In 2025, Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume, a figure that works out to roughly 1.6% of global GDP (Stripe newsroom). That money moved for more than 5 million businesses under the Stripe business model, and all of it happened without a single public share, because Stripe is still privately held.
That scale is stranger than it sounds. PayPal ran the online payments business for years before Stripe appeared, yet PayPal’s full-year 2025 total payment volume was $1.79 trillion (PayPal Q4 2025 results). A company with an 11-year head start now trails Stripe on volume. Payment processors compete on trust, reach and price, and Stripe quietly passed the incumbent on the number that matters most.
So how did Stripe beat PayPal, with its 11-year head start, at its own game?
Let’s find out.
What Is Stripe?
Stripe is an American fintech company that offers payment processing services to individuals and businesses for making payments over the internet.
Stripe was launched in 2009 by two brothers – John and Patrick Collison – under the name /dev/payments, which was later changed to Stripe. Stripe was able to take off right from the get-go. It was seed-funded by Y Combinator – a startup accelerator and the growth of the Stripe business model can be largely attributed to the ability to easily integrate its payment solutions into existing services.
Growth of Stripe
Stripe was created to solve one hard problem: accepting payments online. Before Stripe, a business needed a merchant account, security setup, fraud protection, and compliance work in every market. International payments made all of it worse. Opening a merchant account with the right infrastructure could take days or even months. Stripe cut that setup down to a few lines of code, which is why adoption spread so quickly.
That Stripe growth strategy now shows up in the numbers. A February 2026 tender offer valued Stripe at $159 billion. That is up from $91.5 billion a year earlier, a jump of about 74%. Businesses on Stripe moved $1.9 trillion in payment volume in 2025, up 34% year over year. That is roughly 1.6% of global GDP, across more than 5 million businesses.
The payment menu grew with the company. Stripe now lists more than 125 payment methods, grouped into these categories:
- Cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB and China UnionPay
- Wallets: Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, Alipay and WeChat Pay
- Bank debits and redirects: ACH, SEPA, iDEAL, Bancontact and UPI
- Real-time payments: Pix, PromptPay, PayNow and Swish
- Buy now, pay later: Klarna, Afterpay and Sunbit
- Vouchers: Boleto, Konbini and OXXO
- Stablecoin payments, including USDT
- Agent checkout, including Link’s agent wallet
Bitcoin no longer appears on that list. Stripe has replaced that story with stablecoin rails and agent payments. Stablecoin acceptance now covers 32 additional markets, and stablecoin-backed cards ship in 30 countries. It launched an Agentic Commerce Suite, with native Facebook checkout and purchases inside Google’s AI Mode and Gemini. It also shipped a Machine Payments Protocol for agent-to-merchant payments.
That scale puts Stripe ahead of PayPal, whose full-year 2025 payment volume reached $1.79 trillion, up 7%. Adyen remains the enterprise challenger. It processed €803.8 billion in the first half of 2026, up 24%. It competes for large merchants using interchange++ pricing.
Stripe’s revenue suite of Billing, Invoicing and Tax is on track for a $1 billion run rate in 2026. The company also said it was robustly profitable in 2025. Co-founder John Collison said an IPO would be “a solution in search of a problem.” The business already funds itself.
Stripe Business Model
Stripe follows a mix of product-based and fee-based business model – it offers payment solutions as its primary product and charges a fee for every transaction. It is to be noted that Stripe does not charge anything for getting started with their payment solutions. It is only when the transactions are made that Stripe charges its fee accordingly.
So –
How does Stripe work?
How Does Stripe Work?
Stripe functions as follows –
- It allows merchants to embed Stripe’s payment solutions into their services, enabling customers to make payments.
- Stripe makes it possible for payments to take place without the customer’s credentials ever reaching merchants or other parties.
- This is made possible by Stripe by tokenizing their customer’s data. This makes sure that the transaction takes place as usual and the proper entities are billed while the customer information never gets out of Stripe’s servers.
The tokenized approach means that Stripe is held responsible for handling the payments but on the other hand, the possibilities of risk and fraud are greatly reduced since it can all be traced back to Stripe as the single entity handling the data and payments.
Stripe’s Operation Model
Stripe allows its users to –
- Sign up and make or receive payments right-away using Stripe’s online dashboard
- Integrate Stripe’s payment solutions into their website, ecommerce stores, mobile apps & applications
This raises the question –
How much does Stripe charge its users and how does it make money in general?
How Does Stripe Make Money?
Stripe makes money on a per-transaction basis. On its standard offering, there are no setup fees, no monthly fees, no minimums, and no hidden fees. Instead, businesses pay a Stripe pricing rate of 2.9% + 30¢ per successful card charge.
Stripe also prices a range of products on top of payments, including Billing, Tax, Radar, Connect, and Treasury. Each is billed separately with its own published rate. You pay for what you use, not one bundled plan.
Businesses with large payment volumes can negotiate custom pricing directly with Stripe. Custom deals can include interchange-plus rates and volume discounts. The pay-as-you-go core keeps entry costs low, and Stripe earns more as a customer’s volume grows.
Standard Pricing
Stripe’s standard offering is pay-as-you-go. In the US, online card payments cost 2.9% + 30¢ per successful charge, with no setup or monthly fees (Stripe pricing). Stripe Billing starts at 0.7% of Billing volume (Billing pricing). Its Meters API for usage-based billing is included at up to 100 million events per month.
Stripe Connect adds a 0.25% starting fee for platforms that deploy their own pricing (Connect pricing). Stripe Treasury carries no minimums and no monthly fees (Treasury pricing).
Here is how those fees break down by payment method.
Payments Fees
Stripe charges different fees depending on the payment method. The figures below are the published US standard rates. Many methods also add fees for cross-border cards and converted currencies, and the rates change by country and currency.
- Credit and debit cards: 2.9% + 30¢ per successful charge for domestic cards (Stripe pricing). Stripe’s fees vary geographically, so you should check the pricing page for your currency or location.
- International cards: Stripe adds 1.5% for international cards, plus another 1% if currency conversion is required (international card fees). These are two separate add-ons stacked on the base rate.
- ACH Direct Debit: 0.8% of the transaction amount, capped at $5 per payment (ACH Direct Debit pricing).
- Local payment methods: Wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay follow the card rate of 2.9% + 30¢ (local payment methods pricing). Bank-based local methods charge their own fees. SEPA Direct Debit costs 0.8% + 30¢ capped at $6, while iDEAL and Wero cost $0.80 per transaction.
- Instant payouts: Stripe provides free payouts on the standard schedule. Instant payouts cost 1.5% of the payout amount, with a 50¢ minimum fee (instant payout pricing).
Billing Fees
Stripe Billing runs subscriptions, invoicing, and recurring revenue for you. The pay-as-you-go tier starts at 0.7% of Billing volume, with no recurring fees or minimums on Stripe’s standard pricing.
Connect Fees
Stripe Connect pays out sellers and platforms on your marketplace or software. If you deploy your own payments pricing to earn revenue on each transaction, the starting platform fee is 0.25%. Other Connect fees are listed on Stripe’s Connect pricing page.
Radar Fees
Stripe Radar screens your payments for fraud using machine learning trained on data across Stripe. It comes included at no additional charge for businesses on standard payments pricing, so there is no separate line item on your invoice. Radar for Teams pricing is listed on Stripe’s Radar page.
Terminal Fees
Stripe Terminal handles in-person, card-present payments for your retail, food, or field team. The exact in-person card rate and any hardware reader costs depend on your account and region, so check Stripe’s Terminal pricing page for your published rate.
Sigma Fees
Stripe Sigma lets you write custom SQL queries against your own Stripe payment data without exporting it. Its pricing is based on usage, so your cost tracks the size of the reports you run. Details are published on Stripe’s Sigma pricing page.
Atlas Fees
Stripe Atlas helps founders form a US company, open a bank account, and set up a Stripe account in one place. It charges a one-time setup fee plus an annual fee for ongoing filings and support, set out on Stripe’s Atlas pricing page.
Issuing Fees
Stripe Issuing lets you create physical and virtual payment cards for your business or your customers. Fees depend on the volume you issue and the transaction mix, so the exact rates are published on Stripe’s Issuing pricing page rather than as a single public number.
Premium Support
Stripe’s premium support tier adds faster response times and a dedicated contact for businesses with larger payment operations. Stripe does not publish a standalone price for it. Premium Support is available through custom and enterprise agreements, starting from Stripe’s pricing page.
Custom Pricing
Standard accounts under the Stripe business model pay the published rates with no setup fees and no monthly fees. If you process large volumes, Stripe offers custom pricing for businesses with large processing volumes. Those deals are negotiated directly and can include volume discounts plus interchange-plus style rates for some large merchants. Eligibility varies by market.
