Stripe and Square publish similar-looking headline rates, but the number that actually lands in your account depends on how the card was taken — typed in online by the customer, keyed in by hand, or presented as a card issued outside the United States. This page holds the sale size and the processor's plan steady in each row and changes only that one thing, using each provider's own published rate throughout.
Where Stripe and Square's Plus and Premium plans charge the exact same rate, the text says so directly rather than leaving the reader to spot it in the table.
Stripe vs Square: what each keeps from a sale, by how the card is taken
Stripe vs Square: what each keeps from a sale, by how the card is taken
Each row above holds the sale size and the way the card was taken constant, and lets the processor and its plan vary across the three columns. The first two rows are a $100 sale and a $1,000 sale paid with a card entered online by the customer — the ordinary case for a checkout page. The third row repeats the $100 sale with a card issued outside the United States, where every processor compared here adds a surcharge on top of its domestic rate. The fourth row repeats the $100 sale once more, this time with the card number keyed in by hand instead of typed in by the customer — both processors charge more for that than for a card the customer enters directly.
Where Stripe and Square Plus match — and where they diverge
On the online and international rows above, Stripe's column and Square's Plus and Premium column show the identical figure — both charge 2.9% plus a 30-cent fixed fee online, both add 1.5% for a card issued outside the United States, and the arithmetic lands on the same cent every time. The two processors diverge only on the keyed-in row: Stripe adds 0.5% on top of its usual online rate, while Square swaps in a single 3.5% rate plus a 15-cent fixed fee that replaces its usual online pricing rather than adding to it. That different shape lands the two processors' keyed-in figures for a $100 sale within a nickel of each other, rather than matching exactly. Square's Free plan is the column that never matches Stripe on this page — on the online and international rows its online rate is 3.3% against Stripe's 2.9%, while on the keyed-in row Square's Free plan drops to the same single rate as Plus and Premium, so the two Square columns match each other there instead of matching Stripe.
Paying with a card issued outside the United States
Cards issued outside the United States cost more everywhere, and the surcharge lands the same way for both processors compared here: a 1.5% surcharge added on top of the domestic rate, applied whenever the card itself was issued abroad. Because that surcharge is identical for Stripe and for Square's Plus and Premium plans, the international row above simply carries the same domestic-rate gap forward — Square's Free plan still keeps the most from a $100 sale in that row, the same plan that kept the most in the two online rows above it.
What this comparison can't tell you
Knowing what a processor keeps from one sale is not the same as knowing what that sale is worth to your business — returns, the cost of finding the customer, and the platform's own cut all come out of whatever is left after Stripe or Square are paid, and none of those numbers are published anywhere the way a fee page is.
We built a free worksheet for exactly that question, The Hidden Margin Teardown Kit — a short list of questions you can run against any company, product or subscription, including your own, using only information as public as the pricing pages cited above. It opens on the page; no email required.
The figures above were collected and cross-checked with the help of AI tools, and a person reviewed every source link before this page was published.
What these providers do not publish
Limits of this page
These are things we did not verify, listed so you can judge the rest.
Search demand for this page's topic was measured in Bing Webmaster Tools only; Google search volume was not measured.
Every dollar figure on this page is our arithmetic, applied to each provider's own published percentage-plus-fixed-fee rate — neither Stripe nor Square publishes a per-sale-size payout calculator for these amounts.
Square's tap, dip or swipe (in-person) rate is not the same across its Plus and Premium plans, unlike every other rate compared on this page. Because this page's Square column groups Plus and Premium together, an in-person row could not be shown without misrepresenting one of the two plans, so it was left off the table above; Square's own fees page has the plan-by-plan figures.
This page compares published card-processing rates only — it does not cover monthly plan fees, payout speed, chargeback fees or hardware costs for either processor.
A short list of questions for working out where a company, product or subscription actually makes its money, using only public information like the pricing pages cited on this page. It opens on the page — no email required.
Which keeps less from a $100 sale paid online — Stripe or Square?
Stripe and Square's Plus and Premium plans both keep $3.20 from a $100 sale — the least of the three columns compared here. Square's Free plan keeps more, $3.60, because its online rate is 3.3% instead of 2.9%.
Does the answer change for a $1,000 sale?
No. On a $1,000 sale, Stripe and Square's Plus and Premium plans both keep $29.30, and Square's Free plan still keeps more, $33.30 — the same ranking as a $100 sale, just larger amounts.
Does a card issued outside the United States change the comparison?
No, the ranking holds, but every column keeps more. On a $100 sale paid with a card issued outside the United States, Stripe and Square's Plus and Premium plans both keep $4.70, and Square's Free plan keeps $5.10.
Do Square's Free plan and its paid plans charge the same online rate?
No. Square's Free plan charges 3.3% + 30¢ per online card payment, while its Plus and Premium plans both charge 2.9% + 30¢ — the same fixed fee, a lower percentage. Stripe's online rate, 2.9% + 30¢, matches Square's Plus and Premium rate exactly.
What we could not verify
Search demand for this page's topic was measured in Bing Webmaster Tools only; Google search volume was not measured.
Every dollar figure on this page is our arithmetic, applied to each provider's own published percentage-plus-fixed-fee rate — neither Stripe nor Square publishes a per-sale-size payout calculator for these amounts.
Square's tap, dip or swipe (in-person) rate is not the same across its Plus and Premium plans, unlike every other rate compared on this page. Because this page's Square column groups Plus and Premium together, an in-person row could not be shown without misrepresenting one of the two plans, so it was left off the table above; Square's own fees page has the plan-by-plan figures.
This page compares published card-processing rates only — it does not cover monthly plan fees, payout speed, chargeback fees or hardware costs for either processor.
Sources
Stripe's Standard plan charges 2.9% + 30 cents per successful online transaction for domestic (US) cards. — https://stripe.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-09-02, confidence: verified)
Stripe's Standard plan charges a 30-cent fixed fee per successful online transaction for domestic (US) cards, in addition to its percentage rate. — https://stripe.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-09-02, confidence: verified)
Stripe adds 0.5% to its standard rate for domestic cards that are keyed in manually instead of entered by the customer online. — https://stripe.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-09-02, confidence: verified)
Stripe adds 1.5% to its standard rate for cards issued outside the United States. — https://stripe.com/pricing (verified on: 2026-09-02, confidence: verified)
Square's Plus and Premium plans charge 2.9% + 30 cents per online or invoiced card payment. — https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees (verified on: 2026-09-02, confidence: verified)
Square charges a 30-cent fixed fee per online or invoiced card payment, on the Free plan as well as Plus and Premium. — https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees (verified on: 2026-09-02, confidence: verified)
Square adds a 1.5% international card fee to payments made on credit or debit cards issued outside the United States, on the Free, Plus and Premium plans alike. — https://squareup.com/us/en/pricing (verified on: 2026-09-02, confidence: verified)
Square charges 3.5% when a card number is manually keyed in or a card on file is charged, the same rate on its Free, Plus and Premium plans. — https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees (verified on: 2026-09-02, confidence: verified)
Square charges a 15-cent fixed fee when a card number is manually keyed in or a card on file is charged, the same fee on its Free, Plus and Premium plans. — https://squareup.com/us/en/payments/our-fees (verified on: 2026-09-02, confidence: verified)
