For cards, Stripe’s pricing page leads with one number: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction on domestic cards. The line that matters if you bill by invoice is in a separate Invoicing section of the same page: Invoicing Starter, “0.4% per paid invoice.” There’s no cap on it, and it’s charged on top of the card rate.
Put those two lines together and a card-paid Stripe invoice costs 3.3% + 30¢. Square’s own fine print lands on the same rate: 3.3% + 30¢ is what invoices cost on Square Free, and only the paid plans, Square Plus at $49 a month per location or Premium at $149 a month per location, bring invoices down to 2.9% + 30¢. On a $1,200 job paid by card, Square Free and Stripe both take $39.90.
By card, Square Free and Stripe cost the same on every invoice, and only a paid Square plan costs less. By bank transfer, invoice size decides it: from $100 up to about $833 Square is cheaper, between about $833 and $1,250 Stripe is, and above about $1,250 Square Plus’s $10 cap wins, while Square Free, which has no ACH cap at all, becomes the most expensive of the three. Whether Plus earns back $49 a month per location depends on your own mix of card volume and large bank-transfer invoices, and the arithmetic is below.
Rates are Square’s and Stripe’s published US rates, from their pricing pages, fee help articles and Square’s plan announcement, checked October 17, 2026. They’re processing fees for US-issued cards and US bank accounts, before the Square subscription, hardware and tax, with Stripe on Invoicing Starter. None of it comes from running transactions in either account.
By card: the same 3.3% unless you pay Square for a plan
On Square, the invoice rate comes from the account’s subscription plan, not from the Invoices product: 3.3% + 30¢ on Square Free, 2.9% + 30¢ on Plus and Premium. On Stripe, 2.9% + 30¢ is the card charge, and Invoicing Starter adds 0.4% of each paid invoice. Stripe has no monthly platform fee, and its old allowance of 25 free invoices a month ended November 1, 2023.
| Invoice | Square Free or Stripe | Square Plus or Premium |
|---|---|---|
| $300 | $10.20 | $9.00 |
| $1,200 | $39.90 | $35.10 |
| $3,000 | $99.30 | $87.30 |
The math is invoice × 3.3% + $0.30, or × 2.9% + $0.30 on Plus and Premium. The Plus and Premium column leaves out the $49 or $149 monthly subscription. Two conditions sit on the Stripe side: on Invoicing Plus the invoice fee is 0.5%, which makes the total 3.4% + 30¢, and the invoicing fee is charged only when the invoice is paid through Stripe, so one settled by check costs nothing on that line.
Premium doesn’t lower the invoice rate below Plus. If invoices are how you get paid, Plus is the tier to price; where Premium’s rate does drop is on cards tapped in person, covered further down.
By bank transfer: invoice size picks the winner
Square charges 1% of an invoice paid by ACH, with a $1 minimum. On Square Free there’s no cap; on Plus and Premium the fee stops at $10. Stripe charges 0.8% for ACH Direct Debit, capped at $5.00, and Invoicing’s 0.4% still applies on top without a cap, so a Stripe bank-transfer invoice keeps getting more expensive after the $5.00 cap is reached.
| Invoice | Square Free | Square Plus / Premium | Stripe |
|---|---|---|---|
| $300 | $3.00 | $3.00 | $3.60 |
| $1,200 | $12.00 | $10.00 | $9.80 |
| $3,000 | $30.00 | $10.00 | $17.00 |
Two crossover points come straight out of those rates. Stripe drops below Square Free at about $833 per invoice, where $5 plus 0.4% of the invoice equals 1% of it. Square Plus drops below Stripe at about $1,250, where Stripe’s $5 plus 0.4% reaches Square’s $10 cap. In between, Stripe is the cheapest of the three. Neither point counts the $49 subscription; that comes next.
The trap is on the free plan. If you bill large jobs and steer customers toward bank transfer to avoid card fees, Square Free still charges $30 on a $3,000 invoice, against $17 on Stripe and $10 on Square Plus.
These are Square’s rates for ACH paid through an invoice. ACH taken through Square’s API is a separate line, 1% with a $1 minimum and a $5 cap on every plan. Stripe’s figures assume standard settlement. If your large invoices go out from QuickBooks instead, its bank-transfer fee runs on different terms, and QuickBooks ACH fees on large invoices works through who pays what there.
Does Square Plus’s $49 a month come back to you?
Plus costs $49 a month per location, so two locations mean two subscriptions. It earns that back in two places: 0.4% of every card-paid invoice (3.3% down to 2.9%, with the same 30¢ on both sides), and the $10 cap on large bank-transfer invoices.
Monthly saving on Plus = card-paid invoice volume × 0.004 + the ACH saving on each large bank-transfer invoice. On a $3,000 invoice that saving is $7 against Stripe ($17 − $10) or $20 against Square Free ($30 − $10). Plus pays off at a location when the total passes $49.
On card volume alone, $49 ÷ 0.004 = $12,250 in card-paid invoices a month per location. That’s arithmetic on the published rates, not a figure Square prints, and any bank-transfer savings pull it lower. On bank transfers alone, seven $3,000 invoices a month cover the $49 against Stripe, and three cover it against Square Free.
One hypothetical month, run through it
Take a one-location shop that, in an illustrative month, collects $8,000 in card-paid invoices plus four $3,000 invoices by bank transfer. The card saving on Plus is $8,000 × 0.004 = $32. Against Stripe, the four bank-transfer invoices save 4 × $7 = $28, so Plus saves $60 for its $49 and comes out $11 ahead. Against Square Free they save 4 × $20 = $80, so Plus comes out $63 ahead. Take away the bank-transfer invoices and the same shop saves only $32, less than the subscription, so it’s better off on Square Free or Stripe.
Premium is a separate decision. It doesn’t lower the invoice rate, so its extra $100 a month has to come back from cards tapped in person, where Premium charges 2.4% against Plus’s 2.5%. That takes about $100,000 a month in tapped-card sales ($100 ÷ 0.001), so check it against your own in-person volume before moving up. Square’s official pages don’t state an annual-billing discount on these plans, so budget on the monthly price.
Cards tapped at the job, and card numbers taken by phone
In person, Square charges 2.6% + 15¢ on Free, 2.5% + 15¢ on Plus and 2.4% + 15¢ on Premium. Stripe Terminal charges 2.7% + 5¢ on domestic cards. On the free tiers, Stripe’s smaller fixed fee wins on small charges and Square’s lower percentage wins above about $100 a charge. Hardware isn’t counted on either side.
Keyed-in cards and cards on file cost 3.5% + 15¢ on every Square plan, Free, Plus and Premium alike, the highest of the Square rates compared here. Paying for Plus does nothing for that volume, so if you take card numbers over the phone, moving those customers to the invoice link or a bank transfer saves more than a plan would. Stripe’s rate for manually entered cards wasn’t part of this comparison, so don’t read this as Stripe having none.
The fees that show up when a payment goes wrong
Square’s fee page lists chargebacks and dispute management among the services it charges nothing for. Stripe charges $15.00 for a disputed payment (plus another $15.00 if you contest a card dispute and lose), $4.00 when an ACH payment fails, and $1.50 for instant bank account validation.
For customers who pay on time, none of that moves the answer. If you see a few disputes a year, or collect ACH from customers whose balances run thin, it’s the tiebreaker between two platforms that otherwise charge the same 3.3% + 30¢ on a card-paid invoice.
Everything here assumes US-issued cards and US bank accounts. Square adds 1.5% for international cards; Stripe’s international-card and currency-conversion charges weren’t part of this comparison, so price them with Stripe directly if some customers pay from outside the US. Online stores, subscription billing and payout timing are outside it too.
Last month’s invoices already hold the answer
Pull one month of invoices and sort them into three piles: paid by card, paid by bank transfer on smaller jobs, and paid by bank transfer on your largest jobs. Then read each pile against the two tables above.
If the card pile is nearly everything, Square Free and Stripe will charge you the same, and Stripe’s dispute fees are the real difference. If the middle pile is big, Stripe’s $5.00 ACH cap does the most work for you. If the large-job pile shows up every month, put your own card total and count of large invoices into the Plus formula before you pay $49 a month per location for it.
If those invoices go out from Jobber rather than straight from Square or Stripe, the comparison changes, and Jobber Payments fees on card, ACH and instant payouts is the one to run instead. Square restructured its plans in October 2025, so confirm the current rates on both companies’ pages before you open an account.
Official pages to recheck: Square fees · Stripe pricing · Stripe Invoicing pricing