Event ticketing fees, explained with the actual maths

Ticketing fees look simple and behave strangely. Two platforms can advertise similar percentages and cost you completely different amounts, because the fixed per-ticket component does most of the work and nobody puts it in the headline. The only way to compare is to run your own ticket price through each structure.

The standard shape

Nearly every platform charges some combination of three things:

• A service fee: a percentage of the ticket price plus a fixed amount per ticket.
• Payment processing: usually a percentage of the order, sometimes with its own fixed amount.
• Optional extras: payout fees, currency conversion, chargeback handling.

As of 17 August 2026, Eventbrite's published organizer pricing for the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and Ireland is 3.7% plus 1.79 per ticket as a service fee, with 2.9% payment processing per order, and free events at no cost. Dizko's default is 8% plus 0.50 per order on paid tickets, adjustable by the organizer down to a 3% floor, with free tickets free.

Those two structures sound comparable. They are not, and the reason is arithmetic.

What the fixed amount does

Run a 3.7% plus 1.79 structure across ticket prices, service fee only:

The same published fee is 39 percent on a cheap ticket and 5 percent on an expensive one. Add payment processing and the low end gets worse. This is why small, cheap, high-volume events feel gouged by structures that look reasonable on a festival ticket.

A percentage-weighted structure behaves in the opposite direction. Dizko's 8% plus 0.50 costs 1.30 on a 10 ticket, which is 13 percent, and 8.50 on a 100 ticket, which is 8.5 percent. Cheaper than the fixed-heavy structure below roughly 18, more expensive above it.

Work out your own number

Three steps, five minutes.

1. Take your actual average ticket price, not your top tier.
2. Compute the fee on one ticket under each structure, including payment processing.
3. Multiply by your annual ticket volume.

For 2,000 tickets a year at an average of 12, a two-point difference in effective rate is around 480. Worth knowing, rarely worth reorganizing your entire operation around.

Who pays it

Passing fees to the buyer protects your margin and raises the number at checkout. Absorbing them keeps the displayed price clean and comes out of your revenue. There is no universally correct answer, but two things are consistently true: surprise fees at the last step cost you sales, and inconsistency between what you advertised and what people pay costs you trust.

If you absorb, price for it. A 12 ticket with an absorbed 1.30 fee nets 10.70, so if you needed 12 net you should have charged 13.50.

Free events

Free ticketing is free on the major platforms, and it is worth using even when you do not strictly need tickets. A free ticket gives you an accurate headcount, a scannable door, an attendee email and a capacity limit. Compared with an open-door RSVP, the difference in planning quality is large and the cost is nothing.

The costs that are not fees

Two things affect your bottom line more than a percentage point and rarely appear in a comparison.

• Payout timing. Money that arrives five days after the event is not available to pay a deposit before it.
• Conversion. A checkout that requires an account and fails on mobile costs more in lost sales than any fee difference. Test the whole path on a phone before you decide anything on price.

Currency and cross-border

If you sell in one currency and get paid in another, conversion is charged somewhere and it is usually more than the headline fee difference between platforms. Ask what the conversion rate is based on and who sets it.

Figures above were checked against each provider's public pricing page on 17 August 2026. Fee schedules change, so confirm current rates before making a decision on them.