Agentis analysis of Shopify Payments' and Stripe's published 2026 fee schedules shows every chargeback carries a fixed $15 dispute fee. Lose the dispute, and the full order value gets reversed on top of it. Industry-reported win rates put the odds of getting that money back at under 44%, per Chargebacks911's 2026 data.
The value of the disputed order.
Cost if you don't contest
$80.00
Cost if you contest and lose
$80.00
Cost if you contest and win
$0.00
Expected cost if you contest (43.8% win rate)
$44.96
| Processor | Dispute Fee | Refunded If You Win? |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Payments | $15 | Yes — fully refunded |
| Stripe | $15 dispute fee + $15 if you formally contest | Partial — only the $15 contest fee is refunded on a win |
Sources: Shopify Help Center — Chargebacks and inquiries (retrieved August 7, 2026); Stripe — Dispute Fees FAQ (retrieved August 7, 2026) — Fees vary by country/currency for both processors. Figures shown are the standard USD rate.
| Outcome | Rate |
|---|---|
| Merchants who contest and win (representment win rate) | 43.8% |
| Merchants who net-recover funds after costs | 10.7% |
Source: Chargebacks911 — Chargeback Win Rate (2026 data) (retrieved August 7, 2026) — Vendor-published industry figure. No network-level (Visa/Mastercard) win-rate statistic is publicly available. Treat as an industry-reported estimate, not a guaranteed outcome for any individual dispute.
| Order Value | If you don't contest | If you contest and lose | If you contest and win | Expected cost if you contest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25 | $40.00 | $40.00 | $0.00 | $22.48 |
| $50 | $65.00 | $65.00 | $0.00 | $36.53 |
| $65 | $80.00 | $80.00 | $0.00 | $44.96 |
| $100 | $115.00 | $115.00 | $0.00 | $64.63 |
| $150 | $165.00 | $165.00 | $0.00 | $92.73 |
| $200 | $215.00 | $215.00 | $0.00 | $120.83 |
Sources: Shopify Help Center — Chargebacks and inquiries (retrieved August 7, 2026); Chargebacks911 — Chargeback Win Rate (2026 data) (retrieved August 7, 2026) — Agentis synthesis: Shopify Payments' $15 dispute fee (refunded on a win) combined with Chargebacks911's 43.8% reported win rate. Modeled on Shopify Payments specifically. Stripe's non-refundable dispute fee produces a worse expected cost. See the fee-comparison table above.
How we calculate this
Processor dispute fees come directly from Shopify Payments' and Stripe's published fee schedules. The win-rate figure is Chargebacks911's 2026 industry-reported representment rate, not a network-published statistic. We say so explicitly rather than blur the distinction. Read our full methodology →
Expert Insight
Most merchants treat a chargeback as a $15 line item. It isn't. Once the sale reverses and the product doesn't come back, you're out the fee, the goods, and the revenue, often several times the disputed amount on a mid-ticket order. The math above assumes you contest every eligible dispute, which most merchants don't. Win rates hover under 44% industry-wide, so the fee isn't the deciding cost. Deciding whether to fight at all is. We built this calculator because most disputes get accepted by default, not because fighting them is a bad bet.
Herzel Mishel, CEO & Co-Founder →Yes. Processors charge the fee automatically once a customer's bank files a chargeback, regardless of whether the merchant contests it. Shopify Payments refunds the fee if the merchant contests and wins. Stripe's fee structure works differently (see the comparison table above).
Agentis analysis of Mastercard's Excessive Chargeback Merchant program shows a merchant who breaches the monitoring threshold faces monthly assessments starting at $1,000 and scaling past $100,000 for repeat violations. That's on top of the standard per-dispute fee, not instead of it.
Agentis analysis of Stripe's, Shopify Payments', Mastercard's, and Visa's published dispute documentation shows dispute fees are flat: $15 at both Shopify Payments and Stripe, regardless of reason code. What changes across Stripe's 8 documented dispute categories is the evidence required to contest each one, not the price.
Agentis analysis of published Shopify App Store pricing shows lightweight fraud-prevention tools range from $4.95/mo (FraudBlock) to $249.95/mo (FraudLabs Pro) depending on order volume. Enterprise platforms like Signifyd and Riskified publish no price at all. They quote custom rates instead.
Agentis finds margin leaks automatically.
Data last updated August 7, 2026. Browse all Chargebacks pages →