Chargeback app break-even point: the formula, the tables and how to work out yours in 5 minutes

Every chargeback app asks you for money before it proves anything. A plan costs $19, $49 or $99 a month, a success fee takes a quarter of what you win, and you are left guessing whether you will ever see that money again. The way out of the guessing is arithmetic, and it is simpler than it looks.

Your chargeback app break-even point is the number of disputes a month, or the number of extra wins a year, at which the app has earned back what it costs. For a $19 plan and a store that values its time at $30 an hour, the time-only break-even is about 2 disputes a month. For a $49 plan on $100 orders, it is about 6 extra wins a year. This guide gives you the three formulas, ready-made tables by plan, order value and hourly rate, the point where a success fee overtakes a flat plan, the traps that distort the sum and a five-minute way to work out your own number.

This guide is for you if:

• You run a Shopify store on Shopify Payments and want to know when a chargeback app starts paying for itself.
• You are comparing a flat plan with a success fee and want the exact crossover.
• You want to do the sum yourself instead of trusting a vendor's ROI claim.

Last updated: 30 October 2026. Written by the ChargeFix team. Reviewed against sources on 30 October 2026.

We make ChargeFix, so we use our own plan prices as some of the examples, and we show the same sums for other fee models. All dollar figures other than plan prices are assumptions that you should replace with your own. Plan prices come from vendor pages and Shopify App Store listings read on 30 October 2026. They change, so check the live page before you rely on them.

The 30-second answer (TL;DR)

• Break-even from time saved: plan price divided by the dollar value of the time each dispute saves.
• Break-even from wins: plan price divided by the value of one win, which is the order plus the $15 Shopify fee.
• Break-even against a success fee: a 25% fee costs more than a $19 plan once you recover $76 a month, and more than a $49 plan at $196.
• At $30 an hour and 22 minutes saved per dispute, a $19 plan breaks even at 2 disputes a month.
• On a $100 order, 2 extra wins a year cover a $19 plan, and about 6 cover a $49 plan.
• Counting wins you would have had anyway is the most common error.
• The calculators on this site run the same sums with your numbers.

Quick note: A break-even point is not a promise of profit. It tells you the minimum a tool must do to cost you nothing. Everything above it is gain, and everything below it is a loss. The honest unknown is how many extra wins the tool really causes, so we show that as a range.

The three formulas

What you are testing	Formula
Time only	Disputes needed a month = plan price / (minutes saved per dispute / 60 x your hourly value)
Extra wins only	Extra wins needed a year = plan price x 12 / (average order + $15)
Success fee vs flat plan	Recovered dollars a month where they match = flat plan price / success fee percentage

What is the chargeback app break-even point?

The chargeback app break-even point is where the value a tool creates equals what it costs. Below it you are paying more than you get. Above it you are ahead.

A chargeback app creates value in two ways.

It saves time. Redo estimates that assembling one dispute by hand takes 20 to 45 minutes. Redo sells chargeback products, so treat that as one vendor's view. A tool turns most of that into a review of 5 to 10 minutes. The difference is time you get back.

It can win cases you would have lost. A complete, on-time response is stronger than a thin or late one. When that turns a loss into a win, you keep the order value, and the $15 Shopify fee comes back.

It costs money in one of two ways: a flat monthly plan, or a percentage of what it recovers. Break-even depends on which you choose, and the sums are different, so we do them separately.

A note on what we do not know. How many extra wins a tool causes depends on your reasons, your evidence and the tool. No honest vendor can tell you in advance, and win rates across vendors are not comparable. That is why the wins formula is written as the number of wins you need, not the number you will get. You compare that need with your own history.

Formula 1: how many disputes a month cover the plan with time alone?

Start with the cleanest source of value, because it does not depend on the bank.

Disputes needed a month = plan price / value of time saved per dispute.

Value of time saved per dispute = minutes saved / 60 x your hourly value.

Assume a hand response takes 30 minutes and a tool-assisted review takes 8, so 22 minutes are saved. The table shows disputes needed a month, rounded up, by plan and by what an hour of your time is worth.

Plan	Price	At $15 an hour ($5.50 per dispute)	At $30 an hour ($11 per dispute)	At $60 an hour ($22 per dispute)
Starter	$19	4 disputes	2 disputes	1 dispute
Growth	$49	9 disputes	5 disputes	3 disputes
Scale	$99	18 disputes	9 disputes	5 disputes

Read it like this: at $30 an hour, a $49 plan needs 5 disputes a month before the time it saves is worth the price. Below that, you are paying for convenience, not savings.

If a plan has a lower price, such as the $9 Chargeback Buddy plan, the numbers fall further. At $30 an hour it needs 1 dispute. Always use the price you would actually pay, and check whether the allowance covers your volume.

Formula 2: how many extra wins cover the plan?

The second source of value is winning cases you would otherwise lose.

Extra wins needed a year = plan price x 12 / value of one win.

A win is worth the order value plus the $15 Shopify fee that comes back, because you keep the sale and the fee. Rounded up:

Average order	Value of one win	Starter, $228 a year	Growth, $588 a year	Scale, $1,188 a year
$50	$65	4 wins	10 wins	19 wins
$100	$115	2 wins	6 wins	11 wins
$200	$215	2 wins	3 wins	6 wins
$400	$415	1 win	2 wins	3 wins
$800	$815	1 win	1 win	2 wins

This is where order value dominates. On $800 orders, a single extra win in a year pays for Growth. On $50 orders, Growth needs ten.

The question to ask yourself is whether a better response would turn that many losses into wins over a year. If you lose 20 cases a year and believe 3 of them were winnable with better evidence or timing, a $49 plan on $200 orders breaks even on wins alone.

Formula 3: where does a success fee overtake a flat plan?

Percentage fees feel cheap because you pay nothing up front. The question is when they stop being cheap.

Recovered dollars a month where they match = flat price / fee percentage.

Success fee	Starter $19	Growth $49	Scale $99
15% (Paidback)	$127	$327	$660
18% (ChargebackWiz)	$106	$272	$550
20% (Disputifier, per Redo)	$95	$245	$495
25% (Chargeflow Automation)	$76	$196	$396

Below those amounts of recovered money each month, the percentage fee is cheaper. Above them, the flat plan is. For a 25% fee and Starter, the flat plan wins from $76 a month of recovered money, which is about one won $80 order.

Turn recovered dollars into disputes. If you win half of your disputes on $100 orders, each dispute recovers $50 on average. The $76 line is crossed at 2 disputes a month. The $196 line is crossed at 4 disputes a month and the $396 line at 8. In plain terms, once you are past about 2 to 8 disputes a month, depending on the plan, a flat plan costs less than a 25% fee.

Caps change this at the top. Disputifier lists a 20% fee capped at $250 per won case, per Redo. At about $1,000 per won case, it costs the same as a 25% fee, and above that the cap wins. That crossover is our own derivation from the published rates, so confirm the current terms. For stores with large orders, compare capped and flat fees before you decide.

Illustration: one store, three break-evens

All figures are assumed. Maya runs a Shopify store with 7 disputes a month, an $85 average order, a time value of $25 an hour, and she saves 22 minutes per dispute. She wins about half by hand.

Time. 7 disputes x 22 minutes = 154 minutes, or 2.57 hours. At $25 an hour, that is $64.17 a month. Break-even on time alone for a $19 plan: $19 / ($25 x 22/60 = $9.17) = 2.07, so 3 disputes a month. She has 7.

Wins. Suppose the tool helps her win one extra case every four months, 0.25 a month. Value of a win: $85 + $15 = $100. That is $25 a month. Break-even on wins alone for $19 a month: 0.19 extra wins a month, or about 2.3 a year. She is assuming 3 a year.

Combined. $64.17 + $25 = $89.17 a month against a $19 plan. Net gain: $70.17 a month, or $842 a year.

Against a 25% success fee. She wins 3.5 a month by hand, recovering $297.50. A 25% fee is $74.38. Time value is the same $64.17, and the extra wins add $25. Net: $64.17 + $25 - $74.38 = $14.79 a month, about $177 a year.

So the same tool, the same time saved and the same extra wins give $842 a year on a flat plan and $177 on a success fee. The break-even is passed either way, and the margin is nearly five times larger on the flat plan. That is the whole argument for modelling both.

Illustration: a seasonal store

A store has 3 disputes a month for nine months and 18 a month for three months. At $30 an hour, 22 minutes saved per dispute is $11 a dispute.

Option	Cost	Time saved value	Net
Starter all year	$228	29.7 hours = $891	+$663
Starter in the 3 busy months only	$57	19.8 hours = $594	+$537
By hand all year	$0	$0	$0

The all-year plan wins by $126, because even at 3 disputes a month the saved time ($33) is above the $19 price. But note the assumption: that every dispute really takes 30 minutes by hand and 8 with the tool, and that your hour is worth $30. If either is lower, the busy-months-only plan or a free plan wins.

This is where you should test your own times. Take a stopwatch to your next response by hand and your next tool-assisted review. The break-even moves a lot on those two numbers.

What changes when a free plan exists?

Some tools have a free plan. ChargeFix gives 2 filings a month, Chargeback Copilot gives 3 PDFs and DisputeDesk gives 5 packs. A free plan changes the break-even question.

The paid plan only has to beat the free plan, not beat doing nothing. If a free plan covers your first 2 disputes, the paid plan is judged on disputes 3 and onward.

With ChargeFix Free covering 2 filings, a $19 Starter plan at $30 an hour saves $11 for each dispute beyond the allowance. It breaks even at 2 extra disputes, so at 4 disputes a month. Below 4, stay free. At 4 or more, upgrade.

With DisputeDesk Free covering 5 packs, there is no reason to pay until you pass 5, unless you need something the free plan lacks.

The general rule is: break-even disputes a month = free allowance + the time-only break-even for the paid plan. It is a simple add-on, and it explains why advice to "go free until you outgrow it" holds up in the numbers.

What are the traps in a break-even calculation?

The sums are easy. The inputs are where people go wrong.

Counting wins you would have had anyway. If you win 50% by hand, the tool did not create those wins. Only the extra ones count. Using total recovered money as the tool's value overstates it.

Using the full order as the gain on a win. On a won dispute you keep the sale and the fee returns, but you had already paid for the goods and shipping either way. The correct gain is the order value you did not lose plus the $15, not the profit margin.

Valuing your time at a rate you will never earn. If you would not otherwise bill that hour, its value is lower. Be realistic. A rate of $15 to $30 is common for owner time on small stores.

Using average volume. Disputes cluster. Size the plan for your busy months, then check whether the plan still breaks even in the quiet ones.

Forgetting the plan cap. A $19 plan with 25 filings covers 25. If you have 40, you need the next tier.

Ignoring the ratio. A tool that recovers money does not lower your dispute count. If your problem is a monitoring threshold, such as VAMP excessive at 1.5% with a count of 1,500, break-even on recovery does not solve it.

Taking vendor ROI at face value. Chargeflow's page advertises a "4x ROI guarantee." Ask what it is measured against. At a 25% fee, every dollar of fee is exactly four dollars of recovery, so the guarantee only means something relative to your own baseline.

Mixing up fee types. Some fees exclude the dispute fee, as Chargeflow's does. Check the base on which the percentage is applied.

How do you work out your own break-even in five minutes?

Use this method with a calculator or our free tools.

1. Count disputes. Average your last three months and note your busiest month.
2. Time yourself. Minutes per response by hand. Estimate the tool's review time at 8 minutes until you have tested it.
3. Pick your hourly value. Use what you would pay someone, not what you wish to earn.
4. Compute time value. Disputes x minutes saved / 60 x hourly value.
5. Compute wins value. Extra wins you think you would get x (order + $15). Use a low guess.
6. Compare with the plan price. If time value alone is above the price, you are safe. If only the wins cover it, you are betting on the wins.

For a quick version, our chargeback recovery calculator shows what a win is worth after fees, our profit after chargebacks calculator shows what disputes cost your margin and the should I fight a chargeback calculator helps you decide case by case.

Illustration: a high-ticket store where wins carry the sum

Now a store at the other end. It sells $600 items, gets 3 disputes a month and values its time at $30 an hour. Compare it with Growth at $49 a month, $588 a year.

Time alone. 3 disputes x 22 minutes saved = 66 minutes, or 1.1 hours, worth $33 a month. That is below the $49 price. On time alone, this store does not break even on Growth, and Starter at $19 does.

Wins. One win is worth $600 + $15 = $615. The yearly plan cost of $588 is covered by 0.96 extra wins, so one extra win in the whole year does it.

Combined. Time is worth $396 a year. Add one extra win at $615 and the total is $1,011 against $588, a gain of $423.

The shape is the opposite of Maya's. For Maya, time carried the sum. Here, a single win does. The decision for a high-ticket store is less about hours and more about whether you believe a stronger, earlier response would rescue even one case a year. It is also the reason these stores should ask a vendor how it handles large cases and whether a person reviews them.

Illustration: a tiny store that never breaks even

A store gets one dispute a month on $40 orders and values its time at $30 an hour.

Time. 1 dispute x 22 minutes = 22 minutes, worth $11 a month. Starter at $19 costs more than the time it saves, a loss of $8 a month.

Wins. One win is worth $40 + $15 = $55. To cover $228 a year takes 4.1 extra wins, so 5. The store only has 12 disputes a year, so it would need to turn nearly half of them from losses into wins. That is not a realistic bet.

Verdict. No paid plan reaches break-even here. A free plan covers the volume, and so does Shopify's own form. Come back when volume or order value rises.

Showing a store that fails the test matters, because a break-even guide that only finds reasons to buy is not a guide.

Which input moves your break-even the most?

Not all inputs matter equally. This table changes one input at a time for a $19 Starter plan, starting from our base case of 22 minutes saved and a $30 hourly value (2 disputes a month needed).

Change	Minutes saved	Hourly value	Disputes a month needed
Base case	22	$30	2
Tool saves less time	11	$30	4
Tool saves more time	33	$30	2
Cheaper hour	22	$15	4
Pricier hour	22	$60	1
Both lower	11	$15	7

The worst case is a tool that saves only half the time and an owner whose hour is worth half as much. Break-even then rises from 2 to 7 disputes a month. Because of that, measure your two inputs before you trust the result. The plan price rarely moves your answer as much as these do, so do not spend your effort haggling over $10.

How do you use the success fee crossover in practice?

The crossover table is useful when you are choosing between a percentage fee and a flat plan. A practical way to use it is in three steps.

1. Estimate monthly recovered dollars. Disputes x your win rate x average order. If you have no win rate, use half as a planning figure.
2. Find the row for the fee you are offered. For example, 25%.
3. Compare with the flat plan columns. If your recovered dollars exceed the number shown, the flat plan is cheaper.

If you are close to the line, look at your busiest month, not your average. A success fee looks fine in a quiet month and painful in a busy one, and a flat plan does the reverse. Our guide to flat fee versus percentage chargeback apps shows this across volumes.

What if the tool costs more than it saves?

Then do not buy it. That is what the break-even point is for.

The most common reasons for a negative result are low volume, low order value and a high hourly estimate you do not really bill. In those cases a free plan or Shopify's own form is the better answer. Our guide on whether a chargeback app is worth it has a scorecard that shows where you land.

If the numbers are close, buy the cheapest plan that covers your busy month, run it for 30 days in Manual mode and compare with your baseline. A month is a cheap test. A wrong yearly plan is not. Write down your baseline before you start, so the comparison at the end of the month rests on numbers and not on memory. Include minutes per response, how many disputes you won and lost, and any deadline you came close to missing. Then compare like with like: the same reason codes and similar order values.

How do break-even points change with each fee model?

A summary table helps. It shows the shape of each model, not exact dollars.

Fee model	Break-even behavior
Free plan	No break-even needed. Limited by allowance
Flat monthly plan	Fixed cost. Break-even falls as volume or order value rise
Success fee, uncapped	Cost rises with recovery. Never "pays for itself" the way a flat plan does, since cost scales with benefit
Success fee, capped	Behaves like a percentage until the cap, then like a flat fee per case
Per alert or per scan	Pays off only when each alert saves more than it costs
Hybrid, small monthly plus share	Between the two

The key insight is that a success fee has no true break-even in the usual sense. You pay a fixed share of every dollar recovered, so you can never be net negative on the fee itself. What you can do is overpay relative to a flat plan, which is what the crossover table shows. That is a different question from whether the tool is worth having at all.

Common mistakes when calculating break-even

• Using one scenario. Run a low, a middle and a high case.
• Treating total recovery as the tool's gain. Only extra wins count.
• Ignoring the next tier. Know where the allowance ends.
• Overvaluing time. Use a realistic hourly figure.
• Forgetting alerts and scans cost extra. They are separate products.
• Comparing only price. Compare cost per recovered dollar and the hours saved.
• Not revisiting. Volume and prices move. Recheck each quarter.

What we checked, and what you should check

We read the Shopify App Store listings and vendor pages for the plans quoted, the Chargeflow pricing page and Redo's published articles on 30 October 2026. We attribute Redo's figures because it sells competing products. The crossover between capped and uncapped fees is our own derivation. Before you rely on a number, confirm these.

• The live plan price and allowance.
• The base on which any percentage is charged.
• Your own minutes per dispute, measured.
• Your own history of wins and losses.

Frequently asked questions

What is the break-even point for a chargeback app?

It is the volume or number of extra wins at which the app has earned back its cost. For a $19 plan and a $30 hourly value, the time-only break-even is about 2 disputes a month. On $100 orders, 2 extra wins a year cover the same plan.

How do I calculate the break-even point for my store?

Divide the plan price by the value of the time each dispute saves, and separately divide the yearly cost by the value of one win, which is the order plus the $15 fee. Compare both with your own volume and history. Our recovery calculator runs the win side with your numbers.

How many disputes a month make a $19 plan worthwhile?

At $30 an hour and 22 minutes saved per dispute, about 2. At $15 an hour, about 4. At $60 an hour, 1. If a free plan covers your first disputes, add the free allowance to those numbers, because the paid plan only has to beat the free one.

When does a 25% success fee cost more than a flat plan?

When you recover more than about $76 a month compared with a $19 plan, or $196 compared with a $49 plan. If you win half of your disputes on $100 orders, that is about 2 and 4 disputes a month. Past those points a flat plan is cheaper.

Should I count every win as the app's gain?

No. Only count extra wins, the ones you would not have had without the tool. If you already win half by hand, those wins do not count as the tool's work. Using total recovery as the gain overstates the benefit, often by a wide margin.

How much time does a chargeback app save?

Redo estimates 20 to 45 minutes to assemble a dispute by hand. A tool can turn that into a review of 5 to 10 minutes. Time your own responses with a stopwatch, because the break-even moves a lot with those two numbers.

Does a break-even point include the $15 Shopify fee?

Yes, on wins. When you win, the $15 dispute fee comes back, so a win is worth the order value plus $15. When you lose, the fee is gone and no tool changes that. Success fees such as Chargeflow's exclude the dispute fee from the percentage, so the fee comes back whole.

What if my break-even is never reached?

Then a free plan or Shopify's own form is the better choice. Low volume, low order values and a low value on your time all push break-even out of reach. That is a useful result, because it saves you the monthly fee and tells you when to check again.

Does reaching break-even lower my dispute ratio?

No. Break-even measures money and time recovered after disputes are filed. The ratio counts disputes when they are filed, whether you win or lose. Lowering it takes prevention and early refunds, which are separate from response tools and priced separately.

Start free trial with ChargeFix

If your break-even looks reachable, ChargeFix starts free, moves to flat monthly plans as you grow and never takes a cut of what you win, so your break-even only has to cover a fixed price. It checks your evidence item by item, tells you honestly whether a case is worth fighting and drafts a letter from your real records. Nothing goes to the bank until you say so. It works with Shopify Payments, and paid plans include a 14-day free trial.

Start free trial

Sources

• Chargeflow pricing
• Redo: the best chargeback software for Shopify, by fees and win rate
• Redo: chargeback recovery for Shopify, what you actually keep after fees
• Shopify Help Center: overview of the chargeback and inquiry process
• Shopify Help Center: fraud and dispute monitoring programs
• DisputeDesk on the Shopify App Store
• Chargeback Buddy on the Shopify App Store
• Paidback on the Shopify App Store