When a customer buys from your store, the only fee that comes out of that sale is the card rate on your plan. That rate is all-in. It is all you pay to accept payments, with nothing billed separately by our payments partner, no listing fees and no charge for the work your AI teammates do. You can move to a plan with a lower rate whenever you are ready.

Minicart's free plan is generous on purpose. You get real access to every AI teammate, a live storefront, products, collections, pages, orders and checkout, with no monthly fee. There is no obligation to subscribe. For a lot of small sellers that is the point. When sales come in bursts rather than every week, a monthly fee is hard to justify. The free plan lets you sell whenever you feel like it and pay nothing in between.

Subscribing is worth it when you would rather have the lower rate. Paid plans start at 2.9% + 30¢ a sale instead of 6% + 30¢, so the busier you get the more sense they make.

Online card rates cover standard Visa, Mastercard and Discover payments, which is most of what you will see. Premium card rates cover American Express and other premium card networks. The extra 1% applies only when the card was issued outside the US.

The percentage applies to the order total, so it includes shipping and tax rather than just the price of the items.

Say a customer buys a $100 item with $8 shipping and $10 tax. The order total is $118. Here is where every part of it ends up, with the card fee at the Assistant rate and a shipping label bought through Minicart.

The $8 for shipping lands in your payout balance along with the rest of your proceeds. Buying the label is a separate charge on your card on file.

The above example was on the Assistant plan. On the Free plan the card fee would be $7.38 instead, so your payout balance would be $100.62, leaving your store $92.62 once the $8 label is paid for.

The card fee is never billed to you separately. It comes out of the sale before your proceeds reach you. See How payouts work for when that money lands.

Every paid plan drops your rate. If you are selling steadily the lower rate can pay for the plan by itself.

Compare plans or switch under Settings > Subscriptions in the left sidebar. See Manage your plan and billing.

A new order is held rather than charged straight away. The card is only charged when you fulfill it, so if you cancel before then the hold is released and no money ever moves. There is no fee at all. See View and fulfill an order.

When you refund an order your customer gets their money back, tax included. The card fee from the original sale is not returned. That is our payments partner's policy on any payment that has already been charged. See Issue a refund or handle a return.

Refunds come out of your payout balance. If there is not much sitting there the balance can dip below zero, which is normal and usually settles itself as your next sales come in. If no more sales follow we may debit your bank account for the difference. You can see your balance any time under Settings > Payouts or just ask Sloane.

Now and then a customer disputes a charge with their bank instead of asking you for a refund. This is also called a chargeback. When it happens the disputed amount is held back right away and Stripe charges a $15 dispute fee.

Minicart responds to disputes on your behalf, so there is no paperwork for you to file. Sometimes we need something only you have, like proof of delivery or what was agreed with the customer. We will email you for it. Getting back to us quickly helps, because banks set firm deadlines.

You will see a dispute on the order itself.