Bandcamp swaps PayPal for Stripe bank payouts: free payouts, higher fees on mid-priced sales

Bandcamp is replacing PayPal with Stripe as the way artists and labels get paid. Its payments page promises deposits straight to a bank account on a monthly, weekly or daily schedule, and no payout fees. It also publishes a new fee table and a deadline: PayPal stays available through the end of 2026. Bandcamp says the average cost per sale doesn't change. We did the maths, because an average across every seller can hide who pays more.

This post is about money. For Bandcamp's other big policy story this year, see our piece on its AI ban nine months on.

What changes from PayPal?

Under the current system, money goes to your PayPal account. By default, Bandcamp pays out 24 to 48 hours after a sale, or in bulk on the 1st of the month if you pick monthly. Large purchases are reviewed by hand and can take up to 14 days. PayPal then charges a 1% payout fee, capped at $1 per payout.

Under Stripe, deposits go to your bank monthly, weekly or daily, with no payout fee. So "daily" is not new: Bandcamp already paid out daily by default. What is new is a weekly option, no PayPal account in the middle, and no 1% fee on the way out.

A few details matter for planning:

• You need a new Stripe account for Bandcamp, even if you already have one. Onboarding asks for business and bank details and, where local rules require it, a government ID.
• It's one-way. Money received through Stripe can't be paid out to PayPal, per the same page.
• Some things stay on PayPal. Monthly Pro and Label subscriptions will still go through PayPal.
• Not every country is covered. Sellers where Stripe isn't supported can keep using PayPal. Bandcamp keeps a list of supported countries, which includes India, the US, the UK and many European countries.
• Fans get more ways to pay, eventually. The payments page says fans can pay in over 135 currencies. Apple Pay, Google Pay, SEPA Direct Debit and iDEAL are listed as "coming soon".

What are the new fees?

Bandcamp's payments page lists three processing fees under Stripe:

• Sales of $8.06 or less: 5% + $0.06
• Sales of $8.07 or more: 2.9% + $0.30
• International purchases: a 2% foreign exchange fee may apply

For comparison, Bandcamp's current fee page (dated June 2026) lists 5% + $0.05 under $8.07. At $8.07 and above it lists 1.9% + $0.30 when a fan pays with PayPal, 2.2% + $0.30 by credit card and 2.9% + $0.30 with a gift card. It adds that fees may vary by location or payment method. The 10 to 15% Bandcamp revenue share is taken at the time of sale either way.

Does the maths really come out the same?

Here is our working on processing fees alone, before the revenue share:

Then add back the payout fee the old system charged. For a seller whose payouts stay under $100, PayPal's 1% fee is a straight 1% of what reaches them. On a $10 card sale at the 15% revenue share, that is about $0.08. The old total comes to roughly $0.60 against $0.59 now. On the $25 record it is about $1.05 against $1.03. For small sellers, Bandcamp's "about the same" claim checks out. This is our arithmetic, not a figure Bandcamp publishes.

For a seller whose payouts are already over $100, the $1 cap made the payout fee close to nothing. Bandcamp's own help page points this out as a reason to choose monthly payouts. Those sellers lose almost no fee and pay 0.7 points more on every card sale of $8.07 or more, and a full point more when the fan would have used PayPal. As an illustration, take a label that sells 500 $10 downloads a month by card and is paid monthly. That label pays about $35 more in processing and saves $1 in payout fees.

Two other details are worth knowing:

• The $8.07 cliff got steeper. Under Stripe, an $8.06 sale costs about $0.46 in fees and an $8.07 sale about $0.53. The two rates only meet at about $11.43, so every sale from $8.07 to $11.42 pays more than it would at the small-sale rate. That is the price band where a lot of digital albums sit.
• The 2% FX fee is new on paper. The old fee page doesn't list one, though it says fees can vary by location. For an artist whose fans are mostly abroad, it could cost more than anything in the table above. Bandcamp doesn't say when it applies beyond "may".

When does it happen?

Later than first planned. Bandcamp's August 2025 announcement said the move would start "summer 2025", in phases, with an email to each seller when it is their turn. Bandcamp's Stripe setup guide, in a version dated 10 July 2026, still says Bandcamp is not yet processing payments through Stripe and that PayPal remains the only way to be paid. The payments page now says processing under the new structure begins in 2026, sellers move over in groups, and PayPal remains available through the end of 2026. We couldn't find a public date for when each group switches, or a statement on what happens to PayPal in January. Whether any sellers are being paid through Stripe yet is [unverified]: we found no Bandcamp statement either way.

What we think

The headline benefit is real but smaller than it sounds. Free bank payouts matter most to artists with small, frequent payouts, because that is where PayPal's 1% hurt most. For them, the switch is roughly neutral on cost. It is better on convenience, with no PayPal account, no PayPal delays, and money in the bank.

The cost shifts onto steady sellers and mid-priced sales. Bandcamp's "on average the same" is true of an average, but averages hide who pays. By our reading, small artists are about level, and established artists and labels pay a little more on every album and record. Notably, Bandcamp's new standard rate is identical to Stripe's public list price for US domestic cards: 2.9% + 30¢. Stripe also says standard payouts cost nothing on its side. We would expect a platform of Bandcamp's size to pay Stripe less than list price, though we can't confirm that. Bandcamp doesn't say how much of the processing fee is cost and how much is margin. It says the move also heads off a coming PayPal fee increase, which we couldn't check.

What to do now. If you're in a supported country, set up the Stripe account when Bandcamp emails you rather than in a December rush. Remember the switch is one-way. If most of your buyers are abroad, watch your first Stripe statements for the 2% FX line. And if you price digital albums at $9 or $10, the fee difference is cents, not a reason to reprice. Your fans won't notice. Your accountant might.