Stripe Fees 2025: Charges For International Payments
Trusted by 2 million customers worldwide, Stripe is a payment processing and payment gateway platform with additional services like invoicing, billing, and subscription management.
But is Stripe the most affordable for Indian businesses and freelancers to receive international payments? In this blog, we will delve into Stripe fees and discover if there's a more affordable alternative for businesses to receive international payments in India.
What is Stripe India?
Stripe India offers a robust cross-border payment solution, allowing businesses to accept payments in over 135 currencies. Its customizable UI components, including masking, styling, and error handling, help businesses create a seamless branded checkout experience. Stripe supports both one-time and recurring payments through instant payment links or direct website integration.
Note that, in India, Stripe functions on an invite-only basis. Meaning you cannot sign up from the Stripe website directly, you must request an invite to create a Stripe account. You get access only when Stripe approves this invite but there is no clear timeline on how long it will take to approve an invitation. The Stripe support page also mentions that they can only assist a limited number of companies focused on international expansion.
Besides the invite-only model, Stripe users in India can only use a credit or a debit card to accept international payments. This might be a drawback for your business if your client prefers a different payment method.
If the invite-only model and a single payment option work for you, we suggest exploring the next section closely as we analyze the different Stripe fee categories.
Stripe Fees: A Quick Breakdown
With Stripe you can accept payments in 135+ currencies through Visa and Master Card; American Express only supports USD. While you have more flexibility to accept payments through international cards, the overall fee structure is on the steeper side.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
Processing Fees: Stripe charges 4.3% as processing fees on every successful transaction.
Currency Conversion Fee: An additional 2% fee is charged for currency conversion.
Additional fees: Stripe may also charge an additional chargeback fee of Rs. 1000 in the event of a lost dispute. A dispute occurs when your client challenges a charge with their bank or credit card provider. The payment is immediately reversed and Stripe debits the amount from your account and the dispute fee.
No FIRA: Stripe does not offer a FIRA after you receive an international payment. A payment advice is emailed to your account so that you can present it to your bank and get the FIRA after paying a fee.
Stripe Fees For Receiving International Payments In India
In this section, we will use an example to understand how much you can expect to lose to fees if you were to get a payment via Stripe.
Imagine you received a payment of USD 10,000 from a client in the United States. Here’s the calculation for the amount you will receive in your account:
Processing Fee
At first, a Stripe processing fee of 4.3% will be deducted from this amount, which is USD 430. The balance amount now is USD 9,570.
Currency Conversion Fee
An additional 2% will be charged on the USD to INR exchange rate. Assuming the exchange rate is Rs. 85 for 1 USD, the effective exchange rate will become Rs. 83.3 , post the 2% currency conversion fee
Final Amount
We will multiply the balance amount by the reduced exchange rate to calculate the final amount. Final amount = 9570 X 83.3 = Rs. 797,181
So how much money did you lose as fees? To know that we will compare the full value $10,000 with the final amount we calculated in the last step. Full value = 10000 X 85 = 850,000
Final amount = Rs. 797,181. Amount lost as Stripe’s fees = Rs. 52,819 ($621)
In addition to Stripe’s fees, you must spend a bit extra to obtain the FIRA from the bank. Every bank has a different fee structure, usually starting at Rs. 200 for each FIRA. For example, HDFC Bank charges Rs. 200 for issuing an FIRA.
If we add the FIRA fees, the total is Rs. 53,019
To summarize, to receive a payment of $10,000, you will lose Rs. 53,000 as Stripe + FIRA fees.
Skydo: An Affordable And Seamless Stripe Alternative To Receive International Payments
Despite its popularity and global trust, Stripe’s invite-only model and high fee structure might not be the best option for most Indian businesses. Skydo is a practical alternative to Stripe and offers a quick, secure, and cost-effective solution to all Indian businesses.
Skydo offers international virtual accounts linked to your bank account. These virtual accounts act as digital delivery agents — accepting payments from international clients and delivering them to your bank account. Virtual accounts provide immense flexibility to manage your international payments in different currencies. You can create separate virtual accounts for customers in key regions like the US, the UK, Australia, and Singapore to keep track of payments efficiently.
Skydo has a simple fee structure with no hidden charges. For accepting payments under $2000, the charges are $19, for payments between $2001-$10,000 the charges are $29, and for payments more than $10,000 it’s 0.3% of the amount. There are no additional currency conversion fees and currency is converted at the live exchange rate.
This makes Skydo a more affordable alternative to Stripe. How? Let’s go back to our previous example.
For receiving a payment of $10,000, Stripe fees cost you Rs. 53,019 ($624)
For receiving the same amount through Skydo it will cost you $29 which is Rs. 2465 — assuming an exchange rate of 1 USD = INR 85.
The difference is: INR 53,019 - INR 2465 = INR 50,554. This amount is your saving from using Skydo.
Beyond affordable fees, here's why you should choose Skydo your trusted international payments platform:
Free and Instant FIRA: Skydo offers free and instant FIRA for every transaction
Local Customer Support: Our India-based customer team is always ready to help businesses navigate through any onboarding or payment-related query.
User-friendly Interface: Skydo's UI is designed for easy usability and navigation
Fully Compliant: Skydo is one of India's first homegrown platforms to receive In-Principle Authorization (IPA) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a Payment Aggregator - Cross-Border Exports (PA-CB-E), ensure that all your payments are 100% secure and compliant.
Switch to Skydo today to experience the difference.
Want to explore more Stripe alternatives? Check out our Top 5 Stripe alternatives blog. If you’re curious how Stripe fares against PayPal only, then head over to our Stripe vs PayPal deep-dive analysis.
