Network fees in crypto payment operations

Four different costs

1. The network fee of the customer's transfer. Every blockchain transaction costs something, paid in the network's own resources. The sender pays it.
2. The exchange withdrawal fee. If the customer pays from an exchange account, the exchange may charge its own fee for the withdrawal, often deducted from the amount.
3. The gateway commission. What the payment service charges you for processing.
4. The network fee when you withdraw. What you pay to move your balance to your own wallet.

They are paid by different people at different moments. Most disputes come from treating the first two as if they were the same, or from forgetting that the second one can make a payment arrive short.

What the customer pays, and what that means for your price

The sender pays the network fee of the transfer on top of the amount. It does not reduce what arrives, so your price does not need to include it.

The exception is the exchange. A customer who asks an exchange to withdraw exactly the order amount can see the exchange take its fee out of it, so less arrives. In that case the payment gets the partial status and no completion webhook is sent; you need to ask for the difference or refund. The fix is wording: tell customers that the amount shown must arrive and that exchange fees come on top. See how to handle USDT underpayments.

The size of the network fee depends on the network and its load. Transfers on Ethereum are usually the most expensive for the sender, TRON and BNB Smart Chain usually cheaper, and the numbers move over time, so treat comparisons as general (see TRC20, ERC20 and BEP20 for payments).

What the gateway charges you

There is no subscription fee. The commission is individual to your project and, per the pricing page, starts at 1% and can go down to 0.1%. It is charged for processing the payment; it is separate from any network fee.

Keep the order value in dollars in your books, and record the commission as its own line so that you can see what the payment cost.

What you pay to take the money out

The funds from payments sit on your Qvard balance. You withdraw them to your own crypto wallet, and the withdrawal costs only the network fee of the network you use. Withdrawing to a bank account in fiat is not available.

This has practical consequences:

• Pick the network you withdraw on with the fee in mind. If you receive USDT on several networks, each balance is withdrawn on its own network, and the fees differ.
• Withdraw in sensible amounts. A network fee is usually a fixed cost per transfer, not a percentage, so many small withdrawals cost more in total than a few large ones.
• Plan the last step. If you need cash, you will move the crypto to an exchange or service you already use; that step has its own costs, outside Qvard.

Communicating fees to customers

A short, clear paragraph at checkout prevents most fee disputes:

• the price is in US dollars and the exact amount in the chosen coin appears on the payment page;
• the customer pays the network fee of the transfer in addition;
• if paying from an exchange, the amount that must arrive is the one shown, so add the exchange's withdrawal fee;
• your refund rule, since a crypto payment cannot be reversed by the sender.

Do not promise "no fees": the customer always pays a network fee, and the honest message is that the price you show is the price you receive, with the transfer cost on the customer's side.

A checklist for fee operations

• Treat a partial payment as unpaid and look at it in the cabinet.
• Record order value, commission and your withdrawal fee as separate lines.
• Withdraw on the network and in the amounts that make sense for the fee.
• Reconcile payments by your own order number, which comes back in the webhook.

For the whole payment flow see how to accept crypto payments on a website, and for the cost side compare with cards in crypto payments vs card payments.

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