Charge to Net (Gross-Up) Calculator
Work out what to charge to net your target after fees
Charge to net (gross-up) calculator FAQs
What does this charge-to-net calculator do?
This tool helps you work backwards from a net amount. You enter what you want to keep after fees, plus a percentage and fixed fee, and it calculates the minimum price you must charge so the net you receive still hits your target.
What should I use for the combined % fees?
Combine all percentage-based costs on a payment: for example a Stripe or PayPal card fee plus any platform share. If Stripe charges 2.9% + $0.30 and your platform charges 10% of revenue, you’d enter 12.9% as the combined percentage and $0.30 as the fixed fee for that flow.
What about taxes like VAT or sales tax?
This calculator focuses on payment and platform fees. If tax is added on top of your price and passed straight through to the tax authority, it usually doesn’t change your net. If tax is included in the price, you can treat it as another % fee and temporarily add it into the combined rate to see a rough “tax-inclusive” gross-up.
How do I use the current price field?
The Current price you charge box lets you sanity-check your existing pricing. With your current price and fee pattern, the calculator shows what you actually net right now and how far off you are from your target net. That’s handy when you’re nudging prices up without shocking customers.
Can I use this for subscriptions or only one-off payments?
You can use it for either, as long as the fee pattern is similar. For subscriptions, think in “per billing period” terms: target net per month, subscription price, and per-transaction fees on renewals.
Is this tax or accounting advice?
No. This is an informal planning tool. It uses a simple gross-up formula and blended fee rate. Talk to your accountant about how to handle sales tax, VAT, income tax, and margins across your whole business.
How to use this charge-to-net pricing calculator
This charge-to-net (gross-up) calculator is for anyone who needs to set prices that hit a real net goal after fees. Instead of guessing on top of Stripe, PayPal, or platform cuts, you can plug in a target net and fee pattern and instantly see the price you need to charge to land where you want.
1. Start with the net you actually want to keep
In the Target net to receive box, enter the amount you care about: how much you want after payment and platform fees. That might be a profit per product, a minimum hourly net for client work, or a per-seat net for SaaS pricing.
2. Optionally add your current price
If you already have a price in the wild, put it in Current price you charge. This lets the calculator show you the net you’re getting today under your fee assumptions, so you can see whether your price is under or over your target net before you change anything.
3. Enter your combined % fees
In Combined % fees, add together any percentage charges on the payment: card processor, marketplace take rate, app store commission, etc. For example, if you pay 2.9% + $0.30 to Stripe and 10% to a platform, your combined % is 12.9%. If you’re not sure, export a few payouts and calculate total fees ÷ gross to get a rough blended rate.
4. Add the fixed fee per payment
Use Fixed fee per payment for charges like a $0.30 card fee, $0.49 PayPal fee, or any flat platform cost per order. For very small tickets, this fixed fee matters a lot; for high-priced services, it becomes tiny relative to the percentage.
5. Read the gross-up result and adjust your pricing
Hit Calculate and the summary shows the minimum price to charge to reach your target net under the fee pattern you entered. If you also gave your current price, you’ll see what you net now and how the effective fee percentage compares. Use that to tune list prices, add “cash price vs card price” comparisons, or decide whether to absorb fees or pass them on.
Treat this as a fast way to run “what if” scenarios: switch between Stripe-only fees, Stripe + platform, or PayPal with higher fixed charges. The goal is to anchor your prices on net income, not just gross revenue, so you don’t wake up underpriced once all the intermediaries take their cut.
How the charge-to-net (gross-up) math works
The charge-to-net calculator uses a classic gross-up formula. Let N be the net you want to keep in USD, G the price you must charge, r the combined fee rate as a decimal (for example 0.05 for 5%), and f the fixed fee per payment.
Total modeled fees on a charge are:
Fees = G × r + f
Net you keep is:
Net = G − (G × r + f)
To find the price G you must charge for a desired net N, rearrange:
N = G × (1 − r) − f
so G = (N + f) ÷ (1 − r)
When you also enter a current price, the calculator plugs that value into the same equations to show the net and total fees for today’s pricing. The effective fee percentage in the results is:
Effective fee % = modeled fees ÷ price charged × 100
Results are rounded to two decimal places and meant for planning. Real-world fee structures can involve tiers, caps, or separate cross-border charges, so always sanity-check big decisions against your processor and platform’s live pricing.
Charge-to-net and fee modeling references
- Investopedia: Gross-Up Definition and Formula – Overview of net-to-gross “gross-up” calculations and examples.
- ACT Learning: How to gross up – Simple explanation of the gross = net ÷ (1 − rate) relationship.
- Stripe: Pricing – Current reference for percentage and fixed card fees you can plug into this calculator.
- PayPal US: Business fees – Breakdown of PayPal’s merchant percentage rates and fixed fees for U.S. accounts.
- AccountingPortal: Net to gross (commission) calculator – Another example of net-to-gross calculations used to cover commissions.