Stripe Billing Pricing 2026: 0.7% Pay As You Go, Contract Tiers and Add-Ons

Stripe Billing costs 0.7% of billing volume with no recurring fee on pay as you go, or $620 a month on a one-year contract for up to $100,000 of monthly billing volume, with three higher tiers at $1,500, $2,950 and $5,750. Those figures were read on Stripe's Billing pricing page on October 18, 2026. The contract makes sense above $88,571 of monthly billing, where 0.7% of volume passes the entry tier's fee. Below that, pay as you go is cheaper and carries no term.

The billing fee is rarely the big line. Stripe Payments takes 2.9% plus 30 cents per card charge on top, Revenue Recognition is a separate subscription from $25 a month, and one-off invoices run through Invoicing at 0.4% or 0.5% per paid invoice. This page prices all four and shows where the contract tiers beat the percentage. The Stripe Billing review covers the product; this page covers only the bill.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, evaluated 89 subscription billing tools for its subscription billing ranking as of October 2026, and only 27% of them have a free plan; Stripe sits among that ranking's honorable mentions. Stripe's directory page is Stripe and the Billing product has its own entry at Stripe Billing.

Stripe Billing plans at a glance

A subscription billing product, for this audience, raises the recurring invoice, collects it, retries the failures and feeds the revenue schedule. Stripe prices that as a share of what you bill, and sells the schedule and the processing separately.

What the 0.7% actually covers

Every plan includes the same feature set; the tiers only change the price. Stripe lists recurring billing and subscriptions, automatic reminders for missed payments, Smart Retries, up to three recovery and retention automations, a Stripe-hosted customer portal, automatic reconciliation of invoices paid by ACH credit or wire, quotes and multiphase subscription schedules as included on every plan. The only priced extra inside Billing is a custom domain for the customer portal, at $10 a month.

Billing volume means transactions processed on and off Stripe. That is the clause that surprises finance teams: a subscription invoice settled by wire, or collected through another processor, still counts toward the 0.7%, because Stripe charges for the billing logic, not the payment. One-off invoices are excluded from Billing volume and are priced by Invoicing instead, so a company that raises many one-time charges pays two different percentages on two different bases.

Advanced usage-based billing has moved to Metronome, a Stripe product sold through its own sales team. The pricing page keeps basic usage-based features in Billing through the Meters API, with up to 100M events a month included, so a simple metered plan still fits inside the 0.7%. A multidimensional rate card or negotiated enterprise contracts belong to Metronome, and that quote is not on the page. Companies comparing on usage should read Chargebee pricing, where 100M usage events a month come bundled into Chargebee's percentage.

Where the contract tiers beat pay as you go

Our arithmetic puts the breakeven for each tier at the point where 0.7% of volume equals the flat fee. Tier 1 breaks even at $88,571 a month; tier 2 at $1,500 breaks even at $214,286; tier 3 at $2,950 at $421,429; tier 4 at $5,750 at $821,429. Stripe's own labels say the tiers save 11%, 14%, 16% and 18% against pay as you go, and those percentages hold only at the top of each tier's volume band. A company at the bottom of a band is paying more than it would on the percentage.

The 0.67% overage makes the lower tier cheaper than the next one up for a wide stretch. At $150,000 a month, tier 1 costs its flat fee plus 0.67% of the $50,000 above its cap, or $955, against $1,500 for tier 2 and $1,050 on pay as you go. Tier 2 does not beat tier 1 plus overage until volume passes $231,343. So the right contract is usually the tier below your volume, not the one whose cap you sit under, and a sales rep who quotes the higher tier is quoting the wrong line.

The contract is a one-year term, and the savings are modest. Eleven to eighteen percent of the billing fee on a product whose fee is already under 1% of revenue is a small number: at tier 1's volume cap the full saving is $80 a month. A company that expects to move processors, change pricing models or be acquired within the year should stay on pay as you go and keep the freedom to leave. The best billing software roundup compares that flexibility against the contract-first vendors.

A $150,000 month, priced on both paths

Our scenario: a software company billing $150,000 a month on recurring subscriptions, collected as 1,500 card charges of $100, with Revenue Recognition on the cheapest annual tier for that volume. Totals multiply Stripe's published US rates and exclude taxes, Invoicing and Metronome.

Processing is 78% to 79% of the bill on either path, and the contract saves $1,140 a year. The decision that moves money is the payment mix, not the Billing tier: the same volume collected by ACH direct debit at 0.8% with a $5.00 cap per debit costs far less than cards. A finance team that can push annual contracts onto ACH saves more than any Billing tier does. For collections once an invoice is late, the best AR automation software guide covers the tools that sit after Stripe.

Revenue Recognition and Invoicing: the fees beside Billing

Revenue Recognition is a separate subscription priced on payment volume, with a 30-day free trial for new users. A monthly subscription costs $25 a month for up to $10,000 of monthly payment volume, with 0.25% for additional volume. Annual subscriptions billed monthly cost $190 for up to $100,000, $450 for up to $250,000, $860 for up to $500,000 and $1,650 for up to $1,000,000, each with 0.2% for additional volume, and custom pricing above that. Payment volume here includes Stripe transactions, which is a narrower base than Billing volume. The standalone alternatives are in best revenue recognition software, and a controller with off-Stripe revenue should price them, because Stripe's schedule only sees what Stripe processes.

Invoicing prices one-off invoices per paid invoice. Starter costs 0.4% per paid invoice and Plus costs 0.5%, adding quotes to the Starter features. Those percentages apply to the invoices Billing excludes, so a company with half its revenue in one-time professional services invoices pays 0.7% on the subscriptions and 0.4% or 0.5% on the rest. Sales tax is another product again, covered through the best sales tax software guide and the Avalara alternatives page.

Stripe Billing against Chargebee and Recurly

On the billing fee alone, Stripe's 0.7% is the lowest published percentage of the three at most volumes. Chargebee Flow costs $0 plus 0.80% of invoicing, moving to $99 plus 0.65% at $66K of monthly invoicing, and Recurly Starter costs $249 a month plus 0.9% above the first $40K. At $100,000 a month that is $700 at Stripe, $749 at Chargebee on the base-fee line and $789 at Recurly. Our arithmetic finds no monthly volume up to $1,000,000 where Chargebee's line undercuts Stripe's cheapest path, pay as you go below $88,571 and the right contract tier above it. What the rivals sell is what Stripe's page does not list: a choice of payment gateways, deeper dunning campaigns and, at Chargebee, a quoting layer and bundled usage events. The details are in the Recurly review and Chargebee alternatives; the enterprise comparison is the Zuora review.

Who should pick which path

Pick pay as you go when monthly billing volume is under $88,571, when the business may change processors or pricing models within a year, or when the volume swings month to month. It carries the full feature set and no term.

Pick a contract tier when volume sits reliably near the top of a tier's band, and choose the tier below your volume when the overage math says so. Budget the 0.67% overage, the one-year term and the Revenue Recognition tier that fits your payment volume, which follows the same tier-below logic.

Skip Stripe Billing when revenue is mostly collected outside Stripe and you still need the schedule: Revenue Recognition only sees Stripe transactions, and the 0.7% applies to invoices Stripe never collects. A standalone billing platform with gateway choice is the better fit in that case, and the best finance stack for Series A guide shows where billing sits beside the ledger and the card.

How we priced this

We read Stripe's Billing pricing page, its Revenue Recognition pricing page, its Invoicing pricing page and the Payments figures shown on the Billing page, on October 18, 2026, and Chargebee's and Recurly's pricing pages the same day for the comparison rows. Breakeven volumes and the scenario are our arithmetic from published US rates, not Stripe quotes; they exclude taxes, Metronome, Invoicing and any custom pricing. The page is published under Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple; CFOpresso runs no test lab, so nothing here comes from a trial account. Re-check the pricing page before you sign a term.

FAQ

How much does Stripe Billing cost in 2026?

Pay as you go is 0.7% of billing volume with no recurring fee. Contract tiers on a one-year term cost $620 a month for up to $100,000 of monthly billing volume, $1,500 for up to $250,000, $2,950 for up to $500,000 and $5,750 for up to $1,000,000, with 0.67% on volume above each cap. Card processing through Stripe Payments is 2.9% plus 30 cents per charge on top.

Is Stripe Billing free?

No. Every subscription invoice costs 0.7% of its value on pay as you go, even when the payment is collected off Stripe. There is no free tier, but there is no fixed fee either, so a company with $10,000 of monthly subscriptions pays $70 a month and nothing else for the billing layer.

When is the Stripe Billing contract worth it?

When monthly billing volume passes the breakeven of the tier you are considering: $88,571 for tier 1, $214,286 for tier 2, $421,429 for tier 3 and $821,429 for tier 4. Because overage is 0.67%, the tier below your volume is often cheaper than the tier whose cap you sit under, up to $231,343 a month in the case of the first two tiers.

What does Stripe Revenue Recognition cost?

A monthly subscription is $25 a month for up to $10,000 of payment volume with 0.25% for more. Annual subscriptions billed monthly are $190 for up to $100,000, $450 for up to $250,000, $860 for up to $500,000 and $1,650 for up to $1,000,000, each with 0.2% for additional volume. New users get a 30-day free trial, and the volume counted is Stripe transactions only.

Does the 0.7% include card processing?

No. Billing is the subscription logic; Stripe Payments charges 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful card charge and 0.8% per ACH direct debit with a $5.00 cap. In our $150,000 scenario, processing is $4,800 a month against a billing fee of $955 to $1,050, so the payment mix moves the total far more than the Billing plan does.

Is Stripe Billing cheaper than Chargebee or Recurly?

On the billing fee, usually. At $100,000 a month Stripe costs $700 on pay as you go, Chargebee's $99 plus 0.65% line costs $749 and Recurly Starter costs $789. The rivals charge more for gateway choice, deeper dunning and, at Chargebee, quoting and bundled usage metering; Stripe sells advanced metering separately through Metronome.

Cite this: CFOpresso, "Stripe Billing Pricing 2026: 0.7% Pay As You Go, Contract Tiers and Add-Ons", October 2026.

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