Braintree Pricing and Fees (2026): What Merchants Actually Pay
October 2026 · 9 min read
Written by PSPDex Research Team
Reviewed by PSPDex editorial review
Quick verdict
Braintree charges 2.89% + $0.29 per card transaction with no monthly fee. It nearly ties Stripe on price; pick it for PayPal and Venmo in one integration and ACH capped at $5.
Choose Braintree
If you want cards, PayPal and Venmo in one integration, or your customers pay by ACH.
Look elsewhere
If most volume is PayPal, heavily cross-border, very small tickets, or high-volume domestic debit.
Short version: Braintree's standard published price is 2.89% + $0.29 per card or digital wallet transaction, with no monthly fee, setup fee or monthly minimum in the published fee table. That undercuts Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 by a hair, but the real reasons to pick Braintree are PayPal and Venmo in the same integration, cheap ACH (0.75%, capped at $5 per transaction) and a proper merchant account behind the gateway. The full Braintree profile, with rates and fit notes, is in our Braintree review.
The Braintree fee table (published US rates)
Every figure below comes from Braintree's own published pricing page, checked on 24 October 2026. Braintree is a PayPal service, and its standard pricing is a flat blended rate: one percentage plus one fixed fee on every transaction, no matter which card your customer uses.
| Fee | Published rate |
|---|---|
| Cards and third-party digital wallets (standard) | 2.89% + $0.29 per transaction |
| American Express pass-through (your own Amex agreement) | $0.15 per transaction |
| Chargeback | $15.00 per chargeback |
| Venmo (US only) | 3.49% + $0.49 per transaction |
| ACH direct debit (standard schedule) | 0.75%, capped at $5.00 per transaction |
| ACH direct debit (same-day window) | 1.5% + $0.10 per transaction |
| ACH return or unauthorized dispute | $5.00 |
| Transaction presented in a non-USD currency | Additional 1% |
| Card issued outside the United States | Additional 1% |
| Charity rate (verified 501(c)(3) organizations) | 2.19% + $0.29 per transaction |
| Monthly fee, setup fee, monthly minimum | None in the published fee table |
| Chargeback Protection (optional) | From 0.4% per transaction |
| Effortless Chargeback Protection (optional) | From 0.6% per transaction |
| Fraud Protection Lite (optional) | $0.05 per inquiry |
Three details in that table catch merchants out:
PayPal is not billed at the card rate. PayPal transactions through Braintree are charged under the terms of your PayPal account, at PayPal's merchant fees, not at 2.89% + $0.29. If most of your volume is PayPal rather than cards, model the PayPal rate, not the headline card rate.
Cross-border sales stack add-ons. A sale presented in a non-USD currency adds 1%, and a card issued outside the US adds another 1%. A foreign card paid in a foreign currency can therefore cost 4.89% + $0.29 before any conversion margin.
Custom pricing exists, but it is not published. Braintree states that custom flat rates, interchange-plus pricing and discounted rates are available to established businesses based on business model and processing volume. The thresholds and the rates themselves are not published, so treat them as a negotiation, not a price list.
What Braintree actually costs per month: worked examples
Percentages hide the fixed fee. The $0.29 per transaction matters most when your average ticket is small, so here is the standard card rate applied to three realistic volumes.
| Monthly card volume | Average ticket | Transactions | Braintree fees | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 | $50 | 200 | $347.00 | 3.47% |
| $50,000 | $80 | 625 | $1,626.25 | 3.25% |
| $250,000 | $125 | 2,000 | $7,805.00 | 3.12% |
The pattern is the same one every flat-rate processor shows: the fixed fee drags on small tickets and fades as tickets grow. At a $25 average ticket, the same $10,000 month costs $405.00, an effective 4.05%, because the $0.29 is charged 400 times. Small-ticket merchants should compare on effective rate, never on the headline percentage.
ACH is where Braintree quietly wins. The same $10,000 month collected by ACH direct debit at $50 per payment costs 0.75%, which is $0.38 per transaction and $75.00 in total, against $347.00 on cards. On a $1,000 B2B invoice, ACH hits the $5.00 cap, while a card costs $29.19. If your customers will pay by bank debit, Braintree's capped ACH pricing is one of the cheapest published rails in this comparison. You can model your own mix with our payment fee calculators from the processor directory.
Braintree vs Stripe vs Adyen at $50,000 a month
Same volume for all three: $50,000 in monthly card sales, $80 average ticket, 625 transactions, US domestic cards.
| Processor | Published model | Cost at $50,000/mo | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Braintree | 2.89% + $0.29 flat | $1,626.25 | 3.25% |
| Stripe | 2.9% + $0.30 flat | $1,637.50 | 3.28% |
| Adyen | $0.13 per transaction + interchange and scheme fees at cost + 0.60% markup | About $1,231 at an illustrative 1.70% blended interchange and scheme cost | About 2.46%, varies by card mix |
Read the Adyen row carefully. Its processing fee ($81.25 on 625 transactions) and markup ($300.00 on $50,000) are published, but interchange and scheme fees pass through at cost, so no honest single total exists without knowing your card mix. The illustration above assumes 1.70% for that pass-through; premium rewards cards push it higher, debit-heavy volume pulls it lower. What is certain is the structure: at this volume Adyen's model usually beats both flat rates, but it comes with a minimum monthly invoice (the amount is not published) and an enterprise onboarding process.
Braintree versus Stripe on price alone is nearly a tie: $11.25 a month apart at this volume, and the same $15 chargeback fee on both. The decision between them is rarely about the rate. Stripe brings the stronger billing, invoicing and product ecosystem (see our Stripe profile); Braintree brings PayPal and Venmo acceptance in one integration, capped ACH pricing and, for platforms, Marketplace split payments. Adyen (see our Adyen profile) is the pick when volume is high enough that interchange-plus economics and acceptance optimization outweigh a heavier implementation.
Braintree Marketplace pricing
Marketplaces search for a separate split-payment price list, and Braintree does not publish one. Braintree Marketplace lets a master merchant split each transaction with sub-merchants and keep a service fee that the platform sets itself, but transactions are priced at the merchant account's standard or custom rate. A dedicated marketplace processing fee is not published.
Two restrictions matter before you build on it. Marketplace is available only when the master merchant and all sub-merchants are domiciled in the US, and every account needs special approval for Marketplace use. It is also not compatible with PayPal checkout or Braintree's recurring billing, so a subscription marketplace cannot combine splits with Braintree's native subscription tools.
Who should pick Braintree, and who should not
Pick Braintree if...
- You want cards, PayPal and Venmo behind one integration and one payout flow.
- Your customers will pay by ACH, where the 0.75% rate capped at $5 per transaction undercuts card pricing by a wide margin.
- You run a US marketplace and need split payments with a platform service fee.
- You want flat, published pricing with no monthly fee and no contract negotiation before you can start.
- You need a real merchant account with gateway control, recurring billing and a card vault you can port.
Look elsewhere if...
- Most of your volume is PayPal: those transactions bill at PayPal's merchant fees, not the 2.89% + $0.29 card rate.
- You sell heavily across borders: the 1% currency and 1% foreign-card add-ons stack fast, and local acquiring matters more than the headline rate.
- Your average ticket is very small: the $0.29 fixed fee inflates your effective rate, and interchange-plus or micropayment pricing may serve you better.
- You process at high volume on mostly domestic debit: a negotiated interchange-plus deal (Braintree's own custom pricing, Stripe custom, or Adyen) will usually beat any published flat rate.
- You need your marketplace and your subscriptions in one product: Marketplace excludes recurring billing and PayPal checkout.
FAQ
What is Braintree pricing per transaction?
Standard Braintree pricing is 2.89% + $0.29 per successful card or third-party digital wallet transaction for US merchants. Venmo is 3.49% + $0.49, ACH direct debit is 0.75% capped at $5.00 per transaction, and chargebacks cost $15.00 each. PayPal transactions are billed under your PayPal account terms instead.
Does Braintree charge a monthly fee?
No monthly fee, setup fee or monthly minimum appears in Braintree's published fee table for standard pricing. You pay per transaction, plus optional add-ons such as Chargeback Protection (from 0.4% per transaction) only if you enable them. Custom enterprise agreements can carry their own terms, which are not published.
How much does Braintree charge for a card payment?
For a standard US card payment, 2.89% + $0.29. On a $50 sale that is $1.74; on a $100 sale, $3.18; on a $1,000 sale, $29.19. Cards issued outside the US add 1%, and sales presented in a non-USD currency add a further 1%.
What is Braintree Marketplace pricing?
There is no separate published Marketplace rate. Split transactions are charged at your account's standard or custom pricing, and the platform keeps a service fee that it sets on each transaction. Marketplace requires special approval, works only when the master merchant and all sub-merchants are US-domiciled, and does not work with PayPal checkout or recurring billing.
Is Braintree cheaper than Stripe?
On published card rates, marginally: 2.89% + $0.29 against Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30, which is $1,626.25 versus $1,637.50 on $50,000 of monthly volume at an $80 average ticket. Both charge $15 per chargeback and neither publishes a monthly fee on standard pricing. The cheaper platform for you depends on payment mix: Braintree's capped ACH and PayPal integration can save real money, while Stripe's add-on products can add cost that Braintree does not charge.
Sources and method
Fee figures were checked against Braintree's published pricing page (braintreepayments.com/pricing) and Stripe's published pricing page (stripe.com/pricing) on 24 October 2026. Adyen's model is its published processing fee plus interchange-plus markup; the Adyen total shown is an illustration with its assumption stated, not a quoted rate. Rates change, so confirm current pricing with the provider before you sign.
Compare Braintree against every alternative in the PSPDex processor directory, or read the full Braintree review for features, risk fit and supported business models.
