Paddle's public pay-as-you-go checkout price is the simplest place to start: estimate each Checkout transaction as 5% of the sale plus $0.50, then decide whether the merchant-of-record bundle is worth the fee for your SaaS business.
The official Paddle pricing page currently presents the pay-as-you-go checkout rate as 5% + $0.50 per Checkout transaction. It also points larger businesses to custom pricing and tells sellers with products under $10 or invoicing needs to speak with Paddle before assuming the default checkout rate.
For a quick planning estimate, use this formula: Paddle fee = price x 5% + $0.50. The fixed fee is the part that makes low-ticket SaaS plans behave differently from $29, $49, or $99 plans. A headline percentage alone is not enough when every subscription payment is a small transaction.
Last checked against Paddle's public pricing page: July 7, 2026. Provider pricing and custom terms can change.
These examples use one checkout transaction and the public pay-as-you-go assumption. They are not a quote, tax advice, or accounting advice. They are a fast way to see whether Paddle's fixed checkout fee is material before you run a fuller provider comparison.
| SaaS plan price | Estimated Paddle fee | Net before other costs | Effective fee drag | Next step |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $5 | $0.75 | $4.25 | 15.0% | Open $5 scenario |
| $9 | $0.95 | $8.05 | 10.6% | Open $9 scenario |
| $29 | $1.95 | $27.05 | 6.7% | Open $29 scenario |
| $99 | $5.45 | $93.55 | 5.5% | Open $99 scenario |
Use the public Paddle pricing rate for early planning when you sell a normal self-serve SaaS checkout, do not yet have negotiated terms, and need a fast comparison against Stripe, PayPal, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, or another merchant-of-record provider.
The planning question is not only "which fee is lower?" It is also "which provider leaves less tax, billing, buyer-support, fraud, dispute, and payout work for the team?"
Verify directly before launch if your product price is under $10, if you need invoicing, if you expect high volume, or if you are migrating an existing subscription base. Those cases can change the commercial discussion and may not behave like a standard checkout example.
A calculator can help you see the sensitive variables, but final pricing should come from the live provider page and your own account terms.
Stripe often looks cheaper if you compare only card processing. Paddle can still make sense if merchant-of-record coverage saves enough time and risk. A fair model should include sales tax or VAT workflows, international payments, invoices, refunds, fraud handling, chargebacks, buyer support, and finance handoff.
Paddle's public pay-as-you-go pricing page lists 5% plus $0.50 per Checkout transaction. Custom pricing, low-ticket products, and invoicing scenarios can differ.
The fixed $0.50 part is large compared with a small checkout amount. At $5 it adds ten percentage points before the 5% variable fee, so the effective fee is about 15%.
Yes. Compare Stripe's direct processing cost plus tax tooling and operations against Paddle's merchant-of-record bundle. The right answer depends on order size, geography, tax exposure, and team capacity.