---
title: "From charging a blended rate to IC++: pass network costs to your connected accounts"
description: "Platforms using blended payment rates absorb interchange variance, which can reduce margins as card mix shifts toward premium rewards, corporate, and other high-interchange cards. Network cost passthrough, also called IC++, lets eligible Connect platforms pass interchange, scheme fees, and applicable adjustments to connected accounts at cost while keeping Stripe fees and platform markup separate. Eligibility requires IC+ pricing, platform-controlled pricing, enabled transfers, an appropriate Merchant of Record fund flow, and eligible geographies; passthrough can then be enabled in the Dashboard or through the API. The rollout also requires lower application fees, new network-cost reporting, and a pilot with clear communication before broader deployment."
---

# From charging a blended rate to IC++: pass network costs to your connected accounts

[Stripe](https://yomu.fyi/company/stripe) · Safia El Bayed · Aug 10, 2026

**Type:** Problem & solution

## Summary

Platforms using blended payment rates absorb interchange variance, which can reduce margins as card mix shifts toward premium rewards, corporate, and other high-interchange cards. Network cost passthrough, also called IC++, lets eligible Connect platforms pass interchange, scheme fees, and applicable adjustments to connected accounts at cost while keeping Stripe fees and platform markup separate. Eligibility requires IC+ pricing, platform-controlled pricing, enabled transfers, an appropriate Merchant of Record fund flow, and eligible geographies; passthrough can then be enabled in the Dashboard or through the API. The rollout also requires lower application fees, new network-cost reporting, and a pilot with clear communication before broader deployment.

## Context

Blended pricing makes the platform absorb interchange variance, and that variance can grow when larger merchants use premium rewards, corporate, or other high-interchange cards. Platforms moving upmarket also need more granular pricing and transparent cost reporting for connected accounts.

## Approach / What changed

Eligible platforms on IC+ pricing can enable network cost passthrough per connected account in the Dashboard or through the API. IC++ passes eligible interchange, scheme fees, and applicable adjustments through at cost, then requires pricing updates and connected-account reporting through Dashboard tools, embedded components, the Reporting API, Sigma, or Stripe Data Pipeline.

## Takeaways

- IC++ requires IC+ pricing, platform-controlled pricing, an enabled transfers capability, an appropriate Merchant of Record fund flow, and eligible geographies.
- Network costs are first charged to the platform and then recovered from the connected account through a platform\_fee\_transfer balance transaction; recovery can make an account negative and pause payouts.
- Platforms should create separate IC++ pricing rules, provide plan-level and transaction-level network-cost reports, and begin with a small pilot cohort after communicating the change.

**Tags:** [Scalability](https://yomu.fyi/topic/scalability)

- Source: [Stripe](https://stripe.dev/blog/pass-network-costs-to-your-connected-accounts)
- Source URL: https://stripe.dev/blog/pass-network-costs-to-your-connected-accounts
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-08-29T01:13:20.119Z

[Read original post](https://stripe.dev/blog/pass-network-costs-to-your-connected-accounts)