Chargeback Cost Calculator
Calculate true cost of chargebacks: fees and lost goods.
A chargeback costs more than the transaction amount. You lose the product or service, pay a chargeback fee ($15–$100+), and spend time on dispute resolution. This calculator estimates total cost per chargeback so you can weigh fraud prevention and customer service investments.
Inputs
Results
Lost revenue: $150
Lost goods (COGS): $60
Chargeback fee: $25
Total cost: $335
Insights
Formula
Total = Lost revenue + COGS (if not recovered) + Fee
Input Definitions
What does each input mean?
- Transaction amount
- The original sale amount that the customer disputed. You lose this revenue in a chargeback.
- Chargeback fee
- Fixed fee charged by your processor per chargeback, regardless of outcome. Typically $15–$100.
- Product recoverable
- 0 = digital goods or unrecoverable; 1 = you can get the product back. Affects whether COGS is counted as lost.
- COGS / cost of goods
- Your cost to produce or acquire the product. Lost if product is not recovered.
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The Hidden Cost of Chargebacks Most Businesses Ignore
A chargeback doesn’t just reverse a sale — it charges you a fee on top, costs you fulfillment you can’t recover, and can raise your processing rates if the rate climbs too high. For e-commerce businesses and SaaS companies, even a modest chargeback rate creates a compounding drag that rarely shows up clearly in standard reporting. This calculator helps you see the true all-in cost of each chargeback and what your current rate is costing monthly.
Use this if you’re trying to justify investment in fraud prevention tools, calculate the break-even point for adding 3D Secure, or simply understand why your net revenue is lower than your gross sales suggest. Most businesses are surprised by how expensive a 1–2% chargeback rate actually is once fees, merchandise, and processing costs are all counted.