If you're selling paid tickets on Eventbrite in the US, there are two fees:
- a service fee of 3.7% plus $1.79 on every ticket;
- a payment processing fee of 2.9% on each order.
Free events don't cost anything. By default your buyers pay the fees on top of the ticket price, but you can
choose to cover them yourself.
On a $25 ticket, that comes to about $3.45, or 13.8% of the price. These are the rates on Eventbrite's
pricing page, which we checked on October 12, 2026.
What Eventbrite charges on common ticket prices
Here's how that works out at a few different prices:
| Ticket price |
Service fee (3.7% + $1.79) |
Processing (2.9%) |
Total fees |
Share of the ticket |
You keep if you cover the fees |
| $10 |
$2.16 |
$0.29 |
$2.45 |
24.5% |
$7.55 |
| $15 |
$2.35 |
$0.44 |
$2.79 |
18.6% |
$12.21 |
| $25 |
$2.72 |
$0.73 |
$3.45 |
13.8% |
$21.55 |
| $50 |
$3.64 |
$1.45 |
$5.09 |
10.2% |
$44.91 |
| $100 |
$5.49 |
$2.90 |
$8.39 |
8.4% |
$91.61 |
You can see the fees take a much bigger share of the cheaper tickets. That's mostly down to the fixed $1.79. If
you want to try your own prices and ticket numbers, you can use the calculator below.
How Eventbrite's fees work
Does Eventbrite take a percentage of ticket sales?
Yes. The service fee is 3.7% of the ticket price, and then a fixed $1.79 is added for every paid ticket. On top
of that, payment processing is 2.9% of each order.
The fixed $1.79 is what makes cheaper tickets expensive to sell.
- On a $100 ticket it's less than 2% of the price.
- On a $10 ticket it's almost 18%, before anything else is added.
- So Eventbrite costs the most, relatively speaking, for small classes and community nights, where ticket
prices tend to be low.
The 3.7% goes the other way. It grows with your ticket price, so a $100 ticket pays $3.70 for the same checkout
that costs a $10 ticket 37 cents.
Per ticket vs per order
The service fee is charged per ticket, so if someone buys four tickets in one order, they pay it four times. The
processing fee is a percentage of the whole order.
In our examples we've applied the 2.9% to the ticket price, but the exact amount depends on the order total.
Who pays: your buyers or you?
When you set up a ticket type, Eventbrite asks who should cover the fees.
If you leave it on the default, your buyers pay them.
- The fees get added at checkout, so your $25 ticket ends up costing more than $25.
- You get the full ticket price.
- The downside is that people see a bigger number right at the end, when they're most likely to change their
mind.
If you cover the fees yourself, people pay exactly the price they saw.
- The fees come out of your payout instead.
- On a $25 ticket, you'd keep about $21.55.
We think the price people see first should be the price they pay, so we'd lean towards covering the fees. A lot
of organizers just bump their ticket price up a little to make up the difference.
Is Eventbrite free?
If your event is free, yes. You can publish as many free events as you like and you won't pay anything. The fees
only kick in when you sell paid tickets.
Eventbrite also has an optional paid plan called Eventbrite Pro, starting at $15 a month, which adds email
marketing. You don't need it to sell tickets.
What changed in 2026
Eventbrite has new owners. Bending Spoons bought it on March 10, 2026, for $505 million, according to
Bending Spoons' SEC filing.
So Eventbrite isn't a public company anymore.
As of October 2026, the fees on the pricing page haven't changed: it's still 3.7% plus $1.79 per ticket, and
2.9% for processing. New owners can always change pricing, though, so it's worth checking the
pricing page before you plan a whole season around it.
Five ways to pay less in Eventbrite fees
1. Sell a pass instead of single tickets
Because the $1.79 is charged on every ticket, selling fewer tickets at a higher price means paying less in fees.
Say you're running a four-week pottery course at $25 a class:
- If people buy four single tickets, the fees come to about $13.80.
- If you sell one $96 pass for all four weeks instead, the fees are about $8.12.
Your students save $4, you end up keeping a bit more, and they've signed up for the whole course.
2. Keep free events free
Free tickets don't have any fees, so open days, previews and community nights won't cost you anything.
3. Decide who pays on purpose
Passing the fees on to buyers protects your margin. Covering them yourself makes people more likely to finish
buying.
Either way, it's better to set your price with the fees in mind than to find out about them when your payout
arrives.
4. Skip Eventbrite Pro unless you'll use the email tools
You don't need it to sell tickets.
5. Compare the alternatives on your actual ticket price
On a $25 ticket, platforms with flat or lower fees cost somewhere between about $1.30 and $2.54, including card
processing. On Eventbrite it's $3.45.
We've compared seven of them in our post on
Eventbrite alternatives.
Pros and cons of Eventbrite's pricing
To be fair to Eventbrite, a lot of what you're paying for is its marketplace. People browse Eventbrite looking
for things to do, and some of them might find your event that way.
The good parts:
- Free events cost nothing.
- There's no monthly fee.
- Buyers already know and trust the checkout.
- The marketplace can bring you people who'd never have heard of you otherwise.
The downsides:
- The fixed $1.79 takes a big chunk out of tickets under about $20.
- By default, buyers see fees added at checkout.
- The fees really add up if you run something regularly. A weekly class of 12 people at $25 works out to about
$2,150 a year in Eventbrite fees.
So it mostly comes down to where your buyers come from. If Eventbrite's marketplace is sending you a good number
of them, the fees might be worth it. If most of them come from your mailing list, your Instagram or your
regulars, you're paying for exposure you're not really using.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Eventbrite charge per ticket?
It's 3.7% of the ticket price plus $1.79, and then 2.9% payment processing on each order. That's about $3.45 on
a $25 ticket and $5.09 on a $50 ticket.
Is Eventbrite free for free events?
Yes. There aren't any fees on free tickets.
Who pays Eventbrite's fees, the buyer or the organizer?
The buyer pays by default, but you can choose to cover the fees yourself for each ticket type.
How do I avoid Eventbrite fees?
You can't avoid them on paid tickets, but you can get them down. You can:
- sell passes or bundles instead of single tickets;
- keep free events free;
- set your prices with the fees in mind;
- move to a platform with lower or flat per-ticket fees.
A flat fee, if you'd prefer
We're building Ticketsmith because we don't think what you pay to sell a ticket should depend on how much you
charge for it. It's for people running workshops, pop-up dinners, small venues and regular classes.
It'll cost up to 99 cents per paid ticket, plus card processing. Your buyers won't pay a fee at checkout, and
free tickets will be free.
It isn't open yet, but if you'd like early access, you can join the waitlist below.
