Where the money lands: what it costs to get paid

An invoice says $1,500. What reaches your bank account is a different number, and how different depends almost entirely on one choice: how your client pays. The same invoice can cost you $5 or more than $50 to collect. On a single job that is lunch money. Across a year of invoices it adds up to real money, and most new freelancers never look at it.

This note walks through what each common way of getting paid costs in the US, using each company's own pricing page, and how to steer clients toward the cheaper options without making it awkward.

The short version

• Bank transfers are cheapest for anything over a couple of hundred dollars, because the fee is small or capped.
• Cards cost about 3%, plus a fixed amount per payment, with no cap. The bigger the invoice, the more a card costs you.
• Paper checks and wires sent straight to your bank carry no processing fee from a payment app, though your bank may have its own fees, and checks are slow.
• International clients add extra percentages for foreign cards and currency conversion on top of everything else.

What a $1,500 invoice actually pays you

Here is one $1,500 invoice from a US client paid in US dollars, cheapest first. The fees are worked out from the standard published rates below; your account may differ if you have negotiated pricing.

The gap between the top and bottom rows is about $48 on one invoice. On a $5,000 invoice, the Stripe bank transfer still costs $5 because of the cap, while a Stripe card payment costs $145.30.

Want your own numbers? The payment fee calculator takes any invoice amount and lists what you would receive with each option.

The rates, from each company

• Stripe (standard US pricing): 2.9% + 30¢ for domestic cards, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% if currency has to be converted. ACH Direct Debit (US bank transfer) is 0.8%, capped at $5.00. If you send invoices through Stripe's own Invoicing product, Stripe adds 0.4% of the invoice, capped at $2.00 per invoice. Source: Stripe pricing.
• PayPal (US commercial rates): an invoice paid through PayPal Checkout or Venmo is 3.49% plus a fixed fee; paid by card it is 2.99% plus a fixed fee. The fixed fee in US dollars is $0.49. International payments add 1.50%, and PayPal's currency conversion spread is 4.00%. Source: PayPal merchant fees.
• Square (Square Invoices): a card paid on an invoice is 3.3% + 30¢ on Square Free and 2.9% + 30¢ on Square Plus or Premium. A bank transfer (ACH) paid on an invoice is 1% with a $1 minimum; Plus and Premium cap that at $10, and Square lists no cap for the Free plan. Source: Square fees and payments FAQ.

Checked October 26, 2026. Payment companies change their prices without much notice, so check the page before you set your terms.

How to get clients to pay the cheaper way

Most clients don't care how they pay as long as it is easy. So make the cheap option the easy one.

• Put the bank option first. On the invoice and in the email, lead with bank transfer. Mention card second, as the backup.
• Write it into your terms. One sentence in your agreement is enough: "Invoices are payable by bank transfer within 14 days. Card payments are accepted for invoices under $500."
• Price in the card cost if you need to. If a client always pays by card, raise your rate slightly at the next project rather than adding a surcharge line to every invoice. It is simpler, and the client sees one clean price.
• Ask international clients early. Before the first invoice, ask how they normally pay overseas suppliers. Learning it after the payment has already lost 2.5% or more is too late.

Where the money lands with tab

The rose window in this note's picture takes light from one side and lets it land, coloured, on the floor. Getting paid works the same way: the client sends one amount, and what lands is shaped by everything it passed through. tab tries to keep that path short and visible.

• Payments go to your own Stripe account. Your client pays by ACH bank transfer or card on Stripe's payment page, and tab never holds the money.
• tab's own fee: no tab fee on the first $2,000 collected each calendar month, then 1% up to $10,000 and 0.5% above $10,000. tab refunds its fee on refunded payments. Stripe's processing fee is separate (US: 0.8% capped at $5 by bank transfer, 2.9% + 30¢ by card).
• Paid outside tab, always free. If a client pays by check or wire, you record the payment yourself, and tab charges nothing.
• You see the real number. When an online payment lands, tab emails you what the client paid, Stripe's fee, tab's fee and what you get, with the day it reaches your Stripe balance.

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Don't forget the other two cuts

Processing fees are the small slice. The big ones come after. If you found the client on a marketplace, its fee comes off first; the Upwork fee calculator shows what is left. Then taxes: as a self-employed person in the US you owe self-employment tax on top of income tax, and the freelance tax calculator estimates how much of each payment to set aside. This is general information, not tax advice.

And the biggest leak is usually none of these. It is hours that never make it onto the invoice. Track them per client as you work (the meter on the homepage runs without an account), and if a client goes quiet after the invoice, use the day 3, 10, 21 follow-up schedule.