Blog · Industry
Where your ticketing fees actually go
By DIY Stubs · published May 28, 2026
The gap between a ticket's price and the checkout total is made of three things: card processing, the platform's own cut, and surcharges with their own names. On DIY Stubs, a $20 ticket costs the buyer about $20.91 when the organizer covers our 3%, or about $21.53 when the buyer covers it, plus tax where it applies. Below is what each category pays for and where the money goes.
1. Card processing
This is the one category in the gap that is not anyone's markup. When a buyer pays with a card, the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) and the payment processor (Stripe, Adyen, Braintree, Square, whoever the platform uses) take a cut. Stripe's standard US online card rate is 2.9% of the charge plus 30 cents per transaction. That money pays for fraud prevention, the interchange the issuing bank takes, the network's share, and chargeback infrastructure. It leaves the platform's hands and goes to the financial system.
Every reputable ticketing platform pays some version of this. It is the real cost of accepting card payments. Where platforms differ is whether they show it to the buyer as its own line or fold it into a single "service fee" line alongside their own cut.
2. The platform's own cut
This is the part the platform keeps. It pays for engineering the software, hosting the site, supporting users, handling refunds and disputes, and the company's profit margin. Reasonable people can disagree about how big that cut should be. Some platforms charge a percentage, some add a per-ticket fee on top, and each one publishes its own rates.
Where it gets contentious is whether the platform charges the organizer, the buyer, or both. Some platforms charge a percentage to the organizer (taken out of payout) and also a service fee to the buyer at checkout. The buyer reads that as "the organizer set the price at $20, then added fees". Often the organizer did not.
3. Surcharges with their own names
Look at any large ticketing platform's order summary and you may see several distinct line items: a service fee, a per-order processing fee, a delivery fee, sometimes a facility fee that the venue designated. Each one has a documented purpose, and sometimes the purposes overlap.
- A service fee is the platform's percentage or flat charge on top of the ticket.
- A convenience fee is a leftover term from phone and mail-order ticketing. In online checkout it functions the same as a service fee.
- A delivery or order processing fee covers the cost of, depending on the platform, generating and emailing the ticket, the SMS backup, and sometimes paper-ticket shipping if that is still an option.
- A facility fee is set by the venue, not the platform, and is usually a venue revenue line item passed through the ticket sale. On larger venues it can be substantial.
Some of these have real costs behind them. Some split one larger fee into smaller lines. Either way, the total is what the buyer pays.
Why the buyer ends up annoyed
Buyers do not mind that fees exist. They mind finding them late. A buyer sees a $20 show on the event page and a much bigger number at checkout. That gap reads as bait and switch, whichever company kept which part. The organizer often did not know it would look that way.
There is now a regulatory push in several jurisdictions toward "all-in" or "drip pricing" rules that require the headline price to include unavoidable fees. The specifics differ a lot by location and change often, so we will not summarize them here. The direction is clear, though: buyers want to see every fee before they pay, and regulators are starting to require it.
What DIY Stubs charges, and why
Here is what shows up on a DIY Stubs ticket sale:
- The ticket price the organizer set.
- Stripe's card processing (2.9% + 30¢ per transaction), paid by the buyer as its own line at checkout. This is the real cost of accepting a card and we do not mark it up.
- Our platform fee of 3% of the ticket. By default this comes out of the organizer's payout. Optionally the organizer can pass it through as a clearly labeled "Platform fee" line item at checkout. That choice is the organizer's, not ours.
- Tax, where it applies, as its own line.
We do not add a separate buyer-facing service fee, convenience fee, or order processing fee. There is no per-event charge. There is no scanner fee. No subscription is required: Pro is an optional plan for organizers who want unlimited events and extras, and it does not change the 3%. On a $20 ticket, the buyer pays about $20.91 and the organizer nets $19.40 by default. If the organizer passes the 3% on, the buyer pays about $21.53 and the organizer nets the full $20. We would rather charge one number the organizer can plan against and the buyer can see on its own line.
Questions worth asking any ticketing platform
- On a $20 ticket, what does the buyer pay at checkout? Get a real number, not "depends on your plan".
- On that same $20 ticket, what hits your bank as the organizer?
- Are there per-event, per-scanner, or per-order fees on top of the per-ticket cut?
- How are payouts scheduled? Before or after the event? Daily, weekly, or on request?
- Who pays for a refund or chargeback, and what is the dispute fee?
A good platform answers those questions in plain numbers. If the answer is "well, it depends", ask for a worked example.