Authorize.net review: the gateway-only plan is the one worth knowing about
Both plans cost $25 a month. All-in-One adds 2.9 percent plus 30 cents a transaction. Gateway Only charges 10 cents, if you already have a merchant account. That gap is enormous at volume.
Verdict
Authorize.net charges $25 a month either way. All-in-One adds 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction. Gateway Only is 10 cents per transaction plus a daily batch fee, if you already have a merchant account.
Authorize.net at a glance
- Starting price
- $25/mo plus transaction fees
- Free plan
- No
- Prices checked
- August 30, 2026
Pros and cons
What works
- The Gateway Only plan at 10 cents a transaction is dramatically cheaper at volume than percentage pricing
- No setup fees and no contracts, which is unusual in payment processing
- Fraud protection, recurring billing, and invoicing are included in the $25 rather than sold separately
- One of the longest-established gateways, so integration support is almost universal
What does not
- The All-in-One plan at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents is ordinary pricing, not competitive
- Gateway Only requires a separate merchant account, which is a second relationship to manage
- A 10 cent daily batch fee on Gateway Only is small but easy to overlook when comparing
- The $25 monthly fee applies even in a month with no transactions
The two plans are not variants of each other#
10 cents against 2.9 percent
Per-transaction cost on Gateway Only versus All-in-One
On a $200 payment that is $0.10 against $6.10.
Both plans cost $25 a month. What differs is what happens per transaction, and the gap is not marginal.
| All-in-One | Gateway Only | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $25 | $25 |
| Per transaction | 2.9% + 30¢ | 10¢ |
| Daily batch fee | — | 10¢ |
| Merchant account | Included | You supply it |
On a $200 payment, All-in-One takes $6.10. Gateway Only takes $0.10.
Why that gap exists#
Gateway Only is not cheap because Authorize.net is being generous. It is cheap because you are only buying half the product.
A payment gateway passes the transaction. A merchant account actually accepts the money and carries the risk, and that is what the 2.9 percent is for.
So Gateway Only means you have negotiated a merchant account elsewhere, and you pay that provider's rate plus 10 cents to Authorize.net for the plumbing.
What the $25 buys#
Included on both plans rather than sold as add-ons:
- Fraud detection tools
- Recurring billing
- Digital invoicing
- Customer data management
- 24/7 support
Recurring billing being included matters. Several competitors charge separately for subscription handling, and if you bill monthly that is a real line item elsewhere.
Where it is poor value#
Low volume. The $25 applies whether you process a thousand payments or none.
At ten transactions a month on All-in-One, you are paying $25 plus fees for something a simpler processor would handle without a monthly minimum. The fixed fee is the reason to look elsewhere at that size.
As a first payment setup. If you are choosing how to take payments at all, this is more infrastructure than the question needs.
No contracts, which is worth something#
No setup fees and no contracts on either plan.
That is genuinely unusual in payment processing, where multi-year agreements with early termination fees remain common. It means trying Authorize.net costs one month.
The verdict#
Worth it if you already have a merchant account. Gateway Only at 10 cents a transaction is one of the cheapest ways to run card payments at volume, and the included recurring billing and fraud tools are real.
Not worth it if you process a handful of payments a month. The $25 fixed fee dominates, and the All-in-One rate is not competitive enough to justify it on its own.
The alternatives, including the ones with no monthly fee, are in Authorize.net alternatives. The broader point about processing fees exceeding subscriptions is in QuickBooks payment processing fees.
Authorize.net pricing
| Plan | Price | What you get | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| All-in-One | $25 per monthplus 2.9 percent and 30 cents per transaction | Merchant account and gateway together, fraud tools, recurring billing, invoicing | A business that wants one provider and does not already have a merchant account |
| Gateway Only | $25 per monthplus 10 cents per transaction and a 10 cent daily batch fee | Gateway, fraud tools, recurring billing, invoicing | A business that already has a merchant account with better rates |
Prices in US dollars, checked on August 30, 2026. Vendors change pricing without notice.
Who Authorize.net is for
Buy it if
- You already have a merchant account, where Gateway Only at 10 cents a transaction is very cheap
- You process enough volume that percentage pricing is costing real money
- You need recurring billing and fraud tools without paying for them as add-ons
Skip it if
- You process a handful of payments a month, where the $25 fixed fee dominates
- You want one signup with no separate merchant account, and are fine paying 2.9 percent
- You are choosing a first payment method and want the simplest possible setup
Frequently asked questions
- How much does Authorize.net cost?
- Both plans are $25 a month. All-in-One adds 2.9 percent plus 30 cents per transaction and includes a merchant account. Gateway Only adds 10 cents per transaction plus a 10 cent daily batch fee, and requires you to bring your own merchant account.
- What is the difference between All-in-One and Gateway Only?
- Whether the merchant account is included. All-in-One bundles it and charges percentage pricing. Gateway Only is just the gateway at 10 cents a transaction, so you supply the merchant account and whatever rate you negotiated with it. At volume that difference is very large.
- Is Authorize.net expensive?
- The All-in-One rate of 2.9 percent plus 30 cents is ordinary rather than cheap. Gateway Only at 10 cents a transaction is genuinely cheap, but only helps if you already have a merchant account. The $25 monthly fee makes it poor value at very low volume either way.
- Are there setup fees or contracts?
- No setup fees and no contracts on either plan, which is unusual in this market and worth something. The $25 monthly fee still applies in months where you process nothing.
Written by
Nizam Uddin
Founder and pricing researcher
Nizam started Tested AI after noticing how often published software prices are simply wrong. Most articles copy a vendor's pricing page once and never look again. He checks every figure against the vendor's own page, cross-references independent trackers, and states plainly when they disagree rather than picking whichever number reads best. He does not claim to have run these tools in production, and the reviews say so at the top of every page.
- Checks every price against the vendor page
- Reports source conflicts instead of hiding them
- No vendor has paid for placement