Eventbrite fees explained (2026): what a conference really pays per ticket
Eventbrite is free to use for free events, and for paid events it charges a fee on every ticket sold. For a small meetup that is easy to ignore. For a congress with 300 delegates paying several hundred each, the fee becomes one of the bigger lines in your budget. Here is how the fees work, what they add up to, and how to compare them with other pricing models.
Figures checked on 6 November 2026 against published 2026 breakdowns (sources at the end). Fees change — always confirm on Eventbrite’s own pricing page for your country before budgeting.
How Eventbrite fees work
United States
- Service fee: 3.7% of the ticket price plus $1.79 per paid ticket.
- Payment processing: 2.9% of each order, charged on top.
- Free events: no fees.
United Kingdom
- Combined ticketing fee: 6.95% of the ticket price plus £0.59 per paid ticket, with payment processing included.
- Free events: no fees.
By default the fees are added to the price the attendee pays at checkout. You can choose to absorb them into your ticket price instead. That changes who pays, not how much is paid.
Worked examples
| Event | Fee per ticket | Share of ticket price | Total fees for the event |
|---|---|---|---|
| US conference, 300 delegates × $450 | ≈ $32 (service $18.44 + processing ≈ $13.58) | ≈ 7.1% | ≈ $9,600 |
| UK conference, 300 delegates × £350 | ≈ £24.92 | ≈ 7.1% | ≈ £7,475 |
| US workshop, 150 attendees × $40 | ≈ $4.52 | ≈ 11.3% | ≈ $680 |
Two patterns stand out. On expensive congress tickets, the percentage part dominates — the fee grows with your price, even though the work of selling a $450 ticket is the same as a $40 one. On cheap tickets, the fixed part dominates and the fee becomes a large share of the price.
“We pass the fees on, so it costs us nothing”
Passing fees to attendees is common, but it is not free:
- Delegates see a higher total at checkout than the price they saw on your page, which can increase drop-off.
- For employer-paid registrations, finance teams see the extra line on the invoice.
- For associations, members notice when the “member rate” is not what they actually pay.
What you get for the fee
To be fair: Eventbrite is a marketplace. Public events can be discovered by Eventbrite’s audience, and that can bring ticket buyers you would not reach otherwise — useful for consumer events, festivals and public workshops. Most professional congresses and corporate events, however, sell to a known audience (members, invited delegates, employees, partners) who arrive through the organiser’s own emails and website. For them, the marketplace benefit may be smaller, so it is worth weighing the per-ticket fee against the other things you need from a registration platform.
The alternative: flat pricing per event
Some registration platforms charge a fixed price per event instead of a fee per ticket, and let attendees pay you directly through your own payment provider or by bank transfer. You still pay your card processor’s fee, but there is no platform commission on top. The comparison is simple:
- Per-ticket fees scale with every ticket and every price increase.
- Flat pricing stays the same whether you sell 80 tickets or 800.
For a 300-delegate congress, the difference between roughly $9,600 in per-ticket fees and a flat event price of a few hundred dollars can be significant. Which model is better depends on your event — run the numbers for your own ticket prices and volumes.
Try your own numbers with our ticketing fee calculator.
Checklist before you choose a ticketing platform
- What is the total fee per ticket at your price — service, processing and any fixed part?
- Who receives the money, and when? Do you get paid out before or after the event?
- Can attendees pay by bank transfer or invoice (important for employer-paid registrations)?
- Can you export your attendee data at any time?
- Does the price include what you need on the day — QR check-in, badge printing, kiosks?
Sources
- TickPick — Eventbrite’s 2026 changes and fees (July 2026)
- Checkout Page — Eventbrite fees 2026, US and UK (April 2026)
More guides
Eventbrite, Cvent and Eventleaf are trademarks of their respective owners. Cuemark is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by them. Comparisons are based on publicly available information checked in November 2026 and may change; please confirm current prices and features with each provider.