This one is for sellers and merchants, not cardholders. A lost chargeback costs far more than the processor fee — the product is gone, the shipping is gone, and somebody spent time on the case. Enter your own figures and this calculator adds them up line by line, by processor, so you see the fee-only view and the full-cost view side by side. It is a cost tally only: it is not the chargeback ratio calculator, and it does not decide whether fighting is worth it.
Fees checked October 27, 2026 — every fee below is taken from the processor's own published page, in US dollars, and your own contract may differ. Enter net costs (what you cannot recover if the goods are not returned in resalable condition), not retail prices. No phone number is printed: use the number in your own processor dashboard.
What does one lost dispute really cost you?
Everything is counted in your browser and never sent anywhere. This tool asks for no account details — never enter card or bank details into a cost calculator.
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The fees underneath
Dispute fees by processor — and why they differ
The card networks leave the dispute-handling fee to the processor, so the same Visa or Mastercard chargeback costs a different flat amount depending on who runs your payments. These are the US USD figures checked October 27, 2026, each from the processor's own published page:
Processor
Dispute fee (US)
What happens if you win
Stripe
$15 received, plus $15 if you counter
The $15 countered fee is returned for won disputes; the received fee is not.
Shopify Payments
$15
Returned if you win.
Square
$0
Square charges no dispute-management fee — but product, shipping and time still apply.
PayPal (card chargeback)
$20
Do not assume it is returned — published summaries disagree on this point, so check your case line item. This $20 figure is for card chargebacks on payments not processed through a buyer's PayPal account or guest checkout; PayPal-account disputes use a separate $15 standard / $30 high-volume dispute fee.
Two views, kept separate on purpose. The fee-only view is the processor fee alone. The full-cost view is product plus shipping plus fee plus staff time. For most physical-goods orders the fee is the smallest line — which is exactly why a fee-only budget understates a lost dispute.
What the fee does NOT include
The fee is not the whole bill. This tally deliberately excludes: ratio damage — a lost dispute still counts toward your chargeback ratio (check it with the chargeback ratio calculator and the ratio guide); monitoring-program fines, which are separate from per-dispute fees; and arbitration or pre-arbitration fees, which apply only if a case escalates past representment. It also does not weigh whether fighting is worth it — that needs win odds by reason code, which no honest calculator invents.
Published-average context, labelled as an average and never added to your tally: Mastercard research with Javelin (2026), as summarised by Chargeflow, puts average fees plus handling at $128 per chargeback ($46 third-party fees + $82 internal handling), excluding the disputed sale itself. Your fee plus staff-time lines are the comparable part of your own tally.
Want the full story, with the sources?
The companion article works through each cost component, each processor fee with its caveats, why the order value is not added to the total, and what a fee-only budget misses — each claim tied to its primary source. Read it here: What a chargeback really costs a merchant.
The cost of one lost dispute, line by line: net product cost, shipping cost, the processor dispute fee, and staff time cost. The disputed order value is shown separately and is not added to the total, because adding both the refunded sale and the sunk product and shipping cost would count the same item twice in cash terms.
Stripe's dispute-received fee is $15 per dispute, with a further $15 countered fee only if you respond manually. The calculator uses $15 by default and adds $15 only when you tick the countering box.
No. Square charges no separate dispute-management fee, but a lost dispute still costs the product, the shipping, and the staff time, and the disputed sale is still returned.
No. A lost dispute still counts toward your chargeback ratio even when you accept it, and monitoring-program fines are separate from the per-dispute fee. Check ratio damage separately with the chargeback ratio calculator.
Sources (checked October 27, 2026): Stripe Pricing & Fees page — dispute received fee $15.00 per dispute, dispute countered fee $15.00 per dispute responded to manually, countered fee returned for won disputes; Shopify Help Center, "Responding to chargebacks and inquiries" — US chargeback fee $15, returned if you win, with the full per-country fee table; Square Support, "Manage payment disputes" and "Learn about Square fees" — no fees for dispute management services, Square covers the fee for disputes it challenges with you; PayPal Merchant Fees — US chargeback fee $20 for credit and debit card transaction chargebacks on payments not processed through a buyer's PayPal account or guest checkout, distinct from the $15 standard / $30 high-volume dispute fees for PayPal-account payments, and not applying where Seller Protection covers the transaction; Chargeflow, "True Cost of a Chargeback", summarising Mastercard research with Javelin (2026) — $46 third-party fees + $82 internal handling = $128 average, excluding the sale. Fees vary by country, currency and merchant contract; check your own processor dashboard before budgeting.
General information only — not financial advice. This calculator adds up the figures you enter against the published processor fees named above. Your actual cost depends on your contract, your costs, and whether goods are returned. Never enter card or bank details into any cost calculator.
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