Lemon Squeezy fees: what you keep on a sale

5% + 50¢ on the pricing page, three add-ons on the fee page, and the take-home at $6, $35, and $99. Checked October 24, 2026.

By David · Published October 24, 2026 · Updated October 30, 2026 · 13 min read

The headline fee

The number on the pricing page is 5% + 50¢ per transaction. The page says there is no monthly charge for the ecommerce features, and no monthly fee for payment processing. Email is a separate plan, free up to 500 subscribers. The page does not print the price past 500. It says that price depends on how many subscribers you have.

Two footnotes sit on the 5% + 50¢. One says to ask about volume pricing. No volume rate is printed. The other says some payments may have additional fees. The FAQ on the same page asks whether a fee can exceed 5% + 50¢, and answers that edge cases can. It points at the fee docs for those cases.

The fee docs call this the platform fee. It is calculated on the total order value and taken when the order is placed. The page says the fee covers credit card fees, currency conversion, and taxes. The net is paid to your bank account or to PayPal.

That is the whole published headline. The rest of this page is the add-ons, then the arithmetic at $6, $35, and $99. More of the money work for a one-person SaaS is on Money and ops.

• 5% + 50¢

  Per transaction on the pricing page

  Pricing page

• +1.5%

  Outside the US, and again for PayPal

  Fee docs

• +0.5%

  On a subscription payment

  Fee docs

• $0

  Monthly fee for the store

  Pricing page

What gets added on

The fee docs list three additions to the platform fee:

• +1.5% for an international transaction, which they define as outside the US
• +1.5% for a PayPal transaction
• +0.5% for a subscription payment

Their worked example is a card buyer in France. The product is $20. VAT at 20% is $4. The customer pays $24. The fee line is written as $0.50 + 5% of the total + 1.5% for the international payment, and the amount is $2.06. Net profit is the total, minus the tax, minus the fee: $17.94.

That formula reproduces their figure. 5% of $24 is $1.20. 1.5% of $24 is $0.36. Add the $0.50 and you get $2.06. $24 minus $4 minus $2.06 is $17.94. You keep $17.94 of the $20 price. The $4 is tax they remit. It was never yours.

The tax docs use the same formula on a $15 product with 20% UK VAT added on top. Tax is $3, the total is $18, the fee is $1.67, and the net is $13.33. Check: 5% of $18 is $0.90, 1.5% of $18 is $0.27, plus $0.50 is $1.67. $18 minus $3 minus $1.67 is $13.33.

The page lists the three add-ons as separate lines. The France example adds the international 1.5% on top of the 5%. It does not show PayPal and a subscription in the same order. The table further down adds every add-on the fee page lists for that row. If your store plan page shows a different mix, use the plan page. The docs say the plan page is where your current platform fee is shown.

The pricing page’s comparison table does not match the fee docs on one point. In that table, Lemon Squeezy’s column marks additional payment methods as “Included”, and global currency as “Included”. The sentence under global currency then says transactions outside the US may have small additional fees. PayPal is one of the methods in that “Included” line, and the fee docs still add 1.5% for PayPal. The percentages in this post come from the fee docs, because that is the page with a formula and a worked total.

The same pricing page also disagrees with itself on counts that are not fees. The feature list says up to 21 payment methods. The comparison says 16, including PayPal. The comparison says up to 95 currencies. The FAQ says 130+. Neither pair changes the 5% + 50¢.

What you keep at $6, $35, and $99

These rows use the fee-page formula. The listed price is the order total. No tax is added on top. Each percentage is of that price, then $0.50 is added once. A payout fee is not in the row. Figures are rounded to the nearest cent, and Lemon Squeezy does not publish its rounding rule, so a real payout can differ by a cent.

A US PayPal subscription and an international card subscription land on the same 7%, because each one adds a single 1.5% on top of the 5% and the 0.5%. An international PayPal subscription adds both 1.5% lines.

The fee docs also say to ask for custom pricing if you sell products under $10, or if volume is high. They do not print that price. The $6 row is the public rate. $6 is under $10, so a custom deal could differ, and there is no published number to put in its place.

The flat $0.50 is most of the fee on a cheap plan. On the $6 US-card subscription, $0.50 of the $0.83 fee is the flat part. On the $99 version of that same sale, the flat part is $0.50 of $5.95.

One line, longhand, so the $35 subscription can be checked. 5% of $35 is $1.75. 0.5% of $35 is 17.5 cents. Add $0.50 and the fee rounds to $2.43. $35 minus $2.43 is $32.57.

If that $35 renews, the MRR is $35. How to calculate MRR counts the monthly price of subscriptions you still have, and leaves the payment fee out. The $32.57 is cash after this platform fee, and only on an order with no tax added. When that subscriber cancels, the fee is a different number from the loss. How to calculate churn rate separates the logos you lose from the MRR you lose. A renewal that never charges is not a row in the fee table. The retries, and the dunning email you may still write, are a separate guide.

Sales tax comes off the payout

Being the merchant of record is the job the 5% is paying for. Lemon Squeezy is the seller on the charge. The tax docs say they calculate the sales tax, deduct it from your payout, and remit it. You should not have to file sales tax on sales that went through them. They also say you may still owe tax on the payout as income, and that a local tax adviser is the person who can say. They do not print a rate for that income tax. This post does not either.

Tax-inclusive pricing changes whose pocket the tax comes out of. The customer pays the sticker, and the tax is inside it. Their inclusive example is a $15 price with 20% VAT. They print tax of $2.50, a fee of $1.56, and a net of $10.94. The row adds up: $15 minus $2.50 minus $1.56 is $10.94. The fee docs’ formula does not. $0.50 + 6.5% of $15 rounds to $1.48, not $1.56. The inclusive example does not show the percent split, so the price table above does not use $1.56. It uses the formula the exclusive examples print.

The setting is store-wide. Subscriptions billed after you turn it on follow it. Old invoices are not rewritten.

If the buyer is charged tax on top, the percent hits the bigger total, and the tax is then removed from what you keep. That is why the France buyer pays $24 and you keep $17.94 of a $20 product. A no-tax $20 card sale, using the same formula with no international add-on, would be $0.50 + 5% of $20, which is $1.50, and you would keep $18.50. The extra $0.56 in France is the fee on the $4 of VAT, plus the 1.5% international line on the whole $24. None of the $6, $35, or $99 rows include that, because those prices are the order total and no tax was added.

Payouts, and the fees that are not per sale

The pricing page says Lemon Squeezy pays by bank wire or PayPal, twice a month, and that more than 200 countries are supported. The fee docs then list a separate payout fee:

• Bank payout via Stripe, US account: free
• Bank payout via Stripe, outside the US: 1% per payout
• PayPal, US account: $0.50 per payout
• PayPal, outside the US: 3% per payout, capped at $30

A payout fee depends on how much you withdraw and where the account sits. It is not a property of the $35 charge, so it is not in the table. A US founder paid to a US bank pays $0 on that line. A founder outside the US, paid to a bank, pays 1% of the payout on top of the per-sale fee.

Three marketing fees are also printed, and also left out of the table. Recovering a payment through an abandoned-cart email adds 5%. An affiliate referral costs the merchant 3%. An affiliate payout costs the affiliate 2%. Skip the feature and you skip the percent.

Stripe, as processor and as merchant of record

A payment processor moves the card charge. You are the merchant. You are the one sales tax attaches to. A merchant of record is the seller. The buyer’s receipt is from them, and they remit the sales tax.

Stripe’s pricing page lists 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic card charge, with no setup fee and no monthly fee. The card fee schedule adds 1.5% for an international card, 1% if currency conversion is required, and 0.5% for a card number that was typed in. The rows below are online charges, so the typed-in 0.5% stays out. Those same two Stripe pages list no PayPal rate, so this comparison has no Stripe PayPal column.

Subscriptions are a second Stripe product. Billing, pay as you go, is 0.7% of Billing volume. The page says that includes Billing transactions on and off Stripe, and excludes one-off invoices. The same page says to use Billing with Payments, and it prints 2.9% + 30¢ per successful card charge beside that. The processor column below is those two rates added, both applied to the listed price. Stripe publishes no worked $35 example. The sum below is that arithmetic, rounded to the nearest cent.

Stripe Tax is a third product, and the column leaves it out. Tax Basic is 0.5% per transaction on the no-code integration, where you are registered to collect, or $0.50 per transaction on the API. Tax Complete, which adds registration and filing, starts at $90 a month on a one-year contract. That plan is still your registration, bought from Stripe.

Stripe Managed Payments is the merchant-of-record product. The pricing page describes it as indirect tax compliance and remittance in more than 75 countries, plus fraud prevention, dispute handling, invoicing, and customer support. The price is 3.5% per successful Managed Payments transaction, in addition to Payments fees. On a domestic card, this post reads “Payments fees” as the 2.9% + 30¢ on the same page. The 3.5% line names Payments fees and says nothing about the 0.7% Billing fee, so the Managed Payments column leaves the 0.7% out. If a subscription on Managed Payments also meters Billing, Stripe has not said so, and these rows do not add it.

The $35 processor line, longhand: 2.9% of $35 is 101.5 cents, 0.7% of $35 is 24.5 cents, and $0.30 makes $1.56. You keep $33.44. The Managed Payments line is 3.5% of $35 (122.5 cents) plus that same 101.5 cents plus $0.30, which is $2.54. You keep $32.46.

Set the three $35 subscription figures side by side. Lemon Squeezy, US card, leaves $32.57. Stripe, with you as the merchant, leaves $33.44, and the sales tax filing is still yours. Stripe Managed Payments leaves $32.46, and the 3.5% line is the one that says tax remittance is included. An international card adds 1.5% on Stripe’s card schedule. On the $35 processor-plus-Billing row that is another $0.53, so the fee becomes $2.09 and you keep $32.91. On Managed Payments the same 1.5% makes the fee $3.07 and you keep $31.93. Add Stripe’s 1% currency-conversion line only if a conversion happens. On $35 that 1% is $0.35 more.

Lemon Squeezy’s own January 28, 2026 note says Stripe acquired them in 2024, and that the team is building a path from Lemon Squeezy onto Stripe Managed Payments. That post does not replace the 5% + 50¢, and it does not print a Managed Payments price. The 3.5% is Stripe’s pricing page on October 24, 2026. The January post said Managed Payments then supported merchants in 35+ countries and was on a waitlist. The October pricing page lists the product with a price. Who can open an account is not printed on either page.

Two Stripe fees have no matching line on the Lemon Squeezy fee page. A dispute you receive is $15, and countering it yourself is another $15, returned if you win. The Lemon Squeezy fee page lists no dispute fee. On refunds, Stripe’s standard pricing charges no refund fee on most methods. Bank transfers can be an exception. The original processing fee is not returned. The Lemon Squeezy fee page says nothing about whether a refund returns the platform fee.

Stripe’s standard payout schedule is free. Instant Payouts are 1.5% of that volume. That is the Stripe side of the payout question, and it is separate from the per-sale rows.

The hosting bill is a different line again. Supabase vs Firebase prices one small app at 1,000, 10,000, and 50,000 users. Subtract a fee from this page before you set that bill next to what a subscription leaves you.