Stripe vs Square Pricing 2026: Head-to-Head
Side-by-side cost-per-$100 across four GMV bands, with each vendor's published rate card, dispute fees, and cross-border surcharge laid out under a single decision aid.
On pure card-rate, Stripe and Square's online rate are identical at 2.9% + 30c, so online-only cost is a wash. Square wins decisively in-person where the 2.6% + 15c tap/dip rate and $0 chargeback fee crush Stripe's economics. Stripe wins on API depth, recurring billing, marketplaces, and cross-border (which Square does not support). Pick by channel mix: if more than half your revenue is card-present, Square is hard to beat below $1M/yr.
Both vendors at a glance
Feature comparison
Cost-per-$100 across four GMV bands
Illustrative examples, not a real company. Cost models use each vendor's published headline rate and per-transaction fixed fee. Quote-only vendors are not estimated.
Switching cost
If you're on Stripe and considering Square
Square to Stripe takes 4-8 engineering weeks because Stripe's API surface is broader and Square's POS hardware does not transfer. Stripe to Square is fast for online-only stores (1-2 weeks) but requires re-buying hardware for any in-person revenue. Customer-saved cards do not transfer either way; re-tokenisation through the new vendor is required.
Related
See all vendor pages on the vendor index, or run your own numbers in the cross-vendor cost calculator.