Merchant of Record Fee Calculator
What a merchant of record really costs against your own processor plus doing tax yourself.
Try before you buy.
- Free preview: the first two options of your list compared at your sales in full; every other option’s fees, the break-even chart and the sensitivity table stay hidden.
- Locked until you unlock it: download and copy.
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Doing tax yourself
Only your own processor rows carry this: a merchant of record registers for, files and pays the tax on your sales itself.
Providers to compare
Exchange rates
Some rows charge fixed fees in another currency. Type the rate you use; the tool never fetches one.
Fees at your sales
| Option | Type | Fees a month | Fees a year | Effective rate | On one payment |
|---|
Line by line
Where the cheapest option changes
Fees at other sales levels
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Results are estimates for general information and planning, not financial advice. Banks and institutions may calculate differently (rounding, fees, rate changes). Confirm figures with your lender or a qualified adviser before deciding.
How this tool is checked
- Based on
- the method set out under ‘How the fees are worked out’.
- Sources
-
This guide cites 4 sources, among them:
- Tests
- 23 automated tests check its results.
- Found an error?
- Report a problem or write to support@mysmartcopilot.com, with what you entered and the result you expected.
About the Merchant of Record Fee Calculator
A merchant of record (MoR) — Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, Dodo Payments, Gumroad or Stripe Managed Payments — sells your digital product in its own name: it charges the buyer, works out, collects and pays the VAT, GST and sales tax of every country, and handles fraud and chargebacks, for a bigger cut of each payment. With your own payment processor (a Stripe or PayPal account) the cut is smaller, but you are the seller: every tax registration, return and payment is yours.
Enter your sales — a month’s revenue or payments and the average price, where your buyers are, how much is subscriptions, PayPal, refunds and chargebacks — and what doing tax yourself would cost a year. The calculator works out each option’s fees a month and a year, line by line, its effective rate, the revenue at which one option overtakes another, and a table at a quarter, half, double and four times your sales. Every rate starts from the provider’s published standard pricing, linked on each row, and every one can be edited; you can add a provider of your own.
Without a pass the comparison is a free preview: the first two options of your list compared at your sales, with the other options’ fees hidden. A Pro pass shows every option, your own rows, the break-even chart and the sensitivity table, and unlocks the CSV, the PDF and the copied summary.
How to use it
- Enter your sales a month (or payments a month) and the average payment, and the tax added at checkout if you charge it on top.
- Under Where your buyers are, give the share of payments from each region; the rest count as “Elsewhere”. Then the shares of subscription payments, PayPal payments and payments your processor converts, and your refund and chargeback rates.
- Under Doing tax yourself, enter how many VAT, GST or sales-tax registrations you would hold without a merchant of record and what each costs a year in returns and accountant fees.
- Choose the country of your Stripe account, tick the providers to compare and open Rates on any row to change a fee. Rows priced in another currency need the exchange rate you use under Exchange rates.
- Read the fees a month and a year, the breakdown, where the cheapest option changes and the table by revenue; with a Pro pass, download the CSV or the PDF or copy the summary (the free preview shows the first two options).
Examples
Paddle · Lemon Squeezy · Dodo Payments
Paddle $700 a month (7%) · Dodo Payments $739 · Lemon Squeezy $820 (5% + 50¢, +1.5% outside the US, +1.5% PayPal, +0.5% subscriptions)
Dodo: 4% + 40¢, +1.5% outside the US, +3% PayPal, +0.5% subscriptions, $1 a refund and $30 a chargeback at 2% refunds and 0.3% chargebacks.
Stripe UK account (1.5% + 20p, EEA +1%, elsewhere +1.65%, Billing 0.7%, Tax 0.5%) against Paddle, at $1 = £0.75
Stripe £775.50 a month (£350 of it your own tax compliance) · Paddle £650 · Stripe becomes cheaper above about £15,590 a month
Starter 5% + 50¢, Pro $20 a month with 3.8% + 40¢, $25 payments
Pro is cheaper than Starter above about $1,250 of sales a month ($20 ÷ 1.6 points of rate)
How the fees are worked out
Each option’s fees are a share of what is charged plus amounts per payment and per month, so they are a straight line against your revenue: fees = k × revenue + c.
- Percentages are charged on the amount the buyer pays, tax included (Lemon Squeezy and Polar say so in their worked examples): the base rate for buyers in the provider’s home region, plus its international surcharge elsewhere, and the PayPal, subscription, billing, tax-engine and currency-conversion surcharges on their shares.
- Per payment: the fixed fee, refund fees at your refund rate and dispute fees at your chargeback rate, with payments = revenue ÷ average payment.
- A month: plan fees, payout fees and — for your own processor — your tax registrations and returns spread over the year.
- Effective rate = fees ÷ sales before tax. Two options cost the same at revenue = (c₂ − c₁) ÷ (k₁ − k₂); the option with the smaller fixed part wins below it.
The rates the rows start with
- Paddle: 5% + 50¢ per checkout payment, one rate everywhere (pricing).
- Lemon Squeezy: 5% + 50¢, +1.5% outside the US, +1.5% PayPal, +0.5% subscription payments; 1% of each payout to a non-US bank (fees).
- Polar: Starter 5% + 50¢; Pro $20 a month and 3.8% + 40¢; Growth $100 and 3.6% + 35¢; Scale $400 and 3.4% + 30¢; +1.5% for non-US cards; $15 a dispute (pricing).
- Dodo Payments: 4% + 40¢, +1.5% international, +0.5% subscriptions, +3% PayPal and buy now, pay later; $30 a dispute, $1 a refund (pricing).
- Gumroad: 10% + 50¢ on direct sales, 30% on Discover sales (pricing).
- Stripe, your own account: the standard rates of your country’s page — for example 1.5% + 20p for UK cards, 2.5% + 20p for EEA cards and 3.15% + 20p for others in the UK (UK pricing), 1.5% + €0.25 for EEA cards in the euro area (Irish pricing); +2% when a payment is converted, Billing 0.7% of subscription payments, Tax 0.5% of each payment where you collect tax. Stripe’s US rates are typed in from its US page.
- Stripe Managed Payments: 3.5% of each payment on top of your Stripe account’s fees, for digital products sold by businesses in the countries Stripe lists.
- PayPal, your own US business account: 3.49% + $0.49 for PayPal Checkout, +1.50% international, 3% currency conversion, $15 a dispute (fees).
What a merchant of record does for the extra cut
Because the merchant of record is the seller in law, it registers for and pays the VAT, GST and US sales tax on your sales, issues the invoices and receipts buyers and tax authorities expect, and answers buyers’ payment questions and chargebacks. With your own processor those are yours: a registration in each country or state where you pass its threshold or where digital sales are taxed from the first sale, returns monthly or quarterly, and a tax engine or an accountant to work out each rate. That is why the calculator adds what doing tax yourself costs a year to the processor rows — enter it, or the comparison flatters your own processor. The Sales Tax Nexus Checker shows where your sales cross a threshold.
Limitations
- The rows start from each provider’s standard published pricing; negotiated, volume or older plans differ. Fees change, so check every row against the linked pricing page before you decide.
- Card mix (premium and business cards cost more), manually entered cards, instant payouts and dispute-prevention tools are left out.
- Gumroad’s pricing page does not say whether card processing is included in its 10% + 50¢; check a statement and add it to the row if it is charged on top.
- Exchange rates are the ones you type; the tool never fetches a rate.
- This is an estimate for comparing options, not financial or tax advice.
Privacy
On this device; its files download once
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot. Loads the PDF engine from this site the first time you make a PDF. Your sales figures stay in this browser.
Frequently asked questions
What do I get without a pass?
Without a pass, Merchant of Record Fee Calculator shows the first two options of your list compared at your sales in full; every other option’s fees, the break-even chart and the sensitivity table stay hidden. Until you unlock it, the result can’t be downloaded or copied. A Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass, a one-time payment that never renews, unlocks the full result. The pricing page lists the passes and their prices.
Is a merchant of record cheaper than Stripe?
On fees alone, rarely: Stripe’s card rates are lower than 5% + 50¢. Once you count your own tax registrations, returns and the time they take, a merchant of record is often cheaper for a small seller, and your own processor wins as revenue grows. The break-even line shows where that happens with your numbers.
Why are the fees charged on the tax too?
Providers take their percentage on the whole amount they charge the buyer, and that includes the VAT or sales tax. Enter the average tax added at checkout to see it.
Which buyers count as international?
Each row decides from where its buyers are: Lemon Squeezy, Polar and Dodo Payments add their surcharge outside the US, Stripe adds its own outside your account’s country (a UK account has a smaller surcharge for EEA cards), and Paddle and Gumroad have one rate everywhere.
Can I add a provider that is not listed?
Yes, with a Pro pass: Add your own provider gives a row with every field of the others. Without a pass the free preview compares the first two options of the list.
Are the rates up to date?
They are the standard rates published on each provider’s pricing page, linked on every row. Providers change prices, so open the link and edit the row if a number differs.