Stripe Radar: The Four Tiers, the Risk Scores and What It Won't Cover

Radar uses AI to judge the risk of fraud on transactions, accounts and customers in real time, and it screens payments from supported methods automatically. The paid tiers add more control, such as your own rules. What none of them do is take the liability for a bad payment off your shoulders, and that's the point to keep in mind as you read on.

Radar Lite, Standard, Plus and Pro compared

These are the prices for a business, from Stripe's US pricing page in US dollars, as of October 2026. Platforms have a separate price list, so don't mix the two.

Radar tier	From	Adds
Lite	No extra charge on standard payments pricing	AI fraud prevention for cards, card testing protection, fraud alerts
Standard	$10 a month	Out-of-the-box protection across payment methods plus analytics
Plus	$14 a month	Custom rules, backtesting, risk tolerance, advanced analytics
Pro	$20 a month	Abuse prevention (free trial, bot, multi-account) and dynamic risk thresholds

The tiers cover transaction fraud, account fraud and customer abuse. You can pay by subscription, which is a fixed monthly fee with a set number of screens, or pay as you go. Pro's abuse signals also cover account sharing and pay-as-you-go signals. Enterprise customers get tailored pricing and risk signals that include payments not processed on Stripe.

What a Radar risk score of 65 or 75 means

Every payment Radar screens gets a score from 0 to 99. By default, 65 or above counts as elevated risk and 75 or above counts as high risk. Radar's default rules then send payments with an elevated risk level to review. There's also an older rule that blocks the highest-risk payments; Stripe marks it as deprecated, but it's still enabled by default.

Rules can do one of four things with a payment: request 3D Secure, allow it, block it or send it to review. Radar evaluates Charges, PaymentIntents and SetupIntents, though SetupIntents for cards have to be switched on in your Radar settings.

The responsibility Radar never takes on

This is the line from Stripe's own docs that every seller should read: you're ultimately responsible for payments you choose to accept, including those that are later disputed or found to be fraudulent. Radar helps you watch and reduce disputes. It doesn't shift the cost of a fraudulent payment away from you, which is why I'd never treat a green tick as a guarantee.

There's a second catch for subscription businesses. On Stripe Billing, Radar's fraud models only score the first payment of a recurring subscription. Your rules still run on every payment, but the AI scoring happens once, at the start.

Custom rules worth knowing about

Custom rules need a plan that supports them. These are examples Stripe lists itself:

• Ask for 3D Secure on every payment from a new customer.
• Block payments from a particular location, or from cards issued outside your country.
• Review every payment over $1,000 made with a prepaid card.
• Review accounts with a high dispute rate and pause their pay-outs automatically.

Be careful with country blocks if you're based in the EU. Stripe notes that the Geo-blocking Regulation may affect businesses that block customers by country.

CVC checks, postcodes and 3D Secure

A payment can still go through when the CVC or postcode check fails, because card issuers weigh lots of factors. Radar offers optional rules that block those payments based on risk score, so a payment Stripe rates as low risk isn't blocked, and the rule doesn't apply when the customer can't give that data, such as with wallets. Since 17 December 2024, the Dashboard shows these rules to new customers.

3D Secure is the other lever. When 3D Secure authenticates a payment, liability for fraud-related disputes typically moves from you to the card issuer. Stripe warns that asking for it on everything can lower conversion, so use it on the risky cases rather than every sale. Turning Radar off doesn't stop 3D Secure where regulation, such as Europe's PSD2, requires it.

How to tune Radar for your shop

1. Open Radar in your Dashboard and read through the default rules.
2. Look at the risk level and score on any payment that's been flagged.
3. Decide whether risky cases should get 3D Secure or go to review.
4. If your plan supports custom rules, backtest a rule before you switch it on.
5. Keep an eye on your dispute rate and adjust as patterns change.

Stripe's own claims about Radar

Stripe's marketing page says Radar cuts fraud by 32% on average, that its AI is trained on more than 70 trillion data points across Stripe's network, and that there's a 92% likelihood a charge comes from a card Stripe has seen before. They're Stripe's own marketing figures, so weigh them as such, but the last one explains why the network effect matters: Stripe often knows a card's history before it ever reaches you.

Selling in person as well as online? Stripe Terminal covers the card readers.

Do you need a paid Radar tier?

For most small online sellers, the built-in screening is enough to start with. Pay for a tier with custom rules once you see a pattern, like repeat card testing or the same kind of fraud coming back, because that's when your own rules earn their keep. Whatever tier you're on, Radar lowers your risk rather than removing it. Dispute charges sit with the rest of Stripe's fees, and if you want a wider view, my guide to fraud detection software compares other options, while the best payment processors for small businesses puts Stripe in context.

Frequently asked questions

Is Stripe Radar free?

Radar Lite, which covers AI fraud prevention for cards, card testing protection and fraud alerts, is included at no additional charge for businesses on standard payments pricing. Paid tiers for a business start at $10 a month on Stripe's US page, as of October 2026.

What is a high risk score in Stripe Radar?

Radar scores payments from 0 to 99. By default, 65 or above indicates elevated risk and 75 or above indicates high risk.

Does Stripe Radar protect me from chargebacks?

No. Stripe says you're ultimately responsible for payments you choose to accept, including those later disputed or found to be fraudulent. Radar helps reduce disputes but doesn't remove your liability.

Does Radar check every payment on a Stripe subscription?

Radar's fraud models only score the first payment of a recurring subscription on Stripe Billing, but your Radar rules are evaluated on all payments.

Can I write my own Stripe Radar rules?

Yes, on a plan that supports custom rules. Rules can request 3D Secure, allow, block or send a payment to review, and you can backtest them first.