# Stripe dispute and chargeback fees

Title: Stripe dispute and chargeback fees

Description: What Stripe charges when a dispute arrives, and how the other published fees compare. Read November 9, 2026. Source pages linked. Compared with Stripe.

The dispute fee is not the cost of a dispute. The cost is the disputed amount, the fee, the evidence time, the lost merchandise if you already shipped it, and the ratio that can get the account monitored. This page is about the fee, because the fee is the part a provider publishes.

## What does Stripe charge when a dispute arrives?

Read on November 9, 2026 from Stripe's pricing page:

- **$15** when a dispute is received. Not returned if you win.
- **$15** if you counter it manually. Returned if you win, kept if you lose.
- **$15** if you appeal. Not returned, and network fees can apply.
- **30%** of the disputed amount if you use Smart Disputes and win. The $15 received fee still applies. There is no Smart Disputes fee if you lose.

A won dispute that you countered by hand therefore costs the $15 received fee, plus whatever you spent building the response. A lost one costs the amount, both $15 fees, and the goods.

## What dispute fees do other providers publish?

| Provider | Published dispute fee | Source note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Stripe | $15 received, plus $15 to counter | Counter fee returned on a win |
| PayPal | $15 standard dispute, in USD | For a dispute on a PayPal account or PayPal checkout. High-volume dispute fees are a separate table |
| PayPal card chargeback | $20 | Card transactions not processed through a PayPal account or guest checkout |
| Braintree | $15 chargeback | PayPal's Braintree fee schedule |
| Square | No Square dispute-management fee | The disputed amount is still held. Square says it covers the dispute fee when you challenge a case together |
| Helcim | $15 | Refunded if the chargeback is resolved in your favor |
| Frame | $25 | The fee is on Frame's pricing page |
| Paddle | Not on the pricing page we read | Do not assume it is zero |

Square is the outlier among flat-rate processors here: the published processing rate is not always the lowest, and the published dispute fee is. If your dispute count is high, run that as its own line. A business with a high dispute count also has a Visa monitoring problem, which a $0 fee does not fix. See the VAMP explainer.

Frame's higher dispute fee is one of the reasons Frame is not the recommendation when the only goal is cost. It is disclosed here the same way as the others.

## Questions

### What does Stripe charge when a dispute arrives?

Read on November 9, 2026 from Stripe's pricing page:

### What dispute fees do other providers publish?

Square is the outlier among flat-rate processors here: the published processing rate is not always the lowest, and the published dispute fee is. If your dispute count is high, run that as its own line. A business with a high dispute count also has a Visa monitoring problem, which a $0 fee does not fix. See the VAMP explainer.

### Where were the figures on this page read?

The sources list names the pages. This edition was read on November 9, 2026. Stripe's US domestic card rate in that reading is 2.9% + $0.30, and a dispute received is $15.

### When should you stay on Stripe?

Stay when the Stripe account is healthy and you still need Billing, Tax, Connect, or Terminal. Moving subscriptions costs more than a gap of a few dollars on a $10,000 month.

### Which rate should you not rely on?

Do not invent a rate the provider did not publish, and do not treat Frame's from 2.0% + $0.39 as a price you will be charged. A floor is labeled and left out of the calculator.

## Sources

Last verified November 9, 2026.

- Stripe pricing: https://stripe.com/pricing?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.stripealternatives.com

## Related

- [How to switch from Stripe: what moves, what doesn't](/guides/switching-from-stripe.md)
- [Stripe account under review: what it means](/guides/stripe-account-under-review.md)
- [Is Stripe right for high-risk businesses?](/guides/stripe-high-risk.md)
- [Stripe closed my account: what to do next](/guides/stripe-closed-my-account.md)
- [Stripe's restricted businesses, explained](/guides/stripe-restricted-businesses.md)
- [All Stripe guides](/guides.md)
- [Stripe alternatives directory](/index.md)
- [Stripe pricing and US card fees](/alternatives/stripe.md)