# Stripe Radar Explained: Pricing, Rules and Limits (2026) > Stripe Radar explained: how it scores payments, the 2026 Lite, Standard, Plus and Pro pricing tiers, example Radar rules, cost math, and what Radar does not cover. - **Author**: Deepak Jangir - **Published**: 2026-10-30 - **Category**: Payments, Fraud Prevention - **URL**: https://dodopayments.com/blogs/en/stripe-radar-explained --- Stripe Radar is Stripe's built-in fraud prevention system: it scores every card payment for fraud risk using machine learning and then allows, reviews or blocks it based on that score and any rules you set. As of October 2026, Radar Lite is included free for businesses on Stripe's standard pricing, and paid tiers start at $10/month (Standard), $14/month (Plus) and $20/month (Pro), or pay-as-you-go from $0.05 per screened transaction. Radar is good at what it does, but it is narrower than many founders assume. It decides whether a payment should go through. It does not take on chargeback liability, it does not handle tax, and it does not remove the operational work of fighting disputes. This guide covers how Radar works, what each tier includes, how Radar rules are written, what it costs at volume, and where its job ends. ## What Is Stripe Radar? Stripe Radar is a fraud screening layer that runs on payments processed through Stripe. Because Stripe powers more than 5 million businesses directly or through platforms, Radar's models learn from payment patterns across a very large network: a card that was used fraudulently at one Stripe business can raise the risk of a payment at another. For most businesses, Radar shows up in three ways: - **A risk evaluation on every card payment**, visible in the Stripe Dashboard - **Automatic blocking** of payments Stripe considers highest risk - **Optional controls** on paid tiers, such as custom rules, manual review queues and numeric risk scores Radar is not a separate product you integrate. If you accept cards through Stripe on standard pricing, Radar Lite is already screening those payments. The paid tiers add more control over what happens after the score is calculated. ## How Does Stripe Radar Work? Every time a customer submits a card payment, Radar evaluates many signals about the card, the device, the customer and the transaction, then assigns a risk level: - **Normal**: the payment looks like typical legitimate activity and proceeds. - **Elevated**: the payment shows some risk signals. By default it proceeds, but on paid tiers you can route it to review or require extra verification. - **Highest**: the payment looks very likely to be fraudulent and is blocked by default. On Radar Plus and Pro, you also see a numeric risk score from 0 to 99 for each payment. The score is what makes precise rules possible: instead of acting only on three buckets, you can decide that anything above 65 goes to manual review for a high-value product, while a low-value product only blocks above 85. Here is how a payment moves through Radar, and where disputes enter the picture: ```mermaid flowchart LR A["Payment attempt"] --> B["Radar risk evaluation"] B --> C{"Risk level + rules"} C -->|Allow| D["Payment succeeds"] C -->|Review| E["Manual review queue"] C -->|Block| F["Payment blocked"] E --> D D --> G["Dispute filed: $15 fee, merchant liable"] ``` The last node is the part Radar does not change. A payment Radar allows can still become a chargeback weeks later, and when it does, you are the merchant responsible for it. ## Stripe Radar Pricing in 2026 Stripe restructured Radar into tiers. As of October 2026, verified against Stripe's pricing pages: | Feature | Radar Lite | Standard | Plus | Pro | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Price (businesses) | Included on standard pricing | From $10/month | From $14/month | From $20/month | | AI fraud prevention for cards | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Card testing protection | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Fraud alerts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | Risk scores (0-99) | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Custom rules + backtesting | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Manual reviews | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Risk preferences | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Adaptive 3D Secure | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Smart Refunds | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Radar Assistant | No | No | Yes | Yes | | Dynamic risk thresholds | No | No | No | Yes | | Abuse prevention (trial abuse, bots, multi-account, account sharing) | No | No | No | Yes | Pay-as-you-go pricing starts at $0.05 per screened transaction as an alternative to the monthly subscription. Platforms that use Stripe Connect have separate tiers priced at $20, $44 and $70 per month. The "from" in each subscription price matters. Stripe lists these as starting prices, so confirm what volume each subscription covers for your account before assuming a flat fee. ### Stripe Radar vs Radar for Fraud Teams Older guides refer to "Radar for Fraud Teams", the paid add-on Stripe previously sold on top of the free Radar. It was the product that added custom rules, manual reviews and risk scores. In the current lineup, those capabilities sit broadly in the Plus tier, while Pro adds dynamic risk thresholds and abuse prevention. If you read an older article that quotes a single per-transaction Radar for Fraud Teams fee, treat it as out of date. ## Stripe Radar Rules: How Custom Rules Work Custom rules let you override or extend Radar's default behavior. Each rule has an action (allow, review, block, or request 3D Secure) and a condition built from attributes of the payment. Attributes are written between colons, such as `:risk_score:` or `:card_country:`. The examples below are illustrative, written in Radar's rule style to show the logic. Test any rule with backtesting before turning it on, because the exact attribute names and behavior available to you depend on your account and tier. ```text Block if :risk_score: > 75 Review if :risk_score: > 60 and :amount_in_usd: > 500 Review if :card_country: != :ip_country: Request 3D Secure if :risk_score: > 50 Block if :card_country: in ('XX', 'YY') and :amount_in_usd: > 200 Allow if :customer_email: in @trusted_customers ``` A few principles for writing Radar rules that help rather than hurt: - **Start with review, not block.** A review rule shows you what a block rule would catch without losing the sale. Promote it to block only after you have seen the results. - **Combine signals.** `:card_country: != :ip_country:` alone flags every traveler and VPN user. Combined with a high amount or a high risk score, it is far more precise. - **Use 3D Secure as a middle option.** Requesting authentication on risky payments lets genuine customers verify themselves, and successfully authenticated payments typically shift fraud chargeback liability to the issuer. Our guide to [3D Secure payment authentication](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/3d-secure-3ds-payment-authentication) covers the trade-offs. - **Maintain allow lists.** Repeat customers and known business buyers should not be caught by rules meant for anonymous traffic. Card testing is the most common reason businesses start writing rules. Radar Lite already includes card testing protection, but if you see bursts of small failed charges, our [card testing fraud guide](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/card-testing-fraud) explains the attack pattern and additional defenses. ## Stripe Radar Pricing: Worked Cost Math On pay-as-you-go pricing, Radar cost scales directly with the number of payments screened: - 2,000 screened transactions x $0.05 = **$100/month** - 10,000 screened transactions x $0.05 = **$500/month** - 50,000 screened transactions x $0.05 = **$2,500/month** Compare that with a subscription starting at $10 to $20 per month and the difference at volume is obvious, which is why it is worth checking what volume each subscription tier covers on your account. To put Radar in context, take a business processing 10,000 domestic card payments a month at a $50 average order, so $500,000 in volume: - Card processing at 2.9% + $0.30: $14,500 + $3,000 = **$17,500** - Radar pay-as-you-go: **$500**, or 0.1% of volume Radar itself is a small line. The larger fraud-related cost is usually what happens after a payment succeeds. If 0.4% of those 10,000 payments become disputes, that is 40 disputes: - Dispute fees at $15 each: **$600** - If you contest all 40 manually, another $15 countered fee each: **$600** more, refunded on the ones you win - Lost revenue on disputes you lose: up to **$2,000** (40 x $50), plus any goods or services already delivered Stripe's Smart Disputes product can respond for you, but it charges 30% of the disputed amount on disputes it wins. For a full model of how these layers add up alongside processing, Billing and international cards, use our [Stripe fees calculator](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/stripe-fees-calculator). ## What Stripe Radar Does Not Do Radar is a screening tool. Several things founders expect from it are outside its scope. ### It does not take on chargeback liability When a payment Radar allowed turns into a chargeback, you are still the merchant. You pay the $15 dispute fee, plus another $15 if you respond manually, so a dispute you contest and lose costs $30 in fees on top of the lost sale. Radar lowers the number of fraudulent payments that get through. It does not insure you against the ones that do, and it does not stop friendly fraud, where a real cardholder disputes a purchase they made. Our guides to [friendly fraud prevention](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/friendly-fraud-prevention) and [chargeback fraud prevention](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/chargeback-fraud-prevention) cover those cases. ### It does not keep you under card network thresholds automatically Card networks monitor merchants' fraud and dispute ratios. Visa's acquirer monitoring program can lead to fines or restrictions if your ratios stay too high, and those consequences land on you as the merchant, not on Radar. See our [Visa VAMP explainer](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/visa-vamp-explained) for how the program works and the [chargeback reason codes guide](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/chargeback-reason-codes) for what each dispute type means. ### It does not handle tax Radar has nothing to do with sales tax, VAT or GST. Stripe is a payment processor, not a merchant of record by default, so tax registration, filing and remittance remain your responsibility whether or not you use Radar. ### It cannot eliminate the false positive trade-off Every fraud system balances two errors: letting fraud through and blocking good customers. Tighter rules lower your fraud rate but raise false positives, and a blocked legitimate customer is lost revenue you never see in a dispute report. A rule like `Block if :risk_score: > 60` may look safe in a fraud dashboard while quietly rejecting real buyers. This is why review queues, 3D Secure and backtesting matter more than aggressive block rules. ## How a Merchant of Record Handles Fraud Differently A merchant of record (MoR) takes a different approach to the same problem. Instead of giving you a fraud tool to operate, the MoR becomes the legal seller of record on each transaction, which means fraud screening, dispute handling and tax are part of its job rather than yours. [Dodo Payments](https://dodopayments.com) works this way. As the merchant of record, it screens payments for fraud, handles chargebacks and disputes as the legal seller, and calculates, files and remits sales tax, VAT and GST in 190+ countries. You do not configure a separate fraud product or decide which tier you need. Dispute-related pricing is published on the [Dodo Payments pricing page](https://dodopayments.com/pricing): | Item | Dodo Payments | Stripe (with Radar) | | --- | --- | --- | | Fraud screening | Included | Lite free; paid tiers from $10/month or $0.05 per screened transaction | | Dispute fee | $30 per dispute | $15 received, plus $15 if countered manually | | Who responds to disputes | Dodo, as the legal seller | You, or Smart Disputes at 30% of won amount | | Visa RDR | $18, billed only when it stops a dispute | Not part of Radar | | Ethoca alert | $27, billed only when it stops a dispute | Not part of Radar | | Dispute deflection | $15, billed only when it stops a dispute | Not part of Radar | | Tax compliance | Included as merchant of record | Not included | Tools like Visa RDR, Ethoca alerts and dispute deflection matter because they resolve a complaint before it becomes a formal chargeback, which keeps it out of your dispute ratio. The full process is described in Dodo's [disputes documentation](https://docs.dodopayments.com/features/transactions/disputes), and our guide to [how merchants of record handle chargebacks](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/merchant-of-record-chargebacks) explains the liability model in detail. The trade-off is price per transaction. Dodo charges 4% + $0.40 on domestic US cards with no monthly fee, compared with Stripe's 2.9% + $0.30 plus Radar. On a $50 order, that is $2.40 against $1.75 plus Radar. The difference pays for tax compliance, fraud screening and dispute handling being done for you. If your team has the time and expertise to run Radar rules, respond to disputes and file taxes, Stripe plus Radar can be cheaper. If not, the [integration guide](https://docs.dodopayments.com/developer-resources/integration-guide) shows what moving those responsibilities to a merchant of record involves. For a broader view of Stripe's security model, see our companion post on [whether Stripe is safe](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/is-stripe-safe). ## Should You Upgrade From Radar Lite? Radar Lite is enough for many early businesses. Consider a paid tier when: - **You see fraud getting through** that Lite's defaults do not catch, and you need custom rules to target it. - **You sell high-value or easily resold goods**, where manual review of risky payments pays for itself. - **You want adaptive 3D Secure** to challenge only risky payments rather than all of them. - **You run free trials or usage-based products** that attract trial abuse, bots or account sharing, which is what Pro's abuse prevention targets. Stay on Lite if your fraud and dispute rates are low and stable. A paid tier adds control, but control also means someone on your team needs to own the rules and the review queue. ## FAQ ### How much does Stripe Radar cost? As of October 2026, Radar Lite is included free for businesses on Stripe's standard pricing. Paid tiers start at $10/month for Standard, $14/month for Plus and $20/month for Pro, or you can pay as you go from $0.05 per screened transaction, and platform tiers are $20, $44 and $70 per month. ### What is a Stripe Radar risk score? It is a number from 0 to 99 that Radar assigns to each payment on the Plus and Pro tiers, with higher numbers meaning higher fraud risk. All tiers also show a risk level of normal, elevated or highest, and the numeric score lets you write more precise rules. ### Does Stripe Radar prevent chargebacks? Radar reduces chargebacks caused by stolen cards by blocking risky payments, but it does not take on chargeback liability. When a dispute is filed, you still pay Stripe's $15 dispute fee, plus $15 more if you counter it manually, and you still lose the sale if the dispute goes against you. ### Can I write custom rules on Radar Lite? No. Custom rules with backtesting, manual reviews and risk scores are part of Radar Plus and Pro. Radar Lite covers AI fraud prevention for cards, card testing protection and fraud alerts. ### Is Stripe Radar the same as Radar for Fraud Teams? Radar for Fraud Teams was the earlier name of Stripe's paid Radar add-on that added custom rules, reviews and risk scores. In the 2026 lineup, those capabilities broadly sit in the Plus tier, with Pro adding dynamic risk thresholds and abuse prevention. ## Conclusion Stripe Radar is a capable fraud screen, and Radar Lite gives every Stripe business on standard pricing a solid baseline at no extra cost. The paid tiers add risk scores, custom rules, reviews and abuse prevention, and the pay-as-you-go option at $0.05 per screened transaction is easy to model. What Radar does not do is make you any less the merchant: disputes, network thresholds and tax all stay with you. If you would rather hand those to the legal seller, compare the numbers on [Dodo Payments pricing](https://dodopayments.com/pricing) before your next fraud review. --- - [More Payments articles](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/category/payments) - [All articles](https://dodopayments.com/blogs)