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Stripe Connect Pricing Explained: The Real Cost for Marketplace Founders

2026-02-11 · Dominic Quirin
Calculator and pricing breakdown for payment processing fees

Stripe Connect is the payment infrastructure behind most marketplace startups. It handles the complex flow of money — from buyer to platform to seller — while managing compliance, fraud prevention, and payouts across dozens of countries. If you’re building a two-sided marketplace, there’s a good chance Stripe Connect is on your shortlist.

But Stripe Connect pricing isn’t as straightforward as Stripe’s standard payment processing fees. The cost structure varies depending on which integration type you choose, how you handle seller onboarding, and which features you enable. Many marketplace founders are surprised by the total cost once they add up all the pieces.

Here’s a clear breakdown of what you’ll actually pay.

The Base Layer: Payment Processing Fees

Before getting into Connect-specific pricing, remember that every transaction on Stripe starts with the standard payment processing fee. In the US, this is 2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge. In Europe, it’s typically 1.5% + €0.25 for European cards and 2.9% + €0.25 for non-European cards.

These fees apply to every transaction that flows through your marketplace, regardless of which Connect integration you use. They cover the cost of processing the card payment itself — Visa, Mastercard, and other network fees, fraud prevention, and Stripe’s margin.

This is the floor. Everything else stacks on top.

Stripe Connect Account Types and Their Costs

Stripe Connect offers three account types for your marketplace’s sellers, and the pricing implications differ significantly:

Standard Accounts

With Standard accounts, sellers create their own Stripe accounts and Stripe handles all onboarding, identity verification, and compliance directly. Your platform connects to these accounts to facilitate payments.

Additional cost: No extra Connect fee. You pay only the standard processing fee. Stripe charges the seller directly for their account.

The trade-off: You have minimal control over the seller experience. Sellers see Stripe’s branding during onboarding, manage their own payouts, and interact with Stripe’s dashboard — not yours. For many marketplaces, this lack of control over the seller experience is a dealbreaker.

Express Accounts

Express accounts offer a middle ground. Stripe provides a pre-built onboarding flow with some customization, and sellers get a simplified Stripe dashboard for managing their payouts.

Additional cost: Connect platform fee. Stripe charges an additional fee on top of the standard processing rate for Express accounts. Pricing varies and is typically negotiated for higher-volume platforms.

The trade-off: You get a smoother seller onboarding experience than Standard accounts, with less engineering work than Custom accounts. But you still don’t fully control the experience.

Custom Accounts

Custom accounts give you complete control. You build the entire onboarding flow, collect identity verification information, and manage the seller experience end to end. Sellers never interact with Stripe directly.

Additional cost: Connect platform fee + higher integration costs. Custom accounts carry Connect fees and require significantly more engineering work to implement. You’re responsible for building the onboarding UI, handling identity verification flows, and managing compliance requirements.

The trade-off: Full control over the experience, but substantial upfront development investment and ongoing maintenance.

Additional Fees That Add Up

Beyond the base processing and account type fees, several other Stripe Connect features carry their own pricing:

Instant Payouts

Standard payouts to sellers arrive in 1-2 business days at no extra charge. But if your sellers want money faster, Stripe offers Instant Payouts at 1% of the payout amount (with a minimum fee). For marketplaces where sellers expect quick access to their earnings (gig economy, on-demand services), this fee can become significant.

Cross-Border Transfers

If your marketplace operates internationally and you’re transferring funds across borders, Stripe charges an additional 0.5% to 2% depending on the currency pair. For a marketplace connecting sellers in one country with buyers in another, these fees add up quickly.

Currency Conversion

When a payment is made in one currency and a seller is paid out in another, Stripe charges a currency conversion fee — typically around 1% above the mid-market exchange rate. If your marketplace operates across multiple currencies, factor this into your unit economics.

Disputes and Chargebacks

Every disputed charge carries a $15 fee (in the US). If the dispute is resolved in your favor, the fee is returned. For marketplaces with higher dispute rates — particularly service marketplaces where the deliverable is subjective — this can become a material cost.

Identity Verification

Stripe Identity, used for verifying seller identities during onboarding, is priced separately at $1.50 per verification (or $0.50 for document-only verification). If your marketplace requires identity verification for all sellers, multiply this by your seller base.

What Your Total Cost Actually Looks Like

Let’s walk through a realistic example. Assume you’re running a service marketplace in the US with Custom Connect accounts:

In this scenario, Stripe takes $3.20 of the $100 transaction. Your marketplace takes $15.00. The seller gets $81.80.

Your effective payment processing cost as a percentage of your revenue (the $15 commission) is roughly 21%. That’s a significant chunk of your take rate going to payment processing.

If the seller wants an instant payout, add another 1% of $81.80 = $0.82. If the transaction involves a cross-border transfer, add 0.5-2% on top of that.

The point isn’t that Stripe Connect is expensive — it’s that the total cost is higher than most founders expect when they see the headline “2.9% + $0.30” rate. Understanding these layered fees is essential for modeling your marketplace’s unit economics accurately.

How Stripe Connect Pricing Compares

Stripe Connect isn’t the only option for marketplace payments. Alternatives like Mangopay, Adyen, and Paypal for Marketplaces offer different fee structures that may work better depending on your geography, transaction volume, and seller base.

The right comparison isn’t just headline rates — it’s total cost including onboarding, payouts, cross-border fees, dispute handling, and the engineering time required for integration.

Check our marketplace tools directory for a detailed comparison of payment processors built for two-sided platforms.

Optimizing Your Stripe Connect Costs

A few strategies marketplace founders use to manage Stripe Connect costs:

Negotiate volume-based pricing. Once you’re processing meaningful volume, Stripe is willing to negotiate custom rates. The default pricing is a starting point, not a fixed rate.

Minimize cross-border transfers. If possible, structure your payment flows to avoid unnecessary currency conversions. Collect and pay out in the same currency where you can.

Reduce disputes proactively. Every prevented dispute saves you $15 and protects your seller relationships. Invest in clear transaction descriptions, communication tools, and dispute resolution processes.

Choose the right account type. Don’t default to Custom accounts if Standard or Express will work. The engineering cost of Custom accounts is substantial, and many early-stage marketplaces don’t need that level of control.

Track your payment economics. Know exactly what percentage of your take rate goes to payment processing. If it’s creeping above 25-30%, it’s time to either negotiate better rates or evaluate alternatives.

How Twosided Helps You Track Payment Economics

Understanding Stripe Connect pricing is only half the equation. You also need to track how those costs affect your marketplace’s overall health — your take rate, your GMV, your unit economics per transaction.

Twosided integrates directly with Stripe Connect and gives you real-time visibility into 150+ marketplace metrics. See exactly how much revenue you’re capturing per transaction, track your effective take rate after payment processing costs, and monitor how your economics change as you scale.

Connect your Stripe Connect account in five minutes and stop guessing about your margins. Start your free trial.