Stripe Refund Loss Calculator

This Stripe refund loss calculator helps you see how much money you actually lose when an order is refunded and Stripe does not return the original processing fees. Instead of guessing, you can see your loss in USD per refund, the loss as a percentage of the order value, and how those fees scale as your refunded or disputed volume grows.

1. Enter the order amount and any extra refund or dispute fee

Start with the Order amount (USD) — the original customer payment processed through Stripe. Then enter any Refund / dispute fee your business effectively pays or allocates per bad order. Use $0 when you only want to model Stripe keeping the original processing fee, or enter a dollar amount to layer in dispute fees or internal handling costs per case.

2. Set your Stripe processing fee structure

The second step models your standard Stripe processing fees. Use the percentage fee box for your variable rate and the fixed fee per payment box for the flat amount that applies to every card transaction. The default values use a common example of 2.9% + $0.30, but you can overwrite both fields with your real pricing or test different fee tiers.

3. Read the breakdown to see total loss per refund

After you calculate, the left column shows the order amount, the original Stripe fee kept, the extra refund / dispute fee, and the total loss in fees per refund or dispute. It also shows the loss as a percentage of the order value and how much you would lose in fees for every $1,000 in refunded or disputed orders at the same ticket size.

4. Use it to tune pricing, risk rules, and dispute strategy

This calculator is useful when you are deciding how much risk you can take on higher-risk products, new geos, or channels that generate more disputes. If your fee loss per bad order is high, you might raise prices, tighten fraud rules, or cap certain order sizes. The Copy summary button gives you a clean text breakdown you can drop into email, Slack, or a planning spreadsheet so finance, ops, and risk teams are using the same numbers.

Remember that the tool focuses on payment fees only. Your real loss on a refund or dispute usually includes product cost, shipping, support time, and potentially marketing spend. Use this calculator as a fast way to quantify the Stripe fee side, then layer in product margin and acquisition costs in your own models or reporting.

The calculator models your fee loss when an order is refunded or disputed and Stripe keeps the original processing fee. Let G be the original order amount in USD, r be the Stripe percentage fee as a decimal (for example 0.029 for 2.9%), f be the fixed fee per payment in USD, and c be any extra refund or dispute fee in USD.

First, the original processing fee on the successful order is:

Original Stripe fee = G × r + f

When the order is refunded or lost to a dispute, this processing fee is not returned to you on standard pricing. If there is also a refund- or dispute-related fee or internal cost, that is added on top. The total fee loss per case is:

Total loss in fees = (G × r + f) + c

The loss as a percentage of the order is:

Loss % of order = (Total loss in fees ÷ G) × 100

To show how this scales, the calculator also computes the loss per $1,000 in refunded orders at the same order size and fee structure:

Loss per $1,000 in refunds = (Total loss in fees ÷ G) × 1000

These numbers help you put a hard dollar value on each bad order so you can tweak your pricing, fraud controls, and dispute strategy with a clearer view of how Stripe refunds and disputes impact your margins.

• Stripe: Understanding fees for refunded payments – Official support article explaining how Stripe handles processing fees when you refund a payment.
• Stripe: Dispute fees FAQ – Overview of how Stripe’s dispute fees work, when they apply, and how they appear in your balance history.