Getting started

Surcharge ships ready to use. Once WooCommerce is active you can add a working checkout fee in a couple of minutes.

Before you start

• WordPress 6.5 or newer
• WooCommerce 8.0 or newer (classic checkout and Cart/Checkout Blocks both supported)
• PHP 8.1 or newer

Install

1. Install WooCommerce and make sure it is active. Surcharge does nothing without it and shows an admin notice if it is missing.
2. Install Surcharge from the plugin directory (when live on WordPress.org) or upload the surcharge folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
3. Activate the plugin.

No setup wizard runs. On activation the Enable fees master switch defaults to on, but no fees exist yet, so nothing is added to the cart until you create one.

Add your first fee

Open WooCommerce → Surcharge. The header shows an Active or Disabled badge reflecting the master switch.

1. Leave Enable fees ticked (the master switch).
2. In the Fees card, fill in the first row:
   • Label, the wording shoppers see on the cart, checkout and order, e.g. Handling fee. A row with a blank label is skipped on save.
   • Type, Fixed amount or Percentage of cart.
   • Amount, a currency value for a fixed fee (e.g. 3.50), or a percentage from 0 to 100 for a percentage fee (e.g. 2.5).
   • Taxable, tick if WooCommerce should apply your tax rules to the fee.
   • Enabled, leave ticked. Unticking keeps the row saved but stops charging it.
3. Use Add fee to add more rows, or Remove fee to drop one.
4. Click Save Changes.

The fee is now live. Saving runs sanitisation: amounts are coerced to numbers, percentages are clamped to 0-100, and any wholly empty row (no label and no amount) is dropped.

Verify on the storefront

1. Add a product to the cart and confirm the fee appears as its own line in the totals.
2. Go to checkout and confirm the same line shows there.
3. If you marked the fee Taxable, confirm tax is calculated on it; if not, confirm it is added tax-free.
4. Place a test order and confirm the fee shows on the order and in the order confirmation email.

The fee runs through WooCommerce’s fees pipeline, so it appears in cart totals, checkout, the order, emails and reports without extra configuration.

How a percentage is calculated

A percentage fee is taken from the cart contents subtotal including the tax on those items, before any existing fees or shipping. A 2.5% fee on a 100.00 subtotal adds 2.50. Percentages above 100 are capped at 100.

Free vs Pro

The free edition covers unlimited fixed and percentage fees, the taxable option, the per-fee enable toggle and the master switch. There is no conditional logic in the free plugin, every enabled fee applies whenever the master switch is on.

A Surcharge Pro add-on is planned for conditional fees (cart tiers, payment-method and role rules). It is not required for any of the above.

Need help?

• Surcharge overview, what the plugin does and how fees apply
• Configuration, every setting explained
• GitHub issues
• Surcharge on plogins.com