Crypto payment gateways market themselves as cheaper than card processing. Most are, but not by as much as the headline suggests. Once you stack deposit fees, withdrawal fees, conversion spreads, and minimum balance requirements, most major gateways land between 1% and 3% of all-in transaction cost. That is meaningfully cheaper than 2.9% + $0.30 cards but not the order-of-magnitude shift the marketing implies.
This post breaks down what the largest crypto payment gateways actually charge, the structural reasons most cluster at the same level, and what is different about the small number of providers that operate below that floor. The goal is to make it easier to evaluate any crypto payment gateway against any other, on the same axes.
What the Major Gateways Charge
Headline rates from publicly available pricing pages and product documentation as of mid-2026:
- BitPay: 1% standard processing fee. Higher tiers for enterprises. Minimum monthly volume requirements on the standard tier.
- Coinspaid: 0.5% to 1.5% on crypto deposits, 1% to 3% on fiat withdrawals, 0.3% to 0.8% conversion spread, 50% discount available with CPD token lock-up.
- Coinbase Commerce: 1% standard processing fee, charged on top of network fees that the customer typically pays.
- Triple-A: approximately 1% on standard transactions according to published material.
- NOWPayments: 0.4% to 0.5% on flat plan, with additional network fees passed to the customer or merchant depending on configuration.
- Amboss Payments API: 0.5% flat on payment volume plus $30/mo for managed infrastructure.
The headline rate is rarely the whole story. The all-in cost depends on five factors that most pricing pages do not surface clearly.
The Five Cost Components You Need to Compare
1. Deposit or processing fee
The headline rate charged on incoming transactions. Usually a percentage of volume, sometimes with a per-transaction floor.
2. Withdrawal fee
What you pay to move funds out of the gateway. Often a percentage of withdrawal volume plus a network fee. Some gateways have free withdrawals at certain volume tiers, others charge always.
3. Conversion spread
The difference between the rate at which the gateway buys your crypto and sells it for fiat. Often disclosed as "competitive spread" without a number. In practice, 30 to 80 basis points is typical and can be higher for less liquid pairs.
4. Fiat off-ramp markup
If the gateway converts crypto to fiat and pays you in your local currency, there is a markup on the FX rate. For non-USD currencies, this is often where the largest hidden cost lives.
5. Token discounts and minimum requirements
Some gateways offer reduced rates conditional on holding their token, maintaining minimum balances, or committing to monthly volume tiers. Token discounts are real but lock you into the provider's token risk and concentration.
A 1% headline rate with a 0.5% conversion spread and a 0.4% fiat off-ramp markup is a 1.9% effective rate. A 0.5% headline rate with no conversion (you settle in stablecoin) and no fiat off-ramp is 0.5%. The difference matters more than the comparison of headline numbers suggests.
Why the 1-3% Floor Exists
Most crypto payment gateways operate at 1-3% all-in because their architecture forces that cost structure.
- Per-chain custody: Supporting multiple chains requires custody infrastructure per chain. The operational cost gets passed through.
- Fiat off-ramp: Gateways that pay merchants in fiat have to operate banking relationships in each currency, hold reserves, and absorb FX risk. The cost shows up in spread and markup.
- Withdrawal fees: Gateways often hold merchant funds in their own custody until withdrawal, financing the float and charging for the conversion to crypto-on-merchant-address or fiat-in-bank.
- Token economics: Some gateways subsidize headline rates through token discounts that require you to hold and lock the gateway's token. The headline rate looks low; the token risk is the unstated cost.
- High-risk vertical premiums: Some verticals (gaming, adult, high-chargeback categories) are charged 2-3x standard rates. The marketed headline rate is for low-risk merchants only.
A gateway can lower the headline rate by 10-20 bps without changing its architecture. To get below the 1% floor requires changing the architecture itself.
What Is Different at 0.5%
Some gateways operate below the 1% floor because they collapse the cost components rather than optimize within them.
Amboss at 0.5% does the following differently:
- Single-rail architecture: USDT, USDC, and bitcoin all settle on one payment network. No per-chain custody overhead.
- Self-custody by default: Funds settle to the merchant's own infrastructure, not into the gateway's custody. No financing float, no withdrawal fee, no spread on the conversion to your own wallet.
- No fiat off-ramp at the gateway: Merchants who want fiat settlement use a separate conversion partner of their choice. Amboss does not embed a markup on the conversion.
- No token requirement: The 0.5% rate is the rate. No discount conditional on holding a token or locking volume.
- No vertical surcharges: The rate is uniform across business types.
The trade-off is that the merchant is more involved in the post-settlement flow. If you want fiat in your bank, you arrange that conversion separately. For businesses that hold crypto balances natively or convert through dedicated partners, this is a feature. For businesses that want a one-button "pay me in dollars" experience, the 1-3% gateways may be simpler operationally even at the higher cost.
Effective Rate Comparison at $1M Monthly Volume
| Provider | Headline | Conversion spread | Withdrawal | Effective at $1M volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BitPay | 1.0% | ~0.5% | 1% to crypto, $35 to fiat | ~1.5% |
| Coinspaid | 0.5-1.5% deposit + 1-3% withdrawal | 0.3-0.8% | included in withdrawal | 1.8-5.3% |
| Coinbase Commerce | 1.0% | varies | varies | ~1-1.5% |
| Triple-A | ~1.0% | not published | varies | ~1.0-1.5% |
| NOWPayments | 0.4-0.5% | not published | network fees apply | ~0.5-1.0% |
| Amboss | 0.5% + $30/mo | not applicable | not applicable | ~0.5% |
These are illustrative. Verify the current rates and feature set on each provider's pricing page before relying on these numbers for business decisions.
What to Look at When Evaluating
A short checklist for comparing any crypto payment gateway against any other:
- Is the headline rate the all-in rate, or are there deposit, withdrawal, and conversion fees layered on top?
- Is the conversion spread published as a number, or just described qualitatively?
- Is the gateway holding your funds until you withdraw, or settling directly to your custody?
- Are there minimum volume tiers, token requirements, or lock-ups attached to the published rate?
- Does the rate apply to your specific vertical, or is your category surcharged?
- What is the effective rate at your actual volume mix?
If you cannot get clear answers to all six, the marketed rate is not the rate you will pay.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is crypto cheaper than cards?
Yes, in almost all cases, but the size of the gap is smaller than headline rates suggest. Most crypto gateways land between 1% and 2% all-in versus 2.5-3.5% for cards. Some providers land at 0.5%, which is a more significant savings.
What about chargebacks?
Crypto payments on most rails are non-reversible by design. There is no chargeback infrastructure equivalent to cards. This is a cost saving (no chargeback fees, no penalty pricing) and a customer-protection shift (the chargeback right is not available to your customers either).
Do you need to hold crypto to use Amboss?
No. The Amboss Payments API processes incoming bitcoin and stablecoin payments. You can convert through partners of your choice without needing to hold crypto as a treasury position.
What are the operational costs beyond the gateway fee?
Treasury management (deciding whether to hold or convert), wallet operations (if you self-custody), accounting and tax (different jurisdictions handle crypto differently), and customer support familiarity with the rails you accept. These are real costs, generally smaller than the differences in gateway fees for most businesses.
Is the cheapest gateway always the right choice?
No. The right choice depends on what your customers want to pay with, what currency you want to receive, how you handle treasury, and which jurisdictions you operate in. The cheapest gateway is the right choice only if it serves all the other constraints adequately.
Choose a Gateway You Can Actually Compare
Pricing pages in crypto payment processing are often deliberately opaque. The simplest way to evaluate a gateway is to compute the all-in cost at your actual volume mix and compare. Most providers will quote you a rate if you ask directly with your numbers in hand.
If you want to see what 0.5% looks like for your business, explore the Amboss Payments API and check the comparison against card processors here.