Organizer Fees

You can add a small fee to your ticket price to help cover your operating costs — most often Stripe's payment-processing fee. Equaticket does not take a cut of this fee. It flows entirely to your connected Stripe account as part of your ticket revenue.

This article covers what an Organizer Fee is, the three pricing modes, how caps and approval work, and how the fee interacts with sales tax, promo codes, and refunds.

What an Organizer Fee is (and isn't)

It's a transparent, organizer-set fee shown to buyers as a separate line item labeled "Organizer fee." It is added on top of your ticket price.

It's not a platform fee. Equaticket does not charge per-ticket platform fees. Every checkout summary, confirmation email, and order detail page shows an "Equaticket platform fee: $0.00" line so buyers can see that — even when an Organizer Fee is shown.

It's not a credit-card surcharge. The fee must apply equally regardless of how the buyer pays. Describing or marketing it as a "card fee," "credit card surcharge," or any payment-method-specific charge is not allowed under the organizer terms of service.

The three pricing modes

When you open the Organizer Fee section in the event editor, you'll see three options:

Mode A — All-in pricing (Recommended)

The ticket price you set is what buyers pay (before tax). No separate fee line. This is the cleanest experience for buyers and is what we recommend in most cases.

General Admission        $82.00
Sales Tax (Texas)         $6.77
────────────────────────────────
Total                    $88.77

Mode B — Estimate payment processing recovery

Equaticket calculates a suggested fee that approximately offsets Stripe's processing cost per ticket, using your Stripe account's country to pick the right base rate.

For a $78 ticket on a U.S. Stripe account, Equaticket suggests $2.64 — sized so that after Stripe takes 2.9% + $0.30 on the full charge ($78 + $2.64 = $80.64), you net exactly $78.00.

General Admission        $78.00
Organizer fee             $2.64
Sales Tax (Texas)         $6.44
────────────────────────────────
Total                    $87.08

Mode B is currently available only for U.S.-based Stripe accounts. If your account is based elsewhere, you'll see a note directing you to Mode C.

This is an estimate — actual Stripe processing costs may be higher for international cards (4.4% + $0.30) or disputes ($15 flat). If you want more headroom, use Mode C.

Mode C — Custom organizer fee

Set your own fee. Three sub-types:

Fixed amount per ticket — flat dollar amount, e.g. $1.50 per ticket.
Percentage of ticket price — e.g. 4% of the ticket price.
Percentage + fixed — e.g. 3% + $0.50.

The fee is added on top of your ticket price. Caps apply (see below).

Caps and approval

To prevent fee fatigue, Equaticket caps the effective fee per ticket. Caps are evaluated per ticket type based on that type's price — if any ticket type exceeds the cap, the entire event requires approval.

Auto-approval cap

The auto-approval cap is the greater of:

The estimated processing recovery for that ticket price, or
8% of the ticket price.

If your fee is within this cap, you can publish immediately.

Manual review threshold

If your fee is above the auto-approval cap but no more than the lesser of (15% of ticket price, $10.00), you can save the event but cannot publish it until Equaticket approves the fee. You'll see a message in the editor: "This fee exceeds Equaticket's standard limit for this ticket price. You can save the event, but it won't be publishable until approved." Request approval from the dashboard; Equaticket will email you with the decision.

Maximum limit

Fees above 15% of the ticket price (or above $10.00 absolute) are not permitted. The save will be blocked with: "This fee exceeds Equaticket's maximum limit. Please reduce it to continue."

What invalidates an approval

If you change your fee config or your ticket prices after approval, the approval is automatically reset to "pending" and you'll need to request approval again. This is intentional — a $5 fee is fine on a $100 ticket but excessive on a $10 ticket, so changing prices changes the effective percentage.

Free tickets

You cannot configure an Organizer Fee on a free ($0) ticket type. If all your ticket types are free, you'll see an error and need to either set a paid price first or use All-in pricing. For mixed free + paid events, the fee applies only to paid types.

Sales tax interaction

In the Organizer Fee section, when sales tax is also configured, you'll see a toggle:

No — tax on ticket price only (default). Sales tax is calculated on the ticket subtotal only. This is the simpler default and matches how most ticketing platforms treat service charges.
Yes — tax on ticket price and fee. Sales tax is calculated on the combined ticket + fee. Use this if your tax advisor tells you the Organizer Fee is part of the taxable sales price in your jurisdiction.

Equaticket does not determine your tax obligations. In some states (notably New York and Minnesota), mandatory service charges attached to admissions may themselves be taxable. Consult a tax advisor for your specific situation. You are responsible for remitting all collected taxes to the appropriate authority.

Promo discounts apply to the displayed ticket subtotal only. The Organizer Fee is calculated on the original (pre-discount) ticket price.

This protects you from a promo code (e.g. 50% off) silently halving your cost recovery. The buyer sees a note next to the fee line at checkout: "Organizer fee is based on the original ticket price."

Refunds

When a ticket is refunded, the Organizer Fee associated with that ticket is refunded in full along with the ticket price. This is not optional — it applies to every refund regardless of your refund policy. The refunded amount uses the exact fee snapshotted on the order at purchase time, so changing your fee config later doesn't affect old refunds.

Advertising compliance

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's fee-transparency rule (effective May 12, 2025) requires that all mandatory fees for live-event tickets be included in the total price shown upfront, wherever pricing is displayed.

Equaticket-controlled surfaces — your event page, the embed widget, checkout, confirmation emails, and order details — automatically show the total mandatory price (ticket + fee, before tax) as the most prominent figure. You don't need to do anything for these surfaces.

External advertising — your own website, social posts, flyers — is your responsibility. If you post a price anywhere outside Equaticket, it must show the total buyer price. Showing just "$78" when buyers actually pay "$82.34" is a violation of the FTC rule (and the organizer terms of service).

To make compliance easy: when you have an Organizer Fee configured, the dashboard shows a "Copy compliant price text" button that gives you a ready-to-paste snippet like:

General Admission: $82.34 (includes $4.34 organizer fee)

Use this snippet on your website, social posts, and any printed materials.

What buyers see

Wherever a price is shown on Equaticket, the most prominent figure is the total mandatory price (ticket + fee, before tax). The breakdown is shown in secondary text below.

Example on the public event page:

General Admission
$82.34 before tax
$78.00 ticket + $4.34 organizer fee

At checkout, the buyer sees a clear breakdown — including the always-present "Equaticket platform fee: $0.00" line — and a closing note: "The organizer fee is set by [your org name] and goes directly to the organizer."

Recurring series and time-slot series

The Organizer Fee section appears in the same place on the recurring-event-series template editor and the GAP-01 time-slot series editor. Changes to a series template apply to new event instances generated from the template — already-published instances keep their current fee. Edit those individually if needed.

Frequently asked questions

Does Equaticket get a cut of my Organizer Fee?

No. Equaticket receives $0 from any Organizer Fee. The fee flows entirely to your connected Stripe account along with the ticket revenue. The "Equaticket platform fee: $0.00" line on every checkout makes this visible to buyers.

Can I use Mode B if my Stripe account isn't U.S.-based?

Not yet. Mode B is U.S.-only during beta. Non-U.S. organizers can use Mode A (All-in) or Mode C (Custom). Publishing a Mode C event from a non-U.S. account requires Equaticket's approval for your region — contact support.

Can I exclude the fee from refunds?

No. Fees are always refunded in full with the ticket. This is non-negotiable and required to avoid the "junk fee" perception that the feature was designed to prevent.

What happens if I change my fee after orders have been placed?

Historical orders are unaffected — refunds for existing orders use the fee that was in effect at purchase time. The new fee applies only to future purchases. If your event is published and has existing orders, the editor will show a confirmation dialog before saving.

Why is there an "Equaticket platform fee: $0.00" line on every checkout?

Buyers who have been burned by Ticketmaster and Eventbrite see fees on every line of those checkouts. The $0.00 line makes the absence of an Equaticket platform fee visible and legible — it's a quiet, matter-of-fact statement that reinforces buyer trust.