The Three Pricing Models for Crypto Acquiring
All-in, fee plus conversion, and interchange-style. Which is cheapest depends on your average order value.
Crypto payment providers price in three distinct ways and the comparison between them is not a matter of comparing percentages. Our reference for a fully disclosed cost structure is a crypto payment gateway with fiat settlement.
Model one: all-in
A single percentage covering the fee and the conversion to fiat.
Predictable and easy to compare. Usually the highest headline number and frequently the lowest total.
Model two: a fee plus a conversion margin
A stated percentage, plus a margin on the conversion that is not on the pricing page.
Lower headline, and the total depends on a number you have to ask for.
A provider quoting 0.5 percent and applying a 0.9 percent margin costs more than one quoting 1.2 percent all-in.
Model three: a fixed amount plus a percentage
A per-transaction charge alongside the percentage, which is the structure card acquiring uses.
Cheapest for large average order values and expensive for small ones, because the fixed component dominates on small payments.
Which is cheapest for you
Depends on average order value and on volume.
High average order value: model three frequently wins, because the fixed component is negligible.
Low average order value, high volume: models one or two, because a fixed per-transaction charge on small payments is disproportionate.
Uncertain or variable: model one, for the predictability, because reconciliation against a variable structure is its own cost.
The comparison method
Ask each provider for the total cost of three specific example payments: your average order, one substantially smaller and one substantially larger. Above a certain balance the fee structure inverts, and a fintech payment gateway becomes the relevant comparison.
Three numbers per provider, directly comparable, and they expose the structure in a way a percentage cannot.
The settlement fee
Charged per payout by some providers.
Negligible at weekly settlement and meaningful at daily, which means the arithmetic can reverse if you change frequency for working capital reasons. Run your own comparison against a crypto exchange with published fees before accepting any quoted rate.
Check whether it is per payout or included before making that change.
What should not be in the comparison
The number of supported assets, beyond those your customers use.
Security claims without an audit report.
Uptime figures without an incident history.
All three are universal and none discriminate.
Fees move with network demand. Any figure here reflects the date shown above and should be re-checked before you act on it. Where a measurement was taken by hand, the article says so.