SaaS Billing Fees Calculator

How the calculator works

Billing cost has two layers. The billing platform (Stripe Billing, Chargebee, Recurly) charges a percentage of billing volume, sometimes with a monthly fee. The payment gateway underneath it charges per card payment, 2.9% + 30¢ on Stripe for US cards, plus 1.5% for international cards. A merchant of record (Paddle, Stripe Managed Payments) is the legal seller to your customer, so it also collects and files sales tax and VAT, and its fee is quoted differently:

• Stripe Billing: 0.7% of billing volume pay as you go, or a 1-year plan from $620/month that includes up to $100,000 of monthly volume (0.67% above the cap). Card processing on top.
• Chargebee: $0 + 0.80% or $99/month + 0.65% of monthly invoicing volume, charged from the first dollar. The $99 option is cheaper above $66,000 a month. Gateway fees on top.
• Recurly: $249/month with the first $40,000 of monthly billing included, then 0.9%. Gateway fees on top.
• Maxio: from $599/month up to $100,000 of monthly billings, on an annual contract; above that it is quote-only. Gateway fees on top.
• Paddle: 5% + 50¢ per transaction, all-in: processing, tax, fraud and chargebacks.
• Polar: a merchant of record with four tiers, from free + 5% + 50¢ to $400/month + 3.4% + 30¢, plus 1.5% on non-US cards.
• Stripe Managed Payments: 3.5% per transaction on top of normal Stripe card fees, and Stripe Billing's 0.7% is charged separately.

For each tool the calculator picks the cheapest plan that fits your volume, adds gateway fees where the tool does not include them, and divides by revenue. That last number matters most: billing is cost of revenue, so every point of revenue spent on billing is a point of gross margin.

Worked example: $50,000 a month of billing

A seed-stage SaaS bills $50,000 a month in 2,000 card charges, all on US cards, with Stripe's US card rate as the gateway.

The cheapest option is Recurly at $2,389 a month, 4.78 points of revenue. The spread to the dearest is $1,761 a month ($21,132 a year).

What billing costs at pre-seed, seed and Series A

Platform fee plus card processing at Stripe's US rate (2.9% + 30¢) wherever the tool's own fee does not include it. A merchant of record also collects and files sales tax and VAT. "pts" = share of revenue, which comes straight off gross margin. Cheapest plan per tool at each volume. Fees verified on the vendors' pricing pages, latest on October 11, 2026. Run your own numbers.

Four things stand out. On platform fee alone, Stripe Billing is the cheapest of the gateway-based tools at most volumes, with Chargebee a tenth of a point behind; the exception is roughly $35,600 to $55,500 a month, where Recurly wins because its first $40,000 is included. Maxio's $599 starting price makes it the dearest below Series A. Paddle costs about 2 to 2.4 margin points more than Stripe with Billing, and that premium buys sales tax and VAT registration, filing and liability. Polar's tiered fees close most of that gap as volume grows: at $250,000 a month it costs about the same as Stripe with Billing while still acting as merchant of record (US cards; add 1.5 points on its non-US share). Stripe Managed Payments costs more than Paddle at every volume here, because its 3.5% stacks on card fees and Billing.

What the calculator leaves out

Sales tax and VAT handling if you are not on a merchant of record (set the tax field to 0.5 to add Stripe Tax at its no-code rate where you are registered), currency conversion (Stripe adds 1%, Paddle a 2-3% margin), dispute fees ($15 on Stripe, $20 on Paddle), ACH and bank-transfer rates, and quote-priced enterprise plans. Recurly's All-Access and Chargebee Enterprise are left out because neither publishes a price.

Billing fees are one line in the gross margin you report to investors. To see what a cheaper billing stack does to margin, runway and valuation across scenarios, model it in Adlega.