Thinkific · third-party gateway fees in dollars · USD · United States, Canada, UK, and EU where noted

Thinkific third-party gateway fees, by plan, in dollars not percents

Updated August 29, 2026 · Official pricing, cost, and gateway-fee pages fetched this evening. If a number is missing below, we could not cite it.

Keep Stripe on Thinkific and you pay 5% on Basic, 2% on Start, 1% on Grow — a tax on using your own processor. Here is that cut in dollars at $97, $497, and $2,000. Same job as Teachable transaction fees, other vendor.

Who this page is for

Experts who already have an offer, who are staring at Thinkific’s public pricing page, and who need the 5/2/1% Stripe tax in money rather than another percent table. It is not a review of Thinkific as a school. It is the fee line, expanded. The vendor page is Thinkific (2026).

Arithmetic uses the official rates. The dollar columns assume the listed price is the transaction value with no tax added. We do not invent a tax rate. Stripe’s own processing is omitted — that schedule is Stripe’s, not Thinkific’s. The 5/2/1% is Thinkific’s add on top.

Two different fees

The 5/2/1% in dollars

Thinkific’s third-party gateway cut only. No Stripe processing yet. Base = listed price, no tax. Official rates: 5.0% Basic / 2.0% Start / 1.0% Grow. Expand 0.5% and Plus “no fee at this time” are in the FAQ table; Expand is not a current public card, so it is not a column below.

5% of $97 = $4.85. 2% of $97 = $1.94. 1% of $97 = $0.97. 5% of $497 = $24.85. 2% of $497 = $9.94. 1% of $497 = $4.97. 5% of $2,000 = $100.00. 2% of $2,000 = $40.00. 1% of $2,000 = $20.00. Plus: no fee at this time (FAQ). Expand 0.5% is in the FAQ and the August 2026 increase article ($499/mo, unchanged) — not a current public card, so no Expand dollar column.

Thinkific Payments at the public 2.9% headline

On Thinkific Payments there is no third-party gateway fee. Pricing FAQ tonight: “When using our built-in processor, Thinkific Payments, we offer pricing in line with other processors like Stripe and Paypal at 2.9%.” That is a headline, not a full US schedule, and not +$0.30. Cost article: typical processors charge around 2.9%+$0.30 — that sentence is “most payment processors,” not a Thinkific Payments US card we cite as exact. Arithmetic below is 2.9% of listed price only.

2.9% of $97 = $2.813 → $2.81. 2.9% of $497 = $14.413 → $14.41. 2.9% of $2,000 = $58.00. The Stripe-tax columns are Thinkific’s add only. Stripe’s own processing sits on top of those columns and is omitted. Combined “total you keep” dollars are omitted because we will not invent Stripe’s schedule as Thinkific’s.

Basic vs Start, still in dollars

Public prices after August 13, 2026: Basic $54/mo monthly, $40/mo annual (save $173). Start $109/mo monthly, $82/mo annual (save $330). Gap: $55/mo month-to-month, $42/mo on the advertised annual rates.

If you keep Stripe, Basic’s extra 3 points of tax (5% vs Start’s 2%) has to recoup that gap before Basic is “cheaper” as a Stripe plan. Arithmetic on the no-tax bases above, Thinkific’s gateway cut only (Stripe processing is on both plans):

• $97 sales. Extra on Basic vs Start = $4.85 − $1.94 = $2.91 per charge. Nineteen such charges = $55.29, which already exceeds the $55 monthly gap. Fifteen charges = $43.65, which exceeds the $42 annual gap. A slow month of a $97 offer does not make Stripe-on-Basic the cheap plan versus Start — and live cohorts still sit on Start.
• $497 sales. Extra on Basic = $24.85 − $9.94 = $14.91. Four sales = $59.64 — over the monthly gap. Three sales = $44.73 — over the annual gap. Two $497 seats in a month have not quite paid the monthly gap; three have.
• $2,000 sales. Extra on Basic = $100.00 − $40.00 = $60.00. One sale exceeds both gaps before Stripe’s own fee is paid.

That is not a break-even forecast. Refunds, tax-inclusive bases, and the $1M cap change the dollar. It is the official 5% vs 2% applied to three prices a real offer actually uses. The other fork is simpler: move the checkout to Thinkific Payments and the 5/2/1% is $0. Then you are paying the 2.9% headline, not a platform tax on top of Stripe.

Start is also the live-cohort plan. Do not buy Start only to dodge 3 points of tax if the program is a recording — Thinkific Payments on Basic is the fee move. Do not sit on Basic and expect Start’s Zoom row. That fork is Thinkific vs Kajabi for cohort / live programs.

Cited plan numbers, August 29, 2026

USD. From thinkific.com/pricing this evening (curl 200; WebFetch timed out). Plus is a sales conversation, not a public dollar card. Current students, official definition on the pricing grid: unique students who currently have unexpired access to at least one course on your site.

Sources: thinkific.com/pricing, How much does Thinkific cost?, Third-party payment gateway fee FAQ. HTML for pricing was fetched August 29, 2026 (WebFetch timed out; curl from this machine returned 200). Gateway FAQ: curl 200 tonight.

Cash you do not see on the pricing cards

• Stripe’s own processing. Cost article: typically around 2.9%+$0.30, varies by country. Omitted as a Thinkific dollar because it is Stripe’s schedule. You pay it and the 5/2/1% if you keep Stripe in the listed regions.
• 0.5% Sales Tax and VAT Solution on Thinkific Payments for US/CA/UK/EU purchases where tax is applicable (gateway FAQ). Not the Stripe tax. Not added to the tables. We did not invent a tax-inclusive base.
• Apple Pay / Google Pay / BNPL native fee schedules. Pricing FAQ: those transaction fees vary and points at another help article. Not extracted as a public grid this fetch.
• The $1M cap. After $1M of calendar-year sales through Thinkific, the third-party gateway fee is waived. Below that line, the percents above apply. We are not forecasting your year.
• Cross-border fees on the Thinkific subscription itself. Cost article: Thinkific is a Canadian company; your card network may add a small international fee (usually less than $1.00). Charged by the merchant provider, not Thinkific. Not a per-sale dollar in the tables.

Who should not keep Stripe on Basic

Anyone whose next twelve months include a real paid offer, who is in the US, Canada, the UK, or the listed EU countries, and who will not move checkout to Thinkific Payments. A $97 product that sells nineteen times in a month has already spent the Start gap in extra gateway tax versus Start-plus-Stripe. A $2,000 consulting invoice spends the monthly gap on the first sale — $100 on Basic vs $40 on Start, Thinkific’s cut only.

The honest fee moves, if you are staying on Thinkific:

• Thinkific Payments on Basic if the offer is a recorded library. The 5% becomes $0. You pay the 2.9% headline, not a platform tax on top of Stripe. Public Basic is $54 / $40.
• Start if the work is a dated group or a paid membership — live cohorts sit here anyway. Stripe tax drops to 2%. Or use Thinkific Payments and skip the tax.
• Grow if you need the Thinkific logo gone, three communities, group orders, invoicing, PayPal, or the API. Stripe tax drops to 1%.
• Plus if you need SCORM, SSO, or more than 10,000 current students. No third-party fee at this time. Custom price. Talk to sales.

If you needed Kajabi or Teachable instead, the 5/2/1% is not their product. Kajabi Payments: no extra platform percentage; US card on Basic 2.9%+$0.30. Keep Stripe on a new Kajabi plan: 2% / 1% / 0.5%. Teachable Starter: 7.5% of total transaction value; Builder 0% on teachable:pay. Those hosts are compared on Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific. Teachable’s cut in dollars: Teachable transaction fees.

Visit Thinkific

Thinkific affiliate slot — not live Teachable affiliate slot — not live

Thinkific buttons are official product and help URLs only. Kajabi’s trial box and visit button use the 30-day trial affiliate, justinwise.net/kajabi, for readers who leave Thinkific over the Stripe tax — official Kajabi pricing remains the source for Kajabi numbers. The Kajabi pricing button is a pricing-page affiliate. No invented Thinkific affiliate.

Omitted on purpose

• Exact Thinkific Payments US schedule beyond the public 2.9% FAQ line. The cost article points at a country fee table; we cite the 2.9% headline and the third-party percentages from official help. We did not invent 2.9%+$0.30 as Thinkific’s native US rate, and we did not add Stripe’s schedule into a “total” column.
• Thinkific public Expand plan card. The August 2026 increase article prices Expand at $499/mo, unchanged, and lists a 0.5% third-party fee on Expand. Current pricing page plan cards are Basic / Start / Grow / Plus. No Expand dollar column in the sale tables.
• Full EUR / GBP and legacy Pro / Fixed Growth dollar tables. They are on the official August 13, 2026 update page. This fees page uses USD public cards plus the 5/2/1% FAQ.
• A tax-inclusive dollar table. We did not invent a sales-tax rate to inflate $97 / $497 / $2,000. The 0.5% native tax solution is named, not multiplied through.
• A break-even month presented as advice. The nineteen-$97 / four-$497 / one-$2,000 arithmetic is the 5% vs 2% applied to those prices. Refunds, the $1M cap, and tax change it.
• Apple Pay / Google Pay / BNPL native fee schedules. Pricing FAQ: those transaction fees vary. Not extracted as a public grid this fetch.
• Keyword volumes, “Thinkific is expensive” listicles as pricing sources, and anything that documents your method for you.

Sources

1. Thinkific pricing — Basic $54/$40 (save $173), Start $109/$82 (save $330), Grow $219/$164 (save $660); Plus talk to sales; 10,000 current students on named plans (definition: unique students who currently have unexpired access to at least one course); branded app add-on $199/mo; 30-day trial, no free plan; native FAQ 2.9%; third-party gateway fee applies and varies per plan, with a link to the FAQ; annual save 25%. HTML fetched August 29, 2026 (WebFetch timed out; curl 200).
2. How much does Thinkific cost? — third-party gateway 5.0% / 2.0% / 1.0% / 0.5% / no fee on Plus; $1M/year cap; Thinkific Payments avoids the fee; typical processor language 2.9%+$0.30 is “most payment processors,” not a Thinkific Payments US card we cited as exact; cross-border subscription fee usually less than $1.00, charged by the card network. Fetched August 29, 2026.
3. Third-party payment gateway fee FAQ — Stripe fee in US/Canada/UK (July 3, 2024) and listed EU countries (November 6, 2024); same plan percentages; $1M cap; Plus excluded at this time; 0.5% Sales Tax and VAT Solution on Thinkific Payments for US/CA/UK/EU where tax is applicable; fee does not apply if TCommerce is unavailable in your country; Free plans require Thinkific Payments in those regions. Fetched August 29, 2026 (curl 200).
4. Thinkific’s 2026 plan pricing update — ~10% increase August 13, 2026; Basic $49→$54, Start $99→$109, Grow $199→$219; Expand unchanged at $499/mo. Cited from the same-night Thinkific vendor-page fetch. Public cards tonight already show the new rates.
5. Teachable pricing and Teachable Pay — Starter 7.5% / Builder 0% on teachable:pay; US card 2.9%+$0.30. Cited only as the other-vendor fees page, not re-priced here. Same-night page: Teachable transaction fees.
6. Kajabi pricing — public Basic $179/$143; Kajabi Payments 2.9%+$0.30; 3rd-party 2%/1%/0.5%. Cited as the OS alternative. Same-night vendor page: Kajabi (2026).