Minneapolis, Minnesota, United StatesFact-checked September 4, 2026
Sezzle Review
B-Sezzle is a Minneapolis buy-now-pay-later provider founded in 2016; Charlie Youakim, Paul Paradis and Killian Brackey are the co-founders named most consistently, though accounts of the full founding team differ. It began as a next-business-day ACH product and pivoted to instalments in 2017, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange on 30 July 2019, began trading on Nasdaq as SEZL on 17 August 2023 and left the ASX in January 2024. For the quarter ended 30 June 2026 it reported gross merchandise volume of $1.3 billion, up 37.9% year on year, total revenue of $149.7 million, up 51.7%, and net income of $40.8 million. For a merchant the bargain is the standard BNPL one but unusually cleanly stated: the shopper pays Sezzle a down payment, Sezzle pays you the full order value less your merchant rate, and Sezzle then carries both the fraud risk and the repayment risk for the six weeks that follow. What Sezzle does not do is tell you what that costs. There is no published merchant rate anywhere on its site — the fee is in the agreement you sign — and there are three separate ancillary charges most merchants only meet after signing.
- Rate from
- Sezzle publishes no merchant rate. Its own merchant support states that a set percentage of each order plus a small processing fee applies to every order, that the figures are set out in the merchant agreement signed at application, and that the approvals team will tell you your specific rate if a different one applies to your store. Buy-now-pay-later merchant fees across the category generally run several times a card rate, and larger merchants negotiate down; we could not verify a figure or a range for Sezzle specifically from any source we would stand behind, so this review does not quote one. Ask for the rate in writing before you integrate.
- Monthly
- Minimum fee below $300/month volume.
- Payout
- About 3 business days.
- Contract
- Not published; set in the merchant agreement.
- Founded
- 2016
Connect with Sezzle
Tell them what you need. This goes to Sezzle only.
Best for
Direct-to-consumer retailers with mid-ticket baskets and a younger or thin-file customer base — apparel, beauty, footwear, accessories, home goods, pet, hobby and specialty retail — where the objection at checkout is affordability in the moment rather than intent. It is also a reasonable second BNPL option alongside a larger provider, because Sezzle's shopper base skews to customers who are declined or self-declining elsewhere, so the incremental volume is more likely to be genuinely incremental.
How it scores
Pricing1.0
Features3.5
Ease of use4.0
Support3.0
Contract3.0
Reputation score3.0
What it costs
Details →- Online
- Sezzle publishes no merchant rate. Its own merchant support states that a set percentage of each order plus a small processing fee applies to every order, that the figures are set out in the merchant agreement signed at application, and that the approvals team will tell you your specific rate if a different one applies to your store. Buy-now-pay-later merchant fees across the category generally run several times a card rate, and larger merchants negotiate down; we could not verify a figure or a range for Sezzle specifically from any source we would stand behind, so this review does not quote one. Ask for the rate in writing before you integrate.
- Monthly
- Minimum fee below $300/month volume.
- Chargeback
- Sezzle states it assumes chargeback risk.
What others rate them
Details →- BBB
- 3.5
- TRUSTPILOT
- 4.1
The takeB-
Sezzle's merchant proposition is genuinely good and genuinely simple: you are paid in full up front, you do not carry the credit risk, and you do not carry the fraud risk on approved orders. Its own numbers say the business is working — $1.3 billion of quarterly volume and $40.8 million of quarterly net income are not the figures of a struggling BNPL. What holds it to B- is that a merchant cannot price it. Sezzle publishes no rate, no rate range and no rate card; it also charges a minimum account management fee below $300 of monthly volume, a fee on refunds issued outside the refund reserve, and a monthly inactive account fee, none of which are quantified publicly. That is a lot of unpriced surface area for a payment method you are being asked to put at your checkout.
Skip if you
Your margin cannot absorb an unquantified fee several times a card rate, or your average order value is low enough that a percentage fee plus a per-order processing fee is disproportionate. Skip it too if you process under $300 a month through it, because Sezzle charges a minimum account management fee in that case and an inactive account fee if you stop — a BNPL button you added and forgot about can cost you money every month while converting nothing.
Chapter 1
Should you choose Sezzle?
The headline take, the audiences it's right (and wrong) for, and the genuine differentiators behind the verdict.
About
Sezzle is a Minneapolis buy-now-pay-later provider founded in 2016; Charlie Youakim, Paul Paradis and Killian Brackey are the co-founders named most consistently, though accounts of the full founding team differ. It began as a next-business-day ACH product and pivoted to instalments in 2017, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange on 30 July 2019, began trading on Nasdaq as SEZL on 17 August 2023 and left the ASX in January 2024. For the quarter ended 30 June 2026 it reported gross merchandise volume of $1.3 billion, up 37.9% year on year, total revenue of $149.7 million, up 51.7%, and net income of $40.8 million. For a merchant the bargain is the standard BNPL one but unusually cleanly stated: the shopper pays Sezzle a down payment, Sezzle pays you the full order value less your merchant rate, and Sezzle then carries both the fraud risk and the repayment risk for the six weeks that follow. What Sezzle does not do is tell you what that costs. There is no published merchant rate anywhere on its site — the fee is in the agreement you sign — and there are three separate ancillary charges most merchants only meet after signing.
Pros, cons, and audience
Pros
- You are paid in full up front, less your merchant rate, when the order is processed. A shopper who falls behind on their plan is Sezzle's problem, not a receivable on your books.
- Sezzle's own merchant documentation states that its fee covers all fraud and repayment risk, and that it assumes chargeback risk. That is a materially better risk position for the merchant than card acceptance.
- The company is financially strong and growing fast: $1.3 billion of gross merchandise volume in the quarter to 30 June 2026, up 37.9%, on total revenue of $149.7 million, up 51.7%, and net income of $40.8 million. It raised full-year 2026 guidance for the third time, to $185 million of adjusted net income.
- Consumer standing is unusually good for the category — a 4.1 Trustpilot score across roughly 16,400 reviews, 84% of them five-star, and a company that replies to reviews quickly.
- It reaches a shopper base that skews to thinner-file and younger customers, so the volume it brings is more likely to be genuinely incremental than a second mainstream BNPL button would be.
- Integration is straightforward, with maintained plug-ins for Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Salesforce and Wix, plus a direct API.
- Settlement is quick by BNPL standards — the most common period is about three business days after order capture, visible per-settlement in the merchant dashboard.
- The Delayed Settlement Incentive Program pays merchants interest for leaving funds with Sezzle, which is the opposite of the usual arrangement where the provider keeps the float.
- The Sezzle Virtual Card extends the product to in-store purchases through card acceptance you already have, without a separate integration.
Cons
- No published merchant pricing of any kind. Sezzle's own support pages say only that a set percentage plus a small processing fee applies and that the numbers are in the agreement you sign, so you cannot benchmark a quote before entering a sales process.
- A minimum account management fee applies if you do less than $300 of order volume in the 30 days before your billing date, and the amount is not published. A low-volume merchant can be paying to offer a payment method almost nobody uses.
- A monthly inactive account fee applies to dormant merchant accounts — so switching Sezzle off without closing the account properly can carry a cost.
- Refunds can incur a fee where Sezzle cannot draw them from your refund reserve and has to charge a card on file instead, which makes the refund reserve mechanics something you have to actively manage.
- Sezzle's terms let it debit amounts you owe directly from your merchant balance or bank account, and pursue collection if the funds are not there.
- Settlement timing is a range, not a commitment: Sezzle documents 1 to 7 business days depending on your application, with 3 as the common case.
- In 2020 the California Department of Business Oversight concluded Sezzle had been making unlicensed loans in the state and settled on refunds of $282,000 to almost 17,000 consumers plus a $28,200 penalty. Sezzle has since operated in California under a California Financing Law licence, but the episode is on the record.
- The company's own conversion claims for its price-breakdown widget — up to 50% more sales, up to 30% higher order values — are unaudited marketing figures and should not be used in a business case without your own test.
- Sezzle no longer breaks out an active merchant count in its quarterly results, and its growth story has shifted heavily towards consumer subscriptions, so the merchant side of the business is harder to size than it was.
What makes them different
The genuine differentiator
Sezzle takes the risk out of the merchant's hands more completely than most of its competitors bother to say out loud. Its own merchant documentation states that its fee covers all fraud and repayment risk, that it has already paid the merchant in full when the order is processed, and that a shopper falling behind does not affect the merchant's payouts. It also documents a delayed-settlement option that pays merchants interest for leaving funds with Sezzle rather than taking them immediately — an unusual inversion of the normal float relationship.
How we score it
1
Pricing Transparency
3.5
Feature Set
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
3
Contract Terms
3
Industry Reputation
Chapter 2
What it costs
Real-world cost at three volumes, plus the rates, fees, payouts, and contract terms that drive them.
What Sezzle actually costs
Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Sezzle’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.
Small business
$10K/mo volume · ~$75 avg transaction
$7.1K/year
≈ $590/mo · 5.90% effective rate
Growing merchant
$50K/mo volume · ~$100 avg transaction
$21K/year
≈ $1.8K/mo · 3.50% effective rate
High volume
$250K/mo volume · ~$150 avg transaction
$91K/year
≈ $7.5K/mo · 3.02% effective rate
Pricing details
What a merchant is actually buying
Sezzle is a buy-now-pay-later provider, and the merchant-side bargain is the category's standard one: the shopper splits the purchase into instalments, you get paid in full up front less a fee, and the provider carries what happens next. Sezzle states this more plainly than most. Its merchant documentation says the shopper pays Sezzle a down payment — usually 25% — that Sezzle then pays the merchant the full order value less the merchant rate, and that its fee covers all fraud and repayment risk. A shopper who falls behind is restricted and may go to collections; the merchant's payout is untouched.
The company behind that promise is in good shape. Sezzle was founded in Minneapolis in 2016 — Charlie Youakim, Paul Paradis and Killian Brackey are the co-founders named most consistently, though accounts of the full founding team differ — started as a next-business-day ACH product and pivoted to instalments in 2017. It listed on the ASX on 30 July 2019, began trading on Nasdaq as SEZL on 17 August 2023 and left the ASX in January 2024. For the quarter ended 30 June 2026 it reported $1.3 billion of gross merchandise volume, up 37.9%, total revenue of $149.7 million, up 51.7%, and net income of $40.8 million, and raised full-year guidance for the third time.
The pricing problem
You cannot find out what Sezzle costs. Not on the merchants page, not in the help centre, not in any document it publishes. Its own support article on fees says only that a set percentage of each order and a small processing fee apply, that the numbers live in the merchant agreement you sign, and that the approvals team will tell you your rate if a different one applies. Buy-now-pay-later fees across the category generally run several times a card rate and larger merchants negotiate down, but we found no figure or range for Sezzle specifically that we would stand behind, so this review quotes none.
Three further charges are documented without amounts. There is a minimum account management fee if you complete less than $300 of order volume in the 30 days before your billing date — which runs from your approval date and repeats every 30 days. There is a refund fee where Sezzle cannot draw a refund from your refund reserve and has to charge a card on file. And there is a monthly inactive account fee on dormant merchant accounts. Between them these mean a merchant who adds Sezzle, gets little take-up and forgets about it can be paying for the privilege indefinitely.
Settlement, and an unusual option
Funds move into your Sezzle account when the order is placed. The transfer out to your bank follows a schedule set at application: Sezzle documents a range of one to seven business days after order capture, and says the most common period is three. Settlement dates are shown per settlement in the dashboard, which is more visibility than several competitors give.
Sezzle also documents a Delayed Settlement Incentive Program, an interest plan under which a merchant leaves funds with Sezzle for longer and is paid a return for doing so, as an alternative to automatic withdrawal. That is an unusual inversion — normally the provider keeps the float — and for a merchant with comfortable working capital it may be worth modelling. For anyone else it is a way to convert cash you need into yield you do not.
The regulatory record
In 2020 the California Department of Business Oversight examined Sezzle's lending licence application and concluded the purported credit sales made through its merchant partners were not bona fide but were structured to evade consumer protections — in other words, unlicensed loans. Sezzle settled: it stopped, refunded $282,000 in fees to almost 17,000 California consumers, paid a $28,200 penalty and agreed that future California lending would be licensed. It subsequently obtained the licence. This is six years old and resolved, but it is the sort of thing a merchant putting a lender at its checkout should know about.
More recent and still live is Sezzle's own antitrust suit against Shopify, filed in Minnesota federal court on 9 June 2025, alleging Shopify penalised merchants for offering third-party instalment options rather than its own. In May 2026 the court dismissed the parts of the claim alleging Shopify coerced merchants and consumers, but let the monopolisation claims proceed. Sezzle is the plaintiff, so this is not a mark against it — but if you sell on Shopify, the fee arrangements at issue are ones you may be paying.
How to decide
The case for Sezzle is strongest as a second buy-now-pay-later option on a mid-ticket direct-to-consumer store. Its approvals reach shoppers other providers decline, so the volume tends to be additive rather than cannibalised, and its consumer standing — 4.1 on Trustpilot across roughly 16,400 reviews — means fewer angry customers arriving at your support desk than the category average would suggest.
The case against it is entirely about what you cannot see. Get the merchant rate, the per-order processing fee and the amounts of all three ancillary fees in writing before you integrate, and set a threshold — $300 of monthly volume is the obvious one, since that is where the minimum fee bites — below which you close the account rather than leave it dormant.
Processing Rates
Online
Sezzle publishes no merchant rate. Its own merchant support states that a set percentage of each order plus a small processing fee applies to every order, that the figures are set out in the merchant agreement signed at application, and that the approvals team will tell you your specific rate if a different one applies to your store. Buy-now-pay-later merchant fees across the category generally run several times a card rate, and larger merchants negotiate down; we could not verify a figure or a range for Sezzle specifically from any source we would stand behind, so this review does not quote one. Ask for the rate in writing before you integrate.
Card-not-present, e-commerce, and online payments
In-person
Available in store through the Sezzle Virtual Card, which lets an approved shopper use their Sezzle plan at a merchant's existing card acceptance. No separate in-person merchant rate is published.
Card-present retail and point-of-sale transactions
Fees
Monthly Fee
Minimum fee below $300/month volume.
Recurring monthly account fee
Statement Fee
Three ancillary fees are documented but not quantified publicly. A minimum account management fee applies if you complete less than $300 of order volume in the 30-day period before your billing date, with the billing date set from your approval date and repeating every 30 days. A refund fee applies where Sezzle cannot issue a refund from your refund reserve account and has to charge a card on file instead. And a monthly inactive account fee applies to dormant merchant accounts. None of these has a published amount; all three should be asked about before signing.
Monthly account statement and reporting fee
Chargeback Fee
Sezzle states it assumes chargeback risk.
Per-incident chargeback dispute fee
Payouts
Standard Payout Time
About 3 business days.
Regular deposit schedule to your bank account
Expedited Payout Time
None published.
Faster deposit option (may have additional fees)
Minimum Payout Amount
Funds move to your Sezzle account when an order is placed; the transfer to your bank depends on the terms of your application, and Sezzle says the most common settlement period is 3 business days, with the documented range running from 1 to 7 business days after order capture. Settlement dates are visible in the merchant dashboard. Sezzle also documents a Delayed Settlement Incentive Program under which a merchant leaves funds with Sezzle for longer and is paid interest for doing so — a real option, though one that trades working capital for yield and should be modelled rather than assumed.
Minimum balance required before payout
Contract Terms
Contract Length
Not published; set in the merchant agreement.
Required commitment period
Cancellation Process
Sezzle does not publish its merchant contract terms — length, minimum commitment and exit provisions are all in the agreement signed at application. Two things are worth settling in writing before you integrate. First, the fee: the rate and the per-order processing fee, plus the amounts of the minimum account management fee, the refund fee and the inactive account fee. Second, what happens when you stop: Sezzle's terms authorise it to debit amounts you owe from your merchant balance or bank account and to pursue collection if funds are not available, so establish how long you remain exposed for refunds on orders placed before you switched the button off.
How to terminate your account
Sezzle Pricing Calculator
Estimate your monthly costs
Pick a published plan, enter your volume and transaction profile, and we’ll compute the math the same way an underwriter would. Real costs vary with card mix, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.
$
$
Estimated Monthly Cost
$300.00
Effective Rate
3.00%
Monthly fee$300.00
Number of transactions200
Flat all-in rate (interchange built in)
Chapter 3
What you actually get
Products, integrations, payment-type coverage, security posture, and how their support holds up in practice.
Products & Services
payment processing
Pay in 4
The core product. The shopper pays a down payment — Sezzle documents this as usually 25% — and the balance over roughly six weeks. Sezzle pays the merchant the full order value less the merchant rate when the order is processed.
ecommerce
Merchant e-commerce integrations
Plug-in integrations for Shopify, Shopify Plus, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Magento, Salesforce, Wix and CommentSold among others, plus a direct API for custom checkouts.
ecommerce
Price breakdown widget
A product-page widget showing the instalment amount rather than the full price. Sezzle's marketing claims for it — sales up to 50% higher, average order values up to 30% higher — are the company's own figures and should be treated as marketing rather than measurement until you have tested it on your own catalogue.
mobile payments
Sezzle Virtual Card
Lets an approved Sezzle shopper spend their plan in store through a merchant's existing card acceptance, extending the product beyond integrated merchants.
other
Delayed Settlement Incentive Program
An interest-paying option under which a merchant leaves settlement funds with Sezzle for longer in exchange for a return, as an alternative to the standard automatic withdrawal plan.
invoicing
Merchant invoicing
Sezzle documents the ability to send invoices payable in instalments, which extends the product to businesses that do not sell through a storefront checkout.
Support & Contact
Chapter 4
What others say
Synthesis of third-party platform reviews and industry ratings — agreements, disagreements, and which signals to weight.
Platform Ratings
Aggregated Trust Score
Based on 16,421 reviews across 2 rating platforms
3.8
out of 5
Overall Rating
Better Business Bureau
Reviewer Notes
The Better Business Bureau rates Sezzle, Inc. B and it is not accredited; the BBB attributes the rating to 13 complaints filed against the business that were not resolved. The profile records a business start date of February 2016 at 700 Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. Recurring themes in the consumer reviews are fees for paying by debit card, late fees, and disputes that take a long time to resolve — consumer complaints rather than merchant ones, but a merchant inherits some share of them at the point of sale.
Trustpilot
Reviewer Notes
A TrustScore of 4.1 across roughly 16,400 reviews, with 84% five-star and 10% one-star, and Sezzle replying to reviews within about 48 hours. That is a distinctly better consumer standing than most of the buy-now-pay-later category manages. The negative decile is consistent: fees for paying by debit card, late charges, fluctuating spending limits and difficulty closing an account.
Chapter 5
Watch out for
Legal actions, regulatory matters, and signals from employee reviews that bear on how merchants get treated.
Legal Actions
California Department of Business Oversight consent order against Sezzle, Inc.
Settled
The California Department of Business Oversight, now the Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, concluded after reviewing Sezzle's lending licence application that the purported credit sales made by Sezzle's merchant partners were not bona fide but were structured to evade consumer protections, making them unlicensed loans under the California Financing Law. Sezzle agreed to stop making the loans, to refund $282,000 — all the fees it had collected from almost 17,000 California consumers in the transactions at issue — and to pay a $28,200 penalty, with any future lending in California conducted under a California Financing Law licence. The regulator had initially rejected Sezzle's licence application and later granted one.
Sezzle, Inc. v. Shopify, Inc.
Ongoing
Sezzle filed an antitrust action against Shopify in the US District Court for the District of Minnesota (No. 0:25-cv-02395) on 9 June 2025, alleging monopolisation, attempted monopolisation, unlawful tying and contracts in restraint of trade under the Sherman Act, plus Clayton Act and Minnesota antitrust and unfair competition claims. Sezzle alleges Shopify penalised merchants with a fee for using third-party buy-now-pay-later providers rather than Shopify's own Shop Pay Installments, and seeks an injunction and treble damages. Shopify moved to dismiss in September 2025. On 13 May 2026 Judge Eric Tostrud granted the motion in part and denied it in part: he dismissed the claims alleging Shopify coerced merchants or consumers into using Shop Pay Installments, but held that Sezzle had plausibly alleged Shopify holds monopoly power in the US drag-and-drop e-commerce platform market and in the buy-now-pay-later aftermarket on Shopify-based stores, and had plausibly alleged antitrust injury. Sezzle is the plaintiff here rather than the defendant, but the case is worth knowing about if you sell on Shopify, because it concerns the fees a Shopify merchant pays for offering a competing instalment option.
Chapter 6
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Pricing
Sezzle does not publish it. Its merchant support states that a set percentage of each order plus a small processing fee applies to all orders, that the rate is set out in the merchant agreement you sign at application, and that its approvals team will tell you if a different rate applies to your store. There are also three ancillary fees with no published amounts: a minimum account management fee below $300 of monthly volume, a refund fee in some circumstances, and a monthly inactive account fee.
Features
General
How we evaluated Sezzle
We evaluate every payment processor independently — Payment Review does not accept paid placement. Our analysis combines hands-on product testing where possible, public pricing and policy documents, third-party reviews from BBB, Trustpilot, Google, and G2, and employee feedback from sites like Glassdoor and Indeed. We update reviews on a rolling cadence and flag the next review date so readers know how fresh the analysis is.
Last fact-checked September 4, 2026
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