Host Tools
Eventbrite fee calculator.What selling tickets really costs — everywhere.
Enter your ticket price and quantity. See what the buyer pays, what you receive, and the effective fee rate — on Eventbrite and four alternatives, including our own platform on equal footing. Fees verified 2026-08-01, sources below. No signup.
| Platform | Buyer pays / ticket | You receive (100 tickets) | Total fees | Effective fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eventbrite3.7% + $1.79 service fee per ticket, plus 2.9% payment processing | $23.11 | $2,000.00$20.00 / ticket | $311.00$3.11 / ticket | 15.6% |
| Luma5% platform fee (0% on Plus at $59/mo) plus Stripe 2.9% + 30¢ | $20.00 | $1,812.00$18.12 / ticket | $188.00$1.88 / ticket | 9.4% |
| SimpleTix2% + 79¢ per ticket (capped at $9.99) plus processing ~2.9% + 30¢ | $22.07 | $2,000.00$20.00 / ticket | $207.00$2.07 / ticket | 10.3% |
| SocialLoop5% platform fee ($1 minimum on Free; 4% / 3% / 1.5% on paid plans) plus processing 3.4% + 30¢ + a 50¢ markup | $22.57 | $2,000.00$20.00 / ticket | $257.00$2.57 / ticket | 12.8% |
| TicketSpicelowest fees99¢ per ticket (49¢ under $5) plus processing 2.9% + 30¢ | $21.87 | $2,000.00$20.00 / ticket | $187.00$1.87 / ticket | 9.3% |
- Luma: Luma deducts all fees from your payout — passing them to the guest is not offered. The guest always pays face price.
Effective fee is total fees as a share of the ticket price. Math assumes each ticket is bought in its own order, US card rates, and USD. In “buyers pay fees” mode the fees are added at checkout; in “I absorb fees” mode they come out of your payout. Luma always deducts fees from the payout regardless of mode.
How the fee stack works
Every ticketing fee is built from up to three parts, and the headline number usually hides two of them:
- The service fee — the platform’s cut, usually a percentage of the ticket price. This is the number platforms advertise.
- The flat per-ticket fee — a fixed amount added to every ticket. This is the quiet one: $1.79 flat is negligible on a $100 ticket and brutal on a $10 one. If your tickets are inexpensive, the flat fee matters more than the percentage.
- Payment processing — the card fee, typically around 2.9% + 30¢. Some platforms fold it into their rate; most add it separately.
That is why the honest comparison is the total at your price point, not the advertised rate — the calculator above does exactly that. For the full playbook on fee math, payout timing, and checkout craft, see how to sell event tickets online.
Who pays: absorb vs pass
Passing fees to buyers (the default on most platforms) means the fees appear at checkout on top of your ticket price. You receive your full ticket price; your $20 ticket costs the buyer $22–23.
Absorbing fees means the buyer pays exactly the advertised price and the fees come out of your payout. Cleaner for the buyer, and it changes your pricing math — the fee becomes a cost you must price in. Neither choice is wrong; what matters is running the numbers both ways before the event, not after.
When a marketplace fee is worth paying
Fees are not the enemy — real machinery costs money to run. A marketplace fee buys you discovery: strangers browsing Eventbrite can find your event. That is genuinely worth paying for when your audience does not know you yet.
The math changes once your sales come from channels you already own — your email list, your socials, the regulars from the last event. Then the marketplace is charging a discovery fee on traffic you generated yourself. Most independent hosts sit somewhere between, which is why it is worth comparing dedicated ticketing platforms too — see the best event ticketing platforms for where each one fits, or the direct SocialLoop vs Eventbrite comparison.
Common questions
How much does Eventbrite cost for organizers?
Eventbrite is free for free events. For paid tickets it charges a 3.7% + $1.79 service fee per ticket plus 2.9% payment processing per order (US rates). On a $20 ticket that is $3.11 in fees — an effective rate of 15.6%, because the $1.79 flat fee weighs heavily on inexpensive tickets. By default ticket buyers pay these fees on top of the ticket price; organizers can choose to absorb them instead, which deducts them from the payout.
Does Eventbrite charge fees on free events?
No. Publishing free events and issuing free tickets is free on Eventbrite. The optional Pro subscription ($15–$100/month) covers email-marketing volume and extra tools — it is not required to publish events or sell paid tickets.
Should I absorb ticket fees or pass them to buyers?
Passing fees keeps your payout equal to your ticket price but raises the checkout total your buyers see; absorbing keeps the advertised price honest to the buyer but comes out of your revenue. Most platforms default to passing fees. For cheap tickets, check the math both ways: flat per-ticket fees can eat 15–20% of a $10–20 ticket, which is often the difference between an event that funds itself and one that does not. Note that on Luma fees always come out of your payout — there is no pass-to-guest option.
Why do flat per-ticket fees matter more for cheap tickets?
A percentage fee scales with the price, but a flat fee does not. Eventbrite’s $1.79 flat fee is 3.6% of a $50 ticket but 17.9% of a $10 ticket — before the percentage and processing fees are added. If you sell inexpensive tickets, the flat component of a fee structure matters more than the headline percentage; compare platforms at your actual price point, not their advertised rates.
Fees verified 2026-08-01
Eventbrite
3.7% + $1.79 service fee per ticket, 2.9% payment processing per order; paid by ticket buyers by default; no fees for free events. US rates.
Source: eventbrite.com/organizer/pricingLuma
5% platform fee on paid events (0% with Luma Plus, $59/mo billed annually), plus Stripe processing of typically 2.9% + 30¢. Fees are deducted from the organizer payout.
Source: luma.com/pricingSimpleTix
79¢ + 2% per online ticket, capped at $9.99; payment processing via Square/Stripe/PayPal (typically ~2.9% + 30¢); free GA events are free; fees can be passed to buyers or absorbed.
Source: simpletix.com/pricingSocialLoop
5% platform fee on the Free plan ($1.00 minimum per ticket when fees are passed to buyers), dropping to 4% (Premium), 3% (Pro), and 1.5% (Max); card processing 3.4% + 30¢ plus a 50¢ processing markup; free RSVPs always $0. These are the same numbers our live checkout enforces.
Source: socialloop.ai/pricingTicketSpice
99¢ per ticket (49¢ for tickets under $5); credit-card processing 2.9% + 30¢; free events free for organizers who run paid events; fees can be passed to buyers or absorbed.
Source: ticketspice.com/pricingTicket Tailor is not in the table: we could not verify its current US per-ticket pricing against a primary source (third-party 2026 write-ups conflict, roughly $0.30–$0.85 per ticket by plan and region), so we omitted it rather than guess. If you spot a fee that has changed, the numbers above are dated so you can tell how fresh they are — verify current pricing with each provider before committing.
Our row is in the table above
SocialLoop’s fees sit in the same comparison, computed with the same math — where another platform is cheaper at your price point, the calculator says so. If the rest of what we build is useful to you — AI event creation, immersive invitations, promoter payouts — the pricing page has the full picture.
See SocialLoop pricing