The short answer
ACH direct debit through Stripe costs 0.8% of the payment amount, capped at $5.00. There is no per-transaction fixed fee on top. That makes ACH the cheapest Stripe payment method for anything above a few dollars, and the cap makes it dramatically cheaper on large payments. Rates below are Stripe's published US pricing as of October 2026.
The $5 cap, and where it kicks in
The cap engages when 0.8% of the payment reaches $5.00, which happens at $625. Payments of $625 or more all cost exactly $5.00. Below $625, the fee is simply 0.8% with no minimum. A $100 ACH payment costs $0.80. A $500 payment costs $4.00. A $5,000 payment costs $5.00, the same as a $625 payment. Past the cap, the fee stops growing while the payment keeps growing, which is the whole appeal.
Worked savings against card payments
Compare each amount against the standard 2.9% plus $0.30 card rate. A $100 invoice paid by card costs $3.20 in fees; by ACH it costs $0.80, a saving of $2.40. A $500 payment: $14.80 by card versus $4.00 by ACH, a saving of $10.80. A $1,000 payment: $29.30 by card versus the capped $5.00 by ACH, a saving of $24.30. A $10,000 payment: $290.30 by card versus $5.00 by ACH, a saving of $285.30. The bigger the payment, the more the cap matters: on $10,000, ACH costs an effective 0.05%.
Put it in annual terms. A freelancer billing one $4,000 invoice a month pays $116.30 per invoice in card fees (2.9% is $116.00, plus $0.30), or $1,395.60 a year. On ACH, 0.8% of $4,000 is $32.00, which exceeds the $5.00 cap, so each payment costs $5.00, or $60.00 a year. The difference is $1,335.60 a year, enough to matter to any small business.
The fees people forget: failures and disputes
ACH is not free of gotchas. A failed ACH direct debit, from insufficient funds or a closed account, costs $4.00. A disputed ACH debit costs $15.00. These are per-event fees on top of the original 0.8%. If your customers' bank details are unreliable, a few $4 failures can eat the savings. Verify account details up front: Stripe supports instant bank verification and micro-deposits, and either one keeps failure rates near zero.
ACH versus cards versus micropayments
ACH beats both alternatives on price at every amount. Against the standard card rate, 0.8% with no fixed fee always wins over 2.9% plus $0.30. Against the micropayment rate of 5% plus $0.05, the gap is even wider: a $5 payment costs $0.04 by ACH against $0.30 on micropayments. The trade-off is speed and failure modes: ACH debits take several business days to settle and can fail after the fact, while card payments authorize up front and settle fast. Use ACH for large, planned payments from trusted customers, such as invoices, rent, and B2B orders, and keep cards for situations where you need instant authorization.
ACH debit versus ACH credit
Stripe supports two ACH flavors. ACH debit pulls money from the customer's bank account with their authorization: 0.8% capped at $5. ACH credit is the reverse, where the customer pushes money to you and Stripe reconciles it automatically; credits carry no percentage fee on current pricing. Debit is the workhorse for invoices and subscriptions because you control the timing. Credit suits B2B payers whose AP departments insist on pushing payments themselves. Both settle on bank timelines rather than card timelines, so build a few business days of float into cash planning either way.
Getting customers onto ACH
The fee savings only materialize if customers actually choose bank payments. Three tactics work. First, make ACH the default on invoices: Stripe's hosted invoice pages can present bank debit first and cards second. Second, share the savings explicitly: "pay by bank transfer and skip the card fee" converts better than a generic "we accept ACH." Third, remove friction at signup: instant bank verification beats micro-deposits, which take a day or two and lose customers mid-flow. One clumsy verification flow can cost more in abandoned payments than a month of card fees, so test the flow yourself before rolling it out.
When not to use ACH
ACH is the wrong tool in three situations. First, one-time customers you will never see again: the multi-day settlement and post-settlement failure risk are not worth $2.40 of savings on a $100 sale. Second, time-sensitive fulfillment: if you ship on payment, a card authorization lets you ship today, while an ACH debit leaves you waiting days or shipping on faith. Third, high-risk transactions: cards bring address verification, 3D Secure, and Radar fraud scoring; ACH brings a routing number and hope. The fee hierarchy is clear, with ACH cheapest, then micropayments, then standard cards, but fees are only one term in the equation. Match the rail to the risk: trusted repeat customers on ACH, everyone else on cards.
When ACH makes sense
Freelancers billing $1,000-plus invoices, landlords collecting rent, and B2B sellers with net-30 terms are the classic ACH winners. The math is simple: if the customer relationship is ongoing and the payment is expected, ACH converts a $29.30 card fee into a $5.00 flat cost. Offer both: cards for new customers who value speed, ACH for repeat customers who value savings. Some businesses split the difference by passing the card fee to customers who insist on cards, which makes ACH the default rational choice for everyone else.