Free calculator
Chargeback cost calculator
What a disputed order costs when it is lost, what it still costs when it is won, and what the two together take out of a month at your own win rate.
A chargeback cost calculator prices a disputed order properly: the money returned, the goods that do not come back, the outbound shipping, the dispute fee charged whether you win or lose, and the time spent on evidence, weighted by your own win rate.
One disputed order
Fighting it, and how often it happens
Evidence takes real time, and the time is spent whether or not you win.
Expected cost of one dispute
€129,23
€178,18 when it is lost and €38,33 when it is won, weighted by your 35,0% win rate. At 6 a month that is €9.304,56 a year.
Lost
€178,18
money, goods, parcel, fee, time
Won
€38,33
fee and time anyway
25Orders to cover a month
17,4
at your contribution
A chargeback is not a return: the goods almost never come back, so you lose the money and the stock. That asymmetry is why prevention, clear billing descriptors, reachable support and honest delivery dates, is worth far more per euro than winning cases after the fact.
Track disputes on the statementThe formula
A return brings the goods back. A chargeback does not
That single difference is why disputes are so much more expensive than refunds. The money goes back gross, the customer keeps the product, the parcel was already paid for, the gateway charges its dispute fee whichever way the case goes, and somebody spends half an hour assembling evidence.
Winning helps less than it feels like it should. A won case still costs the fee and the time, so a store with a healthy win rate is still paying a real monthly amount for the privilege of defending itself.
Which is the argument for prevention over litigation. An unrecognisable billing descriptor, a delivery that arrived late, support nobody could reach: those produce more disputes than fraud does in most stores, and all three are cheaper to fix than to win.
On a nouz P&L the disputed amount is treated as a return on line 10, while the dispute fee sits with payment fees on line 23.
Where it goes wrong
Four reasons disputes cost more than the order was worth
Chargebacks are rare enough to feel like noise and expensive enough to deserve a line.
Counted as a refund
A refund gets the stock back; a dispute does not. Treating the two the same understates chargebacks by the entire cost of the goods, which on most catalogues is the largest single part of the loss.
The fee forgotten on won cases
Winning does not refund the dispute fee or the hour spent proving delivery. A store that wins two thirds of its cases and thinks those cost nothing is understating its dispute bill by exactly that share.
Time treated as free
Evidence gathering is somebody’s afternoon: order records, tracking, delivery confirmation, correspondence, submitted before a deadline. Priced at a real hourly cost it frequently exceeds the dispute fee itself.
The ratio ignored until it is a problem
Beyond a threshold, card schemes put merchants into monitoring programmes with penalties and, eventually, processing risk. That is a business continuity issue rather than a cost line, and it arrives long after the pattern that caused it started.
Worked example
A €101,15 dispute, both ways
The calculator’s defaults: a €101,15 gross order, a €15 dispute fee, goods at 38% of the net value, €6,40 of outbound fulfilment, 40 minutes of evidence at €35 an hour, and a 35% win rate over six disputes a month.
Lost, the case costs €178,18. Won, it still costs €38,33. At a 35% win rate the expected cost of one dispute is €129,23.
Six disputes a month is €775,38, which is €9.304 a year, or about 17 healthy orders every month spent replacing money that already arrived once. On €60.000 of monthly net revenue that is 1,3% of the business.
Note the asymmetry the arithmetic exposes: the disputed order itself is barely half the cost. The rest is stock, shipping, fees and time, which is why preventing one dispute is worth more than winning two.
Questions
Chargebacks, answered
How much does a chargeback cost?
Far more than the order. A lost dispute takes the money back gross, the goods stay with the customer, the parcel was shipped, the gateway charges its dispute fee anyway and somebody spent half an hour on evidence. On a €101 order that is well over €200 once the stock and the time are counted.
What does a chargeback cost when I win?
The dispute fee and the time, both of which are spent whichever way it goes. That is the fact that changes behaviour: even a store winning most of its cases is paying a real monthly amount for the privilege, and prevention is the only lever that removes the cost rather than recovering part of it.
Is a chargeback the same as a return?
No, and the difference is the goods. A return brings the stock back, usually saleable; a chargeback almost never does, so you lose the money and the inventory at once. That is also why nouz treats the disputed amount as a return on the statement while the dispute fee sits with payment fees.
How do I reduce chargebacks?
Most disputes come from confusion rather than fraud: an unrecognisable billing descriptor, a delivery that arrived late, support that could not be reached. Fixing those three is cheaper than winning cases, and unlike winning, it also keeps the customer.
Should I fight every dispute?
Compare the expected recovery with the time. A case worth €40 that takes an hour of a person's time to contest is not worth contesting on money alone, though a pattern of fraud can justify fighting on principle. Knowing your win rate turns that into arithmetic rather than instinct.
More calculators
Four more, all free, all built on the same statement.
Want the long version rather than the arithmetic? Are Shopify fees eating your profit.
The terms this calculator uses:
Disputes on the statement, where their cost is visible
nouz treats a disputed amount as a return and the dispute fee as a transaction cost, on the days each one landed, so a bad month for chargebacks explains itself rather than merely feeling wrong.