We track 13 payment providers in the United States: 9 with a published price and 4 quoting on request. Every price below comes from the vendor's own pricing page as our records stood on 2 Oct 2026, and this page will not be updated as those prices change.
How many payment providers publish a price?
A provider counts as publishing a price when its pricing page gives enough to estimate a monthly bill without contacting sales. One that shows a headline or starting rate and quotes for the rest is counted as quoting on request. On that test, 69% of this market can be priced without asking.
- Publishes a price
- 969%
- Quotes on request
- 431%
In-person rate
2.6%median
Published by 6 of 13 providers we track
Online rate
2.99%median
Published by 7 of 13 providers we track
Monthly fee
$0median
Published by 11 of 13 providers we track
Each figure above counts every provider that publishes that one number, including any that quote for the rest of their pricing, so the sample behind each figure differs.
What do payment providers cost in the United States?
Estimated monthly bill at each business size in the table, from the same cost engine as our live comparison table. Providers that quote on request are left out; an unknown price is never counted as zero.
Airwallex publishes a price but has no entry in the table: its published pricing does not cover everything the business sizes here assume, so there is no like-for-like cost to show. The provider count below is lower as a result.
Helcim and Stax price as a margin over interchange, the fee the card networks and issuers set by card type and every card merchant pays, rather than as an all-in rate. Their bills depend on the cards a merchant's customers present, so they have no single cost to set beside the others and no entry in the table.
| Business size | Providers costed | Median | Lowest to highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small merchant | 6 | $318.50 | $302.50 to $385.80 |
| Established merchant | 6 | $637 | $605 to $702.60 |
| High-volume merchant | 6 | $1,573.13 | $1,512.50 to $1,653 |
For the largest business size in the table (high-volume merchant), the dearest option with a published price costs 1.1 times the cheapest, $1,653 against $1,512.50 a month.
How we compiled this report
Prices come from vendors' own pricing pages only, never from review sites or directories, and no commercial relationship with a vendor changes a figure here. Definitions, limitations and corrections: how we compile these reports.
Conclusion
Six processors publish a flat, all-in card rate in the United States, and their prices leave a merchant little to choose between. At $20,000 a month of card sales, 70% of it in person, the cheapest of the six costs $605 and the most expensive $702.60: about 3.0% of card volume against about 3.5%, a gap of $97.60 a month. At $50,000 the gap is $140.50 and the most expensive is 1.1 times the cheapest, the narrowest spread at the largest business size of any report in this quarter's series.
The differences that matter are not on a published rate card. Four of the thirteen providers quote on request, so nearly a third of the market has no complete price to compare. Three more publish a price but cannot sit in the table: one takes online payments only, and two price as a margin over interchange, the fee card networks and issuers set by card type and every card merchant pays. A merchant's bill with either moves with the cards customers present, so there is no single rate to set beside the median in-person 2.6%.
On published flat rates, a merchant already paying about 3% of card volume gains little by moving between the six. Whether a quote or an interchange-plus margin would come in below that, no pricing page says. A published price is also rarer here, at 69%, than in any other US market in this series except HR software, at 58%.
