Restaurant credit card processing fees: what each order really costs

Where it goes

Who actually gets the money?

Three parties share the fee, and your processor is the only one you can negotiate with.

• The bank that issued the card receives interchange, usually the largest share on a credit card.
• The card network, such as Visa or Mastercard, charges its own fees.
• Your processor keeps what is left, which is its markup.

Visa's own schedule says merchants do not pay interchange reimbursement fees. They pay a merchant discount to their processor. That is why your statement may never show the word interchange.

Interchange

What is interchange on a restaurant card sale?

Interchange on a $35 restaurant sale runs from about $0.24 on a large-bank debit card to $1.01 on an online premium Mastercard.

Why debit is so much cheaper

Large-bank debit is capped by the Federal Reserve's Regulation II. The network schedules show 0.05% + 21¢, plus 1¢ for fraud prevention. Small banks are exempt, which is why their debit cards cost $0.52 on the same sale. Your customers' wallets decide your blend, and you cannot see it from a headline rate.

Pricing models

Flat rate, interchange-plus or tiered: which is cheapest?

It depends on your card mix. In the example below, flat rate costs more on debit and less on premium cards.

• Flat rate charges one published rate on every card. Square and Clover both publish this shape.
• Interchange-plus passes through the real interchange and adds a fixed markup you can compare.
• Tiered pricing sorts sales into buckets, often labelled qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified. The processor chooses the bucket, so it is the hardest to check.

Here is one $35 in-person order under two models. The flat rate is Square Free. The interchange-plus markup of 0.30% + 10¢ is our own example, not a quote from any processor, and network fees are not included.

Tax and tip

Do you pay card fees on tips and sales tax?

Yes. A percentage fee applies to the amount charged, so you pay it on money that was never yours to keep.

• Food: $35.00.
• Sales tax in this example, at 8%: $2.80.
• Tip: $7.00.
• Amount charged: $44.80.
• Square Free fee: $44.80 × 2.6% + 15¢ = $1.31, instead of $1.06 on the food alone.

That is 3.74% of the $35 you actually keep as revenue. Use total food sales, not total card volume, when you judge what processing costs your menu.

Your statement

How do you check what you really pay?

Your effective rate is total fees divided by total card sales. For example, $1,180 in fees on $42,000 of card sales is 2.81%. Those are example numbers, so run your own.

1. Add every fee on one month's statement, including monthly and per-batch lines.
2. Divide by the card sales on that same statement.
3. Split the result into in-person and online, because the two rates differ.
4. Find the debit share of your sales. A high share is a reason to get an interchange-plus quote.
5. List any line you cannot explain, and ask your processor what it pays for.
6. Note dispute fees. Stripe charges $15 per dispute, and others set their own.
7. Divide your software fee by your orders, so you compare whole systems and not only rates.

Against marketplaces

How do card fees compare with marketplace commission?

Card fees are the small number. A marketplace delivery order at 25% costs $8.75 on $35, more than six times the $1.32 card fee on your own site.

Rates come from the DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub pricing pages, checked November 1, 2026. DoorDash says its commission covers credit card processing. Uber Eats lists payment processing on every Marketplace plan and says its fee helps cover it, though its footnotes show exceptions: its New York City Lite package adds 3% for card processing. Grubhub charges processing separately, so its row adds 3.05% + 30¢ from its profit calculator. Details and every plan are in our DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub fee guides.

The honest caveat: the $1.32 row assumes the guest picks up, or that you already pay for delivery. A marketplace delivery fee also buys a driver and new customers. Pickup is where the gap is smallest, at $2.10 against $1.32.

Over 300 orders at $35, 25% commission is $2,625. Card fees on the same orders through your own site are $394.50. On Orderitto Starter, which is $149 a month after $799 setup with no per-order commission, the month comes to $543.50 before delivery costs. Restaurants handle Stripe directly, typically at 2.9% + 30¢.