends on where your customers pay and how much you process, and it is covered in full on credit card processing fees, which walks through Visa's published interchange rows and the break-even between flat rate and interchange plus. The short version from the rates above: under about $10,000 a month, take a flat rate and no monthly fee; at a counter, compare Square's plans on Square fees; online, Stripe's 2.9% + 30 cents is the benchmark, broken down line by line on Stripe fees, and if your customers expect a PayPal button, Stripe vs PayPal does that math. Above roughly $20,000 a month, get an interchange-plus or subscription quote and check whether its markup and monthly fee fit inside the gap between interchange and the flat rate you pay now.

The fee that is bigger than the rate

For most service businesses, a few tenths of a point on the processing rate is the smallest number in the payment path. The larger ones are a website that takes a booking request but not a deposit, an invoice the customer has to hunt to pay, and a checkout that breaks on a phone. Building the payment step into the site so sales close where the customer already is, is what custom web design covers.

The bottom line

Merchant services cost about 2.3% to 4% of card sales plus $0 to about $200 a month, and the bill is the same few lines no matter what the provider calls its plans: interchange, network assessments, the provider's markup, monthly and gateway fees, PCI, and chargebacks. Only the markup and the fixed fees are negotiable. At low volume, a flat rate with no monthly fee wins on simplicity; at $20,000 a month and up, an interchange-plus or subscription quote can save over $1,000 a year, as long as you ask for every fixed fee in writing first.