Pricing
Introduction
Pricing you can read off a page
Most Merchant of Record providers only offer lower fees through opaque, sales-gated "volume discounts". Polar goes the opposite direction: every rate is posted publicly, and you choose the plan that fits. No sales process, no negotiations.
Plans
Polar offers a free Starter plan plus three optional paid plans – Pro, Growth, and Scale – that lower your variable rate and prioritize your support inquiries. You can switch between plans anytime, and your rate adjusts immediately.
| Plan | Monthly fee | Per transaction | Support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | Free | 5% + 50¢ | Standard Support |
| Pro | $20 /mo | 3.8% + 40¢ | Prioritized Support |
| Growth | $100 /mo | 3.6% + 35¢ | Prioritized Support |
| Scale | $400 /mo | 3.4% + 30¢ | Slack + Prioritized Support |
The paid plans replace the per-transaction Merchant of Record premium with a fixed monthly fee and a lower variable rate. As your sales grow, the economics flip – Merchant of Record stops being a premium and becomes the cheaper option, with international tax compliance, fraud and dispute prevention, and global coverage handled for you.
When does a paid plan pay off?
Each paid plan crosses over to save you money at a predictable monthly sales threshold, so you can decide deliberately rather than guess.
| Plan | Breakeven vs. Starter |
|---|---|
| Pro | ~$1,379 /mo in sales |
| Growth | ~$5,634 /mo in sales |
| Scale | ~$19,048 /mo in sales |
Below your plan's threshold, a lower tier is the better deal. Above it, the paid plan saves money – and you get faster support on top.
Early Member
Organizations created before May 27, 2026 stay on the Early Member rate indefinitely. This was the rate we offered while Polar was catching up on feature parity with other Merchant of Record providers, and we've committed to honoring it for everyone who signed up under it.
| Monthly fee | Per transaction | Subscription fee |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 4% + 40¢ | +0.5% |
One trade-off worth understanding
Early Member is yours forever as long as you stay on it. The moment you upgrade to a paid plan, Early Member is retired for that organization. You can still switch freely between the paid plans afterwards, but downgrading to Starter lands you on the new 5% + 50¢ rate, not your original Early Member rate.
Organizations created on or after May 27, 2026 start on Starter (5% + 50¢). This applies to new organizations even if they're created by customers who signed up earlier.
Additional Fees
Transaction extras
- +1.5% for international cards (non-US)
- On the Early Member plan, we impose a +0.5% fee for subscription payments. Starter, Pro, Growth, and Scale have no separate subscription fee.
Payout fees
While payouts may incur fees charged by our payout providers, Polar does not add any extra fees or markup. These are strictly Stripe's fees, and Polar does not profit from them.
In addition, Polar offers manual withdrawals for developers, keeping you in control of when to issue payouts.
Stripe
- $2 per month of active payout(s)
- 0.25% + $0.25 per payout
Cross border fees (currency conversion)
- 0.25% (EU) - 1% in other countries
Example
Let's look at an example breakdown with the additional fees applied. Below is a $30 purchase from Sweden (25% VAT) paid with an international card.
| Product Price | $30 |
| VAT (25%) | $7.5 |
| Total Transaction Value | $37.5 |
Here's how the fees on that $37.5 transaction compare across plans.
| Plan | Transaction Fee | International (+1.5%) | Total Fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter (5% + 50¢) | $2.38 | $0.56 | $2.94 |
| Pro (3.8% + 40¢) | $1.83 | $0.56 | $2.39 |
| Growth (3.6% + 35¢) | $1.70 | $0.56 | $2.26 |
| Scale (3.4% + 30¢) | $1.58 | $0.56 | $2.14 |
Dispute/Chargeback Fees
Sometimes, customers can open a dispute/chargeback via their bank for a purchase. Disputes cost $15 per dispute, regardless of outcome and is deducted from your balance directly. This fee is charged by the underlying credit card networks & PSPs regardless of outcome and therefore something we cannot refund.
However, we continuously work to proactively reduce the rate of chargebacks across Polar to be at or lower than industry standards.
Credit card networks impose monitoring programs, penalties and higher chargeback costs for sellers with high chargeback rates (~0.7%+). Since Polar is the Merchant of Record, we therefore always monitor and proactively prevent our rate coming close to these thresholds.
Therefore, we might need to intervene and even suspend your account unless swift and proactive measures are taken to reduce chargebacks to an acceptable industry standard.