The short answer
Stripe Invoicing costs 0.4% of each paid invoice on the Starter plan, with no monthly fee and no setup cost. The Plus plan costs 0.5% per paid invoice and adds quotes and more advanced workflows. Critically, the invoicing fee sits on top of payment processing: when the customer pays by card, the standard 2.9% plus $0.30 still applies. Unpaid, draft, or voided invoices cost nothing. Rates are Stripe's published pricing as of October 2026.
The stacked math, worked
Take a $1,000 invoice paid by card. Processing: 2.9% is $29.00, plus $0.30, for $29.30. Invoicing: 0.4% of $1,000 is $4.00. Total Stripe cost: $33.30, and you net $966.70, an effective rate of 3.33%. A $250 invoice: processing is $7.25 plus $0.30, or $7.55; invoicing is $1.00; total $8.55, net $241.45. Because the invoicing slice is purely proportional, it matters most on large invoices: on $10,000 it is $40.00, while the processing is $290.30.
Starter versus Plus
Starter (0.4%) covers creating, customizing, and sending invoices from the dashboard or API, hosted invoice pages, automatic payment reminders, and smart retries on failed payments. Plus (0.5%) adds quotes and estimates that convert into invoices, plus deeper customization. The 0.1-point gap is $1 per $1,000 invoiced, so the upgrade decision is about whether quotes are worth it, not about the fee. Both plans charge nothing until an invoice is actually paid, which makes Invoicing a pure pay-as-you-go product.
When the invoicing fee beats the alternatives
Compare with collecting through Payment Links or Checkout: those carry no invoicing fee at all, just processing, but you lose automated reminders, partial payments, and reconciliation. Compare with Square Invoices: free to send on the base plan, so a $1,000 card invoice costs only the $29.30 processing, $4.00 less than Stripe. Stripe wins when you need its API, 135-plus currency support, or the automation: reminders and smart retries recover real money on overdue invoices, and one recovered invoice can pay for months of 0.4% fees. If your invoices are large and simple and your customers are domestic, the 0.4% is pure overhead worth pricing against a free alternative.
Invoicing versus Billing versus Payment Links
Stripe has three ways to collect money without writing code, and the fee differs. Payment Links: no invoicing fee, just processing, best for simple one-off collections. Invoicing (0.4% Starter, 0.5% Plus): the full accounts-receivable workflow with reminders, partial payments, and reconciliation, best for B2B and freelancers with payment terms. Billing (0.7% of billing volume): the subscription engine with proration, trials, and dunning, best for recurring revenue. A freelancer sending monthly retainers could use any of the three; the deciding factors are whether you need reminders (Invoicing), subscriptions (Billing), or just a link (Payment Links). Do not pay 0.4% for features you never use.
Reducing the invoicing fee stack
Four levers shrink the total. First, steer large invoices to ACH: $9.00 total on $1,000 versus $33.30 by card. Second, consolidate: one $2,000 invoice costs $8.00 in invoicing fees versus $16.00 across two $1,000 invoices, and it halves the $0.30 fixed processing slices too. Third, evaluate Plus honestly: the extra 0.1% is $10 per $10,000 invoiced, so adopt it for the quotes feature, not by accident. Fourth, negotiate at volume: high invoice volume qualifies for custom pricing conversations like everything else at Stripe. The invoicing fee is small per invoice, but across a year of B2B billing it compounds into real money.
What counts as a paid invoice
The 0.4% applies per invoice that transitions to paid, regardless of how many payment attempts it took or whether it was paid in installments. Partial payments do not multiply the fee: one invoice paid in three parts still incurs a single 0.4% charge on the invoice total. This is why consolidating installments into fewer invoices saves money twice, once on the invoicing percentage and once on the $0.30 fixed processing slices. Conversely, splitting one project into many small invoices multiplies both fees. Invoice structure is a pricing decision, not just an admin habit.
Pricing the fee into your rates
Because the fee is proportional, the cleanest approach is to treat your effective rate as 3.3% plus $0.30 on card-paid invoices and set prices accordingly. If you want to net exactly $1,000 on an invoiced card payment, gross up: ($1,000 + $0.30) divided by (1 minus 0.033), which is $1,034.44. Check: 3.3% of $1,034.44 is $34.14, plus $0.30 is $34.44, and $1,034.44 minus $34.44 is $1,000.00. For ACH-paid invoices the math is kinder: 0.8% capped at $5 plus the 0.4% invoicing fee, so a $1,000 invoice costs $5.00 plus $4.00, just $9.00 total. Steering large invoices to ACH is the single biggest lever on this fee stack.