Service Fee
Sway charges its service fee to the buyer, not to you. It is added to every paid ticket at checkout, so on a standard card the price you set is the price you receive. This page explains how the fee is worked out, where buyers see it, and the one case where it costs you something: a card Stripe charges more for.
How the fee is worked out
3% of the ticket price, plus €0.30, on each paid ticket, rounded to the cent. The rate is the same on Basic, Starter and Studio.
| Ticket price | Service fee | The buyer pays |
|---|---|---|
| €5.00 | €0.45 | €5.45 |
| €10.00 | €0.60 | €10.60 |
| €24.00 | €1.02 | €25.02 |
| €50.00 | €1.80 | €51.80 |
| €100.00 | €3.30 | €103.30 |
- Each ticket carries its own fee. Four €24 tickets in one order carry four fees, €4.08 in all.
- A bundle is one purchase. A type sold with Tickets per purchase above 1 carries a single fee, worked out on the bundle price: a pair at €40 carries €1.50, not two fees. See Sell several tickets in one purchase.
- Free tickets carry no fee, whatever else is in the order.
- Roster promoters can have a negotiated rate. Every screen that shows the fee uses it.
What the buyer sees
On the event page, each ticket type shows its price with the fee included, and the fee on the line below it: a €24 ticket reads 25.02 EUR, then incl. 1.02 EUR in fees. Free ticket types show their price alone.
The order summary lists each line at that price, and the total carries the note Includes fees. The i beside it opens the breakdown: Ticket price, Service fees*, the discount if a code is applied, and Total, with a footnote saying the fee applies to each paid ticket and is not refundable. The Stripe payment page shows the fee as its own line, Frais de service.
In the Sway app the fee is worked out by the server as well, so the app and the website always show the same amount.
Preview the fee on a ticket type
The ticket editor shows the fee while you type the price. Under Price (€), in both the Add ticket dialog and the edit dialog, a line reads for example The buyer pays €25.02, including €1.02 service fee. It uses the rate of the promoter who gets paid for the event, negotiated rate included. The line is empty on a free ticket type. See Ticket Types.
What you receive
The sale is a direct charge on your Stripe account. Stripe takes its processing fee from your account, and Sway takes the rest of the service fee as its application fee. The service fee is sized so that, on a card issued in the European Economic Area (EEA) at Stripe's standard rate, the two cancel out and you receive the ticket price in full.
On a €24 ticket paid with a standard EEA card:
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| The buyer pays | €25.02 |
| Stripe's fee (1.5% + €0.25) | €0.63 |
| Sway's application fee | €0.39 |
| You receive | €24.00 |
A tip a buyer adds at checkout carries no service fee, and Sway takes nothing on it. Stripe's card fee on it comes out of what you receive, about 1.5% on a standard European card. See Tips and Donations.
When Stripe charges more
Some payments cost more at Stripe, and you pay the difference. Stripe charges a higher rate for a premium card, a business card, a card issued outside the EEA, a payment that needs a currency conversion, and some payment methods that have their own pricing. The buyer pays the same total either way; the extra comes out of your payout, and Sway does not make it up.
The reason is the cards themselves. The European cap on interchange fees (Regulation (EU) 2015/751) covers consumer cards issued and used within the EEA. It does not cover business cards or cards issued elsewhere, so the banks and card networks behind them charge Stripe more, and Stripe passes it on. Stripe publishes its current rates on its pricing page.
As an example, at Stripe's Belgian rates in September 2026 a premium EEA card costs 2.8% + €0.25: on the same €24 ticket Stripe takes €0.95 instead of €0.63, and you receive €23.68.
Refunds and coupons
The service fee is not refunded. When you refund an order, the buyer gets the ticket price back; the fee covered a payment and a ticket that already happened. See Orders.
A coupon does not shrink the fee. The fee is worked out from the ticket prices before the code is applied, so the discount comes off your side of the sale. See Coupons.
The older per-order fee
A few promoters keep the fee Sway charged before 30 September 2026: a share of the order plus a fixed amount, added once per order rather than per ticket. On their events the ticket list shows the ticket price alone, the total still includes the fee, and the footnote says the fee is charged once per order. Under Price (€) the ticket editor reads The service fee is added once per order at checkout, since the amount depends on the whole basket.
Where the rest lives
| For | Go to |
|---|---|
| Creating and pricing ticket types | Ticket Types |
| Discount codes | Coupons |
| Payments, refunds and payouts per order | Orders |
| The Stripe account that receives the money | Connect Payouts |
Promoter coupons
Create one discount code that works on every event your promoter page is paid for, instead of repeating the same coupon on each event.
Tips and Donations
Let buyers add an optional tip to their ticket order in the Sway web app: who can offer it, how to turn it on for a promoter or for one event, what the buyer sees, coupons, refunds, fees and taxes.