How to Export Your Stripe Balance CSV: A Step-by-Step Guide
Understanding your real Stripe fees starts with one step: exporting your Balance CSV. This file contains line-item data for every transaction, fee, and payout. Here's how to get the right export — and what to do with it.
Which export to use: Itemized, not Summary
Stripe offers two Balance export types. Make sure you choose the right one:
| Export type | What it contains | Use for |
|---|---|---|
| Summary | Aggregated totals by category | High-level overview only |
| Itemized ✓ | Every individual transaction with fee breakdown | Fee analysis and reconciliation |
The Itemized export is what feeauditor.com and most analysis tools expect. The Summary CSV does not contain enough detail for per-transaction fee analysis.
Step-by-step: export from Balance History
- 1
Log in to Stripe Dashboard
Go to dashboard.stripe.com. Make sure you're in the correct account if you manage multiple.
- 2
Navigate to Reporting → Reports → Balance summary
In the left sidebar, click "Reporting" then "Reports". Under "Track money movement", click "Balance summary".
- 3
Set your date range
Choose a date range of 3–12 months for the most useful analysis. Shorter periods may miss seasonal patterns; longer periods produce larger files.
- 4
Click "Export" → choose "Itemized"
Click the Export button in the top right. In the dropdown that appears, select "Itemized" — NOT "Summary". This is the critical step most people get wrong.
- 5
Click "Download to system"
Select "Download to system" to save the file locally. The file will be named something like balance_2026-01-01_2026-04-30.csv.
Key columns in the Itemized CSV
The Itemized Balance CSV contains many columns. These are the most important for fee analysis:
| Column | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| id | Unique identifier for the balance transaction | bt_123abc |
| type | Type: charge, payment_refund, stripe_fee, payout | charge |
| amount | Gross amount (in cents for USD) | 10000 = $100.00 |
| currency | Currency of the transaction | usd |
| fee | Fee charged by Stripe | 290 = $2.90 |
| net | Net amount after fees (amount − fee) | 9710 = $97.10 |
| created | Unix timestamp when transaction was created | 1678886400 |
| description | Transaction description, includes [international] tag for cross-border | Card payment [international] |
Note: amounts are in the smallest currency unit (cents for USD). A $100 charge appears as 10000 in the amount column.
Common mistakes to avoid
⚠ Choosing Summary instead of Itemized
Summary gives totals, not individual transactions. Always choose Itemized for fee analysis.
⚠ Exporting too short a period
A single month may not show seasonal patterns. 3–6 months gives a more representative picture of your real effective rate.
⚠ Including multiple currencies in one export
If you process in multiple currencies, the amounts aren't directly comparable. Export per-currency or use a single-currency date range for clean analysis.
⚠ Forgetting to include all transaction types
Make sure your export includes charges, refunds, and fees — not just charges. Refunds affect your net effective rate.
What to do with the CSV once you have it
The raw CSV is the starting point. What most businesses want to know from it:
- →Their true blended effective rate (total fees / total charge volume)
- →Month-by-month fee trends — which months were more expensive and why
- →Which individual transactions paid significantly above-average rates
- →How much international cards contributed to elevated fees
- →Estimated annual savings from switching certain transactions to ACH
You can do all of this manually in a spreadsheet — or upload the CSV to feeauditor.com and get the full analysis in about 30 seconds.
Analyze your CSV in 30 seconds
Upload your Stripe Balance CSV (Itemized) to feeauditor.com. You'll see your real effective rate, which transactions are driving it up, and your estimated savings. No account needed. CSV is never stored.