Payments Pricing with Square APIs and SDKs

Learn about the processing fees that Square charges for payments made with Square payment APIs.

Square provides secure payment solutions for online and in-person payments made with supported cards. The payment transaction fees are based on the payment platform, transaction type, and geographical region where a payment is handled.

Square offers various hardware devices (Square Readers and Square Terminal) to process in-person payments. Square also offers SDKs and APIs for your custom applications to connect to these devices.

Payment pricing depends on the following conditions:

• The API you're using.

• Whether a buyer's card is presented for payment:

  • Card present - Indicates that a physical card or mobile wallet (such as Apple Pay or Google Pay) is used for payment. The card is tapped, dipped, or swiped depending on the Square Reader used.
  • Card not present - Indicates that a physical card or mobile wallet isn't used for payment. For example, a seller initiates the payment using a card on file or the number is entered manually in the Point of Sale application. For more information about card-not-present payments, see What Is a Card-Not-Present (CNP) Transaction.

Depending on your region, Square provides the Mobile Payments SDK and Point of Sale API options for your application to connect to your chosen Square Reader hardware.

• Processing rates - Standard payment processing fees apply when selling and reloading Square gift cards. There are no fees when a gift card is redeemed. To find detailed rate information for a particular country, choose the link for the country:

  • Australia
  • Canada (English or French translation)
  • France
  • Ireland
  • Japan
  • Spain
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

• Load fees - Sellers in the following countries pay 2.5% of the amount added to a Square gift card, in addition to standard payment processing rates:

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • United States

  Load fees apply to ACTIVATE, LOAD, and ADJUST_INCREMENT activities.

Online payments can be made with the Checkout API, Invoices API, Subscriptions API, and Web Payments SDK. The buyer enters their card information in a secure card entry form hosted by Square. In-app payments are made using a mobile app integrated with the In-App Payment SDK. In-app payment pricing uses the same fee schedule as online pricing.

The seller pays only a single per-transaction percentage fee. Everything from PCI-compliance fees to interchange and chargeback fees are covered by this fee. There are no monthly charges or additional fees for payment processing. For more information about Square pricing, including custom pricing options, see How much does Square cost or Learn About Square's Fees.

In the United States:

• ACH payments taken using the combination of the Web Payments SDK and Payments API - 1% fee with a $1 minimum and $5 maximum. No chargeback fees or additional fees.
• ACH payments using Square Invoices - For pricing information, see Square Invoices.

• Australia - 6% + 30¢. Pricing currently includes the Goods and Service Tax (GST). However, on 11 May 2022, GST will be excluded from pricing.
• Canada - 6% + 30¢
• United States - 6% + 30¢

• In the UK - 6% + ￡0.30 GBP

Per-transaction payment processing rates for Square invoices vary by country and payment method. To find detailed pricing information for a particular country, choose the link for the country and check the Processing Rates section:

• Australia
• Canada (English or French translation)
• France
• Ireland
• Japan
• Spain (Catalan or Spanish translation)
• United Kingdom
• United States

The following table provides the per transaction payment price for subscription payments.

There is no transaction fee for orders paid using Square payments. If you want to use the Square Orders API with a non-Square payments provider, there is a 1% fee per transaction. For more information, contact us.

• Processing rates - Standard payment processing fees apply when selling and reloading Square gift cards. There are no fees when a gift card is redeemed. To find detailed rate information for a particular country, choose the link for the country:

  • Australia
  • Canada (English or French translation)
  • France
  • Ireland
  • Japan
  • Spain
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

• Load fees - Sellers in the following countries pay 2.5% of the amount added to a Square gift card, in addition to standard payment processing rates:

  • Australia
  • Canada
  • United States

  Load fees apply to ACTIVATE, LOAD, and ADJUST_INCREMENT activities.

Square processes CBD payments for retailers in the United States. The following table shows CBD seller processing fees.

Learn more about Selling CBD with Square.

In addition to standard processing fees, Square charges an International Transaction Fee when a payment is made with a credit or debit card issued outside the seller's home country. This fee applies to all card-present, card-not-present, online, and API payments processed through Square.

The International Transaction Fee is charged as an additional percentage on top of the standard processing rate for the payment type:

The International Transaction Fee is determined by the country of issuance of the buyer's card, not the buyer's physical location:

• Canada, United Kingdom: Fee applies when the card's country of issuance differs from the seller's country
• European Economic Area (Ireland, Spain, France): Fee applies only when the card is issued outside the EEA (European Economic Area). Cards issued within any EEA country are treated as domestic and do not incur the fee.

The International Transaction Fee appears as a separate line item in seller reports and dashboards:

• Fees Report: Lists International Transaction Fees as a distinct fee category
• Payment Methods Report: Indicates which payments were processed with international cards
• Monthly tax invoices: Includes any applicable taxes on the International Transaction Fee

For a $100 USD card-present payment in the United States processed with a card issued in Canada:

• Payment amount: $100.00
• Standard processing fee: $2.75 (2.6% + $0.15)
• International Transaction Fee: $1.50 (1.5%)
• Total fees: $4.25

The International Transaction Fee follows the same refund policy as standard processing fees:

• Refundable fees: If your processing fees are refundable, the International Transaction Fee is proportionally refunded
• Non-refundable fees: If your processing fees are non-refundable, the International Transaction Fee is also non-refundable
• Disputes: No additional International Transaction Fee is charged when a dispute occurs

Existing online international rates: In the United Kingdom and European markets, online payments already have separate domestic and international rates. For these existing tiered online rates, no additional International Transaction Fee is applied to the higher international rate.

Alternative payment methods: The International Transaction Fee applies only to credit and debit card payments. Alternative payment methods such as ACH, Cash App Pay, Afterpay, and other digital wallets are not subject to this fee.

Cost Plus and Interchange Plus pricing: Sellers on Cost Plus or Interchange Plus pricing models already have international card costs passed through in their pricing structure and are not charged the additional International Transaction Fee.