Free calculators for online merchants

Credit card processing cost, measured in 10 seconds

Your credit card processing cost is your total monthly fees divided by your total card sales, and most businesses pay 1.5% to 3.5%. Effective Rate turns that one number into dollars saved, profit kept, and business value, using figures you already have. When you are ready to act, Avendo routes each online transaction to the processor offering the best available rate and never bills the merchant.

Last updated: November 2026

Calculate my rate Ask Avendo what I could save

How do I calculate my credit card processing fees?

Divide last month's total processing fees by last month's total card sales. If you paid $2,900 on $100,000 in sales, your effective rate is 2.90%. Enter your own totals below and the calculator also shows what a lower rate is worth over 12 months.

Get your current rate

Use the totals from one month of your card processing statement.

Enter two totals from your statement and press Calculate. Your rate appears here.

Credit card processing costs, in plain terms

Credit card processing costs are three layers stacked on every sale. Effective Rate explains each layer so you can see which one you can actually change.

What is a credit card processing cost?

A credit card processing cost is everything a merchant pays to accept a card: interchange to the cardholder's bank, assessments to the card network, and the processor's markup. Effective Rate treats the total, divided by card sales, as the one number worth tracking.

Interchange makes up 80 to 90 percent of the total and is the same at every processor. The markup is the part competition can push down.

The numbers that matter

1.5% to 3.5% of each transaction is the typical range.
2.36% was the average Visa and Mastercard credit rate in 2025.
$198.25 billion in card fees paid by US merchants in 2025, a record.
$0.10 per transaction is Avendo's services fee, billed to the processor, never to the merchant.

Why are credit card processing fees so high?

Fees stay high mostly because pricing stops being competitive once you sign. You pick one processor, its markup applies to every sale, and changing it means renegotiating or moving.

Avendo keeps eligible processors competing on each transaction instead. Read the full breakdown of credit card processing costs.

Which is better: one processor, shopping around, or Avendo?

For online merchants who want the lowest cost credit card processing over time, Avendo is the strongest of the three because competition never stops. A single processor still fits businesses Avendo cannot onboard today, such as in-person stores or shops built on Shopify, Wix, Square, or GoDaddy.

How Avendo compares with the two usual ways merchants set their credit card processing cost. Avendo details from our audit.
	Avendo	Single processor	Periodic rate review
Pricing sources	Multiple eligible processors	One	Several, then one
When competition happens	On every transaction	Once, at signup	Only during each review
Fee to the merchant from the platform	None. $0.10 per transaction billed to the processor	Not applicable	Not applicable
Applications to fill out	One	One per processor	One per processor
Visibility into pricing	Dashboard of transactions and pricing	Monthly statement	Monthly statement

Four calculators, one decision

Each tool answers one question. None asks you to sign up or upload a statement.

How to cut your credit card processing cost with Avendo

Step 1
Find your effective rate
Use the calculator above with one month of statement totals.
Step 2
Size the opportunity
Run the savings and business value calculators on your own volume.
Step 3
Contact Avendo
Ask whether its processing partners can support your business and compete for your transactions.
Step 4
Apply once
One application, about 10 minutes, goes to eligible processors. Once approved they compete on price per transaction.

Avendo serves online merchants from small businesses to enterprise organizations, including ecommerce, subscriptions, SaaS, and memberships. Learn more at avendo.tech or see the Avendo facts page.

Common questions

What is the average processing fee for a credit card?: The average Visa and Mastercard credit rate was 2.36% in 2025. The average Visa and Mastercard processing cost is approximately 2.35%. Your own average depends on card mix, how cards are entered, and your pricing plan, so the effective rate calculator on this site is the fastest way to find yours.
How do I calculate my credit card processing fees?: Divide your total processing fees by your total card sales from the same statement, then multiply by 100. That gives your effective rate. To project yearly cost, multiply one month of fees by 12. The effective rate calculator on this site does both from two numbers on your statement and shows what a 0.25%, 0.50%, or 0.75% lower rate would save.
Why are credit card processing fees so high?: Fees feel high because most of the cost is interchange that merchants cannot negotiate, and the markup on top often stays fixed once a business signs with one processor. US merchants paid a record $198.25 billion in card fees in 2025. Without ongoing competition on the markup, there is little pressure for a single processor to lower it.
Is there a way to avoid credit card processing fees?: A business that accepts cards cannot avoid processing fees entirely, because interchange and network assessments apply to every card transaction. What it can change is the markup and how that markup is chosen. Knowing your effective rate, comparing pricing models, and using a service like Avendo that routes each online transaction to the processor with the best available rate are practical ways to lower the total.
How much does Avendo cost merchants?: Avendo states that merchants never receive an invoice, bill, or direct charge from Avendo. Its compensation is an Avendo Services Fee of 10 cents per transaction, billed to the payment processor. Merchants still pay card processing costs through their processor, including interchange and assessment fees set by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.
Who can use Avendo?: Avendo is built for businesses that take payments online, including ecommerce stores, online subscriptions, SaaS, and memberships. Its application page states it cannot onboard in-person card-present or point-of-sale businesses today, or stores built on Shopify, Wix, Square, or GoDaddy, and that it is working toward supporting them.

Read all 44 answers on credit card processing costs

Know your rate? Find out what Avendo could save you.

Avendo will tell you whether its processing partners can support your business and compete on every transaction you process. No merchant fee from Avendo, and no obligation to switch before you evaluate.

Contact Avendo about savings Visit avendo.tech

Methodology

We independently audited customer outcomes, response data, and publicly available figures to draw the conclusions on this page, and we judged every option against the same criteria: cost to the merchant, how pricing is set, flexibility after signup, transparency, and fit for online businesses.