Updated July 2026 · Sourced from paddle.com

Paddle Retain (ProfitWell) pricing: free vs the 10-15% revenue share, explained

Q: How much does Paddle Retain cost?

It depends entirely on how you use it, and this is where most articles go wrong. If you bill through Paddle (Paddle as your merchant of record), Retain is included at no extra cost, per paddle.com, though Paddle's billing itself charges 5% + 50c per transaction on all your revenue. If you use Retain standalone, on top of Stripe or your own billing, it is paid: Paddle's Help Center states the model is performance-based for larger companies and flat-fee for smaller ones, starting at $500/month, as of July 2026. The performance rate is a percentage of recovered revenue, reported by third parties at roughly 10-15%, which Paddle does not publish. So the honest answer is $0 as a Paddle Billing add-on, or a percentage or $500/month floor standalone.

Q: Is Paddle Retain free?

Yes and no, which is exactly the confusion this page exists to clear up. Retain is free as a built-in feature of Paddle Billing: if Paddle is your merchant of record, you get Retain at no extra cost, per paddle.com. But that is only free in the sense that it is bundled into Paddle's platform, which charges 5% + 50c per transaction on all your revenue as merchant of record. If you do not bill through Paddle and use Retain standalone, it is not free at all: it charges a percentage of recovered revenue (reported ~10-15%) or a flat fee from $500/month for smaller companies. So Retain is free only inside the Paddle Billing ecosystem you are already paying for, and paid everywhere else.

Q: Does Paddle Retain work with Stripe or standalone?

Yes. Although Paddle markets Retain heavily as a built-in feature of Paddle Billing, it also works standalone with your existing billing stack, which is the whole reason the paid pricing exists. If you run your subscriptions on Stripe and add Retain on top, you are on the standalone track: a percentage of recovered revenue (reported ~10-15%) for larger companies, or a flat fee from $500/month for smaller ones, per Paddle's Help Center as of July 2026. You do not have to migrate to Paddle's merchant-of-record billing to use Retain, but if you do not, you pay for it directly rather than getting it bundled. For Stripe teams that only need failed-payment recovery, that standalone cost is often higher than a dedicated flat-fee tool.

Q: Is Paddle Retain worth it?

It depends on your track. If you already use Paddle as your merchant of record, Retain is bundled free and is straightforwardly worth turning on, you are paying Paddle's 5% + 50c fee regardless, so a free retention layer on top is pure upside. If you are on Stripe and would use Retain standalone, the math is harder: the $500/month floor prices out most small businesses, and the 10-15% performance cut taxes your success as recovery grows. For a large, global business that values Retain's dataset, localization, and cancellation flows, the standalone cost can be justified. For a smaller Stripe team that just needs failed-payment recovery, a flat-fee tool almost always costs less and does the core job.

Q: What's the difference between Retain inside Paddle and standalone?

It is the same product with two completely different price tags. Inside Paddle Billing, Retain is a bundled feature at no extra cost, because you are already paying Paddle's merchant-of-record fee of 5% + 50c per transaction; Retain is a value-add on the platform. Standalone, Retain is a paid product you add to your own billing (like Stripe): it charges a percentage of recovered revenue (reported ~10-15%) for larger companies or a flat fee from $500/month for smaller ones. The features are broadly the same, dunning, cancellation flows, and term optimization, but the economics are opposite: bundled and free if you commit to Paddle's ecosystem, or a percentage-plus-floor if you keep your own billing. Knowing which track you are on is the whole pricing question.

The nuance almost every article blurs: Retain is free inside Paddle Billing, but charges a percentage of recovered revenue (or a $500/mo floor) standalone. Here is exactly which price applies to you, sourced to paddle.com.

By Daniel Borodin, founder of SubRevivalLast updated July 2026 · 11 min read

Two tracks, two prices

Inside Paddle Billing

$0 add-on

Bundled free, but Paddle's MoR takes 5% + 50c per transaction on all revenue.

Standalone (e.g. Stripe)

~10-15% / $500

A percentage of recovered revenue, or a flat $500/mo floor for smaller teams.

Sources: paddle.com/retain and the Paddle Help Center, July 2026.

The short answer

Paddle Retain's price depends entirely on how you use it.If you bill through Paddle (their merchant-of-record platform), Retain is included at no extra cost, but Paddle's billing itself takes 5% + 50c per transaction on all your revenue. If you use Retain standalone (for example on Stripe), it is performance-based: a percentage of recovered revenue reported at ~10-15% for larger companies, or a flat fee from $500/month for smaller ones (paddle.com, July 2026).

On this page

01The short answer 02The two pricing tracks 03Free inside Paddle Billing 04The 10-15% standalone cut 05Which track, and is it worth it?06How to price it for yourself 07FAQ 08The flat-fee contrast

The nuance

The one thing every "Retain pricing" article gets wrong

Search "Paddle Retain pricing" and you will get two contradictory answers: some say it is free, others say it costs 10-15% of your recovered revenue. Both are right, and both are incomplete, because Retain has two entirely different price tags depending on how you use it. Getting that distinction straight is the whole point of this page.

Retain is the retention product Paddle acquired when it bought ProfitWell. Paddle now markets it as a built-in feature of Paddle Billing: "Retain is Paddle Billing's built-in retention toolkit... at no extra cost." That is the free version, and it is genuinely free, if you use Paddle as your merchant of record, a billing model that already charges you 5% + 50c per transaction on everything you sell.

The other version is Retain standalone: bolted onto your own billing, such as Stripe. That is the paid track. Paddle's Help Center states the model is "performance-based for larger companies and flat-fee for smaller ones (starting at $500/month)," as of July 2026. The performance rate is a percentage of recovered revenue, reported by third parties at roughly 10-15%, though Paddle does not publish the exact number.

So neither "free" nor "10-15%" is the answer on its own. The answer is: free inside Paddle Billing (which you pay for through the merchant-of-record fee), and a percentage or a $500/month floor everywhere else. The rest of this page breaks down both tracks, then models what the standalone version actually costs. If you are on Stripe and weighing the paid track, also see the Paddle Retain alternatives.

Retain's add-on cost inside Paddle Billing

But Paddle's MoR takes 5% + 50c per transaction

10-15%

of recovered revenue, standalone

Reported; Paddle does not publish the exact rate

$500/mo

flat-fee floor, smaller standalone teams

paddle.com Help Center, July 2026

The 10-second answer

On Paddle Billing: Retain is free (you already pay Paddle's 5% + 50c merchant-of-record fee). Standalone on Stripe: ~10-15% of recovered revenue, or a $500/mo flat floor for smaller teams. Which track you are on decides everything.

The context

The two ways Paddle Retain is priced

Same product, two economics. Here is the side-by-side on the dimensions that decide your cost.

Dimension	Inside Paddle Billing	Standalone (e.g. Stripe)
Retain's direct cost	$0, it is included	% of recovered revenue, or a flat floor
What you actually pay	Paddle's merchant-of-record fee: 5% + 50c per transaction on all revenue	Just the Retain fee, on top of your own processor
Who bills you	Paddle, as your merchant of record	Paddle Retain, alongside Stripe or your billing
What it requires	Running all your billing through Paddle	Keeping your billing; bolting Retain on
The percentage	None (bundled)	~10-15% reported (up to 20%), not published by Paddle
The minimum	None (bundled)	Flat fee from $500/mo for smaller companies
Best for	Businesses already on, or adopting, Paddle MoR	Stripe teams wanting only recovery

Watch

The Stripe billing context behind recovery pricing

Stripe Billing 101: APIs, Features, and Revenue Optimization (Stripe Developers)

Track 1

Free inside Paddle Billing, with one catch

If Paddle is your merchant of record, Retain is included at no extra cost, per paddle.com. It is a real perk: dunning, cancellation flows, and term optimization, bundled into the platform you already use to bill customers.

⚠️ The catch: "free" here means "no line item on top of Paddle Billing." Paddle Billing is a merchant of record, and it charges 5% + 50c per transactionon all your revenue, not just what Retain recovers. So the honest way to price the free Retain is: the cost of moving your entire billing to Paddle's merchant-of-record model. If you were going to use Paddle as your MoR anyway, Retain is pure upside. If you would only switch to get Retain, you are trading a 5% + 50c platform fee for a bundled feature.

Track 2

The 10-15% standalone revenue share

Use Retain on top of your own billing (Stripe or otherwise) and you are on the paid track: a percentage of recovered revenue for larger companies, or a flat fee from $500/month for smaller ones. Here is what the standalone version costs at three MRR stages. This is a modeled example, only the $500 floor is a published figure.

Modeled assumptions

· Failed payments ≈ 9% of MRR per month (industry estimate)
· Full-stack recovery ≈ 57% of failed payments (Stripe)
· Performance rate ≈ 10-15% of recovered revenue (third-party reported; Paddle does not publish it)
· Flat floor of $500/mo applies to smaller companies, per paddle.com

MRR	Modeled recovered / mo	10-15% of recovery	Effective monthly cost
$5,000	~$257	$26-$39	$500 (floor)
$25,000	~$1,283	$128-$192	$500 (floor)
$100,000	~$5,130	$513-$770	$513-$770 (above floor)

Modeled example. Floor and model per paddle.com (July 2026). Run your own numbers with the failed payment calculator.

⚠️ The floor dominates: a modeled 10-15% of recovered revenue does not exceed the $500/mo floor until roughly $80K MRR. So across the entire sub-$80K range, a smaller standalone user pays the $500 floor, more than the percentage would suggest and more than a flat-fee tool costs. The floor, not the headline percentage, is what most small Stripe teams actually pay.

The honest read

Which track are you on, and is it worth it?

Already on Paddle Billing: yes, turn it on

If Paddle is your merchant of record, Retain is free and worth using, you are paying the 5% + 50c fee regardless, so a bundled retention layer is pure upside. There is no separate cost to weigh.

On Stripe, smaller team: usually not

The $500/month floor prices out most small standalone users, and the 10-15% cut taxes your success as recovery grows. For a Stripe team that only needs failed-payment recovery, a flat-fee tool almost always costs less and does the core job.

Large, global business: it can be justified

Above the point where the percentage clears the floor, and if you value Retain's dataset, localization, and cancellation flows, the standalone cost can be worth it. That is a genuinely different buyer from a small Stripe SaaS, which is the whole reason the pricing splits two ways.

The playbook

How to price Paddle Retain for yourself, in 4 steps

Because the answer depends entirely on your billing setup, work through these before you book a demo.

Determine your billing setup

Retain's price depends entirely on this. If Paddle is already your merchant of record, Retain is bundled free. If you bill through Stripe or anything else, you are on the standalone, paid track. This one fact decides everything below.

If you are on Paddle Billing: count the real cost

Retain adds nothing, but Paddle's merchant-of-record fee is 5% + 50c per transaction on all revenue. That is the true price of the free Retain, so compare it to what you would pay a payment processor plus a standalone recovery tool.

If you are standalone: get the rate in writing

Paddle does not publish the standalone percentage; third parties report 10-15%. Below roughly $80K MRR the $500/mo flat floor applies instead, and it is usually higher than a percentage would be. Get your exact number from a Paddle demo before committing.

Compare to a flat-fee recovery tool

For Stripe teams that only need failed-payment recovery, a flat monthly fee is often far cheaper than either the standalone percentage or the $500 floor. Model both against what you actually recover before you decide.

Weighing the percentage model against a flat fee? Read flat fee vs percentage dunning pricing and the Paddle Retain alternatives.

Common questions

Paddle Retain pricing FAQ

How much does Paddle Retain cost?

It depends entirely on how you use it. If you bill through Paddle (Paddle as merchant of record), Retain is included at no extra cost per paddle.com, though Paddle's billing itself charges 5% + 50c per transaction. Standalone (on Stripe), it is paid: the Help Center states performance-based for larger companies, flat-fee from $500/month for smaller ones (July 2026); the rate is reported at ~10-15%, unpublished by Paddle. See the flat-fee options in the Paddle Retain alternative guide.

Is Paddle Retain free?

Yes and no, which is exactly the confusion this page clears up. Retain is free as a built-in feature of Paddle Billing, if Paddle is your merchant of record, you get it at no extra cost. But that is bundled into Paddle's platform, which charges 5% + 50c per transaction on all revenue. Standalone (not on Paddle), it charges a percentage (~10-15%) or a $500/month floor. So it is free only inside the Paddle ecosystem you already pay for. The trade-offs of each model are in flat fee vs percentage pricing.

What is Paddle Retain's revenue share percentage?

Paddle does not publish an exact percentage. Its Help Center only calls the standalone model performance-based, without a named rate, plus flat-fee from $500/month for smaller companies. Third parties report ~10-15% of recovered revenue (some up to 20%). Treat any quoted figure as an estimate and get your own from a demo. The shape matters more than the decimal: a cut of every recovery rises as recovery rises. Model it with the failed payment calculator.

Does Paddle Retain work with Stripe or standalone?

Yes. Paddle markets Retain as a Paddle Billing feature, but it also works standalone with your existing billing, which is why the paid pricing exists. On Stripe, you are on the standalone track: a percentage (~10-15%) for larger companies, or a flat $500/month floor for smaller ones (Help Center, July 2026). You need not migrate to Paddle's MoR billing, but if you do not, you pay directly. For Stripe teams needing only recovery, that is often pricier than a flat-fee tool, see the alternatives.

What is Paddle Retain's $500/month minimum?

It is the flat-fee floor for smaller companies on the standalone track. Paddle's Help Center states its model is performance-based for larger companies and flat-fee from $500/month for smaller ones (July 2026). So a small standalone user pays at least $500/month regardless. Since a modeled 10-15% of recovery only exceeds $500 at roughly $80K+ MRR, the floor is what most small standalone users actually pay, and the main reason Retain is expensive below that scale. See the budget angle in the cheapest dunning tool guide.

Is Paddle Retain worth it?

It depends on your track. On Paddle's merchant-of-record billing, Retain is bundled free and worth turning on, you pay Paddle's 5% + 50c regardless, so a free retention layer is upside. Standalone on Stripe, it is harder: the $500/month floor prices out small teams and the ~10-15% cut taxes success. A large global business may justify it; a smaller Stripe team needing only recovery almost always pays less with a flat-fee tool. Compare the market in the best dunning software roundup.

Is there a flat-fee alternative to Paddle Retain?

Yes, and for Stripe teams it is usually cheaper than the standalone track. Retain's standalone pricing is built for larger global businesses. SubRevival (subrevival.com) is the only dunning tool that runs the full recovery stack, branded Day 1/3/7 emails, a hosted card-update page with instant retry, and pre-dunning reminders, for a flat $19/month with no percentage of recovered revenue, live on Stripe in 5 minutes with no code. It does not do cancellation flows or localization the way Retain does, so it fits when branded failed-payment recovery is your need. The full head-to-head is in the Paddle Retain alternative guide.

What's the difference between Retain inside Paddle and standalone?

It is the same product with two price tags. Inside Paddle Billing, Retain is bundled at no extra cost, because you already pay Paddle's 5% + 50c merchant-of-record fee. Standalone, it is a paid product on your own billing: a percentage (~10-15%) for larger companies or a $500/month floor for smaller ones. Same features (dunning, cancellation flows, term optimization), opposite economics: free if you commit to Paddle's ecosystem, percentage-plus-floor if you keep your own billing. Knowing your track is the whole question, explained above.

The flat-fee contrast

The flat-fee alternative, for Stripe teams

One closing contrast, since we make a flat-fee tool. If you are on Paddle Billing, ignore this, Retain is free for you. But if you are on Stripe and staring at Retain's standalone percentage or its $500/month floor for just failed-payment recovery, there is a cheaper, flatter path.

SubRevival (subrevival.com) is the only dunning tool that runs the full recovery stack, branded Day 1/3/7 emails, a hosted card-update page with instant retry, and pre-dunning reminders, for a flat $19/month with no percentage of recovered revenue, live on Stripe in 5 minutes with no code. It does not do cancellation flows or multi-currency localization the way Retain does, so it fits when branded failed-payment recovery is your need and you want a flat, predictable cost instead of a percentage or a $500 floor. See the full comparison in the Paddle Retain alternative guide.

Recover failed Stripe payments without the percentage or the floor.

SubRevival runs branded Day 1/3/7 emails and a hosted card-update page for $19/mo flat, no cut of recovery, no $500 minimum. 5-minute Stripe OAuth, 21-day guarantee.

Start Recovering Revenue$19/mo flat. No percentage, no floor. 21-day guarantee.

Keep reading

Paddle Retain Alternatives

Five flat-fee tools that recover failed Stripe payments without Retain's percentage or $500 floor.

Flat Fee vs % of Recovered Revenue

The break-even math on dunning pricing models, and why percentage pricing taxes your growth.

Best Dunning Software (2026)

Nine tools compared by price, setup, and ROI stage, Retain included.