Know The Rate. What small businesses actually pay to accept cards

Independent · takes no money from processors

What are you actually paying to accept cards?

Not the rate you were quoted — the rate you pay once every fee is counted. Two numbers off your last statement, and nothing leaves your browser.

Total dollars run through cards. On a statement this is usually “total sales volume” or “gross sales”.

Every fee, not just the percentage — discount rate, per-item, monthly, PCI, gateway, statement.

Count of card sales that month. Listed as “items” or “transaction count”.

Optional — sharpens the estimate

Sets the assumed mix of debit, credit and rewards cards.

Changes which published flat rate you are compared against.

A published price to measure against — not a recommendation. We have no relationship with either company.

Loaded with an example business.

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Your month, three ways

All three bars on the same scale

What your cards cost at wholesale ——

Interchange paid to the card issuer, plus network assessments. Nobody processes below this.

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Standard published rate ——

What this volume would cost on public pricing, no negotiation required.

What you actually pay ——

Your fees divided by your volume.

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per year vs published flat rate
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per year above wholesale cost
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your cost per transaction
What this assumes, and where it can be wrong
  • American Express is excluded. Amex pricing is not reliably published, so heavy Amex volume will read artificially high against the wholesale bar.
  • Your card mix is assumed, not measured. The business-type selector sets a plausible split of debit, standard credit and rewards cards. This is the largest source of error here — a customer base carrying premium rewards cards costs more at wholesale than this estimate shows.
  • Wholesale is blended 60/40 Visa to Mastercard, the usual US split, and assumes even ticket size across card types.
  • Interchange figures are compiled from published schedules and were last checked in September 2026. Rates change roughly every April and October.
  • Being above wholesale is normal and necessary. No processor works for free. A markup of roughly 20 to 50 basis points over wholesale is a competitive deal — the wholesale bar is a floor, not a target.

How this site makes money: it doesn’t, yet

No affiliate links, no referral fees, no selling your details to processors, and no recommendations — this site will never tell you who to sign with. Square and Stripe are named because their pricing is public and checkable; there is no relationship with either and nothing is earned if you sign up with them. The numbers you type stay in your browser — the calculation runs on your device and your figures are never uploaded or stored. Anonymous page counts are collected so the site can be improved; nothing is tied to what you enter. More on how this works and how it’s funded.