Pricing overview

When a transaction is confirmed, Klarna issues rate details specific to the transaction in what is referred to as a "promise". These rate details appear in the confirm_payment request API response and are final. The application of these fees depends on the number of captures and the captured amount, as both variable and fixed fees are applied per capture.

Should retrieval of these rates be necessary, you can access them using the read price_plan request. To view the broader rates across a Partners price plan, you should use the GET a price plan request. This ensures accurate and up-to-date rate application in all transactions and calculations. The rates provided in the response to the Authorize a payment transaction are only intended for estimation purposes, and should not be stored or used for forecasting or reconciliation.

These are linked to a specific price plan identified by a price_plan_id. Rate details for a price plan can be accessed through the Partner management API using this ID. Effective rates consider factors like the issuing country, MCC, sales channel (physical or online store), and payment program. The fixed and variable costs shared on confirmation are applied to a transaction on a per capture basis.

The microtransaction cap is a limit applied to ensure that the total fee, including both the variable and fixed fee components, does not exceed a predefined percentage of the transaction value. This feature is designed to protect merchant margins on lower-value transactions by capping the maximum fee that can be charged per transaction. The specific cap may vary by country and/or merchant category code (MCC) as outlined in your agreement.

These are adjustments applied to a given transaction based on certain criteria or promotions. Discounts reduce transaction fees based on certain criteria or promotions. The effective rate communicated accounts for any applied discounts.

These occur within the response to the Authorize a payment transaction and (once authorized) the read payment request, rate details are disclosed. The payment_pricing object shows the details of the costs associated with transaction, with the detailed rate amounts calculated based on these details:

For a captured transaction completed in USD, with a fixed fee of $1.04 and a variable rate of 1.39%, the below response would be returned. In addition, there is a transaction fee of $1.00 and a variable rate of 1.20%. There is also a cross border fee of $0.05 and a variable rate of 0.29%. There are no sell rate incentives applied on the fee. There is also a buy rate incentive applied of -$0.01 and a variable rate of -0.10% This rate should be considered the “applied rate” and is adjusted according to incentives or caps applied.

Some transactions are priced under a different country than the one where the Partner is registered. For airline merchant category codes (MCCs), for example, Klarna can price the transaction under the customer's country, so no cross-border fee applies. evaluation_parameters.partner_country keeps reporting where the Partner is registered, so it doesn't tell you which country's rate applied. Use pricing_country_group and pricing_country_resolution to reconcile the transaction instead.

Your contract defines whether you're on Partner Market Pricing or Customer Market Pricing, and you reconcile on that basis. dynamic_partner_country_pricing is the exception, so Klarna returns these fields to tell you which lookup applied.

Klarna sets both fields and you never send them. Klarna returns them together for every transaction priced after they become available. Earlier transactions don't include them, so keep reconciling those under the pricing model in your contract.

pricing_country_group is the key that matches the corresponding rate entry that priced the transaction: in your Price Plan, as returned by listPricePlanRates, or among your Bespoke Rates, as returned by listBespokeRates. Compare the value as is with whichever of partner_country or partner_country_group is set on that entry for Partner Market Pricing, or with customer_country for Customer Market Pricing. Treat the value as an opaque string and don't parse it. It holds either of the following:

Rest of World market groupings are unrelated to evaluation_parameters.customer_pricing_region. The ROW value of that field is the fallback for customer billing countries that don't map to a specific pricing region.

pricing_country_resolution is an open enum, so Klarna may add values later. Handle values you don't recognize without failing. The documented values are:

For a GB customer buying a flight from an airline whose Partner is registered in the US, Klarna prices the transaction under GB. The response has a single TRANSACTION_FEE component with a variable rate of 1.39% and no CROSS_BORDER_FEE component, even though customer_country and partner_country differ.

Each payment program is associated with a unique payment_program_id, which should be the primary identifier used by partners to reference and reconcile programs. Program names are provided as descriptive elements but may vary over time as Klarna expands or updates offerings. This makes program IDs the only stable reference for any program-related processing.

For rate details associated with a specific program, partners should use the Price Plans API. This API provides a way to read the price plan. It provides rates based on mcc, payment_program_id, country, currency, etc. Partners can query using 1 or more filter parameters to query required rate details.

Confirming program rates:

Whenever the transaction currency and issuing currency do not match, Klarna will do FX conversion for the applicable rates. This means that applicable rate's fixed fee will be converted using the current market rates. The specified exchange_rate, will be mentioned in the API response under evaluation_parameters.