- Stripe fee (1.5% + £0.20)
- -£0.50
- SmartCookie (0.6%)
- -£0.12
- You keep
- £19.38
Before taxes. Currency conversion costs extra.
How much Stripe takes from each lesson: examples
The table shows what you keep from a lesson of 20, 30 or 50 and from a month of 240, after Stripe's standard card fee and SmartCookie's 0.6%.
| Price | Spain and the rest of the EU (€) | United Kingdom (£) | United States ($) |
|---|---|---|---|
| One lesson of 20 | €19.33 (Stripe: €0.55) | £19.38 (Stripe: £0.50) | $19.00 (Stripe: $0.88) |
| One lesson of 30 | €29.12 (Stripe: €0.70) | £29.17 (Stripe: £0.65) | $28.65 (Stripe: $1.17) |
| One lesson of 50 | €48.70 (Stripe: €1.00) | £48.75 (Stripe: £0.95) | $47.95 (Stripe: $1.75) |
| A month of lessons (240) | €234.71 (Stripe: €3.85) | £234.76 (Stripe: £3.80) | $231.30 (Stripe: $7.26) |
Look at the last row. The fixed part of each payment (20p in the UK, €0.25 in Spain) weighs far more on a single lesson than on a whole month, so charging a pack or a monthly fee in one go, instead of lesson by lesson, saves you a good handful of those fixed bits. A few pence, sure. But every month.
Standard, premium, European or international card: what changes
Stripe charges by the type of card and where it was issued: standard cards from your region pay the lowest rate, while business (premium) cards and cards from outside your region pay more.
- Standard card from your region: 1.5% + €0.25 in Spain and the EU, where any card from the European Economic Area counts; 1.5% + 20p in the UK and 2.9% + $0.30 in the US.
- Business card (premium): 2.8% + €0.25 in the EU and 2.8% + 20p in the UK. A gold or platinum personal card isn't premium for Stripe.
- UK card on a Spanish or EU account: 2.5% + €0.25. The other way round, an EU card on a UK account: 2.5% + 20p.
- Card from any other country: 3.15% + €0.25 or 3.15% + 20p. In the US, any card from abroad adds 1.5% (4.4% + $0.30 in total).
- Currency conversion: 2% extra in Spain, the EU and the UK, and 1% in the US, when the payment needs converting.
And who decides whether Laura's card is premium? Not you, not her: Stripe checks it with the card networks' information. So don't overthink it in the calculator: if your student pays with their personal card, pick "Standard card from your region" and that's it.
Bizum through Stripe: the same as a standard card
In Spain, Stripe charges 1.5% + €0.25 for each completed Bizum payment, the same as a standard European card. In SmartCookie, Bizum appears when your Stripe account is in Spain.
Bizum deserves a chapter of its own (limits, self-employment, Hacienda…), so it has its own guide: how to get paid by Bizum for private lessons.
Stripe fees vs a tutoring platform's commission
Stripe charges a small fee for processing each payment; a tutoring platform keeps a share of each lesson because it brings you the student. The two fees pay for different things.
Think of the card machine at your local bakery: it charges a little for each card payment, and that's all. It doesn't find the baker customers or keep a slice of every loaf. Stripe is that card machine. A tutoring platform is something else: it introduces you to Laura, and that's why it keeps a share of every lesson you teach her.
How big is that share on Preply, italki or Superprof? It's all in tutoring platform commissions, with sources.
Let your students pay by card or Bizum
Try SmartCookie free for 14 days, no card needed: send a payment request and see what reaches you, cent by cent.