# Getting paid

> Connect your own Stripe account to sell courses, and understand payouts, Stripe's fees and Bitty Course's platform fee on each plan.

Course sales go straight to your own Stripe account. You connect it once under **Settings → Payments**, and then students can buy your paid courses. Only workspace owners can connect or disconnect Stripe.

![Settings → Payments with a connected Stripe account that is accepting payments.](/docs/images/payments.webp)

## How the money flows

- Each purchase is a charge on your connected Stripe account. You are the seller (merchant of record).
- Stripe pays the money out to your bank on your Stripe payout schedule. Bitty Course never holds your course revenue.
- Stripe charges its processing fees to you, in your Stripe account.
- You manage payouts, receipts, refunds and disputes in your Stripe Dashboard. You can also refund from Bitty Course; see [Refunds](/docs/refunds).
- Checkout doesn't calculate or add sales tax or VAT. As the seller, tax obligations are yours.

## Connect Stripe

To connect Stripe:

1. Go to **Settings → Payments**.
2. Under **Where you or your business is based**, choose your country.
3. Click **Connect Stripe**.
4. On Stripe, create an account or sign in, and finish Stripe's setup.
5. Stripe sends you back to **Settings → Payments**.

Bitty Course never sees your bank or identity details; Stripe collects them.

Supported countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Poland, Singapore and Japan.

### Connection status

The Payments page shows one of these:

- Not connected — owners see the country picker and **Connect Stripe** button. Editors see "Stripe isn't connected yet. A workspace owner can connect it."
- **Finish setting up Stripe** — Stripe needs more details before you can take payments. Click **Continue on Stripe** to carry on, or **Check status** to re-check. Paid courses show "sales paused" until this is done.
- **Stripe connected** with an **Accepting payments** badge — students can buy your paid courses. **Open Stripe Dashboard** takes you to Stripe.

The status is always read from Stripe, not from the page you return to. It refreshes when you open the page (at most every 5 minutes, or right away with **Check status**) and when Stripe reports a change.

## Platform fee by plan

| Plan | Bitty Course's share of each sale |
| --- | --- |
| Free | 10% |
| Starter | 0% |
| Plus | 0% |

- The share is taken from the price the student actually paid, after any coupon or sale.
- It's collected through Stripe at the time of sale, on top of Stripe's own fees. You receive the rest in your Stripe account.
- The plan in effect when the student starts checkout decides the share for that sale.
- When a purchase is fully refunded, Bitty Course's share is refunded too.
- On the Free plan, **Settings → Payments** says "On the Free plan, Bitty Course keeps 10% of each sale, on top of Stripe's fees. Paid plans take no cut."

See [Plans and usage](/docs/plans-and-usage) to compare plans.

## Stripe's processing fees

Stripe's fees are set by Stripe and charged to your Stripe account. Bitty Course doesn't know them, so revenue in **Analytics** and the **Sales CSV** is after refunds and Bitty Course fees but before Stripe's fees. See your Stripe Dashboard for the exact fees. See [Analytics](/docs/analytics).

## Before Stripe is connected

- You can build courses, publish free and invite-only courses, and give students access by email.
- A paid course can't be published. **Publish** stays disabled with "Connect Stripe in Settings → Payments to sell this course".
- If a paid course is already published and Stripe stops accepting payments (you disconnect, or Stripe needs more details), its course page shows "Sales are paused while [your workspace name] sets up payments. Check back soon." There is no buy button, so coupon codes, including 100% codes, can't be used either.
- Enrolled students keep their access either way.

## Disconnect Stripe

1. Go to **Settings → Payments**.
2. Click **Disconnect** and confirm.

Paid courses can't be bought until you connect again. Your Stripe account itself is unchanged, and students who already bought keep their access. Only owners can disconnect.

## Good to know

- Only owners can connect, continue setup or disconnect. Editors can see the status.
- While the workspace is read-only after canceling, you can't start a new Stripe connection.
- A purchase grants access only when Stripe confirms the payment.

## Related

- [Pricing and access](/docs/pricing-and-access)
- [Coupons and sales](/docs/coupons-and-sales)
- [Refunds](/docs/refunds)
- [Plans and usage](/docs/plans-and-usage)
- [Team](/docs/team)