Lemon Squeezy Fee Calculator and Surcharges (2026)
Calculate Lemon Squeezy fees, from the 5% + $0.50 base to stacking surcharges up to 8.5%, payout costs, and what the Stripe Managed Payments migration changes.
Lemon Squeezy breakdown
- Base fee (5% + 50¢) $5.50
| Platform | Fee | Effective rate | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| $3.20 | 3.20% | $96.80 | |
 KelviqMoR First $5K lifetime volume | $3.30 | 3.30% | $96.70 |
 CreemMoR | $4.30 | 4.30% | $95.70 |
| $5.50 | 5.50% | $94.50 | |
 PaddleMoR | $5.50 | 5.50% | $94.50 |
 Polar.shMoR Starter (free) | $5.50 | 5.50% | $94.50 |
| $6.70 | 6.70% | $93.30 | |
 GumroadMoR Direct sale (your audience) | $13.70 | 13.70% | $86.30 |
The ranking counts per-transaction cost only. Monthly plan fees, payout fees, and dispute fees are listed separately on each platform page. Rates are verified against official pricing pages, and the sources list the dates.
Lemon Squeezy fees in full
| Base transaction fee | 5% + 50¢ |
|---|---|
| International cards | +1.5% |
| Currency conversion | No surcharge |
| Subscription billing | +0.5% |
| PayPal | +1.5% |
| Monthly fee | None |
| Payout fees | US bank free, non-US bank 1%, PayPal 50¢ (US) or 3% capped at $30 (international) ($50 minimum payout balance) |
| Dispute / chargeback fee | $15.00 |
| Sales tax / VAT handling | MoR Lemon Squeezy handles global sales tax and VAT as the legal seller |
| Source | Official pricing, last verified 2026-07-10 (Acquired by Stripe. Merchants are being migrated to Stripe Managed Payments) |
- Surcharges stack. An international PayPal subscription pays 5% + 1.5% + 1.5% + 0.5% + 50¢.
Four numbers decide your rate, not one
Lemon Squeezy’s pricing is a base of 5% + $0.50 with three independent surcharges. International cards add 1.5%, subscription payments add 0.5%, PayPal adds 1.5%, and they stack. The same $49 monthly subscription therefore produces four different fees depending on how it is paid. It costs $3.20 from a US card (6.5% effective), $3.93 from an international card (8.0%), $3.93 via US PayPal (also 8.0%), and $4.67 via international PayPal, which is 8.5% + $0.50, a 9.5% effective rate and the platform’s ceiling. All rates were verified against docs.lemonsqueezy.com on July 10, 2026.
For one-time sales the pattern repeats at a lower level, with $5.50 on a $100 domestic card sale and $7.00 international. Any Lemon Squeezy revenue projection built on the flat 5.5% headline understates fees for a global audience by two to four points.
What it costs to get your money out
Payout fees depend entirely on destination. US bank accounts receive funds free, and any other bank costs 1% of the payout. PayPal payouts run $0.50 to US accounts and 3% capped at $30 elsewhere. The cap saturates at $1,000, above which the effective rate falls. The $50 minimum payout matters for small or new sellers. Balances below it simply wait, so a hobby product earning $30 a month sees revenue on a two-month delay.
A non-US seller banking outside the States should add a full point to every effective rate above. That turns the international-card subscription from 8.0% into roughly 9.0% all-in.
Disputes cost $15
Each chargeback carries a $15 fee. That matches Stripe and Polar, but Paddle, Lemon Squeezy’s closest structural competitor, absorbs disputes entirely. At typical SaaS dispute rates the dollar impact is small, but for products with riskier traffic it belongs in the model.
The acquisition is the real story in 2026
Stripe acquired Lemon Squeezy in 2024 and built its merchant-of-record product, Stripe Managed Payments, from it. The product has been in public preview since February 2026, with existing Lemon Squeezy merchants being migrated onto it. Published Lemon Squeezy rates still apply while the migration proceeds, but the destination prices differently, at roughly 6.4% + $0.30 all-in domestic and near 8.9% + $0.30 for international cards with currency conversion.
The migration ledger varies by seller profile. A $100 domestic one-time sale goes from $5.50 today to $6.70 on Managed Payments, a 1.2-point increase on the cleanest transaction type. The $49 international card subscription rises from $3.93 to $4.66. Only the worst-case Lemon Squeezy transaction, the international PayPal subscription at $4.67, lands about level. In short, the more surcharges you pay today, the gentler the migration, and domestic-heavy sellers absorb the largest increase. Preview pricing may also change at general availability, which cuts in either direction. This is why Lemon Squeezy comparison searches spiked in 2026. Merchants are pricing the destination, not the current platform.
Same headline as Paddle, different bill
Paddle also advertises 5% + $0.50, but as a true all-in rate covering international cards, subscriptions, PayPal, and chargebacks. The two platforms charge identical fees in exactly one scenario, the domestic one-time card sale. Everywhere else Paddle is cheaper, at $2.95 versus $3.93 on the international subscription and $5.50 versus $7.00 on the $100 international one-time sale. Lemon Squeezy claws some of that back at payout time for US sellers (free bank payouts, versus Paddle’s 1.5-3% FX margin when payout and sale currencies differ), but for internationally weighted revenue the checkout gap dominates.
Where sellers comparing alternatives land
Among merchants of record, Creem charges $2.31 on the $49 international subscription with no international surcharge at all, Kelviq charges $2.80 at its introductory rate ($3.10 standard), and Polar’s free Starter plan charges $3.69. All undercut both Lemon Squeezy’s $3.93 and the $4.66 it becomes after migration. Lemon Squeezy’s remaining draws (a mature product catalog, license keys, and the coming integration with Stripe’s infrastructure) are real, but on pure fees it now prices in the upper half of the market, and the calculator above shows exactly where your own mix falls.
| Platform | $10 sale | $50 sale | $500 sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lemon Squeezy | $1.00 | $3.00 | $25.50 |