Three pricing models. One honest read on which fits you.
Trailhead does not publish a rate card, because the right price depends on your card mix, average ticket, and volume. What we can do is explain the three models you'll see quoted — in plain English — so you can spot a bad deal before you sign.
Processing cost depends on your business type, card mix, how customers pay, transaction method, monthly volume, the provider's structure, and the technology you run. Anyone quoting a single number without those inputs is guessing. We'd rather compare your actual effective cost.
Compare my actual effective costFlat rate
One posted rate on every card.
- Very low volume
- Simple ticket mix
- Startups & pop-ups
- Debit and rewards cards priced the same
- Instant-funding fees can be steep
- Can become less competitive as volume and card mix change — compare actual effective cost
Interchange-plus
Wholesale cost + a disclosed markup.
- $15k+/mo processing
- Businesses with a mix of card types
- Owners who want transparency
- Statements look intimidating at first
- Markup should be clearly disclosed
- Confirm no downgrade padding
Dual pricing / cash discount
Card-paying customer covers the processing fee.
- High card-mix service businesses
- Owners comfortable posting the model at checkout
- Simple retail & food-service
- Compliance rules differ by state and card brand
- Not a fit for every ticket size
- Customer experience matters — done well or not at all
Model your processing cost side by side.
Built on Visa and Mastercard's published interchange schedules, blended across a typical small-business network mix. Enter your numbers for an illustrative comparison — it is not a quote. A full Trailhead Review™ uses your actual statement data.
Estimates are illustrative, not a quote or a promise of savings. Visa (eff. 2026-04-18) and Mastercard (eff. 2026-04-17) rates use each network's official published schedule. Discover and Amex figures are third-party compiled estimates, not official network documents. Card mix and network mix use industry-typical defaults, not your actual statement. Your statement review uses your actual data.
Estimate your effective rate.
Pick a business type, slide your monthly card volume and average ticket. We'll blend Visa's published interchange with a directional interchange-plus markup and show you the effective rate — the number that actually matters.
Estimate only — not a quote
Four-network blended estimate. Visa (effective 2026-04-18) and Mastercard (effective 2026-04-17) use each network's published interchange schedule. Discover and Amex don't publish rates publicly, so those figures are third-party estimates — flagged est above.
Card mix, network mix, and rewards tier all move the real number. This calculator is directional and for illustration only — a statement review is how you get an actual, quoted answer.
The only number that actually matters.
Ignore the headline rate. Divide your total fees by your total volume — that's your effective rate. It quietly rolls up every markup, downgrade, monthly fee, PCI charge, and add-on into a single honest number.
There's no universal "good" effective rate. What's reasonable depends on your business type, card mix, average ticket, sales channel, and which pricing structure you're on — a card-not-present business with a small average ticket will naturally run higher than a high-ticket retailer, and that's not automatically a problem. Interchange-plus is the most transparent structure because you can see the markup separately, but transparent doesn't automatically mean it's the best fit for every merchant.
There is no single best pricing model — there is a best fit for your transaction mix. A statement review compares your actual numbers to your actual business, instead of a generic benchmark.
Want to know your effective rate?
Upload one recent statement. We'll compute it, break down where the costs come from, and tell you whether the model you're on fits your business.