Eventbrite Fees Explained, and How to Keep More of Each Ticket
Published · Comparisons
Eventbrite charges US organizers a service fee of 3.7% + $1.79 on every paid ticket, plus a 2.9% payment processing fee on the total order. Buyers pay both on top of your ticket price by default, free tickets cost nothing, and no monthly plan is required. On a $20 ticket that comes to $3.18 in fees, and on a $50 ticket, $5.20.
CloserAccess wrote this guide, and selling on your own website with CloserAccess is one of the ways to keep more of each ticket covered below. Every Eventbrite figure comes from Eventbrite's own pricing and help pages, checked November 8, 2026.
| Fee | US rate | What it applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Service fee | 3.7% + $1.79 | Each paid ticket, on the ticket price |
| Payment processing | 2.9% | The whole order, including service fees and tax |
| Free tickets | $0 | No ticketing fees |
| Door sales in the Organizer app | $1 + 2.9% | $1 per paid ticket, plus processing on the order |
| Eventbrite Pro (optional) | From $15/month | Email marketing, separate from ticket fees |
The two parts of an Eventbrite ticket fee
Eventbrite calls the whole charge a ticketing fee, and its help page on fees splits it in two. These are the rates when your payout country is the US.
The service fee is 3.7% of the ticket price plus $1.79, charged on every paid ticket. The 3.7% grows with the price. The $1.79 doesn't, so it is the same on a $10 ticket as on a $100 one.
The payment processing fee is 2.9%, and this is the part people get wrong. Eventbrite calculates the service fee on the ticket price, but it calculates processing on the total order, including the service fee and any tax. So the processing fee is charged on the service fee too.
That second detail is why some fee tables you'll find online come out a few cents low. They apply the 2.9% to the ticket price alone. The examples below follow Eventbrite's own rule.
Who pays: passing fees on or absorbing them
By default, your buyers pay the fees. When you create a paid ticket type, you choose:
- Pass fees on. Leave "Absorb fees" unticked. The buyer pays the fees on top of the price you set, and you receive your full ticket price.
- Absorb fees. Tick "Absorb fees". The price you set includes the fees, and Eventbrite deducts them from your sales at payout.
You can change this setting any time, but the change only applies to future orders. Orders already placed keep the setting they were bought under.
Worked example: a $20 ticket
Assume a US payout, fees passed on to the buyer (the default), one ticket in the order and no sales tax.
- Service fee: 3.7% of $20 is $0.74. Add $1.79, and the service fee is $2.53.
- Order total before processing: $20.00 + $2.53 = $22.53.
- Processing: 2.9% of $22.53 is $0.653, which rounds to $0.65.
- Total Eventbrite fees: $2.53 + $0.65 = $3.18.
- The buyer pays $23.18, and you receive $20.00.
The fees come to 15.9% of the ticket price.
Worked example: a $50 ticket
Same assumptions: US payout, fees passed on, one ticket, no tax.
- Service fee: 3.7% of $50 is $1.85. Add $1.79, and the service fee is $3.64.
- Order total before processing: $50.00 + $3.64 = $53.64.
- Processing: 2.9% of $53.64 is $1.556, which rounds to $1.56.
- Total Eventbrite fees: $3.64 + $1.56 = $5.20.
- The buyer pays $55.20, and you receive $50.00.
The fees come to 10.4% of the ticket price. The ticket costs 2.5 times as much, but the fees only rise by about 1.6 times, because the $1.79 doesn't grow with the price.
If you absorb the fees instead, the buyer pays the price you set and the fees come out of your payout. We haven't worked an absorbed example, because the Eventbrite pages we read don't show how the fee is split out of an absorbed price. Check the figure in your own Eventbrite account before you choose.
Free events, door sales and the extras
Free events cost nothing. Eventbrite's pricing page says there are no fees on free tickets. If a night is free entry, list it free.
Door sales work differently. Selling at the door through the Eventbrite Organizer app costs $1 per paid ticket plus 2.9% of the total order in the US. The service fee is lower than online, but in the app the processing fee can't be passed on to the buyer, so that part comes out of your sales.
Pro and Ads are optional. Eventbrite Pro adds email marketing, up to 10,000 emails a day, starting at $15 a month. Eventbrite Ads sells sponsored placements on Eventbrite in select markets, with ad spend extra. Neither is required to sell tickets.
Payout timing affects your cash. It isn't a fee, but it matters. By default, Eventbrite sends your payout three business days after the event ends, and a US bank may take another 2-3 business days. Qualifying organizers can set up weekly or twice-monthly payouts before the event, with 20% of net sales held in reserve until the event ends.
How to keep more of each ticket
- Pass the fees on. It's the default for a reason. You receive your full ticket price, and the buyer sees the fees at checkout. Absorbing makes your listed price cleaner, but every fee then comes out of your take.
- Watch the $1.79 on cheap tickets. It is a fixed charge per paid ticket, which is why fees are 15.9% of a $20 ticket and 10.4% of a $50 one. If you sell a table for four as one $200 package ticket instead of four $50 tickets, the $1.79 is charged once instead of four times. That is $5.37 less in fixed fees, plus the processing on that amount.
- Keep free nights free. Free tickets carry no Eventbrite fees at all, so a free-entry night with an RSVP costs you nothing to list.
- Only pay for extras you'll use. Eventbrite Pro and Eventbrite Ads both cost extra and neither is required.
- Move your regulars to your own website. Every repeat sale carries a fee again wherever you sell, week after week. Selling on your own site changes who you pay and what you get for it, which the next section covers honestly.
If you're weighing other ticketing platforms instead, Eventbrite alternatives for nightclubs compares Eventbrite with Posh and DICE, and Eventbrite vs Posh vs your own website runs the fee math at other prices.
Selling tickets on your own website with CloserAccess
Your own website is the other way to sell. CloserAccess builds and hosts sites that sell tickets next to everything else a business does. That means event pages, event series for a weekly night, tickets with QR codes that door staff scan on a phone, a door screen for the night's bookings, memberships, and table or service bookings that take a request or a deposit. There's also an Eventbrite integration, so you can keep listing on Eventbrite while regulars buy from you directly.
There are two ways in. You can build the site yourself for free: no monthly fee, no setup cost and no card to start, with the site at yourname.closeraccess.com. A platform fee applies only when a customer pays you, at a rate CloserAccess doesn't publish (ask before you start) and shown as its own line on each transaction. Or the CloserAccess team builds it as a Starter Website, Premium Website or Digital Master, at a fixed price quoted before any work starts. The CloserAccess fees page shows what's free and what carries a fee.
Card payments run through your own Square account at Square's own rate. The money settles to your Square account, and CloserAccess's fee comes off as a visible line. CloserAccess doesn't mark up processing.
Here is the honest part. With Eventbrite's default, you keep your full ticket price and your buyer pays the fees. On your own CloserAccess site, the platform fee and Square's processing come out of your sale, and there's no setting to pass the platform fee on to the buyer. So your own site doesn't automatically mean more per ticket. It depends on your quoted rate and how you set your price.
We can't print a CloserAccess number next to Eventbrite's $3.18 and $5.20, because the rate is set in each business's quote. Here's a fair way to compare. Your Eventbrite buyer already pays $23.18 for a $20 ticket. Price the same night on your own site, take off Square's processing and your quoted platform fee, and see what's left. Do the same at $50. Then weigh the difference against what you give up, which is Eventbrite's marketplace of buyers who don't know you yet.
Businesses that run their events on their own sites
Klub Kingz, a New York party crew, gives each of its two weekly nights its own page of upcoming dates on the Klub Kingz events calendar. The Soul Session Sundays listing says admission is free and bottle service carries a $150 minimum deposit, and the site has a separate VIP table booking page.
Starlets, a 21+ club in Woodside, Queens, runs five named weekly nights, each on its own page with upcoming dates. Instead of one fixed door price, it posts that night's entry offer on each date. Tables and party packages start as requests on Starlets' booking page and get a quote.
Peace Foundation TT shows the free-event version. Its Walk for Peace events in Trinidad and Tobago are free, and people can RSVP through its site to hear about the next one. Donation options from $2, plus a custom amount, sit on Peace Foundation TT's ways to give, on the same site as the walks, and the group invites supporters to join its movement for $1 a month.
When Eventbrite is the better choice
Eventbrite is the better choice if you run occasional or one-off events and want its discovery marketplace to bring buyers who've never heard of you. It's hard to beat for free events, which cost nothing to list. It also lets you pass its online ticket fees to the buyer, so your full ticket price reaches you, and you can sell tickets without a website of your own.
If you already have a crowd that comes back every week, your own website starts to make more sense, and you can run both. To see what a site would include, start free or ask for a quote.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Eventbrite charge per ticket?
In the US, a service fee of 3.7% of the ticket price plus $1.79, and a 2.9% processing fee on the total order. With one ticket per order and no tax, that's $3.18 on a $20 ticket and $5.20 on a $50 ticket.
Does Eventbrite charge for free events?
No. Eventbrite's pricing page says free tickets carry no fees, so a free event costs nothing to list.
Is the processing fee charged on the service fee too?
Yes. Eventbrite calculates the service fee on the ticket price, but it calculates the 2.9% processing fee on the total order, including the service fee and any tax.
Can I switch between absorbing and passing on fees?
Yes, at any time. The new setting only applies to future orders, not to tickets already sold.
Does Eventbrite charge a monthly fee?
No plan is required to sell tickets. Eventbrite Pro, an optional email marketing add-on, starts at $15 a month, and Eventbrite Ads spend is extra.
Is selling tickets on my own website free of fees?
No. You still pay card processing, and on CloserAccess a platform fee comes out of each sale. What changes is that the buyer buys from your page and lands in your own customer list.
Prices checked November 8, 2026, on Eventbrite's own pricing and help pages. Plans and fees change, so check the linked pages before you decide.