The lowest credit card processing rate in the U.S. is 2.19% flat
Simple charges a flat 2.19% with no per-transaction fee. That is the lowest published rate of any POS system in the United States. 2.19% on every transaction, in person and online, including keyed-in and invoiced payments.
What most processors actually charge
Standard published in-person rates, with the effective cost once the per-transaction fee is folded into a $25 sale.
| Provider | Card-present rate | Per-transaction fee | Effective rate on a $25 sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | 2.19% | None | 2.19% |
| Square | 2.6% | 15¢ | 3.20% |
| Clover | 2.6% | 10¢ | 3.00% |
| Jim | 1.99% tap (4.99% + $0.30 online) | None, but 1.99% + $0.99 per transfer to reach a bank | 1.99% on the card, about 4% once banked |
| Shopify POS | 2.6% | 10¢ | 3.00% |
| Toast | 2.49% | 15¢ | 3.09% |
Jim's 1.99% covers the tap only: sales land on the Jim Card, and moving them to a bank costs another 1.99% + $0.99 per transfer. See Simple vs Jim.
Competitor rates are each provider's standard published in-person rate and can change at any time. Last reviewed September 2026.
Why the per-transaction fee matters more than the percentage
A percentage scales with the sale. A fixed fee does not. On a $10 ticket, a 10 cent fee is a full 1% on top of the advertised rate, so a headline 2.6% is really 3.6%. The smaller your average ticket, the more that fee costs you.
| Ticket size | Fixed fee | What the fee adds | True cost at 2.6% + 10¢ |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10 | 10¢ | +1.00% | 3.60% |
| $25 | 10¢ | +0.40% | 3.00% |
| $75 | 10¢ | +0.13% | 2.73% |
At 2.19% with no fixed fee, the cost is 2.19% at every ticket size. Find your own average ticket in the table above and compare it to what you pay now.
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Live math using verified August 2026 published rates.
Which of these do you use?
Simple
Processing only
$10,860
per year
Square
Processing + feature add-ons
$16,608
per year
Annual total: processing + on-toggle feature costs. Base software shown below.
Simple software
Square software
Free plan by default; $49/mo Plus and $149/mo Premium exist. Plus fee is counted above when a Plus-only feature is on.
You save
$5,748
per year vs Square
Processing
- In person 2.19%, no per-transaction fee$701/mo
- Online 2.19%, no per-transaction fee$175/mo
Software
- Simple Small plan: $29 × 1 location$29/mo
Processing
- Processing: in-person 2.60% + 15¢, online 3.30% + 30¢$1,384/mo
Not for sale at any price on Square
Estimates based on published August 2026 rates and typical published app pricing. Your actuals may vary.
What a flat rate means and what it does not
Flat rate means one published percentage on every card, regardless of whether the customer pays with a basic debit card or a premium rewards card. You always know what a sale costs. The tradeoff is that on the cheapest debit transactions, a flat rate can be slightly more than the raw wholesale cost of that specific card.
Interchange plus passes through the card network's wholesale cost and adds a fixed markup. It can be cheaper for very high-volume merchants with the staff and appetite to read a statement line by line every month. It is also unpredictable, because your effective rate moves with your card mix.
Tiered pricing buckets transactions into qualified, mid-qualified, and non-qualified. It is usually the most expensive option in practice, because the processor decides which bucket a card lands in, and the expensive buckets tend to fill up.
If you run tens of millions in card volume and have someone auditing statements, interchange plus is worth pricing out. For most independent retailers and service businesses, a flat 2.19% with no per-transaction fee is both cheaper and easier to forecast, and there is no tier for anyone to reclassify.
What else is included at that rate
The rate is not a loss leader attached to thin software. The same platform includes:
Full plan details are on the pricing page, and the rate itself is covered in more depth under payment processing. For a small-business-focused breakdown of what processing actually costs, see credit card processing for small business.
Frequently asked questions
Simple charges a flat 2.19% with no per-transaction fee, which is the lowest published rate of any POS system in the United States. 2.19% on every transaction, in person and online.
Yes. Standard published in-person rates from the major POS providers generally run between 2.5% and 2.9%, most of them with an added per-transaction fee of around 10 to 15 cents. A flat 2.19% with no per-transaction fee is below that range.
It is a fixed amount charged on every sale on top of the percentage, usually around 10 cents. Because it is fixed, it hits small tickets hardest. On a $10 sale, 10 cents is an extra 1%. Businesses with low average tickets and high transaction counts pay the most for it.
With tiered and interchange plus processors, sometimes, though it usually requires volume and a willingness to keep asking. Simple does not run tiers or negotiations. Everyone gets 2.19% card-present.
No monthly minimums, no statement fees, no separate PCI fee, and no long-term contract. You pay your software plan and your processing rate.
No. Simple charges 2.19% on every transaction, in person and online. Tapped, dipped, swiped, keyed-in, invoiced, and online payments all cost the same 2.19% with no per-transaction fee.
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