Coinbase Commerce lets a website accept crypto payments (USDC, BTC, ETH and more) with no monthly fee and a flat 1% transaction fee — far below card processing. You create a "charge", the customer pays on-chain, and a webhook tells your app it cleared. Here's the cost, the fees, and how to get a key.
| Item | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee free | $0 | no setup, no subscription |
| Transaction fee | 1% | per successful payment |
| Network / gas fee | varies | blockchain fee, usually paid by customer |
| Auto-convert to cash | spread | optional; FX/spread when settling to fiat |
The headline win is the 1% flat fee with no per-transaction $0.30 and no monthly cost — versus roughly 2.9% + $0.30 for Stripe or PayPal. For digital goods sold to a crypto-comfortable audience, that's a real saving, and there are no chargebacks (crypto payments are final). The trade-offs: your customer must hold crypto, prices can swing unless you use stablecoins, and accounting/tax for crypto is more involved. Many stores offer it alongside cards rather than instead of them.
1. Create a free account at commerce.coinbase.com.
2. Open Settings → Security and generate an API key.
3. Set a webhook shared secret so you can verify payment events.
4. Send the key as the X-CC-Api-Key header and X-CC-Version on every request.
Create a fixed-price charge:
For card payments instead of crypto, Stripe or PayPal are the standards. Among crypto processors, BitPay charges ~1% too but with more enterprise focus; NOWPayments and BTCPay Server (self-hosted, near-zero fee) are the budget routes. Coinbase Commerce wins on brand trust and the simplest hosted checkout. To see how 1% crypto compares with card fees on your real volume, use the payment fee calculator.
No monthly fee and a flat 1% per successful transaction, plus the blockchain network fee (usually paid by the customer). That's well under typical card processing of ~2.9% + $0.30.
Create a free account, go to Settings → Security, generate an API key, and set a webhook secret. Send the key in the X-CC-Api-Key header with X-CC-Version on each request.
No. On-chain crypto payments are final and irreversible, which removes card-style chargeback risk and dispute fees — but also means you must handle refunds manually.
Yes — price your charges in a stablecoin like USDC, or use Coinbase's auto-convert-to-cash settlement so you receive a fixed fiat amount (subject to a spread).
Not affiliated with Coinbase. Prices are reference estimates — always verify on the official pricing page.