CHARGEBACK GUIDES

Stripe dispute fees UK: what you pay and when to fight

By ChargeFix team · Updated 3 October 2026

Stripe's dispute fee can be bigger than the order it is charged on. A customer disputes a £15 payment, and the dispute costs you £35 before you have lifted a finger.

Stripe dispute fees UK merchants pay are £20 when a dispute is received and a further £20 if you counter it. The received fee is never returned. The counter fee comes back only if you win. So a lost, countered £60 dispute costs £100, while simply accepting it costs £80.

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

The 30-second answer (TL;DR)

  • Stripe dispute fees in the UK start at £20 when the dispute is received, and that fee is not refundable. Countering adds another £20, which is returned only if you win.
  • Both fees sit on top of the disputed amount, which is debited from you when the dispute is filed and returned only on a win.
  • On a £60 order: accepting costs £80, fighting and losing costs £100, fighting and winning costs £20. All before your time.
  • On cash alone, countering beats accepting once your chance of winning passes 20 divided by the amount plus 20. At £60 that is 25%. Add two and a half hours of your time and the bar jumps to about 81%.
  • Smart Disputes charges 30% of the disputed amount on won disputes only and waives the counter fee. We could not confirm who qualifies.
  • Stripe's fee is double Shopify Payments' £10, and Shopify returns its fee on a win. The two are not interchangeable, so know which one you are on.
  • Fees can change. We read Stripe's pages on 2 October 2026, so check the current pricing before you decide.

Stripe UK dispute fees at a glance

Fee Amount When it applies Returned if you win?
Dispute received £20 Every dispute, as soon as it is filed No
Dispute countered £20 When you submit evidence Yes
Smart Disputes success fee 30% of the disputed amount Won disputes only Not applicable

Table of contents

How much is the Stripe dispute fee in the UK?

Stripe dispute fees in the UK are £20 for each dispute received, plus £20 more if you counter it. Both are charged on top of the disputed amount, which is debited from your balance when the dispute is filed. The counter fee is returned if you win, but the received fee is not.

Those are the Stripe dispute fees UK merchants see on Stripe's pricing page for disputes filed after 17 June 2025. Older articles that predate that change may describe a different structure, so check the date on anything you read.

Notice the order of events. Nothing about the Stripe dispute fee is decided by how good your evidence is. The £20 is charged the moment the customer's bank opens the case, whether the customer is lying, mistaken or entirely right. The only fee you control is the second one, because you choose whether to counter.

We could not confirm whether every Stripe account is on standard pricing. If you were quoted a bespoke rate, your contract rules. For everyone on standard pricing, the figures in this post apply.

What is the difference between the received fee and the countered fee?

The received fee is charged when a dispute opens, and nothing you do afterwards changes it. The countered fee is charged when you submit evidence to fight, and it is refunded if you win. In other words, the first fee is the cost of being disputed, and the second is the price of fighting.

Think of it as a two-step meter. Step one starts running without your permission. Step two only starts if you press the button.

Step What triggers it Fee Your control
Dispute received The customer's bank files it £20 None
Dispute countered You submit evidence £20 Full

There is a practical consequence. If you do nothing at all, you pay the received fee and the disputed amount, and you lose by default. If you fight and lose, you pay the received fee, the counter fee and the disputed amount. Nothing in the structure rewards a half-hearted response, because the fee for a bad response is the same as the fee for a good one.

Our post on how long a Shopify chargeback takes covers the clock on the Shopify side, and the same logic applies to your evidence deadline on Stripe.

Is the Stripe dispute fee refundable?

The £20 received fee is not refundable. The £20 countered fee is refundable only if you win the dispute. Stripe's support pages say the received fee is not returned outside Mexico, so UK merchants should treat it as gone the moment a dispute is filed, whatever the outcome.

This catches people out because the instinct is to assume a won dispute is a clean slate. It is not. On Stripe, a won dispute returns the disputed amount and the counter fee, and still leaves you £20 down.

Outcome Disputed amount Received fee Counter fee
You win Returned Kept by Stripe Returned
You lose Kept by the cardholder's bank Kept by Stripe Kept by Stripe
You accept Kept by the cardholder's bank Kept by Stripe Not charged

What about a partial recovery? One third-party guide says the full fees still apply if you only recover part of the amount. Stripe's pages that we read do not describe partial outcomes, so we cannot confirm it, and in practice most card disputes are decided in full one way or the other.

Compare that with Shopify Payments, where the £10 fee is returned if you win. The difference is not small, and our post on the Shopify chargeback fee in the UK explains the Shopify side.

What does a Stripe dispute cost on a £60 order?

On a £60 order, accepting a Stripe dispute costs £80, fighting and losing costs £100, and fighting and winning costs £20. The difference between the best and worst outcomes is £80, and £60 of that is the order itself. The £20 received fee is the only cost you cannot avoid once the dispute exists.

Example 1 (illustration)

A customer disputes a £60.00 order. We show cash only, before time.

Outcome Disputed amount Received fee Counter fee Total cash cost
Accept £60 £20 £0 £80
Fight and lose £60 £20 £20 £100
Fight and win £0 £20 £0 £20

Run the same order on Shopify Payments and the picture changes. Accepting costs £70 (£60 plus the £10 fee), fighting and losing costs the same £70, and winning costs nothing, because the fee is returned.

Outcome Stripe Shopify Payments
Accept £80 £70
Fight and lose £100 £70
Fight and win £20 £0

Shopify's structure means fighting costs you nothing extra in cash. Stripe's means fighting costs you £20 more if you lose. That is the single most important difference in this post, and everything below follows from it.

For the full cost picture including goods, shipping and payment fees, see our true cost of a chargeback in the UK calculator.

What is the Stripe dispute fee per £100 of sales?

At a 1% dispute rate where every dispute is lost or accepted, the Stripe dispute fee burden per £100 of sales is the average order plus £20, divided by the average order. That is £1.80 at a £25 average order and £1.17 at £120. Stripe's flat £20 weighs heaviest on small baskets.

Example 2 (illustration)

One dispute in every 100 orders, each costing the order amount plus the £20 received fee, compared with the same on Shopify Payments.

Average order Stripe, per £100 of sales Shopify Payments, per £100 of sales Extra on Stripe
£25 £1.80 £1.40 £0.40
£40 £1.50 £1.25 £0.25
£55 £1.36 £1.18 £0.18
£80 £1.25 £1.13 £0.12
£120 £1.17 £1.08 £0.09

The gap is real but modest on bigger baskets. For a store with a £25 average order, though, the extra 40p per £100 of sales is the difference between a manageable line in your accounts and one that quietly eats margin.

None of this includes the processing fees on the original sale, which we cover in our post on Shopify Payments UK fees. It also does not include the rate effect. Stripe's documentation says the networks count disputes by when they were filed, and that above 0.75% is excessive by industry standard, so volume matters as well as cost. Our chargeback rate calculator and thresholds post shows how to work out yours.

Should you counter a Stripe dispute?

Countering pays when your chance of winning is above the counter fee divided by the disputed amount plus the counter fee. At £60 that is 25%, at £100 it is 16.7% and at £200 it is 9.1%. Below about £20 you would need to win more than half your disputes just to cover the counter fee.

The maths comes from comparing two bets. If you accept, you lose the amount and the received fee. If you counter, you lose the amount, the received fee and the counter fee when you lose, and only the received fee when you win. The extra £20 is the stake, and the amount you recover is the prize.

So you should counter when the chance of winning, multiplied by the amount plus £20, is greater than £20.

Disputed amount Break-even win chance, cash only
£20 50.0%
£40 33.3%
£60 25.0%
£100 16.7%
£200 9.1%
£500 3.8%

Read the top row as a rule of thumb. Disputes under about £20 are not worth countering on cash grounds, because you would need to win half of them just to break even on the counter fee. Disputes above £200 are worth countering even on a slim chance.

The table assumes your time costs nothing, which is the part that rarely holds. Our post on whether you can win a Shopify chargeback explains why no audited UK win rate exists, so the right percentage to put in is your own.

How does your time change the answer?

Add two and a half hours of response time at £20 an hour, against a quarter hour to accept, and the extra £45 pushes the break-even win chance at £60 from 25% to 81%. Save the evidence at dispatch so a response takes half an hour, and it falls to about 31%. Routine matters more than the fee.

The formula with time included is simple. Countering pays when your win chance exceeds the counter fee plus the extra time cost, divided by the disputed amount plus the counter fee.

Example 3 (illustration)

The extra time is the difference between fighting and accepting. At 2.5 hours against 0.25 hours and £20 an hour, the extra is £45. With a saved folder and a template, a response might take 0.5 hours, so the extra is £5.

Disputed amount Break-even win chance, cash only With £45 extra time With £5 extra time
£40 33.3% Never 41.7%
£60 25.0% 81.3% 31.3%
£100 16.7% 54.2% 20.8%
£200 9.1% 29.5% 11.4%
£500 3.8% 12.5% 4.8%

Look at the £60 row. With an unprepared two and a half hour response, you need to win more than four in five disputes to come out ahead. With a prepared half-hour response, you need to win fewer than one in three. The same dispute, the same fee, and the decision flips because of how you work.

The hourly figure and the hours are illustrations, not benchmarks. Your own log is the only number that counts, and our guide to what Shopify submits for you shows which parts of a response you can prepare in advance.

What do ten disputes a month cost if you fight every one?

Take a store with ten disputes a month on a £55 average order. Accepting them all costs £750. Fighting them all and winning three costs £725 in cash, which saves £25 and costs about 22 extra hours. Fighting everything is only worth it if you win most of them or your responses are quick.

That sounds harsh, so here is the working. Each dispute costs £75 to accept (£55 plus the £20 received fee). A win costs £20, because the counter fee comes back. A loss costs £95 (£55 plus both fees).

Example 4 (illustration)

Ten disputes in a month at a £55 average order. The time columns use the extra hours over accepting, at £20 an hour: 2.25 extra hours (£45) per dispute if responses are unprepared, or 0.25 extra hours (£5) if you have a routine.

Disputes won out of 10 Cash cost, fight all Cash saved vs accepting (£750) Net after unprepared time (£450) Net after prepared time (£50)
3 £725 £25 −£425 −£25
5 £575 £175 −£275 +£125
8 £350 £400 −£50 +£350

At a 30% win rate, nobody comes out ahead, however well organised. At 50%, only the prepared store profits. Even winning eight of ten does not pay if every response eats two and a half hours.

What this table cannot tell you is your own win rate, and we found no audited UK figure to borrow. Treat the three rows as sensitivity checks. The practical lesson is that fighting is not free on Stripe, so it should be selective: counter the disputes you can actually win, accept the ones you cannot, and keep the log that tells you which is which.

For a longer treatment of the decision, our post on whether it is worth fighting a chargeback builds a table by order value and evidence strength.

How does Stripe's Smart Disputes change the sums?

Stripe's pricing lists Smart Disputes at 30% of the disputed amount on won disputes only, with the counter fee waived. On a £100 dispute with a 40% chance of winning, it costs about the same in cash as fighting yourself, and it saves your time. It beats fighting yourself when your win chance is low.

We could not confirm from the pages we read who qualifies, what it covers, or what win rate it achieves, so every figure below is an illustration. We assume the £20 received fee still applies, and that Smart Disputes wins as often as you would. Stripe has not published a win rate we could use.

Example 5 (illustration)

A £100 dispute, shown as expected cash cost at three win chances. Accepting costs £120 every time.

Your chance of winning Accept Counter yourself (cash only) Smart Disputes (cash only)
20% £120 £116 £106
40% £120 £92 £92
60% £120 £68 £78

The working for the 40% row: countering yourself costs £20 on a win and £140 on a loss, so 0.4 × £20 + 0.6 × £140 = £92. Smart Disputes costs £50 on a win (£20 plus £30) and £120 on a loss, so 0.4 × £50 + 0.6 × £120 = £92.

Cash alone, the two tie at 40%. Below that, Smart Disputes is cheaper, because you never pay the counter fee on a loss. Above it, doing it yourself is cheaper, because 30% of a large recovery is a big commission.

Now add time. Countering yourself takes at least a few minutes of effort even when prepared, and hours when not. Smart Disputes, as we understand it, takes none of yours. So for most small merchants, with an uncertain win rate and thin margins, the time saving tips the choice towards Smart Disputes. For a high-value dispute where you hold excellent evidence, the 30% is hard to justify.

How do Stripe's dispute fees compare with Shopify Payments?

Shopify Payments charges £10 per chargeback in the UK and returns it if you win. Stripe charges £20 per dispute received, which is never returned, plus £20 to counter it, which is. So Stripe dispute fees cost more in every outcome, and only Stripe punishes you with an extra £20 for fighting and losing.

Which one applies to you depends on who processes the payment. If your store takes cards through Shopify Payments, Shopify's fee applies. If you use your own Stripe account, Stripe's fees apply, and Shopify's pricing adds its own third-party gateway fee on top of the card fee. We cover that in our post on Shopify Payments UK fees.

Stripe UK Shopify Payments UK
Fee when disputed £20 £10
Fee returned if you win No Yes
Extra fee to fight £20, returned if you win None listed
£60 order: accept £80 £70
£60 order: fight and lose £100 £70
£60 order: fight and win £20 £0
Where the fee is published Stripe pricing page Shopify Help Center

Shopify's pricing page does not list a chargeback fee, which is why so many merchants are surprised by it. Stripe lists its fees on the pricing page itself. Both can change, so confirm on the day.

The upshot is that the break-even question has a different answer on each. On Shopify Payments, fighting costs only your time, so any real chance of winning is worth a look. On Stripe, the counter fee adds a cash cost, so the bar is higher and the order value matters more.

What happens if a Stripe dispute is an inquiry?

According to Stripe's documentation, inquiries are mostly an American Express and Discover feature, and Visa and Mastercard no longer use them. Responding to an inquiry, or fully refunding it while it is still an inquiry, avoids the dispute fee. For UK merchants taking mainly Visa and Mastercard, though, most problems arrive as disputes straight away.

That matters because the cheap off-ramp is mostly closed. Where an inquiry exists, a quick refund can end the matter before the £20 is charged. Where the first notice is a formal dispute, the fee is already due, and Stripe says you cannot refund the charge outside the dispute process while it is open.

Stripe also says an unescalated inquiry closes after 120 days. We have not confirmed how inquiries are counted in monitoring, so do not assume they are free.

If you are looking at a notice and are not sure whether it is an inquiry or a dispute, read the status in your dashboard before you do anything. The right move for each is different. Refunding a true inquiry can save £20, while refunding outside the process on an open dispute can leave you out of pocket twice.

How long does a Stripe dispute take, and when does the money move?

The disputed amount and the fee are debited when the dispute is filed. Stripe holds the funds while the case runs. You usually have 7 to 21 days to respond, the cardholder's bank typically takes 60 to 75 days to decide, and the whole lifecycle runs to two or three months. The outcome is final.

Cash flow is the hidden cost. On a £60 dispute you are £80 down on day one, and you may wait ten weeks to learn whether the £60 and the counter fee come back.

Stage Typical timing, per Stripe What happens to your money
Customer disputes Customers typically have up to 120 days Amount and £20 received fee debited when filed
You respond Usually 7 to 21 days £20 counter fee charged when you submit evidence
Bank decides 60 to 75 days after evidence Win: amount and counter fee returned. Lose: nothing returned
Whole lifecycle Two to three months Funds held throughout

Build that float into your cash plan. A store with ten disputes at £55 average order has about £750 tied up at any time, before counting the ones still arriving. Our guide on how long a Shopify chargeback takes lays out the Shopify equivalents.

How do you cut your Stripe dispute fees?

You cannot reduce the Stripe dispute fee itself, so cut the number of disputes, refund genuine problems before they escalate, and keep responses cheap with a ready folder of evidence. Decide in advance which disputes you will counter, using break-even rules by order value, so no one has to agonise each time.

A dispute that never opens costs nothing. That is the cheapest saving, and it comes from clear product pages, honest delivery times, prompt replies and a recognisable billing descriptor on the customer's statement. A refund given before a customer goes to their bank also avoids the £20 entirely, because the fee is only charged once a dispute is filed.

For the disputes that do arrive, a simple rule saves time. These thresholds are our own suggestions, derived from the break-even table when your response takes about half an hour. They are not Stripe's rules.

Disputed amount Our suggested rule on Stripe
Under £20 Accept. You would need to win over half just to cover the counter fee.
£20 to £60 Counter only with strong, matching evidence and a prepared pack.
£60 to £200 Counter if you hold real evidence that answers the reason.
Over £200 Counter almost always, since a low chance already pays.

Treat the rule as a starting point. After three months, replace it with figures from your own log: order value, reason, outcome and hours spent. It is the only way to learn your real win rate.

What's different for UK merchants?

Three things stand out for UK merchants: fees are charged in pounds on a standard UK account, customers have a long window to dispute, and tax treatment of the fee is not confirmed. This section is general information, not legal advice.

On fees, Stripe dispute fees UK merchants pay are £20 received and £20 countered per the pricing page, with Smart Disputes at 30% on wins. We read it on 2 October 2026, and it can change.

On timing, MoneyHelper says a debit card gives chargeback protection on all purchases, with 120 days from the purchase date to claim. For credit cards it points to Section 75 for items costing £100 to £30,000, and chargeback within 120 days for other amounts. Disputes can therefore arrive months after the sale, so keep your order evidence for at least six months.

On tax, we could not confirm how VAT applies to Stripe's dispute fees or how to treat them in your accounts. Ask your accountant, and do not assume the fee is reclaimable.

For the wider UK picture, start with our guide to Shopify chargebacks in the UK.

Common mistakes

  1. Assuming a win refunds everything. The £20 received fee stays with Stripe, so a won £60 dispute still costs £20.
  2. Countering every dispute by habit. On Stripe a lost fight adds £20, and the time cost can turn a cash win into a net loss.
  3. Ignoring order value. A £15 dispute costs £35 to accept, and fighting it rarely makes sense.
  4. Forgetting that the Stripe dispute fee and Shopify's work differently. Shopify's £10 comes back on a win, and Stripe's £20 received fee does not.
  5. Pricing your time at zero. Two and a half hours on a £60 order costs £50.
  6. Refunding outside the process on an open dispute. Stripe says you cannot do this while it is open, and a second refund can leave you paying twice.
  7. Using Smart Disputes without checking eligibility. We could not confirm who qualifies or the win rate, so test it on a few disputes first.
  8. Not logging outcomes. Without your own win rate, every break-even figure in this post is a guess.

FAQ

How much is the Stripe dispute fee in the UK?

Stripe dispute fees in the UK are £20 when a dispute is received, plus £20 more if you counter it. Both are charged on top of the disputed amount. The counter fee is returned if you win, but the received fee is not. These figures apply to disputes filed after 17 June 2025.

Is the Stripe dispute fee refundable?

Only the £20 countered fee is refundable, and only if you win. The £20 received fee is not returned, even on a win, according to Stripe's support pages. So a won £60 dispute returns the £60 and the counter fee, and still leaves you £20 down.

What is the Stripe counter fee?

The counter fee is the extra £20 Stripe charges when you submit evidence to fight a dispute. If you win, it is returned. If you lose, you keep paying it. The received fee, also £20, is charged whether you counter or not, so fighting a lost £60 dispute costs £100.

Should I counter a Stripe dispute?

Counter when your chance of winning is above 20 divided by the disputed amount plus 20, adjusted for your time. At £60 that is 25% on cash alone, and about 31% if your response takes half an hour. For orders under £20, accepting is usually cheaper. Use your own win rate, because no audited UK figure exists.

What is the Smart Disputes fee?

Stripe's pricing lists Smart Disputes at 30% of the disputed amount on won disputes only, with the counter fee waived. On a £100 dispute that is £30 on a win. We could not confirm who qualifies or what win rate it achieves, so test it before relying on it.

Is the Stripe chargeback fee higher than Shopify's?

Yes. Stripe's received fee is £20 against Shopify Payments' £10, and only Shopify's is returned on a win. On a £60 order, accepting costs £80 on Stripe and £70 on Shopify, and fighting and losing costs £100 on Stripe against £70 on Shopify. Which applies depends on who processes the payment.

Does Stripe charge a fee for a dispute inquiry?

Stripe says that responding to an inquiry, or fully refunding it while it is still an inquiry, avoids the dispute fee. Inquiries are mostly used by American Express and Discover, and Visa and Mastercard no longer use them. We could not confirm how inquiries count toward monitoring, so check your dashboard.

How long does a Stripe dispute take to resolve?

Stripe says you usually have 7 to 21 days to respond, the cardholder's bank typically takes 60 to 75 days to decide, and the whole lifecycle runs to two or three months. The disputed amount and the fee are debited when the dispute is filed, and the funds are held until a decision.

Join the ChargeFix waitlist

ChargeFix is being built for UK Shopify merchants who want Stripe dispute fees UK merchants face and every other chargeback cost handled in plain pounds, with flat, fixed pricing instead of a share of what they recover. It is not live yet, so nothing here is a promise about your results.

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