Stripe vs Adyen for US/EU Cross-Border B2B Transactions: Interchange-Plus Pricing Compared
Cross-border B2B payment costs are rarely determined by the headline processing rate alone. Foreign-exchange conversion, card origin, interchange, scheme fees, chargebacks, recurring billing, settlement currency and transaction volume can materially change your real cost. This guide breaks down Stripe vs Adyen for US and EU businesses so finance, operations and technology teams can model the economics before choosing a payment stack.
Stripe vs Adyen: the short answer
Stripe and Adyen use materially different pricing philosophies for larger or more complex payment operations. Stripe's standard US card pricing is easier to estimate because the published model starts with a percentage-plus-fixed-fee structure and adds separate charges for international cards and currency conversion. Stripe also offers custom pricing, including interchange-plus arrangements, for businesses with larger payment volumes or specialised requirements.
Adyen's public pricing is structured around a fixed processing fee plus the payment method's fee, with Interchange++ passing interchange and relevant scheme economics through to the merchant and adding an acquiring markup. That means the final cost can vary considerably depending on card type, card geography, transaction characteristics and payment method.
For a US/EU B2B company, the important question is therefore not simply "Which provider has the lower percentage?" It is: "Which pricing model produces the lower fully loaded cost for our actual transaction mix?"
Key takeaways for US and EU B2B finance teams
FX can change the equation
A payment that crosses a border does not automatically require currency conversion. If the customer pays in USD and you settle in USD, the economics are different from a EUR-to-USD conversion. Model international card fees and FX separately.
Interchange is not one fixed number
Adyen's Interchange++ model exposes underlying payment economics more directly, but interchange varies according to factors such as card type, geography, transaction environment and scheme rules.
Chargebacks are a balance-sheet issue
The payment processor may provide fraud and dispute tools, but the merchant can still carry the financial liability for disputed transactions. A low processing rate does not eliminate dispute risk.
Subscriptions need their own model
Recurring payments add another layer. Consider payment processing, subscription-management fees, failed-payment recovery, card updates, retries and involuntary churn rather than looking only at the initial transaction.
Volume changes the negotiation
At meaningful B2B volume, published list pricing may not be the final commercial arrangement. Both platforms support more customised pricing structures for larger or specialised businesses.
Reconciliation matters too
The cheapest theoretical rate can become expensive operationally if finance teams struggle to reconcile interchange, scheme fees, FX, refunds, disputes and settlement currencies.
Why cross-border B2B payment pricing is harder than it looks
A US software company selling a $10,000 annual contract to a German customer may think the payment cost is simply a percentage of $10,000. In practice, several independent variables can affect the final economics.
The card may be issued in Europe while the merchant is based in the United States. The customer may be billed in EUR while the merchant's accounting system reports in USD. The transaction may be recurring rather than one-time. The card could be commercial rather than consumer. The payment may later become a dispute. And the finance team still has to reconcile the settlement against the original invoice.
This is why a payment provider comparison should start with the complete transaction lifecycle:
If you want to understand the infrastructure underneath a broader cloud-based commerce operation, you can also read our guide to managed cloud hosting for US small businesses.
Stripe vs Adyen pricing: the models are fundamentally different
Stripe's standard US online card pricing currently starts at 2.9% plus $0.30 for successful domestic card transactions. Stripe adds 1.5% for international cards and another 1% when currency conversion is required. Stripe also publishes custom pricing options, including interchange-plus pricing, volume discounts and country-specific rates.
Adyen's published model uses a fixed processing fee plus the payment method's fee. For card methods where Interchange++ applies, Adyen describes the model as interchange and scheme costs passed through to the merchant plus a 0.60% Adyen markup, alongside the fixed processing fee shown on its pricing pages.
| Pricing component | Stripe standard model | Adyen public model | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base processing | Percentage + fixed fee | Fixed processing fee + payment method fee | Creates different effective rates as transaction size changes. |
| International cards | Additional international-card fee under standard US pricing | Underlying payment economics vary by card/payment method | Card geography becomes important for cross-border merchants. |
| Currency conversion | Additional FX charge when conversion is required | Currency conversion can include an Adyen markup depending on the flow | FX can become a meaningful hidden cost at scale. |
| Interchange | Generally embedded in standard pricing | Passed through under Interchange++ where applicable | Transparency increases, but the merchant takes more variability. |
| Scheme fees | Generally embedded in standard pricing | Passed through under Interchange++ | Actual transaction mix can influence total cost. |
| Custom pricing | Available | Available through commercial arrangements | High-volume B2B merchants should compare negotiated proposals. |
| Setup/monthly platform fee | No setup or monthly fee under standard Payments pricing | No setup or monthly fee under public payment pricing | Product-specific charges can still apply. |
The important lesson is that published percentage rates are not directly comparable unless the pricing models are normalised. A flat blended rate and Interchange++ are answering different pricing questions.
For businesses already comparing infrastructure costs, our guide to shared vs VPS vs cloud hosting for small businesses provides a useful example of why the lowest headline price does not always equal the lowest total cost.
What is Interchange-Plus or Interchange++ pricing?
Interchange is the fee associated with the card transaction and is ultimately influenced by the card network and issuing bank. It is not one universal percentage.
An Interchange-Plus structure separates the underlying card economics from the processor's markup. Interchange++ goes further by exposing the scheme-related component as well. The practical structure can be thought of as:
This can be attractive for high-volume merchants because the processor's markup is easier to identify. However, it also means your effective cost can move as the transaction mix changes.
Why two $10,000 transactions can have different economics
Imagine two customers purchasing the same $10,000 B2B subscription. One uses a European consumer card and another uses a US commercial card. The underlying card economics may differ materially.
That is one reason Interchange++ should be evaluated using your actual payment data rather than a generic calculator.
| Transaction variable | Potential impact | What finance should track |
|---|---|---|
| Card country | Can affect interchange and international treatment | Issuer country by transaction |
| Consumer vs commercial card | Can change underlying card costs | Card product/category mix |
| Credit vs debit | Different interchange economics | Payment method mix |
| Transaction channel | Card-present and card-not-present economics differ | Online/in-person split |
| Currency conversion | Creates additional FX economics | Processing, presentment and settlement currencies |
| Payment method | Local payment methods have their own pricing | Method-level approval and cost |
For a deeper look at performance economics on the hosting side of a technology stack, see our Cloudways vs Hostinger cloud speed and TTFB benchmark.
Foreign-exchange markups: the cost many B2B teams underestimate
FX is one of the most important differences between a simple domestic transaction and a cross-border payment.
Consider a US SaaS company with a German customer. The customer signs a €20,000 annual contract. The business has at least three possible commercial designs:
EUR presentment + EUR settlement
The customer pays in EUR and the merchant receives EUR. The merchant can manage conversion separately through its treasury or banking setup.
EUR presentment + USD settlement
The customer sees and pays EUR while the merchant ultimately receives USD. Currency conversion becomes part of the payment economics.
USD presentment + USD settlement
The merchant avoids an internal EUR-to-USD conversion on that payment, but the buyer may face currency-conversion costs through its bank or card issuer.
Stripe currently publishes a 1% additional fee when currency conversion is required under its standard US card pricing. Stripe also offers other currency-conversion products with different pricing.
Adyen's documentation describes currency conversion flows in which an exchange rate can include an Adyen markup. The exact economics depend on the particular conversion setup, currencies, account structure and agreement.
Illustrative FX sensitivity
Suppose a business processes $500,000 equivalent of monthly transactions that require currency conversion. Every additional 0.25 percentage points of FX cost represents approximately $1,250 per month, or $15,000 per year, before considering changes in volume or exchange rates.
At $5 million of annual converted volume, a 1 percentage-point difference represents $50,000 per year. That is why treasury design can matter as much as the payment processor's card rate.
Businesses dealing with infrastructure-related cross-border costs may also find our guide to AWS data egress fees and bandwidth optimisation useful because the same principle applies: small percentage or unit-cost differences become large at scale.
Chargeback liability: who carries the financial risk?
Chargebacks are not simply a processor-support issue. They can affect revenue, cash flow, operational workload and payment-network risk.
Under Stripe's standard merchant relationship, the merchant remains responsible for disputed transaction amounts. Stripe currently lists a $15 dispute fee for each dispute received under its standard US pricing.
Adyen's documentation similarly explains that the disputed amount can be debited from the merchant account and that a chargeback fee applies to each booked chargeback. The exact fee is governed by the merchant's agreement rather than a single universal public rate.
| Chargeback cost area | Stripe | Adyen | Business implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disputed principal | Merchant generally carries liability | Merchant generally carries liability | Revenue can be reversed. |
| Dispute fee | Published $15 dispute fee under standard US pricing | Chargeback fee applies; amount depends on agreement | High dispute volume increases direct cost. |
| Evidence management | Dashboard/API and dispute tooling | Customer Area/API and dispute tooling | Operations teams need a repeatable evidence workflow. |
| Fraud prevention | Stripe Radar and related tools | Adyen risk and fraud tooling | Prevention can be cheaper than dispute recovery. |
| Liability shift | Can occur in specific authenticated payment scenarios | Can occur in eligible payment flows | Authentication strategy can affect risk allocation. |
The B2B chargeback problem is different
B2B businesses often have large transaction values. A 0.5% dispute rate can therefore be much more expensive than the same percentage in a low-ticket ecommerce operation.
For example, if a company processes 1,000 transactions averaging $5,000, monthly payment volume is $5 million. Ten disputes would represent a 1% transaction count, but potentially $50,000 of disputed principal before fees, recovery costs and operational overhead.
This is why B2B merchants should track both dispute rate by transaction count and disputed value as a percentage of payment volume.
Recurring subscription fees: Stripe vs Adyen for SaaS and B2B contracts
Recurring B2B revenue creates a second pricing layer beyond the payment transaction itself. Subscription businesses need to think about billing schedules, stored payment credentials, retries, expired cards, failed payments, upgrades, downgrades, proration and revenue recovery.
Stripe currently publishes a pay-as-you-go Billing price of 0.7% of Billing volume, with a separate payment-processing fee when a payment is processed. Stripe also offers annual subscription plans for businesses that prefer predictable monthly pricing.
Adyen supports recurring payment flows through tokenization and recurring payment models. Its public payment pricing does not present a universal monthly subscription fee for the core payment platform, although specific products, payment methods and negotiated commercial arrangements can introduce additional costs.
| Recurring-payment requirement | Stripe consideration | Adyen consideration |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription creation | Stripe Billing | Recurring payment/tokenization capabilities |
| Billing software fee | Published Billing usage fee or subscription plan | No universal public monthly fee for core payments |
| Payment processing | Separate Payments pricing applies | Payment-method pricing applies |
| Failed payments | Smart Retries and recovery tools available | Recurring payment optimisation and retry capabilities |
| Stored payment credentials | Payment method storage and billing infrastructure | Tokenization and Adyen Vault |
| Global recurring payments | Multiple currencies/payment methods | Multiple regional payment methods and recurring flows |
A business should therefore calculate the effective recurring revenue cost, not just the payment-processing percentage.
Payment processing + billing platform fee + FX + failed-payment recovery cost + dispute cost + operational reconciliation cost = recurring payment TCO.
If subscriptions represent 80% or more of your revenue, this calculation can be more important than a small difference in the initial card-processing rate.
Real-world cost model: a $100,000 monthly cross-border B2B payment book
The following model is an illustrative planning scenario, not a quote from either provider. It demonstrates how to compare pricing structures using the same transaction volume.
Assume a US B2B software company processes $100,000 per month through online card payments, with 10,000 transactions averaging $10 each. For simplicity, the examples below isolate payment fees and do not attempt to model every possible network, tax, refund or contractual charge.
Stripe standard pricing illustration
| Scenario | Illustrative rate | Percentage cost | Fixed transaction cost | Illustrative total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic card | 2.9% + $0.30 | $2,900 | $3,000 | $5,900 |
| International card, no FX | 4.4% + $0.30 | $4,400 | $3,000 | $7,400 |
| International card + FX | 5.4% + $0.30 | $5,400 | $3,000 | $8,400 |
These examples apply the published standard US Stripe card percentages to the entire $100,000 scenario purely to demonstrate sensitivity. Real merchant costs depend on the actual transaction mix and applicable agreement.
Adyen Interchange++ illustration
Adyen's public pricing shows a fixed processing fee plus Interchange++ and a 0.60% Adyen markup for applicable payment methods. Because the underlying interchange and scheme components vary, the most useful way to model Adyen is with several hypothetical underlying-cost scenarios.
| Illustrative underlying card cost | Adyen markup | Illustrative fixed processing | Approximate monthly cost* |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.30% | 0.60% | $0.13 × 10,000 | $2,300 |
| 1.50% | 0.60% | $0.13 × 10,000 | $3,500 |
| 2.30% | 0.60% | $0.13 × 10,000 | $4,300 |
*Illustrative mathematical scenarios only. The underlying percentage in this table is a hypothetical modelling input, not a universal Adyen interchange or scheme rate. Actual costs vary by transaction.
The exercise demonstrates the central difference. Stripe's standard pricing gives a relatively predictable blended cost. Adyen's Interchange++ structure can make underlying costs more visible, but the merchant's effective rate depends on the actual payment mix.
For a high-volume merchant, the right approach is to import historical transaction data and run the same transaction set through both pricing models.
How to design a US/EU cross-border B2B payment architecture
The payment provider should sit inside a wider architecture rather than operate as an isolated checkout component.
Define the commercial currency
Decide whether customers should contract and pay in USD, EUR, GBP or another local currency. Contract currency, invoice currency and settlement currency do not always need to be identical.
Map your customer geography
Separate US, EU, UK and other international customers. Track card issuer country rather than relying only on billing-address geography.
Separate payment processing from treasury
Decide where FX conversion should happen and whether multi-currency balances can reduce unnecessary conversions.
Connect billing to your ERP
Payment status, invoice status, settlement records, refunds and disputes should reconcile with your accounting system automatically wherever possible.
Build a dispute evidence pipeline
Store invoices, contracts, delivery records, customer communication and authentication evidence so your finance or operations team can respond quickly.
Measure payment economics continuously
Track effective processing rate, FX cost, approval rate, failed recurring payments, dispute rate, recovery rate and settlement variance.
The payment layer should also be protected by reliable infrastructure. If your checkout or billing API is hosted separately, our article on Cloudflare Enterprise vs Fastly for high-volume stores can help with the broader edge, caching and DDoS architecture discussion.
Fraud prevention, authentication and chargeback reduction
Payment optimisation is not simply about reducing the processing percentage. A processor that improves authorisation while maintaining acceptable fraud levels can potentially generate more net revenue even when the headline fee is not the lowest.
For B2B businesses, authentication can also be important because transaction values tend to be larger. Strong Customer Authentication requirements can affect European payment flows, while authentication and liability-shift rules can influence the treatment of certain fraud disputes.
| Metric | Why it matters | Recommended measurement |
|---|---|---|
| Authorisation rate | Rejected legitimate transactions directly reduce revenue. | Successful payment attempts ÷ payment attempts |
| Fraud rate | Fraud can create disputes, losses and network risk. | Fraudulent value ÷ payment volume |
| Chargeback rate | High rates create direct costs and operational risk. | Chargebacks ÷ eligible transactions |
| Recovery rate | Shows how much failed recurring revenue is recovered. | Recovered failed billing ÷ failed billing value |
| FX cost | Reveals the real cost of international settlement. | FX cost ÷ converted volume |
| Net payment cost | Shows the actual economics of the payment stack. | Total payment costs ÷ successful payment volume |
The most useful executive dashboard is therefore not simply "payment fees." It should show net payment economics.
Finance and reconciliation: the hidden operational cost
Cross-border payment processing creates multiple currencies, multiple fee categories and multiple transaction states.
Finance may need to reconcile:
Gross payment
Original transaction amount and payment currency.
Processor fees
Processing, interchange, scheme and provider markup.
FX
Conversion rate, conversion markup and settlement currency.
Refunds
Returned customer funds and any applicable processing economics.
Chargebacks
Disputed principal, fees and reversals.
Settlement
Final amount received by the merchant after adjustments.
Adyen's reporting documentation explicitly separates components such as interchange, scheme fees and markup in relevant settlement reporting. That transparency can be valuable for a sophisticated finance operation, but it also means the reconciliation process needs to understand those components.
Stripe's broader platform approach can simplify some workflows for companies that want payments, billing, invoicing and revenue automation in one ecosystem.
If your organisation is already evaluating infrastructure consolidation, see our guide to white-label reseller hosting platforms for digital agencies for another example of how platform consolidation affects operating costs.
Stripe vs Adyen by business model
| Business scenario | Important pricing question | Architecture priority | What to compare |
|---|---|---|---|
| US SaaS selling into Europe | International cards + FX | Multi-currency billing | FX, recurring billing, recovery, authorisation |
| European B2B software company selling to US buyers | US card economics | US acquiring/payment methods | Card mix, interchange, settlement |
| Enterprise marketplace | Multi-party money movement | Platform accounts and payouts | Connect/platform pricing, liability, reconciliation |
| Large subscription business | Billing fee + processing fee | Revenue recovery | Billing cost, retries, churn, card updater |
| High-volume ecommerce | Effective blended processing rate | Optimised acquiring | Interchange, scheme fees, approval rate, FX |
| Enterprise with large finance team | Transparency and reconciliation | Detailed reporting | Transaction-level economics and settlement data |
There is no single pricing structure that is mathematically optimal for every business. The appropriate comparison depends on transaction size, card mix, customer geography, currencies, payment methods, recurring revenue and dispute exposure.
Businesses in regulated sectors should also map their payment architecture against applicable requirements such as GDPR, SOC 2 controls, PCI DSS responsibilities and, where relevant, HIPAA requirements. Payment processing does not automatically make a broader application compliant.
How to compare Stripe and Adyen without relying on headline pricing
Export 6–12 months of payment data
Include transaction value, currency, card country, payment method, transaction type, recurring status, refunds and disputes.
Group transactions by economics
Create groups for domestic, international, FX-required, recurring, commercial-card and alternative-payment transactions.
Apply each provider's commercial model
Do not compare a blended percentage with Interchange++ without decomposing the underlying components.
Add FX separately
Model both conversion frequency and average conversion cost. Multi-currency settlement can materially change the outcome.
Add dispute economics
Calculate the cost of the disputed principal, dispute fees, internal handling time and unrecovered revenue.
Add subscription economics
Include billing-platform charges, failed-payment recovery and recurring-payment optimisation.
Calculate net revenue impact
The final comparison should include successful authorisations, recovered revenue and payment costs — not just processor fees.
Cross-border payment TCO checklist
| Cost category | Include in TCO? | Measurement |
|---|---|---|
| Payment processing | Yes | Effective percentage + fixed fees |
| Interchange | Yes where passed through | Actual transaction mix |
| Scheme fees | Yes where passed through | Actual transaction mix |
| FX conversion | Yes | Converted volume × effective FX cost |
| Billing platform | Yes for subscription businesses | Billing volume × billing fee |
| Chargebacks | Yes | Disputed value + dispute fees + internal cost |
| Refunds | Yes | Refund value + applicable processing costs |
| Finance operations | Yes | Hours spent reconciling payment data |
| Engineering | Yes | Implementation + maintenance hours |
| Lost conversion | Yes | Declined legitimate payment value |
Should you switch from Stripe to Adyen or Adyen to Stripe?
Switching payment providers should not start with a sales proposal. It should start with transaction data.
A provider migration can affect payment tokens, recurring subscriptions, customer authentication, webhook architecture, reporting, reconciliation and historical transaction access. The migration cost can therefore offset a processing-fee saving if the expected improvement is small.
Before signing a new contract
For businesses with substantial WordPress or WooCommerce infrastructure around their payment stack, our Kinsta vs Cloudways WooCommerce performance analysis is also relevant when evaluating checkout infrastructure and latency.
Stripe vs Adyen: practical comparison for US/EU B2B payments
| Factor | Stripe | Adyen |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing simplicity | Relatively straightforward standard pricing | More transaction-level pricing detail |
| Interchange visibility | Standard pricing generally blends underlying costs | Interchange++ exposes underlying card economics where applicable |
| International card pricing | Additional fee under standard US pricing | Depends on payment method and transaction economics |
| FX | Additional conversion pricing under applicable flows | Conversion markup can apply depending on flow |
| Recurring billing | Dedicated Billing product with usage-based and subscription options | Recurring payments and tokenization capabilities |
| Chargebacks | Merchant generally remains financially responsible | Merchant generally remains financially responsible |
| Chargeback fee transparency | Published standard fee | Agreement-specific chargeback fee |
| High-volume negotiation | Custom pricing available | Custom commercial arrangements available |
| Finance reporting | Strong integrated reporting ecosystem | Detailed transaction and settlement economics |
| Best evaluation method | Effective blended cost + revenue impact | Interchange/scheme/markup analysis + revenue impact |
The real question is not Stripe vs Adyen — it is your payment mix
For US/EU cross-border B2B transactions, payment economics become more complicated as soon as international cards, multiple currencies, recurring billing and disputes enter the picture.
Stripe's standard pricing provides a relatively simple starting point, while its custom pricing options can support larger or more specialised payment operations. Adyen's Interchange++ model gives sophisticated merchants greater visibility into the underlying payment economics, but that transparency also means the merchant needs to understand its transaction mix.
Foreign exchange deserves its own line in the financial model. Chargeback liability deserves its own risk model. Subscription billing deserves its own revenue-recovery analysis. And reconciliation deserves to be treated as a genuine operating cost rather than an afterthought.
The strongest procurement process is therefore simple: take your actual six-to-twelve-month payment history, classify the transactions, apply each provider's commercial model, add FX, disputes, recurring billing and operational costs, then compare the resulting total economics.
That approach turns a payment-provider comparison from a headline-rate exercise into a genuine cross-border payment TCO analysis.
Frequently asked questions
Is Adyen cheaper than Stripe for international B2B payments?
There is no universal answer. Adyen's Interchange++ pricing passes through underlying interchange and scheme economics, while Stripe's standard pricing provides a more predictable blended structure. The actual result depends on card mix, transaction size, payment method, FX requirements and negotiated pricing.
What is Interchange++ pricing?
Interchange++ separates the underlying interchange and scheme-related costs from the payment provider's markup. The merchant therefore sees more of the components that make up the transaction cost rather than paying only one blended rate.
Does Stripe charge extra for international cards?
Under Stripe's published standard US pricing, international cards carry an additional fee, and currency conversion can add another charge when conversion is required.
Does Adyen charge an FX markup?
Adyen's currency-conversion documentation describes conversion flows where the applied exchange rate includes an Adyen markup. The exact economics depend on the conversion configuration and merchant agreement.
Who is responsible for chargebacks with Stripe?
In general, the merchant remains financially responsible for disputed transactions. Stripe can provide dispute and fraud-management tools, but those tools do not automatically transfer the underlying merchant liability.
Who is responsible for chargebacks with Adyen?
Adyen's terms and dispute documentation state that chargeback amounts can be debited from the merchant and that a chargeback fee applies. Liability can vary according to payment-method and scheme rules, including situations involving liability shifts.
Does Stripe charge a recurring subscription fee?
Stripe Billing has usage-based and subscription pricing structures. Its published pay-as-you-go Billing price is based on Billing volume, while payment-processing fees remain separate.
Does Adyen charge a monthly fee?
Adyen's public payment pricing states that there are no setup or monthly fees for the core public payment pricing model. Individual products, payment methods and negotiated commercial arrangements can have separate pricing.
Should a SaaS company use Stripe or Adyen?
The decision should be based on payment volume, geographic mix, recurring revenue, payment methods, FX exposure, dispute rates, reporting requirements and the commercial proposal available to the business.
How should a company compare Stripe and Adyen pricing?
Export historical transactions and calculate effective processing cost, international-card cost, FX cost, billing fees, dispute cost, refund cost and operational reconciliation cost. Then compare the resulting total cost against approval rates and recovered revenue.
Official payment-platform resources
For current commercial terms and product details, review the providers' official pages before signing a contract: