Stripe Fees in Australia: A Complete Pricing Guide

Stripe is one of the most widely used platforms for accepting and processing payments securely, both online and in person. It now supports more than one million users across Australia and New Zealand, and globally the platform processes over $1.4 trillion in payments every year. If you’re weighing up Stripe for your business, understanding Stripe fees in Australia before you sign up is essential, since these costs can add up quickly depending on how you take payments. This guide breaks down Stripe’s Australian pricing plans, the various service fees you’re likely to encounter, and practical ways to keep those costs under control — plus a comparison with Wise Business for handling international transactions more affordably.

Stripe Pricing Plans for Businesses in Australia

Stripe runs on a pay-as-you-go model for processing online payments, and its plan structure is intentionally simple. There are two core options: Standard and Custom. Custom pricing is reserved for large corporations with substantial payment volumes, while the Standard plan covers the needs of most small and medium-sized businesses.

For the majority of Australian businesses, Standard is the default choice. There’s no recurring subscription fee — you only pay when you process a transaction or opt into an additional Stripe product.

What’s Included in the Stripe Standard Plan?

The Standard plan bundles together several core features:

• Global payments — support for more than 135 currencies and over 100 payment methods through a single integration.
• Checkout tools — no-code builders for custom checkout pages, plus ready-made payment forms.
• Fraud protection — access to Stripe Radar, which uses machine learning to flag and block suspicious transactions.
• Payment optimisation — automatic card updates and customer authentication designed to lift payment acceptance rates.
• Security and support — PCI compliance, 99.999% historical uptime, and round-the-clock support via phone, email, and live chat.

Understanding the Different Types of Stripe Fees

Stripe doesn’t charge setup fees or mandatory monthly subscriptions, but because the Standard plan has no free allowance, you’ll generally pay per transaction. Stripe’s full pricing structure spans three broad categories — global payments, money management, and revenue and finance automation — each containing services billed as either a flat amount or a percentage of the transaction value.

Stripe Payment Fees

Payments are Stripe’s headline product, letting businesses accept over 100 payment methods through pre-built checkout tools and a web dashboard. Fees apply to card payments, digital wallets, and local Australian payment rails such as PayTo, and they include GST.

For online card and wallet payments, Stripe charges:

• 1.7% + $0.30 per successful charge for domestic cards
• 3.5% + $0.30 per successful charge for international cards
• 1.7% + $0.30 per successful charge for Apple Pay and Google Pay
• 2.9% + $0.30 per successful charge for Alipay and WeChat Pay
• An additional 2% if currency conversion is required

These fees cover payment processing, access to Stripe’s checkout infrastructure, and built-in optimisations like real-time payment retries.

Stripe Afterpay and BNPL Fees

Businesses offering buy now, pay later (BNPL) options through Stripe — including Zip and Afterpay — face additional charges:

• 5.49% + $0.30 per transaction for Zip payments
• 4.99% + $0.55 per transaction for Klarna payments
• 6% + $0.30 per transaction for Afterpay payments

Some providers also add a 1.5% surcharge for international transactions and a 2% fee for currency conversion, so it’s worth checking the full surcharge schedule before committing.

Stripe In-Person Card Fees

Stripe Terminal lets merchants accept in-person payments using card readers and smartphone apps. Per-transaction rates are slightly lower than online payments, though additional authorisation charges may apply:

• 1.7% + $0.10 per successful charge for domestic cards
• 3.5% + $0.10 per successful charge for international cards
• An extra $0.15 per authorisation for Tap to Pay
• An extra $0.07 per authorisation for optional point-to-point encryption

Businesses taking payments in a physical store also need compatible hardware — Stripe sells card readers separately, with prices starting from $89 excluding GST.

Stripe Processing Fees

“Processing fees” isn’t a separate line item on your Stripe invoice — it’s a general term for the cost of Stripe handling and settling payments on your behalf. In practice, these costs are folded directly into Stripe’s payment fees rather than billed separately.

Bank transfers and direct debits, for example, are charged at 1% + $0.30 per transaction, capped at $3.50.

Stripe Merchant Fees

Stripe doesn’t apply traditional merchant account charges like monthly maintenance or setup fees. Instead, merchant costs are entirely usage-based, tied to whichever services you enable. For most businesses, total merchant fees simply combine:

• Payment, card, and BNPL fees (which already include Stripe’s processing costs)
• Optional service fees, such as invoicing and billing

Because the model is usage-based, fees scale directly with how much you process.

Stripe Refund Fees

Issuing a refund on Stripe doesn’t usually incur a separate charge, but the original transaction fee is non-refundable — meaning you’ll still pay the processing fee from the initial payment even after refunding the customer. For businesses on standard pricing, refunds on card payments and most other methods carry no extra fee, though Stripe notes that bank transfer refunds “may” attract additional charges.

Stripe Connect Fees

Stripe Connect serves platforms and marketplaces that collect payments and distribute funds to multiple parties, such as sellers or contractors. If Stripe sets and collects the processing fees, there’s no additional charge. If you instead choose to set custom pricing to generate extra revenue, a 0.25% + $0.25 fee applies per transaction.

Other Stripe Service Fees Worth Knowing

Beyond core payments, Stripe offers several optional add-on products, each with its own pricing:

• Payment Links — included in the Standard plan for accepting payments, but generating invoices for one-off payments costs 0.4% of the transaction total, capped at $2 per invoice.
• Billing — available as pay-as-you-go (0.7% of billing volume) or a monthly contract starting from $930 per month with a minimum one-year term.
• Invoicing — starter invoice features cost 0.4% per paid invoice.
• Tax — automated tax calculation and compliance. The Tax Complete plan starts at $140 per month, while Tax Basic uses per-transaction pricing.
• Advanced fraud protection — greater control over Stripe Radar costs $0.02 per screened transaction on the Standard plan.
• Analytics and reporting — tools like Stripe Sigma and Data Pipeline are billed as monthly subscriptions.
• Incorporation — Stripe Atlas lets you incorporate a company for a one-time $500 fee.

Comparing Stripe’s International Transfer Fees

When processing cross-border payments, Stripe’s 3.5% + $0.30 charge can add up fast for businesses that regularly deal with overseas customers, and there’s an additional 2% fee whenever currency conversion is needed.

Wise Business offers an alternative for both domestic and cross-border transfers. Rather than earning revenue through payment processing markups, Wise focuses on low, transparent currency conversion and transfer fees.

How to Manage Your Stripe Fees Effectively

Stripe includes several built-in tools to help keep fees visible and manageable rather than letting them quietly erode your margins. A few practical strategies:

• Use Stripe’s GST calculator — a simple tool that lets you select Australia and calculate GST on different price points in advance. The $140/month Tax Complete service also offers all-in-one tax compliance.
• Integrate with accounting software — syncing Stripe with Xero or QuickBooks automates reconciliation and makes fees far easier to track.
• Monitor the Stripe dashboard — built-in reporting tools help you track payments and refunds to build a clearer picture of total fees.
• Run regular reports — identify patterns behind higher fees, such as frequent international card use.
• Encourage lower-cost payment methods — steer customers toward domestic cards or direct debits where possible.
• Bundle payments where feasible — fewer, larger transactions reduce the relative impact of flat per-transaction fees.

Do Stripe Fees Include GST?

Some Stripe service fees have GST built in, but not all of them. Fees for card, wallet, BNPL, and bank-based payments already include GST in the advertised pricing, though this isn’t necessarily stated explicitly for every product. Stripe’s support documentation notes that GST is applied on top of product and service pricing at the prevailing standard rate, unless a separate agreement specifies GST-inclusive pricing, and that a monthly tax invoice covering all applicable GST is issued to customers. The exact rate depends on your business location and tax status, so it’s worth reviewing Stripe’s GST policy in full before relying on it for compliance purposes.

Can You Pass Stripe Fees on to Customers?

Yes — Stripe fees can legally be passed on to customers as a surcharge in Australia, though doing so automatically typically requires accounting or invoicing software that integrates with Stripe, such as Xero or Invoice2go. If you choose to pass on fees, make sure you:

1. Clearly disclose the additional charge upfront.
2. Comply with Australian Consumer Law surcharge rules.
3. Use your invoicing tool to calculate and apply the fee accurately to the total payment.

Transparency matters here — customers should see the surcharge both at the point of payment and on the invoice itself.

Wise Business: A Smarter Way to Manage International Stripe Payouts

Linking a Wise Business account to Stripe allows you to receive payouts in eight or more currencies, including USD, GBP, and EUR — meaning you can hold funds in their original currency instead of Stripe automatically converting everything to AUD. This alone can meaningfully reduce the conversion costs that come bundled into Stripe’s standard payment fees, particularly for businesses that regularly invoice or get paid by overseas clients.

A Wise Business account lets you send, receive, and hold funds across multiple currencies, giving international businesses the ability to transact like a local wherever their customers are based.

Final Thoughts

Stripe remains one of the most flexible and globally capable payment platforms available to Australian businesses, but its usage-based pricing means the true cost of accepting payments depends heavily on which payment methods, currencies, and add-on services you rely on. Card payments, BNPL options, in-person terminals, and optional products like invoicing or tax automation all carry their own fee structures, and international transactions in particular can quietly inflate your costs through currency conversion charges. By understanding exactly how Stripe fees in Australia are calculated — and pairing Stripe with a tool like Wise Business for cheaper international transfers and multi-currency holding — businesses can keep more of their revenue while still offering customers a smooth, modern payment experience. Explore your options and compare the numbers for your own transaction volume before committing to a setup.

References

• Wise. (n.d.). Wise Business. https://wise.com/au/business
• Wise. (n.d.). Stripe business account guide. https://wise.com/au/blog/stripe-business-account
• Wise. (n.d.). Wise pricing. https://wise.com/pricing/
• Wise. (n.d.). Terms and conditions. https://wise.com/terms-and-conditions
• Wise. (n.d.). Product availability by region. https://wise.com/help/articles/2978049/which-countries-can-i-use-wise-in