CHARGEBACK GUIDES

Chargeback rate calculator and thresholds

By ChargeFix team · Updated 3 October 2026

Ask three people what your chargeback rate is and you can get three different answers from the same month of orders. The calculator below shows why, and which number to watch.

Your chargeback rate is disputes divided by orders, as a percentage: 9 disputes on 1,000 orders is 0.9%. Shopify publishes no threshold. Stripe calls anything above 0.75% excessive by industry standard, and the card networks set their own, higher lines that also depend on dispute counts.

Last updated: 3 October 2026. Written by the ChargeFix team.

The 30-second answer (TL;DR)

  • Chargeback rate is disputes opened divided by payments, times 100. Winning does not remove a dispute from it, and neither does a refund.
  • Shopify says high rates can affect Shopify Payments account health and can lead to reserves on payouts, but it publishes no threshold. We found none.
  • Stripe's documentation calls above 0.75% excessive by industry standard. Treat 0.75% as a prudent warning line, not a Shopify rule.
  • Mastercard's Excessive Chargeback Merchant programme needs both a count (100 to 299) and a rate (1.5% to 2.99%), so small stores rarely reach it.
  • One dispute on 200 orders is already 0.5%. Small stores see a noisy rate, so watch a rolling three months, not a single month.
  • The same store can show 0.30%, 0.90% or 1.00% depending on whether the rate is counted by charge date, by dispute date or against the previous month.
  • We could not confirm which Visa region line applies to UK merchants, so check the networks' current rules.

The rate at a glance

Measure Formula What it tells you
Simple monthly rate Disputes opened this month ÷ payments this month Quick health check
Previous-month rate (Mastercard style) Chargebacks this month ÷ previous month's captured payments How networks measure
Rate by charge date (Stripe) Disputes on this month's charges ÷ this month's charges How a sales cohort turns out, but it rises as late disputes arrive

Table of contents

What is a chargeback rate?

A chargeback rate is the share of your card payments that end in a dispute. Divide disputes opened by payments, multiply by 100, and you have the percentage. It is a count of disputes, not money, and every dispute counts whether you win, lose or refund it afterwards.

Shopify's own monitoring page says its rate counts all disputes opened, not only lost ones, and that wins do not remove a dispute from it. It covers only chargeback-eligible transactions through Shopify Payments, so payments through third-party providers are excluded. Disputes settled through the Network Dispute Resolution Programme still count.

You can view it in Shopify at Settings, then Payments, or in Analytics, then Reports, then Chargeback rate. Our guide to where to find chargebacks in Shopify admin shows the screens.

How do you calculate your chargeback rate?

Divide the disputes opened in a month by the payments taken in the same month and multiply by 100. For the networks' version, divide this month's chargebacks by last month's captured payments. Run both each month and keep the higher one in view, because it shows the rate you could be judged on.

Copy this into a spreadsheet.

Chargeback rate calculator (Google Sheets or Excel)

Inputs
B2  Payments this month (Shopify Payments, card)
B3  Disputes opened this month
B4  Payments last month

Results
B6  Simple monthly rate                  =B3/B2          (format as %)
B7  Previous-month rate (networks)       =B3/B4          (format as %)
B8  Disputes that put you at 0.75%       =ROUNDUP(B2*0.0075,0)
B9  Further disputes before that line    =B8-B3-1

Use real payment counts from your payouts, not order counts, if you take a lot of orders by PayPal or another provider, because those are outside Shopify's rate.

Why does the same store show three different chargeback rates?

Because dispute rates can be counted by when the dispute arrived, by when the sale happened, or against the previous month's sales. The same nine disputes can produce 0.30%, 0.90% and 1.00%. None is wrong. They answer different questions, and the networks use the dispute-date view.

Example 1 (illustration)

A store takes 900 payments in August and 1,000 in September. In September, 9 disputes are opened. Six of them are on August sales and 3 are on September sales.

Method Calculation Rate
Simple monthly (dispute date) 9 ÷ 1,000 0.90%
Previous-month, Mastercard style 9 ÷ 900 1.00%
September charges only (charge date) 3 ÷ 1,000 0.30%
August charges so far (charge date) 6 ÷ 900 0.67%

Stripe's documentation separates dispute activity, counted by dispute date, from dispute rate, counted by charge date, and says the networks use activity. The charge-date view is useful for judging a sales batch, but it always looks flattering on recent sales because most disputes arrive weeks or months later. A customer has up to 120 days to dispute, so September's 0.30% will not stay at 0.30%.

The practical rule is to watch the dispute-date rate, because it is the one that reaches you in a letter.

What is a good chargeback rate?

There is no official good rate. Shopify publishes none, and Stripe's documentation calls above 0.75% excessive by industry standard. A sensible aim for a small store is well below that, and a low number only means something once you have enough orders for one dispute not to swing it.

Here are the lines we found, with who set each one.

Line Who sets it What it means
No published threshold Shopify High rates can affect Shopify Payments account health
Above 0.75% Industry standard, per Stripe's documentation Treated as excessive
0.5% and a count of 5 Visa VAMP, per Stripe's summary A lower non-compliant tier
1.5% (and a count of 1,500) Visa VAMP, per Stripe's summary Excessive tier in several regions, including the EU and US
1.5% to 2.99% and 100 to 299 chargebacks Mastercard ECM Excessive Chargeback Merchant
3% and 300 or more chargebacks Mastercard HECM High Excessive Chargeback Merchant

Stripe's pages summarise network rules and tell readers to check the networks for the latest. They name regions such as the EU and the US but we could not find the UK named separately, so confirm which line applies to you before relying on it.

What do the Visa and Mastercard thresholds mean for a small store?

For most small stores, the network programmes are out of reach, because they need a high count as well as a high rate. Mastercard's ECM tier starts at 100 chargebacks in a month, which at a 1.5% rate means about 6,700 payments the month before.

Visa's VAMP ratio is disputes plus fraud warnings over captured payments, according to Stripe's summary, and its lower tier combines 0.5% with a count of 5. A small store can pass a count of 5 quickly, so the percentage is the figure to watch, and we could not confirm what the lower tier triggers.

For Mastercard, Stripe's summary says fines in US dollars begin in the second month, starting at USD 1,000 for months two and three in the ECM programme and rising from there, and that a merchant exits after three consecutive months below the thresholds. Monitoring counts disputes regardless of outcome and regardless of refunds.

The bigger risk for a small Shopify store is usually not a network fine. It is the account health review that Shopify describes on its own page, which has no published trigger.

What would a Mastercard ECM listing cost a bigger store?

On the figures in Stripe's summary, a store that stays in the ECM programme for six months at under 300 chargebacks a month faces at least USD 17,000 in fines. Month one carries none, months two and three are USD 1,000 each, and months four to six are USD 5,000 each. Larger stores should treat the programme as a cash risk.

Example 3 (illustration)

A store took 8,000 captured payments last month and has 120 chargebacks this month. The rate is 120 divided by 8,000, or 1.5%, and the count is above 100, so both ECM conditions are met.

Month in the programme Fine per Stripe's summary Running total
1 None USD 0
2 USD 1,000 USD 1,000
3 USD 1,000 USD 2,000
4 USD 5,000 USD 7,000
5 USD 5,000 USD 12,000
6 USD 5,000 USD 17,000

The summary adds USD 5 per chargeback over 300 and further tiers beyond month six, which the table leaves out. It also says a merchant exits after three consecutive months below the thresholds. Fines are in US dollars, so the pound cost moves with the exchange rate.

Stripe presents these as summaries of network rules and tells merchants to check the networks for the latest figures, and we could not confirm how the programme is passed on to Shopify merchants. Use the table to size the risk, not to predict a bill.

What chargeback rate does Shopify flag?

Shopify does not say. Its monitoring page lists no thresholds, only that a high chargeback rate can affect Shopify Payments account health, and that actions can include reserves on payouts and enrolment in the Network Dispute Resolution Programme. We found no figure for how large a reserve is or how long it lasts.

That silence is the reason to build your own warning lines. Pick numbers lower than anything the networks use, so you hear about a problem from your own sheet and not from Shopify.

How many disputes put you over each line?

The number of disputes that reaches each line depends on your volume. At 200 payments a month, a single dispute is 0.5%. At 5,000, you need 25. This table rounds up, so each cell is the count at which you reach or pass the line.

Payments a month 0.5% 0.75% 1% 1.5%
200 1 2 2 3
500 3 4 5 8
1,000 5 8 10 15
2,000 10 15 20 30
5,000 25 38 50 75

Look at the top row. A store with 200 payments crosses 0.75% with two disputes, which is a bad fortnight, not necessarily a bad business. That is why we suggest a rolling three-month view for small stores. Add the three months of disputes, divide by the three months of payments, and one unlucky week stops looking like a crisis.

How should you read your rate over six months?

Read the single month for the alarm and the rolling three months for the trend. A one-month spike can fade, but a rolling rate that keeps climbing means the cause is still active. Both views come from the same log, so keep dates and counts for every month.

Example 2 (illustration)

A store logs six months of card payments and disputes opened. The rolling column adds the latest three months of disputes and divides by the latest three months of payments.

Month Payments Disputes Monthly rate Rolling three months
April 800 4 0.50%
May 850 5 0.59%
June 900 4 0.44% 0.51%
July 950 10 1.05% 0.70%
August 900 6 0.67% 0.73%
September 1,000 8 0.80% 0.84%

July looks like a blip, and the store might shrug it off. The rolling column tells a different story. It climbs from 0.51% to 0.84% across three months, because the months after July stayed higher than the months before it. The first reading says one bad month. The second says something changed in July and has not gone away.

Smoothing helps when a small store has a freak month, and it hides nothing when the cause persists. Use both numbers and ask what changed in the month the rate jumped: a new product, a new carrier, a promotion, a changed billing descriptor.

Does winning or refunding lower your chargeback rate?

No to both. Shopify counts disputes opened, so a win leaves the dispute in your rate while returning the amount and the £10 fee. Stripe's summary of the network rules says monitoring counts disputes regardless of outcome and regardless of refunds. Only receiving fewer disputes lowers the rate.

This matters for how you spend effort. Fighting a dispute can save money, but it does not help your rate, which is why prevention gets its own section below. Our post on whether you can win a Shopify chargeback covers the money side, and the true cost of a chargeback in the UK puts a price on each dispute.

One nuance is worth knowing. Stripe's documentation says responding to an inquiry, or issuing a full refund while it is still an inquiry, can avoid a dispute fee. We could not confirm from the sources we read whether an unescalated inquiry counts toward monitoring, so check how your own provider treats them.

What does a higher chargeback rate cost you?

Each extra 0.1% on 1,000 payments is one more dispute a month, which costs about £65 on a £55 average order if you lose it. Moving from 0.5% to 1% means five more disputes, or £325 a month, before time and before any reserve on your payouts.

The arithmetic is the one from our true cost of a chargeback in the UK post: the disputed amount plus the £10 fee on a loss. The rate turns that single-dispute cost into a monthly figure.

Payments a month Rate Disputes Cost if all are lost at £55 average order
1,000 0.5% 5 £325
1,000 0.75% 8 £520
1,000 1% 10 £650
1,000 1.5% 15 £975

The table counts only fees and amounts. It leaves out the cost we cannot price, which is a reserve holding back part of your payouts. Shopify lists reserves as a possible action on high rates but gives no size, so treat the true cost of a high rate as higher than the table shows.

What should you do at each chargeback rate?

Act earlier than the thresholds, with a plan for each band. The bands below are our own working lines for a small UK store, not Shopify's or the networks', except where noted. Their purpose is to turn a vague worry into a trigger for a specific task.

Rolling three-month rate Our suggested response
Under 0.3% Normal. Log every dispute and its reason.
0.3% to 0.5% Read the reasons. Look for one cause that repeats.
0.5% to 0.75% Fix the top cause now. Refund clear-cut cases early.
Above 0.75% Industry excessive line per Stripe. Prevention comes first, and check your rate weekly.
Above 1.5% with a high count Network territory. Get advice from your payment provider.

The bands are advice, not rules, and your own history is the real guide. The order of work matters more than the numbers: find the repeating reason, fix it, then watch the next month.

How do you read dispute reasons to find the cause?

Log the reason the bank recorded on every dispute, and count them each month. A rate tells you that something is wrong, while the reason tells you where. The same rate of 0.8% can come from fraud on one store and from missing parcels on another, and the fixes are different.

The reason groups that merchants most often see are fraud, product not received, product not as described, credit not processed, subscription cancelled, duplicate charge and unrecognised charge. The table is our reading of what each tends to point to, not network data, so test it against your own log.

Reason group What it often points to First thing to check
Fraud A stolen card used on your store Order review and delivery address checks
Product not received Late, lost or mis-scanned parcels Carrier tracking and proof of delivery
Product not as described A gap between page and product Product copy, photos and size guides
Credit not processed A refund the customer expected Refund timing and messages
Subscription cancelled A charge after a cancellation Cancellation route and renewal emails
Duplicate The same charge twice Checkout and retry behaviour
Unrecognised A customer who cannot match the charge Billing descriptor and receipt email

Once a reason repeats three or four times, you have a cause. Fix that one before anything else, because it will account for a bigger share of your rate than a scatter of rare reasons.

How do you lower your chargeback rate?

Remove the reasons customers dispute instead of contacting you. Look at the reason code on each dispute, find the one that repeats, and fix that first. Clear billing descriptors, honest delivery times, quick answers to worried customers and fast refunds on genuine problems reduce disputes at the source.

Disputes you do not receive cost you nothing, do not touch your rate and do not take a single hour. Compare that with winning, which saves money but leaves the dispute counted. Our decision table in is it worth fighting a chargeback helps with the cases you cannot prevent.

What monthly routine keeps your chargeback rate in check?

Spend twenty minutes at the start of each month: update the log, work out both rates, read the reasons and write down one action. The routine is short on purpose. It turns the rate into a habit you can keep when you are busy, and the written action is what separates tracking from fixing.

  1. Count last month's card payments through Shopify Payments and the disputes opened.
  2. Work out the simple monthly rate and the previous-month rate in the calculator.
  3. Update the rolling three-month figure and compare it with the line you set.
  4. Group the month's disputes by reason and note the biggest group.
  5. Write one specific action for the biggest group, with a date.
  6. Check last month's action actually happened.

Keep the sheet in one place and add to it every month. After six months you will have your own thresholds, which will tell you more about your store than any general figure in this post.

What's different for UK merchants?

The main UK difference is missing information: Shopify gives no threshold, and the network summaries we read do not name the UK separately. Cash timing and customer rights also shape your exposure. This section is general information, not legal advice.

The fee is £10 on Shopify Payments and returned if you win. If your balance cannot cover a chargeback, Shopify debits your UK bank account outside the normal payout schedule, with a retry after three business days. A high rate also puts payouts at risk of reserves, so your cash plan is exposed as well as your fees.

Customers have time on their side. MoneyHelper says a debit card gives chargeback protection with 120 days to claim, and credit cards add Section 75 for items from £100 to £30,000. Disputes can arrive months after the sale, which is why a rolling view beats a single month.

Everything here was read on 2 October 2026. For the wider picture, start with our guide to Shopify chargebacks in the UK, and for the cash side see Shopify chargeback fee UK.

Common mistakes

  1. Treating one month as the truth. With few orders, one dispute moves the rate by a lot, so use three months.
  2. Mixing up the three rates. Compare like with like: dispute date with dispute date.
  3. Dividing by orders instead of eligible payments. Orders paid by PayPal or another provider are outside Shopify's rate, so use card payments through Shopify Payments.
  4. Assuming a win cleans the rate. It returns the money, but the dispute stays counted.
  5. Waiting for Shopify to warn you. It publishes no threshold, so set your own lines early.
  6. Ignoring reasons. A rate is a symptom, and the reason code is the cause.
  7. Treating a network threshold as a target. Staying under a fine line is not the same as being healthy.
  8. Not logging dates. Without the sale date and dispute date you cannot tell a lag from a spike.

FAQ

How is chargeback rate calculated?

Divide the number of disputes opened in a period by the number of payments in the same period, then multiply by 100. For example, 9 disputes on 1,000 payments is 0.9%. Networks often use the previous month's payments as the denominator, so the same disputes can give a slightly different figure.

What is a good chargeback rate?

There is no official figure. Shopify publishes no threshold, and Stripe's documentation calls above 0.75% excessive by industry standard. For a small store, staying well below that line is the safer aim, and a rolling three-month view tells you more than a single month, because one dispute can swing a low-volume rate.

What chargeback rate gets you flagged?

Shopify does not publish a trigger. Its monitoring page says a high rate can affect Shopify Payments account health and can lead to reserves on payouts or enrolment in the Network Dispute Resolution Programme. Card networks have their own lines, such as Mastercard's ECM tier from 1.5% with 100 chargebacks, which small stores seldom reach.

Does winning a chargeback lower your chargeback rate?

No. Shopify counts disputes opened, not disputes lost, so a win returns the amount and the £10 UK fee but leaves the dispute in your rate. Stripe's summary of network monitoring says disputes count regardless of outcome and regardless of refunds. Only receiving fewer disputes brings the rate down.

What is the Shopify chargeback rate threshold?

Shopify does not publish one. We checked its chargeback monitoring page and found no percentage. It says a high rate can affect your account health and may lead to reserves, but gives no trigger or reserve size. Set your own warning line below Stripe's 0.75% industry figure and watch it each month.

What is the Visa VAMP threshold?

Stripe's summary lists VAMP as disputes plus fraud warnings over captured payments, with a lower tier at 0.5% and a count of 5, and an excessive tier at 1.5% with a count of 1,500 in several regions including the EU and US. We could not confirm the UK line, so check Visa's current rules.

What is the Mastercard ECM threshold?

Mastercard's Excessive Chargeback Merchant programme applies at 100 to 299 chargebacks with a 1.5% to 2.99% rate. Above 300 chargebacks and 3%, it becomes High Excessive. Stripe's summary says the rate is this month's chargebacks over last month's captured payments, and fines in US dollars begin in the second month.

Does a refund remove a dispute from my chargeback rate?

No. Stripe's summary of the network rules says monitoring counts disputes regardless of refunds, and Shopify says its rate counts every dispute opened. The one open point is an inquiry that never escalates. Responding to it or fully refunding it can avoid a dispute fee, but we could not confirm whether it counts toward monitoring.

Join the ChargeFix waitlist

ChargeFix is being built for UK Shopify merchants who want to keep a chargeback rate calculator and a clear response routine in one place, with flat, fixed pricing. It is not live yet, so nothing here is a promise about your rate.

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