Stripe Refund & Dispute Fee Calculator

Calculate the real cost of refunds and disputes on Stripe — including the often-missed fact that Stripe keeps the original processing fee on refunds and adds a $15 dispute fee.

At a glance

Refund
Stripe keeps original fee
Partial refund
Stripe still keeps full original fee
Dispute fee
$15 (refunded if you win)
Dispute lost
Principal + processing fee + $15 dispute

When you refund a Stripe transaction, Stripe does not return the original processing fee — a fact that catches a lot of merchants off guard. A refunded $100 transaction nets you –$3.20 (you returned $100 to the customer, Stripe kept the $3.20 fee). Disputes are worse: $15 dispute fee, refunded only if you win the chargeback. This calculator models every refund/dispute scenario with the exact net loss.

Frequently asked questions

Why doesn’t Stripe refund processing fees on refunds?
Because the processing already happened — Stripe’s costs (interchange to the card-issuing bank, scheme fees to Visa/Mastercard, Stripe’s own infrastructure) are already incurred when the original charge cleared. The refund itself doesn’t reverse interchange. Stripe could choose to absorb that cost on its margin, but historically every major processor has kept the fee on refunds — it’s industry standard, not Stripe-specific.
How do I model refund cost in my financials?
Track refund rate × original processing fee as a separate line item. For most SaaS with 5% trial-window refund rate at $50/mo: 5% × $50 × 0.029 + 5% × $0.30 = ~$0.09 per signup, or ~1.8% of MRR equivalently. Worth modeling because it scales linearly with refund rate.
When is fighting a dispute worth it?
When you have evidence the transaction was legitimate (delivery confirmation, customer communications, prior usage) and the disputed amount > $15. If you accept rather than fight, you eat the $15 + fee + principal. If you fight and win, only the original fee is retained. If you fight and lose, you eat all three. Win rates depend heavily on category and evidence quality — Stripe Radar Pro can help.
Does fighting a dispute take staff time?
Yes — the merchant has 7 days to submit evidence, and gathering it (order details, delivery records, customer emails) typically takes 30–60 minutes per dispute. At scale, dispute response is often outsourced to specialized services or automated via Stripe’s Smart Disputes (a Radar feature).

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