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What does it mean to absorb fees on the Pass-Through billing plan? - Wed - Oct 14, 2026 - 9:01am

This feature is only available on the Pass Through billing plan. If your account is on a monthly plan, you won’t see these options. Monthly-plan accounts are invoiced by ThunderTix and control customer fees through their event ticket fees instead.

What it does

On the Pass Through plan, ThunderTix fees are added to the customer’s order at checkout. Your venue can choose to absorb those fees instead. When you absorb fees, your customer pays the listed price and nothing more. We deduct the same fees from that amount before your payout.

Choosing a fee mode

Your fee mode is set during account setup. Our team sets it for you, so contact ThunderTix Support if you’d like to choose or change it.

  • Fees added at checkout: The ticketing fee and processing fee are added on top of the listed price. Your customer pays the fees and you receive the full listed price.
  • Fees absorbed by venue: Your customer pays the listed price only, with no fee line at checkout. The fees come out of that amount before your payout.
The fee mode applies to your whole account. Both modes cannot be mixed within a single order.

Example: a $100.00 ticket

                                               Fees added at checkout           Fees absorbed by venue
Customer pays         | $105.79                 | $100.00
Ticketing fee         | $0.89                   | $0.89
Processing fee        | $4.90                   | $4.63
Your venue receives   | $100.00                 | $94.48

The processing fee is lower when you absorb fees because it is calculated on a smaller amount. Tickets priced under $10 carry a $0.65 ticketing fee instead of $0.89.

What it applies to

The setting applies to tickets, donations, memberships, and merchandise. The processing fee applies to all of them. The per-ticket fee applies to tickets only.

Absorbing fees on a box office order

When your account is set to Fees absorbed by venue, the order screen shows an Absorb Fees checkbox. Check it to charge your customer the ticket subtotal only. The fees still show on the order record so your reports and settlement are accurate.

Absorb Fees vs. Remove Fees

These two checkboxes look similar but work differently:

  • Remove Fees waives the ticketing fee. It is not charged at all.
  • Absorb Fees hides the fees from your customer. They are still collected, out of the ticket price.
Order history shows which option was used on each order, so you can tell them apart later.