Glossary
Convenience fee
A convenience fee is a charge added by some ticketing platforms to a buyer's total in exchange for being able to buy the ticket online rather than at a physical box office. It is paid by the buyer at checkout and goes to the platform.
Where the term comes from
The phrase predates online ticketing. It was originally used by phone and mail-order ticket services as a charge for not having to visit the box office in person. When ticket sales moved to the web, the same fee carried over even though buying a ticket online has no real physical cost equivalent. The "convenience" being charged for today is, in practice, that the platform built and runs a website.
How it differs from a service fee
In most cases it does not. "Convenience fee" and "service fee" are used interchangeably across platforms. A few platforms list both as separate line items, in which case the convenience fee is usually a flat per-order amount and the service fee is a per-ticket percentage. The result is the same: a markup over the ticket's face value, paid by the buyer, kept by the platform.
Why buyers resent it
Convenience fees are often the difference between the price the buyer was quoted on the event page and the total they pay at checkout. When the fee is opaque, large, or added late in the flow, it feels like bait and switch. Regulators in the US and elsewhere have been paying more attention to how clearly fees are disclosed at checkout, but rules and enforcement vary widely by jurisdiction, so we will not pretend there is one tidy summary.
DIY Stubs and convenience fees
We do not charge a convenience fee. A buyer on DIY Stubs pays the ticket price plus Stripe's card processing fee (2.9% + 30¢, the real cost of accepting a card), plus tax where it applies. Our cut (3% of the ticket) comes from the organizer's side, or appears as a clearly named "Platform fee" line if the organizer chose to have buyers cover it. Each one is its own line at checkout.