On a marketplace, one payment splits three ways: the buyer pays, Stripe takes its cut, your platform keeps its application fee, and the connected seller nets the rest. Plug in your own numbers and see exactly who pays the fee, what the seller nets, and your effective take rate — for a single charge or a whole month.
| Where the money goes | Per charge |
|---|---|
| Buyer pays Charge amount | $0 |
| Stripe processing fee % × charge + fixed per charge | $0 |
| Stripe cross-border / FX Added % × charge | $0 |
| Platform application fee (gross) Your % × charge + fixed | $0 |
| less Stripe fee the platform absorbs Per the fee-bearer model | $0 |
| less Connect account fee Active accounts × per-account fee | $0 |
| less payout fee the platform absorbs Per the fee-bearer model | $0 |
| Platform nets | $0 |
| Seller nets (payout) Charge − application fee − any fees the seller bears | $0 |
Stripe processing fee = percent% × charge + fixed per successful charge, plus an optional cross-border/FX percent on the charge. Defaults 2.9% + $0.30.
Platform application fee (gross) = your percent% × charge + fixed. This is what you charge the seller before your own costs.
Charge type sets who Stripe deducts the processing fee from mechanically:
Fee-bearer model sets who ultimately absorbs Stripe’s processing fee (and any payout fee) in your intended economics:
(intended + fixed) ÷ (1 − percent).Optional costs: the Connect active-account fee (accounts × per-account fee) and payout fee (percent% × amount + fixed per payout) are charged to your platform by Stripe; in this tool they reduce platform net, except the payout fee follows the fee-bearer model. The account fee applies in monthly mode.
Effective take rate = platform net ÷ what the buyer paid. Monthly mode applies the same per-charge math across your GMV and transaction count, then adds account fees once.
Simplifications: this models the common US flow and ignores Stripe Tax, Radar, disputes/chargebacks, refunds, instant-payout premiums, Billing/invoicing fees, and per-country rate differences. It is an estimate to reason with, not Stripe’s official accounting.
If you want your platform to keep a target margin after Stripe’s cut, set the fee-bearer model to platform absorbs and raise your application fee until Platform nets hits your goal — that tells you how much to charge sellers to cover Stripe Connect fees and still clear your intended take rate. If instead the seller should absorb processing, leave it on seller bears and read the application fee vs. seller payout split directly: the seller’s payout is what lands in their account after Stripe and your fee come out.
This is, in effect, a marketplace split payment calculator: it shows the three-way split on one charge, your marketplace take rate after fees for a single transaction or a full month of GMV, and exactly where every dollar goes. Charge type (direct vs. destination) changes which Stripe balance the processing fee is debited from mechanically; the fee-bearer model is what changes who ultimately keeps what — so both are modeled separately above.
The split above is what should happen on every charge. The problem for a real platform is that application fees, payouts, and connected-account balances drift apart quietly — a transfer that didn’t fire, an application fee that wasn’t collected, a payout that failed, a connected account whose balance doesn’t reconcile to the transfers you intended. None of that throws an alert. You find it at month-end, or when a seller emails asking where their money is.
Ops Monitor connects to your Stripe with a read-only key and continuously reconciles application-fee vs. payout vs. connected-account balance, then alerts you by email or Slack the moment they stop agreeing. It is read-only — it never moves money and never writes to your account. It detects and alerts; it does not prevent or guarantee anything.
For Connect platform operators: reconcile application fees vs. payouts vs. connected-account balances automatically — $149/month, self-serve, read-only keys, cancel anytime.
Start monitoring — $149/mo →Not ready? Run the free, no-signup Ops Scorecard to see where your platform is most exposed.