Authorize.net publishes its prices, which is more than most gateways do. The confusion comes from what the price page does not say: on the plan most long-time merchants use, Authorize.net is only half the bill. This page lists the published 2026 fees, explains the missing half, and works through what real merchants pay.
Authorize.net published pricing, 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Per transaction | Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gateway Only | $25 | 10¢ | 10¢ daily batch fee. Processing billed separately by your merchant account provider. |
| All-in-One | $25 | 2.9% + 30¢ | Processing included. Batch fee included. |
| Gateway + eCheck | $25 | 10¢ per card transaction; 0.75% per eCheck | 10¢ daily batch fee. $10 minimum monthly eCheck fee. |
Additional published items: no setup fee, no early termination fee, Account Updater $0.25 per update, eCheck returned item $3.00, eCheck chargeback $25.00. Source: authorize.net pricing page, retrieved September 2026.
Authorize.net also sells through resellers, and a reseller can wrap the gateway fee into a processing agreement at a different price. If your gateway fee is not $25, you are on a reseller plan and should check that agreement’s term and cancellation clause.
The half that is not on the price page
Gateway Only means exactly that. Authorize.net moves the transaction to your processor. The processor and its acquiring bank charge interchange (set by Visa, Mastercard, Discover and Amex), plus their own markup, plus their own monthly fees. That is a second bill from a second company.
Typical processor charges behind an Authorize.net gateway-only account:
- Interchange: 1.5% to 2.6% depending on card type, unavoidable with any provider.
- Processor markup: 0.2% to 1.0% plus 5¢ to 15¢ per item, depending on how the account was sold.
- Monthly: statement fee, PCI fee, annual fee, sometimes a “gateway access” fee that duplicates Authorize.net’s own.
Merchants who were sold Authorize.net five or ten years ago through a web developer or a bank often have never seen the processing side re-priced. That is the account where the savings live.
What it adds up to
Three merchants, all on Gateway Only with a separate processor at a middle-of-the-road 2.4% + 10¢ effective processing cost. Batch fee assumes 22 settlement days.
| 200 transactions, $15,000 volume | 500 transactions, $50,000 volume | 2,000 transactions, $180,000 volume | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Authorize.net monthly | $25 | $25 | $25 |
| Authorize.net per-transaction (10¢) | $20 | $50 | $200 |
| Authorize.net batch (10¢ x 22) | $2.20 | $2.20 | $2.20 |
| Authorize.net total | $47.20 | $77.20 | $227.20 |
| Processing at 2.4% + 10¢ | $380 | $1,250 | $4,520 |
| All-in monthly | $427 | $1,327 | $4,747 |
| All-in effective rate | 2.85% | 2.65% | 2.64% |
The gateway is 4% to 11% of the total. The processor is the rest. When merchants tell us “Authorize.net is expensive,” what they are usually looking at is the combined bill, and the fix is on the processing side, whether or not the gateway changes.
When Authorize.net’s own pricing is fine
- You are on All-in-One, do under about $10,000 a month, and the 2.9% + 30¢ is simple and predictable.
- Your software only supports Authorize.net and switching would mean re-integrating.
- You depend on Authorize.net-specific features (its fraud filters, its hosted form, its Account Updater) and have tuned them.
In those cases the move is to re-price the processing behind the gateway, not to replace the gateway.
When it is not
- You are gateway-only, above $10,000 a month, and have not had the processing re-quoted in years.
- You invoice or bill recurring and are paying 3.5% keyed rates through the processor.
- You take cards in person too, and the in-person side could run dual pricing at $0 through a modern terminal.
- You are paying a reseller price for the gateway that is higher than $25.
For those, the Authorize.net alternatives comparison covers gateways with the same integrations and a lower total, and switching from Authorize.net covers how stored cards move.
How to read your Authorize.net bill
Log in to the merchant interface, go to Account, then Statements. The gateway statement shows the monthly fee, transaction count times 10¢, and batch count times 10¢. It does not show interchange or processor markup; those are on the statement from the merchant account provider named in your Authorize.net settings under Merchant Profile. If you do not know who that is, we can identify it from the descriptor on your bank deposits. Text a photo of either statement and we will send back the combined effective rate.