Introducing Polar Plans

The standard for Merchant of Record (MoR) providers and payment processors is to only offer lower transaction fees through gatekept and opaque sales processes, marketed as volume based discounts.

Polar is going in the opposite direction.

Starting today, we're introducing three optional paid plans: Pro, Growth, and Scale. Offering lower transaction fees and prioritized support. No sales process, no negotiations. Available to anyone, today.

TL;DR

• Introducing three new paid plans offering lower transaction fees and prioritized support
• The free tier is changing for new organizations created on or after May 27, 2026. From 4% + $0.40 plus 0.5% for subscriptions to a single 5% + $0.50. Additional fees for international card transactions, payouts and disputes still apply as before.
• Existing organizations keep their current pricing indefinitely, grandfathered into an "Early Member" plan.

New Plans, Pricing & Support

Additional fees as before for international cards, payouts, and disputes.

Breakeven

The table below shows the monthly sales volume at which each paid tier pays for itself in fee savings (assuming a $40 average order value for subscriptions).

At only $19K+/month in sales, Polar on Scale costs less per transaction than running payments and subscriptions through a standalone processor, but with Merchant of Record benefits included: international tax compliance, fraud and dispute prevention, and global coverage and compliance.

For startups crossing from early traction into revenue growth the economics flip. Merchant of Record stops being a premium you pay. It becomes the cheaper option with operational overhead taken care of.

Grandfathering

We launched Polar in September 2024. Compared to leading Merchant of Record (MoR) providers at the time, we lacked certain features in the beginning. To compensate we offered a discount from the industry standard of 5% + $0.50 with 4% + $0.40 plus 0.5% for subscriptions, calling it "Early Member" pricing.

When you asked what would happen if we ever changed pricing, we told you the same thing every time: You'll keep what you have.

Today we're changing pricing and we're keeping that promise.

Every Polar organization created before May 27, 2026, stays on the Early Member rate (4% + $0.40, plus 0.5% for subscriptions) indefinitely. However, for new organizations thereafter it's 5% + $0.50, including for organizations created after May 27 by customers who signed up earlier.

One trade-off worth understanding: Early Member is yours forever as long as you stay on it. Once you upgrade to a paid plan, the Early Member is retired for your organization. After the upgrade, you can still switch freely between the paid plans, but if you downgrade to the free plan (Starter), you will land on the new 5% + $0.50, not your original 4% + $0.40 with 0.5% for subscriptions.

Why the change?

Polar is built open source, by developers, for developers. Transparency and product-led growth are the principles this post and our business are designed around.

Operating a Merchant of Record is complex, risky, and expensive. We act as the international reseller for millions of dollars of digital goods and services each month, capturing, filing, and remitting millions in international taxes on behalf of our customers. That alone costs us hundreds of thousands a year in operational, accounting, and legal work.

Here are two truths no other Merchant of Record will tell you:

1. Those operational costs are more fixed than variable.
2. Risk decreases as customer volume grows.

Our new pricing is designed to reflect this reality. A fixed monthly fee for the Merchant of Record benefits instead of a variable one baked into every transaction, and lower variable rates as you scale into them.

So why are we increasing the Starter plan to 5% + $0.50? Our ambition at Polar is to always compete on quality instead of price. We're no longer behind on features compared to others and the cost of free to us has been increasing.

In our financial forecasts, these changes lower our overall revenue.

We're shipping them anyway because we prefer transparency and product-led growth over sales. Volume discounts are usually a way to charge more to the customers who don't think to negotiate. We'd rather post the prices publicly and let you decide. Same reason we're open source.

Q&A

As an existing Polar customer, is my price increasing? No. Organizations created before May 27, 2026, stay on the grandfathered "Early Member" plan at 4% + $0.40, plus 0.5% for subscriptions. Nothing changes by default. If you want to opt into a paid plan for a lower rate and prioritized support, that's available, but the moment you do, Early Member is retired for your organization. If you later downgrade to Starter, you'll land on the new 5% + $0.50, not your original rate.

I'm grandfathered. When does upgrading actually make sense? Assuming a $40 average order value for subscriptions: Pro at $2.9K/mo in sales, Growth at $9.8K/mo, Scale at $29.6K/mo. Below those thresholds, you're better off staying on Early Member. Above them, the paid plan saves money even accounting for the lost grandfathering.

As an existing Polar customer, what if I create a new organization after May 27? Your earlier organizations will be grandfathered, but any new one created after May 27 will start on 5% + $0.50.

I just signed up last week. What about me? You're grandfathered too. Everyone who signs up before May 27, 2026, gets the Early Member rate.

Can I switch between plans? Yes, anytime. Your rate adjusts immediately. However, see the existing-customer question above for how upgrading interacts with grandfathered pricing.

What does "prioritized support" actually mean? Time-sensitive issues (anything involving your customers, billing, payments, or payouts) are always prioritized for every Polar organization regardless of tier. For general support questions, paid tiers are prioritized, with Scale organizations getting a dedicated Slack channel with our team. Organizations on Standard Support get AI-first triage via our support agent and docs, with human help available for anything that needs it.

When does this all take effect? The new paid plans are live today, May 20, 2026. The new Starter rate (5% + $0.50) applies to organizations created on or after May 27, 2026. Everyone before that is grandfathered to the Early Member rate.