Buyer-paid vs organizer-absorbed fees

Absorb the 3% on community events and low-priced tickets. Pass it to buyers on paid shows above $10, and advertise the face value. That is our short answer. On a $20 ticket, absorbing it means you net $19.40; passing it means you net the full $20 and the buyer pays about 60 cents more. Here is how to decide for your show.

The two options, in plain numbers

Take a $20 ticket.

Organizer absorbs the 3%:

• Buyer sees a $20 ticket and pays about $20.91 (the $20 plus Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢), plus tax where it applies.
• The 3% platform fee ($0.60) comes out of your $20.
• Your net is roughly $19.40 per ticket.

Buyer pays the 3%:

• Buyer sees a $20 ticket, a separately labeled 3% platform fee ($0.60), and Stripe processing on top. Total about $21.53, plus tax where it applies.
• The platform fee is paid by the buyer.
• Your net is the full $20 face value.

Across 100 tickets, the difference between the two options is about $60. Across 500 tickets, $300. Real money on a sold-out room. Small money on a small show.

The buyer experience side

The argument for absorbing the fee is simple. The checkout total stays as close to the poster price as it can get: the ticket plus card processing (about 91 cents on a $20 ticket), and nothing from us.

The argument for passing the fee is also simple. The buyer sees a small, labeled line item for what the platform fee is. They are not being tricked. They are seeing the math: 60 cents on a $20 ticket, on its own line.

Different audiences react differently. We hear from organizers whose buyers care almost entirely about the headline price (free community events, fundraisers, audiences for whom a few extra dollars at checkout is a real friction). We hear from organizers whose buyers expect online fees and barely notice (regulars at clubs, frequent ticket buyers, anyone used to fees on bigger platforms). The right answer comes from knowing which kind you have.

When to absorb

• The poster price is the message. Community events, fundraisers, anything where "this event is $10" is the pitch and every extra line at checkout undercuts it.
• Your audience is fee-sensitive. First-time ticket buyers in your scene. Older audiences who do not buy a lot of things online. Audiences who got burned by big-platform fees and are skeptical of any line items.
• The math is small enough not to matter. A free tier is free either way on DIY Stubs. A $5 community event where the 3% is $0.15 is not the place to fight this battle.

When to pass

• Your ticket price was already set against costs. You did the spreadsheet exercise from How to price tickets for your first show and arrived at $20 as what the show needs to net. Passing the fee keeps the math intact.
• Your audience expects fees at checkout. Regulars at concerts and shows are already used to seeing them. A clearly labeled 3% line is not a shock.
• Margins are thin. Small-cap shows where the difference between absorbing and passing is the difference between profit and break-even. The buyer pays 60 cents on a $20 ticket to keep the show viable.
• Multi-show events. Festivals, multi-day passes, and other higher-priced tickets where the absolute dollar difference is bigger ($60 ticket: $1.80 fee), and where the buyer has already mentally accepted that this is a bigger purchase with a few line items.

Can you do both? Sort of.

DIY Stubs lets you make this choice per event, not per tier. So within a single event, all tiers either absorb or all tiers pass. But across events you can mix freely. A common pattern: absorb on free community nights, pass on paid shows. Set the rule once for each event type and stop thinking about it.

What not to do

• Marketing a $20 ticket while passing the fee. Buyer arrives at checkout to a $21.53 total and feels surprised. Either say "plus fees" wherever you post the price, or absorb. Pick one.
• Flipping mid-event. Toggling absorb/pass while tickets are on sale confuses people who already bought and checked their receipt.
• Treating the 3% as the customer's problem in your head. If you are passing the fee, the buyer is paying it, but the show is still yours. A slow door or a refund mess is still your problem, whoever paid which line item.

Our default suggestion

For paid shows above $10: pass the fee. Label it clearly at checkout, advertise the face value, and the math works out for the organizer.

For community events, fundraisers, and low-priced tickets: absorb. A $5 ticket then costs the buyer about $5.46, with nothing from us on top, and that clarity is worth more than the few dollars in fees across a small event. Free tickets cost nothing either way.

Then set it and move on. The bigger question is always who is in the room.

Related

• Where your ticketing fees actually go
• DIY Stubs payouts and fees
• How to price tickets for your first show