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TL;DR
Skool's transaction fee is 2.9% on every member payment that runs through the platform. This is separate from Stripe's standard processing fee (typically 2.9% + $0.30 for US cards, ~3.9% for international cards). Both fees come out of every charge before money lands in your bank account. So a member paying $99/month nets you roughly $93 after the combined ~6% fees. There's also a flat $99/month operator subscription that you pay regardless of revenue. The transaction fee doesn't go down at scale — Skool charges 2.9% whether your community does $1k MRR or $100k MRR. There's no enterprise tier, no negotiated rate, and no volume discount. The fee is unusual among community platforms in that most competitors either bundle payment processing into a higher monthly fee or charge a smaller percentage. Skool's bet is that operators prefer the lower flat fee even with the 2.9% on top. For most operators under $20k MRR, the math works out fine. Past that, the percentage starts to matter.
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What the transaction fee actually is
Every time a member pays — initial signup, monthly renewal, upgrade — Skool takes 2.9% of the gross amount as a platform fee. The fee is automatic, deducted from the Stripe payout before the money reaches your bank. You'll see it in Stripe's dashboard as a 'Skool platform fee' or similar line item on each transaction. This is in addition to Stripe's own processing fee. The 2.9% applies to: initial subscriptions, recurring renewals, upgrade differential charges (when a member upgrades to a higher tier), and any one-time charges (some operators sell add-on products through Skool). The fee does not apply to: refunds (when you refund, the platform fee is also reversed), Stripe's handling of disputes (the disputed amount is held by Stripe), or your $99/month operator subscription itself. The fee is documented clearly on Skool's pricing page and isn't hidden — but operators who don't read carefully sometimes miss it because the marketing emphasizes the $99/month flat rate.
The math at common price points
Run the numbers on a $99/month member subscription. Stripe takes $99 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $3.17. Skool takes $99 × 2.9% = $2.87. Net to you: $99 - $3.17 - $2.87 = $92.96. So about 6.1% of the gross goes to fees on a typical US-card transaction. On a $29/month subscription: Stripe takes $29 × 2.9% + $0.30 = $1.14. Skool takes $0.84. Net: $27.02 — about 6.8% in fees because the flat $0.30 hits smaller transactions harder. On a $499/month high-ticket: Stripe takes about $14.77, Skool takes $14.47, net $469.76 — about 5.9% in combined fees. The pattern: smaller subscriptions pay slightly higher effective fee rates because of Stripe's flat $0.30. International cards add another ~1% via Stripe's international card surcharge. Currency conversion adds another fee if your bank is in a different currency than the charge. Annual subscriptions reduce the relative impact of the $0.30 flat fee but the percentage stays the same.
Stripe's separate fee — the part newcomers miss
First-time Skool operators sometimes assume the 2.9% transaction fee is the only payment-related cost. It isn't. Stripe charges its own processing fee on every charge — 2.9% + $0.30 for US-issued cards on Stripe's standard plan, with international cards at ~3.9% + $0.30, and currency conversions adding another 1% if applicable. Stripe's fee is non-negotiable for most accounts; only very high-volume Stripe accounts (typically $80k+/month) qualify for negotiated rates. Skool itself can't change Stripe's fee. So when you're modeling your community economics, factor in both fees. The combined ~6% is closer to a real-world payment cost than the marketing-friendly '2.9% Skool fee'. Stripe also handles taxes (via Stripe Tax, an add-on that costs an additional 0.5% per calculated transaction). EU operators dealing with VAT typically need Stripe Tax, which pushes total payment-side fees toward 6.5–7%. None of this is hidden but it adds up.
Cost at scale
The 2.9% Skool fee scales linearly with revenue. At $5k MRR, Skool's transaction fee is about $145/month. At $20k MRR, it's $580/month. At $100k MRR, it's $2,900/month. Add Stripe's roughly equivalent fee on top and you're looking at combined payment fees of $580 / $2,320 / $11,600 monthly at those revenue points. For most operators, even $11k/month in fees is acceptable as long as the platform delivers value — but at that scale, some operators look at custom solutions (own Stripe checkout, separate community access platform) where the fee structure is just Stripe's ~2.9% with no platform overhead. The break-even calculation typically lands around $50k–$100k MRR depending on how much engineering time the operator can invest in a custom setup. Below $50k MRR, paying Skool's fee is almost always cheaper than building and maintaining a custom payments + community platform. The trade-off is the standard one: rent the platform vs. own it.
How Skool's fee compares to alternatives
Circle.so charges no per-transaction fee on their higher-tier plans but the monthly subscription is significantly higher than Skool's $99 (Circle's Pro plan is $99/month and Business is $360/month, with payments features bundled in). Mighty Networks charges 0% on premium plans starting at higher monthly prices. Kajabi bundles community with courses and email at higher monthly costs. Patreon charges 5–12% depending on tier plus payment processing. Substack charges 10% plus Stripe. Discord with paid Patreon integration involves Patreon's fee plus Stripe. The honest comparison: Skool's combined ~6% (2.9% Skool + ~2.9% Stripe) is competitive once you factor in Skool's lower flat $99/month price. For low-MRR communities, the lower flat rate makes Skool cheaper overall. For very-high-MRR communities, platforms with no transaction fees and higher flat rates can come out ahead because the percentage of every dollar adds up. Most operators don't switch platforms because of fees alone — switching costs (members re-onboarding, content migration) usually outweigh the fee delta.
Planning around the fee
Three practical adjustments. One: price for the fee. If you want $99 in your bank, charge $105 to net roughly $99 after combined fees. Most members don't notice $5–$10 differences in monthly community pricing. Two: reduce churn instead of negotiating fees. Saving 2 percentage points on churn rate is worth more than saving 1 percentage point on the transaction fee — the fee is a flat cost on all revenue, but churn compounds against your future revenue. tools4skool's Churn Saver firing inside 60 seconds of failed payments and Auto DM Sequences for onboarding are higher-leverage levers than fee optimization. Three: think long-term about the platform decision. If you're committed to Skool, the fee is fine. If you might migrate later, build your customer relationships outside Skool too — your email list and your direct touchpoints with members shouldn't all live inside one platform. That way migration is possible if the math eventually changes.
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