Same money, which method is cheapestEnter each method's own fee rate and the tool works out the net cost, ranks them and highlights the cheapest
Here's the answer up front: the real cost of a payment method is amount × (1 + fee rate%) + the flat fee per transaction. Count both the percentage and the flat fee, and the method with the lowest net cost is the one that truly saves. This comparison presets nothing about which method is dear or cheap; the rates and flat fees are all your own input, the figures you looked up on each provider's page. Fill them in and it lines two or three methods up in a column, so the cheapest is obvious with no mental arithmetic.
Teaching estimate; go by what the provider's page shows
How to use it / where to look
The comparison is only as fair as the rates you enter being on the same basis. Enter them all "as a percentage of the amount" and the result is a fair fight. Here's how to fill the three fields:
- Amount. The original amount you actually have to pay. Type the number.
- Method name. Whatever label you recognise, such as "Credit card", "Virtual card" or "Stablecoin top-up". It only labels the result and does not affect the maths.
- Rate %. The fee this method charges as a percentage of the amount. For a credit card, look at the cross-border or currency-conversion fee; for a virtual card, the top-up or spend rate; for stablecoin, the withdrawal or network cost expressed as a percentage. If you can't find it, leave that row blank; the tool only compares the methods you gave a rate.
If a method also charges a flat fee on top of the percentage (say a few units per transaction), enter it straight into the "Flat fee/txn" field. A flat fee weighs heavily on small amounts and gets diluted on large ones, so the ranking can flip completely between the two. Swap the amount for your real bracket and compare again to see who is genuinely cheaper at your size.
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Questions people ask
- Why not just tell me which method is cheapest?
- Because rates shift by region, card type, merchant and current policy, so there's no answer that holds everywhere. Letting you enter the rates you looked up fits your real situation better than presetting a "standard" value. The tool does the arithmetic and leaves the choice to you.
- Can I fill in only two methods and leave the third blank?
- Yes. Give at least two methods a rate each and it compares them; a blank third row is ignored automatically. You can enter just one, but then there's nothing to compare.
- Is the net cost the exact amount I'll be charged?
- No; it's a teaching estimate. The tool now folds in both the percentage rate and the flat fee per transaction, but real cost may still include exchange-rate conversion, time-to-arrive and other factors it doesn't cover. Go by each provider's checkout page.
Note: this tool goes online for nothing and stores none of what you type; the calculation runs locally in your browser. Rates are your input, and the result is a directional estimate for comparing methods on cost, not any provider's actual charge or a promise. Updated 2026-06-22.