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Visa and Mastercard processing fees (2026): what they really charge per transaction

By Kareem FaridPayments analyst·Updated October 20, 2026·How we score

The short answer

Visa and Mastercard don't bill you directly. On a typical in-person credit card sale you pay three things: interchange to the customer's bank (Visa 1.51% to 2.30% + 10¢, Mastercard 1.65% to 2.30% + 10¢ on consumer cards), a network fee to Visa or Mastercard (about 0.13% to 0.15% + 2¢), and your processor's markup.

Big-bank debit interchange is capped at 0.05% + 21¢, plus a 1¢ fraud adjustment. With interchange-plus pricing and an illustrative 0.30% + 10¢ markup, a $50 sale costs about $0.58 on big-bank debit and $1.26 on a rewards card. A 2.6% + 15¢ flat rate charges $1.45 on either.

Who gets what on a card sale

Your processor takes one fee from each sale, often called the merchant discount. Three parties split it.

Piece	Who gets it	Typical size (US, in person)	Can you negotiate it?
Interchange	The bank that issued the card	1.51%–2.30% + 10¢ on consumer credit; 0.05% + 21¢ (+1¢ fraud adjustment) on big-bank debit	No, same for every processor
Network fee (assessment)	Visa or Mastercard	About 0.13%–0.15% + ~2¢ per sale, plus small monthly fees	No
Processor markup	Your processor / POS company	Whatever is left in your rate	Yes

Visa sets the default interchange rates but doesn't keep them. Its fiscal 2025 annual report says interchange is "generally paid by acquirers to issuers" and that Visa "generally do[es] not receive any revenue" from it. Mastercard likewise says interchange is "generally paid by acquirers to card issuers", and that its rates are "typically updated semiannually".

So the answer to "how much does Visa charge per transaction?" has two parts. Visa itself takes a fraction of a percent. The card's bank takes most of the fee, at a rate Visa publishes.

What a $50 sale really costs, line by line

A $50 rewards credit card sale costs about $1.26 on interchange-plus pricing. The same sale costs $1.45 on a flat 2.6% + 15¢ plan. The gap is widest on debit.

What a $50 in-person sale costs the merchant, by card

Interchange from Visa's April 18, 2026 and Mastercard's April 17, 2026 US schedules. Network fees are processor-reported estimates (the networks don't publish them). The 0.30% + 10¢ markup is illustrative. Your statement will differ.

Card on a $50 in-person sale	Interchange	Network fee	Markup*	Total	Effective rate
Regulated debit (big bank)	$0.25	$0.08	$0.25	$0.58	1.15%
Exempt debit (small bank)	$0.55	$0.08	$0.25	$0.88	1.76%
Visa Traditional credit	$0.86	$0.09	$0.25	$1.19	2.39%
Visa Traditional Rewards	$0.93	$0.09	$0.25	$1.26	2.53%
Mastercard World	$1.05	$0.09	$0.25	$1.39	2.78%
Visa Signature Preferred	$1.15	$0.09	$0.25	$1.49	2.98%
Flat rate 2.6% + 15¢ (any card)	One blended fee			$1.45	2.90%

*Illustrative interchange-plus markup of 0.30% + 10¢. Network fees: 0.14% + 1.95¢ on credit, 0.13% + 1.55¢ on debit, as passed through on processor fee schedules. Regulated debit includes the 1¢ fraud adjustment. Totals are calculated before rounding, so columns may not add to the cent.

Visa Traditional Rewards: $50 × 1.65% + $0.10 = $0.925 interchange · $50 × 0.14% + $0.0195 = $0.0895 network · $50 × 0.30% + $0.10 = $0.25 markup → $1.26.

A premium rewards card costs about 2½ times what big-bank debit does ($1.49 vs $0.58). On a flat-rate plan, you pay the same $1.45 whichever card the customer taps.

Visa interchange rates 2026 (US)

Visa's current US schedule took effect April 18, 2026. In-person consumer credit costs 1.51% + 10¢ on a plain card and up to 2.30% + 10¢ on a high-spend Visa Infinite.

Visa no longer uses the old "CPS/Retail" labels. The standard in-person rows are now called "Product 2" and the online rows "Product 1".

Visa consumer credit	In person (Product 2)	Online / keyed (Product 1)	Small merchant, in person*
Traditional (no rewards)	1.51% + 10¢	1.89% + 10¢	1.29% + 10¢
Traditional Rewards	1.65% + 10¢	2.04% + 10¢	1.43% + 10¢
Signature	1.65% + 10¢	2.05% + 10¢	1.43% + 10¢
Signature Preferred	2.10% + 10¢	2.50% + 10¢	1.88% + 10¢
Infinite (spend qualified)	2.30% + 10¢	2.60% + 10¢	1.88% + 10¢
Non-qualified (downgrade)	3.15% + 10¢

Source: Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees, rates effective April 18, 2026. *Small Merchant rates apply to merchants with $280,000 or less in Visa consumer credit sales a year.

A few category rates matter for small businesses:

Restaurant rates (in person) are 2.10% on Traditional and Traditional Rewards cards and 2.60% on Signature, Signature Preferred and Infinite, percentage only with a 4¢ minimum. Above roughly $11 to $33 a ticket, depending on the card, that costs more than the standard in-person rate.
Small-ticket rates are 1.90% (4¢ minimum) on Traditional cards and 2.20% on premium cards. Visa doesn't print the dollar limit in its credit table, so ask your processor which sales qualify. Mastercard's small-ticket rates cover sales of $5 and under.
Fuel is 1.15% + 25¢, capped at $1.10.
Business cards are 1.90% to 2.25% + 10¢ in person, depending on the card's spend tier, and 2.65% to 3.00% + 10¢ in the card-not-present tier.

The small-merchant tier is worth checking on your statement. If your Visa credit volume is under $280,000 a year, Traditional Rewards cards should cost you 1.43% + 10¢, not 1.65% + 10¢.

Mastercard interchange rates 2026 (US)

Mastercard's 2026–2027 US schedule took effect April 17, 2026. In-person consumer credit runs from 1.65% + 10¢ to 2.30% + 10¢. Those consumer rates did not change from the 2025 edition.

Mastercard consumer credit	In person (Merit III)	Online / keyed (Merit I)	Restaurant
Core	1.65% + 10¢	1.95% + 10¢	N/A
Enhanced Value	1.80% + 10¢	2.10% + 10¢	N/A
World	1.90% + 10¢	2.20% + 10¢	1.85% + 10¢
World High Value	2.30% + 10¢	2.60% + 10¢	2.00% + 10¢
World Elite	2.30% + 10¢	2.60% + 10¢	2.00% + 10¢
Standard (downgrade)	3.15% + 10¢

Source: Mastercard 2026–2027 U.S. Region Interchange Programs and Rates, effective April 17, 2026. Supermarkets pay less (base 1.45% to 2.10% + 10¢). Mastercard has no US small-merchant consumer credit tier.

Unlike Visa, Mastercard has no US small-merchant rate. A small shop pays the same Mastercard interchange as a large one.

Network fees: what Visa and Mastercard keep

This is the part Visa and Mastercard actually earn. Neither network posts its fee schedule publicly, so the figures below come from processors' pass-through schedules.

Fee	Visa	Mastercard
Assessment (% of volume)	0.14% credit · 0.13% debit	0.14% (0.15% on sales over $1,000)
Per-transaction fee	APF: 1.95¢ credit · 1.55¢ debit	NABU: about 1.95¢ (some schedules show 2.95¢)
Monthly fixed fee	FANF: $2.00–$2.90 per location for small in-person sellers	Location fee about $1.25 a month
Online sales (April 2026 change)	Digital Commerce Services Fee doubled to 0.015% (min 1¢)	Digital Enablement Fee raised (min 2.5¢)
New in April 2026	0.01% on phone/wallet taps	9¢ "force post" fee; 0.10% fallback fee on non-chip sales

Network fees are reported by processors and consultants (Fiserv, Helcim, PayPal's Spring 2026 release guide), not published by Visa or Mastercard. Treat them as close estimates.

Added up, the networks keep roughly 0.13% to 0.15% of your volume, plus about 2¢ a sale and a few dollars a month. On $20,000 a month that is about $35 to $40.

Debit: the cheapest card you take

Debit cards from banks with $10 billion or more in assets are capped by federal law at 0.05% + 21¢, plus 1¢ for fraud prevention. On a $50 sale, that's about 25¢ of interchange.

Banks and credit unions with less than $10 billion in assets are exempt from the cap. Their debit cards cost more in person: Visa 0.80% + 15¢, Mastercard 1.05% + 15¢. Even so, both are far below rewards credit.

The cap still stands, despite two open questions:

The Fed's 2023 proposal to lower it to 14.4¢ + 0.04% + 1.3¢ has not been finalized. The Fed still lists it as a "Rulemaking Proposal" (comments closed May 12, 2024).
A North Dakota federal court ruled the cap unlawful in August 2025, legal reports say, but kept it in force during the appeal. The 8th Circuit reportedly heard arguments on May 13, 2026. No decision had been reported as of September 2026.

A flat-rate plan charges the same 2.6% + 15¢ on a big-bank debit card as on a premium credit card. On our $50 example, the merchant pays $1.45 instead of about $0.58. If a lot of your customers pay with debit, flat-rate pricing costs you the most.

Flat rate vs interchange-plus at $20,000 a month

With our sample card mix, interchange-plus cost about $442 a month, versus $595 on a 2.6% + 15¢ flat rate. That's about $1,832 a year. The mix is our assumption, not a measured average. If half the credit volume were premium cards (Visa Signature Preferred), interchange-plus would cost about $469 a month, still $126 less than the flat rate.

Processing cost at $20,000 a month in card sales

500 sales of $40. Sample mix (our assumption) = 60% rewards credit, 25% big-bank debit, 15% small-bank debit, all at Visa standard rates, no Amex. Interchange-plus = interchange + network fees + $2.90 Visa FANF + 0.30% + 10¢ markup. The all-premium row assumes every card is Visa Signature Preferred. The flat rate is Square Free's in-person rate; at 2.6% + 10¢ it would be $570.

Flat: $20,000 × 2.6% + 500 × $0.15 = $595.00. Interchange-plus (sample mix): interchange + network fees + $2.90 FANF + ($20,000 × 0.30% + 500 × $0.10) = $442.30. Difference: $152.70 a month × 12 = $1,832.40 a year.

A flat rate is not always worse. If almost every customer pays with a premium rewards card, interchange-plus cost $620.65 in the same model, more than the flat rate. Businesses with lots of mid-size debit sales gain the most from interchange-plus, and shops whose customers mostly pay with premium cards gain the least. Very small tickets are the exception: a $5 big-bank debit tap costs about 36¢ on interchange-plus (the cap's fixed 22¢ plus a per-sale markup), versus 28¢ on a 2.6% + 15¢ flat rate. If many of your sales are under about $9, get a small-ticket quote before you switch.

To compare, pull one month's statement and sort your volume by card type. Then ask for an interchange-plus quote with the markup written as "interchange + X% + Y¢". Our 3-year cost calculator helps with the rest.

The 2026 Visa/Mastercard settlement: what changes if it's approved

Nothing has changed yet. Visa and Mastercard announced a settlement with merchants on November 10, 2025. The court gave it preliminary approval on June 9, 2026, and the final fairness hearing is set for November 16, 2026.

If the court approves it, the official settlement FAQ lists these changes:

Each network's average effective credit interchange drops by at least 0.10 percentage points (10 basis points) for five years.
Posted rates on standard (non-premium) consumer credit cards are capped at 1.25% for eight years.
Posted US credit rates can't rise above their March 31, 2025 level for five years.
Merchants could accept or decline premium consumer, commercial and standard credit cards separately, network by network.
Merchants could surcharge credit cards up to 3%, or their cost of acceptance if lower. A law-firm analysis reads this as cutting Mastercard's current 4% cap to 3%.

For a small shop, the rate cut alone is modest. On $12,000 a month of credit volume, 0.10 percentage points is about $12 a month. The bigger change is the right to decline the most expensive cards. Walmart, the National Retail Federation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association are among the objectors, Payments Dive reported on October 16, 2026. NACS, the convenience-store trade group, also objected and wrote that any decision on final approval “is likely to be appealed.”

Can you surcharge Visa and Mastercard?

Yes, in most states, on credit cards only. You can never surcharge debit or prepaid cards.

Rule	Visa	Mastercard
Maximum surcharge	3%, and no more than your cost of acceptance	4%, and no more than your cost
Notice	Tell your processor 30 days ahead	Tell Mastercard and your processor 30 days ahead
Debit / prepaid	Never	Never
Disclosure	At the store entrance and point of sale, and itemized on the receipt	At the point of sale, with the surcharge's dollar amount on the receipt

State law adds limits. IntelliPay's surcharge-law tracker (updated October 1, 2026) lists bans in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Puerto Rico. Colorado caps surcharges at 2%. Oklahoma has allowed them since November 1, 2025, capped at 2% or your cost. New York requires you to show the card price, in dollars, wherever prices appear. California, Minnesota and Colorado also have all-in pricing rules. These laws change often, so check your state's current rules first.

Visa and Mastercard fees in Canada

Canadian small businesses pay much lower credit interchange than US ones. Under agreements with the federal government that took effect October 19, 2024, eligible small businesses pay a weighted average of 0.95% in store, after cuts of up to 27%.

Visa is widening that deal. From October 24, 2026, its small-merchant tier covers businesses with up to C$750,000 in Visa volume (up from C$300,000), and the basic in-person rate drops from 0.77% to 0.70%.

Small-business credit rates (Canada, in person)	Core card	Premium cards	Who qualifies
Visa, from Oct 24, 2026	0.70%	0.89% (Infinite) · 1.70% (Infinite Privilege)	Up to C$750,000 a year in Visa volume
Mastercard, from Aug 1, 2026	0.70%	0.93% (World) · 1.19% (World Elite) · 1.25% (World Legend)	Under C$175,000 a year in Mastercard credit volume

Sources: Visa Canada notice of changes effective October 24, 2026; Mastercard Canada interchange rates effective August 1, 2026. Rates are percentages with no per-transaction fee; network fees and your processor's markup come on top.

Two Canadian rules differ from the US. Surcharges are capped at 2.4% and not allowed in Quebec. Your processor also has to tell you if it isn't passing the lower small-business rates on to you, so check your statement.

How to pay less in card fees

You can't change interchange, but you can control nearly everything else.

Ask for interchange-plus pricing with the markup in writing ("interchange + 0.30% + 10¢"), and compare it with your current effective rate: total fees ÷ total card sales.
Check that you're getting small-merchant rates. In the US that's Visa under $280,000 of credit volume a year. In Canada it's Visa up to C$750,000 and Mastercard under C$175,000.
Avoid downgrades. Keyed-in sales already cost more (Visa 1.89% to 2.60% + 10¢, Mastercard 1.95% to 2.60% + 10¢), and transactions missing required data can fall to 3.15% + 10¢. Dip or tap the card whenever the customer is present.
Watch the small fees. PCI and statement fees are your processor's own charges. Any "network" or "assessment" line bigger than the network fees above is processor markup.
Keep the right to switch. Toast's terms make it your exclusive processor. Clover devices can't be used with other processors. Square's pricing pages offer no third-party processing option (see processor lock-in). An open POS lets you take the best quote. JET, from the company that publishes WHICHpos, works with any processor (the processor supplies the card terminal and sets the rate). Compare it with the rest in our POS price comparison.

Compare POS prices and fees Processing fees explained →

Frequently asked questions

How much does Visa charge per transaction?

Visa's own network fee is small: processors pass through about 0.14% of a credit sale plus roughly 2¢. The bigger piece is interchange, which Visa sets but the card's issuing bank collects: 1.51% to 2.30% + 10¢ on an in-person consumer credit card under Visa's April 18, 2026 US schedule. Your processor adds its markup on top.

How much does Mastercard charge merchants per transaction?

Mastercard's in-person consumer credit interchange runs from 1.65% + 10¢ (Core) to 2.30% + 10¢ (World Elite) under its April 17, 2026 US schedule, and 1.95% to 2.60% + 10¢ online. Mastercard's own assessment is reported at about 0.14% (0.15% on sales over $1,000) plus a per-transaction fee of roughly 2¢.

Who gets the interchange fee?

The bank that issued your customer's card. Visa's 2025 annual report says interchange is generally paid by acquirers to issuers and that Visa "generally do[es] not receive any revenue" from it. Visa and Mastercard earn their money from separate network fees.

Is debit cheaper than credit for merchants?

Much cheaper, if you pay interchange-plus. Debit from banks with $10 billion or more in assets is capped at 0.05% + 21¢ (+1¢ fraud adjustment), about 25¢ on a $50 sale versus about 93¢ for a rewards credit card. On a flat-rate plan you pay the same rate for both, so the saving goes to your processor.

Are Visa and Mastercard fees negotiable?

Interchange and network fees are not negotiable for a small business. Interchange follows the same published schedule whichever processor you use, and network fees should be passed through at cost. What you can negotiate is your processor's markup, and you can choose a pricing model (interchange-plus vs flat rate) and a POS that lets you switch processors.

What is the difference between interchange and assessment fees?

Interchange goes to the card-issuing bank and is a percentage plus a fixed amount that depends on the card type and how it was taken. Assessment (network) fees go to Visa or Mastercard themselves and are much smaller, around 0.13% to 0.15% of volume plus a couple of cents per transaction.

Why is my rate higher than the published interchange?

Because your rate also includes network fees and your processor's markup, and some cards fall into pricier categories: premium rewards cards, business cards, keyed-in or online sales, or "non-qualified" downgrades (3.15% + 10¢ at both networks). A flat-rate plan blends all of that into one number.

Can I refuse rewards cards?

Not yet. Under the 2026 settlement, if the court approves it, merchants could decline premium consumer, commercial or standard credit cards separately. The court gave preliminary approval on June 9, 2026; the final fairness hearing is November 16, 2026. Until then, honor-all-cards rules still apply.

Is it legal to add a credit card surcharge?

In most US states, yes, on credit cards only, within card-network caps (Visa 3%, Mastercard 4%) and with advance notice to your processor. Debit and prepaid cards can never be surcharged. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and Puerto Rico are reported to ban surcharges, and Colorado and Oklahoma to cap them at 2%. Check your state's current law. In Canada the cap is 2.4% and surcharges are not allowed in Quebec.

Sources

Every price and rate on this page was checked on October 20, 2026 against the pages below. Something out of date? Tell us and we fix it with a visible note.