How Much Do You Get From Online Sales and Subscriptions?
Not as much as you might think!
When you sell on Gumtree or Gumroad or receive paid subscriptions from Substack, you don’t receive 100% of the price. The platform provider takes its fee, and then there’s a payment-processing fee.
These examples use £(GBP), but you can easily adapt them to your currency. The Subscription Calculator app (see below) allows you to select £ (GBP), € (EUR), and $(USD) for your calculations.
Many providers charge a 10% fee and use Stripe to process payments (approximately 2.9% + £0.30).
The £0.30 fixed fee is accurate for the UK. For the US, it’s approximately $0.30, and in the EU, the ‘fixed’ fee is between €0.25 and €0.35.
How much do you receive after deductions?
The total percentage fee is 12.9% (10% + 2.9%).
So you keep 87.1% of the price, minus £0.30.
Let:
p = the price you charge
x = the amount you receive
x = 0.871p − 0.30
Examples
What should you charge to receive what you want?
p = (x + 0.30)/0.871
Examples
Rule of thumb
For most prices:
Charge about 15–18% more than what you want to receive.
For example, if you want £10 per subscriber per month, set the price to approximately £12.
Subscription Calculator app
Paid subscribers can install an Android or iOS web app to make these calculations easier and quicker.
It calculates both directions:
Charge → What you receive
Receive → What you should charge
Users can choose between GBP, EUR and USD when using the app. It keeps it simple and consistent, which usually works well for pricing decisions.
Associate Members can order tailored versions of this app.
Related article
What Do Your Subscription Plans Look Like in Other Currencies?