# Pricing

Source: https://caravelpay.app/pricing/ · Caravel Pay · Last updated 2026-11-10

Caravel Pay charges one fee: the **2% Caravel fee** on each payment, on every method. There is no monthly fee and no setup fee. This page has the details: what the fee covers, how the card provider's fee works, prices in your own currency, who pays the fees, and how the price compares.

## What the 2% Caravel fee covers

- **2% of the order total** on every payment: card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and crypto alike. It is taken from each payment before your payout is sent.
- **Polygon gas for your payout is included.** You never need POL in your wallet to get paid.
- **The rest is included too:** the hosted checkout, automatic payouts to your own wallet, the plugins and modules, the API and signed webhooks.
- **No monthly fee, no setup fee, no monthly minimum.** No payment, no fee.

## The card provider's fee

A card payment goes through a card provider, which charges the card and delivers USDC. The provider has its own fee. Caravel Pay never adds to it and takes no cut of it.

- **Your buyer pays the order total.**
- **Most card providers keep their fee and exchange-rate spread out of that amount.** So a little less than the order total arrives as USDC, and that comes off what you receive.
- **It varies** with the provider, the payment method and the buyer's country. Public tariffs run from about 2% to 5.5%, and small orders can hit a minimum fee. [On-ramp fees explained](https://caravelpay.app/guides/on-ramp-fees/) lists published tariffs.
- **Payments sent directly in crypto have no provider fee.**

To leave room for the provider's fee, a payment counts as paid when at least 85% of the order amount arrives. Below that the checkout is [underpaid](https://caravelpay.app/docs/statuses#underpaid), and your store is told so nothing ships by mistake.

## Worked example: a $100 order

| $100.00 order, paid by card | Amount |
|---|---|
| Buyer pays | $100.00 |
| Card provider keeps, typically | −$5.00 |
| Arrives | 95.00 USDC |
| Caravel fee (2% of the order) | −2.00 USDC |
| **You receive** | **93.00 USDC** |

About 5% is typical of the card orders paid through Caravel Pay so far. Most were between 4% and 6%, and a few were under 1% or up to about 8%. It depends on the provider, the payment method, the buyer's country and the order size, so read it as an estimate, not a guarantee. When a buyer sends USDC directly, nothing is kept on the way, so the same order pays out 98.00 USDC.

## Prices in your own currency

Your store can keep its prices in euros, pounds, kronor or one of 23 more currencies. The order total is converted to US dollars once, at a rate that is fixed when the checkout is created. Your buyer sees both amounts before paying and is charged the US-dollar amount, and you are paid in USDC.

Caravel Pay adds no margin to the exchange rate. The 2% Caravel fee and the $1.00 minimum order apply to the US-dollar amount. What the USDC is worth in your own currency afterwards depends on when you convert it; if you want room for that, you can add your own margin of up to 5%. The currencies are EUR, GBP, CAD, AUD, NZD, SEK, NOK, DKK, CHF, PLN, CZK, HUF, RON, HKD, SGD, MXN, BRL, ZAR, ILS, INR, THB, MYR, PHP, TRY, JPY and KRW. [Stores that don't price in US dollars](https://caravelpay.app/docs/payouts#currencies) has an example.

## Who pays the fees

By default both fees come off what you receive. With one setting you can pass the card provider's fee, or both fees, to your buyer.

| Setting | Card provider's fee | 2% Caravel fee | On a $100 order you receive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seller pays everything (default) | You | You | What arrives, minus 2.00 USDC: 93.00 USDC when the provider keeps $5 |
| Split | Your buyer | You | 98.00 USDC |
| Buyer pays everything | Your buyer | Your buyer | 100.00 USDC |

It is one setting, *Who pays the fees*, in every plugin and module, and `fee_mode` in the API. The hosted checkout tells your buyer before they pay. [Who pays the fees](https://caravelpay.app/docs/payouts#fee-modes) in the docs goes through the amounts step by step.

> **Check your local rules first.** Passing card fees on to buyers (a surcharge) is restricted in some countries: the EU and the UK, for example, don't allow surcharges on most consumer cards. You are responsible for following the rules where you sell. If you're unsure, keep the default.

## No chargebacks

Your payout is a final on-chain transfer to your own wallet, so nobody, Caravel Pay included, can pull it back. If a buyer disputes the card payment, that is between the buyer, their bank and the card provider that sold them the USDC. It doesn't reach you.

Refunds are up to you: send them from your wallet. Card providers can stop serving sellers whose buyers dispute a lot, so fraud still matters. More in [No chargebacks, and refunds](https://caravelpay.app/docs/payouts#refunds).

## Compared with PayGate

**Sellers who use PayGate directly pay about 3.4% on average, by our measurement. Caravel Pay takes 2%. That is about $1.30 more in your wallet on every $100 order.**

Where the $1.30 comes from: PayGate's take is a share of what reaches it after the card provider's fee, and the 2% Caravel fee is a share of the order total. We assume 95% of the order arrives, as in the example above. On a $100 order PayGate then takes 3.45% of $95.00, about $3.28, and Caravel Pay takes $2.00.

The slider compares the platform fee only, and makes the same assumption: 95% of your sales arrive after the card provider's fee. PayGate's 3.45% is taken from that amount, and the 2% Caravel fee from the full sales figure. The card provider's fee itself comes off in the same way with both.

### What we measured

These figures are our measurement of public blockchain data for 11 October–10 November 2026, not rates PayGate publishes. Each one is what PayGate took, as a share of what reached it.

- **Sellers who use PayGate directly**, with no partner or reseller in between: about 3.4% on average, over about 27,000 payments worth about $2.0 million. Their median payment paid about 2.9%. This is the figure we compare with.
- **All card payments we could read:** about 3.1% on average, over about 49,000 payments worth about $3.8 million. It is lower because PayGate takes less itself when a partner also takes a cut.
- **Across all payments, the median payment paid about 2.5%.** Half of the payments paid less than that.
- **Some payments pay only 2%.** That has been common since late October 2026: about half of direct sellers' payments now pay 2.1% or less, and on those PayGate costs about the same as Caravel Pay. The average is higher because about a third of payments carry an extra 3%.
- **Sellers behind a partner or reseller** lose about 8% in total.

The limits: we identified PayGate's fee wallets from repeated payment patterns, and PayGate hasn't confirmed them. Payments on BSC and Base aren't covered. The card provider's own fee isn't in these numbers: it comes off before the money reaches PayGate. [How we measured it](https://caravelpay.app/guides/paygate-to-review/#how-we-estimated) has the full method.

PayGate also publishes its own fee list for each payment route: [PayGate's provider list](https://api.paygate.to/control/provider-status/), checked on 9 November 2026.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is there a monthly fee or a setup fee?

No. The 2% Caravel fee on each payment is the only fee Caravel charges. No payment, no fee.

### Is the fee different for Apple Pay, Google Pay or crypto?

No. It is 2% of the order total on every method.

### What does a $100 card order pay out?

About 93 USDC. The buyer pays $100. Card providers typically keep about 5%, so about 95 USDC arrives, the Caravel fee is 2.00 USDC and you receive about 93 USDC. That is typical of the card orders paid through Caravel Pay so far, not a guarantee: most providers kept between 4% and 6%. A buyer who sends USDC directly has no provider fee, so that order pays out 98.00 USDC.

### Can my buyers pay the fees instead of me?

Yes. With Split, your buyer covers the card provider's fee and you pay the 2% Caravel fee, so a $100 order pays out 98.00 USDC. With Buyer pays everything, the 2% Caravel fee is added to your buyer's total as well, so a $100 order pays out 100.00 USDC. Card surcharges are restricted in some countries, including the EU and the UK for consumer cards, so check your local rules first.

### Who pays the Polygon gas for my payout?

It is covered by the 2% Caravel fee. You don't need POL in your wallet to get paid.

### How does the price compare with PayGate?

By our measurement of public blockchain data for 11 October–10 November 2026, sellers who use PayGate directly pay about 3.4% on average, counted on what reaches PayGate after the card provider's fee. Caravel Pay takes 2% of the order. On a $100 order that is about $1.30 more in your wallet. It is an average: some PayGate payments pay only 2%, and others pay 5% or more. It is a measurement, not a rate PayGate publishes.