Flexible Event Fees, Built for Real-World Pricing
Most ticketing platforms give you one fee field and a checkbox. Cohost lets you configure as many fees as your event needs — service fees, processing surcharges, taxes, and delivery charges — each tuned to the way you actually want to charge.
What are fees in Cohost?
Fees in Cohost are anything you add to (or take off) the buyer's ticket price beyond the face value of the ticket itself — service fees, processing surcharges, sales tax, and delivery charges. You can attach as many as your event needs, configure each one independently, and Cohost handles the math at checkout and on every receipt.
Compare that to the typical ticketing platform. You get one organizer fee field, a hard-coded platform fee you can't even see, and no way to add anything else. Want a flat ticketing fee plus a percentage processing surcharge? A late-fee that only kicks in the week of the event? A delivery charge for physical tickets that doesn't apply to e-tickets? On most platforms the answer is "open a support ticket." In Cohost it is a five-minute setup.
Per ticket or per order — your call
Every fee you add picks a base. A per-ticket fee charges once for each ticket in the cart — the right fit for a flat $5 ticketing fee that scales naturally with order size. A per-order fee charges once per cart — the right fit for a $2 booking fee or a flat delivery charge that shouldn't multiply just because someone bought four tickets. Most events run both at the same time.
Flat amounts or percentages
Pick a flat amount like $5 per ticket, or a percentage like 3% of the order. Need something more nuanced? Cohost supports graduated fees that change with order size — $1 for small carts, $3 for mid-size, $5 for large — so heavy buyers aren't scared off by a fee that scales too aggressively.
Sales tax, handled the way your finance team expects
Sales tax is just another fee in Cohost, but with one important twist: you decide what it multiplies. Should tax apply to the ticket price only, or to the ticket plus your service fees? Cohost lets you pick either way, so the number on the receipt always matches the number on your tax filing — and it stays broken out as its own line on every order for clean reporting.
Delivery fees for physical tickets, badges, or merchandise
Shipping wristbands, printed tickets, or event merch with the order? Add a delivery fee per order, restrict it to the ticket types that actually ship, and skip it entirely for e-tickets and will-call. The fee shows up on the cart only when it actually applies — no manual carve-outs, no confused buyers asking why they were charged shipping for a digital ticket.
Charged to the buyer — or absorbed by you
Every fee carries a setting for who actually pays it. The buyer-pays mode adds the fee to the cart total. The organizer-absorbs mode deducts it from your payout instead, leaving the advertised ticket price exactly what the buyer sees at checkout. Useful when you want clean round-number pricing without giving up the revenue tracking.
Schedule fees with a start and end date
Want a late-fee surcharge that only kicks in within 48 hours of showtime? A holiday-week processing fee? A new tax rate that takes effect on the first of next month? Every fee accepts an optional effective window. Outside that window the fee is invisible — to the cart, to the buyer, and to your reports — with no toggles to flip the night before.
Set a company-wide default, override per event
Running a series of events? Configure your standard service fee once at the company level and Cohost applies it to every event you create. Then override it on the events that need different pricing — a charity show with no service fee, a high-end gala with a higher one — without touching the company default. New events automatically pick up the latest defaults.
Gate fees by order size or ticket type
Some fees shouldn't apply to everyone. A bulk-buyer fee waiver for groups of ten or more. A "no service fee on orders over $200" promotion. A processing fee that applies only to specific ticket types. Each fee can be gated by the conditions that matter to your event — minimum quantity, minimum cart total, or specific ticket types — and stays out of the way the rest of the time.
Built for serious organizers
Unlimited fees per event
Add as many service fees, surcharges, taxes, and delivery charges as your event needs. No artificial limits.
Frozen on every order
Each fee is captured exactly as it was on every order. Edit later — past orders stay correct.
Refund line by line
Partial refunds can target a single fee line — the service fee, the delivery charge, the tax — without touching the rest of the order.
Visible to the buyer, visible to you
Every fee appears as its own line on the cart, the receipt, and your dashboard reports.
What can you actually do with Cohost fees?
A few real-world fee setups Cohost handles out of the box:
- Flat $5 service fee per ticket. Scales one-for-one with order size; the buyer sees it broken out on the cart.
- 3% processing fee on the order total. Applied once per cart so it doesn't compound with the per-ticket fee.
- 8.875% sales tax on tickets only. Broken out as its own line on the order and aggregated in your tax report.
- Late-fee surcharge in the final 48 hours. A scheduled fee that activates on its own — no manual toggle the night before showtime.
- Bulk-buyer fee waiver above 10 tickets. Cancels the standard service fee for high-volume orders so group buyers see a friendlier total.
- Tiered processing fee. $1 for carts under $50, $3 for $50–$200, $5 above — so small buyers aren't punished and large buyers aren't shocked.
- Delivery charge for physical tickets only. Restricted to the ticket types that actually ship; skipped for e-tickets.
- Company-wide default plus per-event override. Standard fee on every event, with a one-click override for the events that need different pricing.
These are common starting points — not the limits. Cohost's fee controls are designed to combine freely, so if you can describe the way you want to charge, you can almost certainly build it. Mix per-ticket and per-order fees, layer surcharges with taxes, schedule windows, route different fees to different places — whatever the setup, Cohost can shape it.
Common questions
How many fees can I attach to a single event?
There is no platform-imposed limit. Most events run two to five — a per-ticket service fee, a per-order booking fee, optionally a percentage processing charge, and sales tax — but Cohost will happily handle as many as your business needs.
Can I charge different fees on different ticket types?
Yes. Every fee can target the whole event or specific ticket types. VIP tickets can carry a different fee structure than General Admission, all on the same event.
Can I have a fee that only the organizer pays?
Yes. Switch a fee to organizer-absorbs mode and it deducts from your payout instead of being added to the buyer's total. The buyer sees a clean ticket price; you still see the fee in your reports.
Does Cohost charge me a platform fee on top of mine?
Platform fees are always explicit and visible. They appear as their own line on the cart and on your reports, so you can see exactly what is being charged and to whom. No hidden line items, no "processing" surprises in your statement.
What happens to past orders if I change a fee mid-event?
They stay correct. Every order keeps a frozen record of the fees that applied to it when it was placed. Editing or removing a fee later only affects future orders — refunds and accounting continue to use the original numbers, so your books reconcile cleanly.
Can I schedule a fee to activate or expire automatically?
Yes. Every fee accepts an optional start date, end date, or both. Outside that window the fee is invisible — no manual toggles, no last-minute scrambles. Perfect for weekend-only surcharges, late-purchase fees, or tax rate transitions on a known date.
How does sales tax work?
You configure the tax rate and choose whether it applies to the ticket price only or to the ticket plus your fees. Cohost adds it to the cart, breaks it out on the order, and aggregates it in your tax report. Multiple tax lines (state, city, district) can stack independently.
Can buyers see the fee breakdown at checkout?
Yes. The cart shows every line — subtotal, each fee, each tax, delivery — with the fee name and amount clearly labeled. The same breakdown is preserved on the order and the buyer's receipt, so what they see at checkout is what they see in their inbox.
Can I refund just the fee portion of an order?
Yes. Because each fee is a separate line on the order, partial refunds can target a specific fee line without touching the ticket price or the other fees.
How is this different from what most ticketing platforms offer?
Most platforms give you one organizer fee field, hide their platform fee, and force a single fee model. Cohost lets you add as many fees as you need, run per-ticket and per-order fees side-by-side, schedule them, gate them, and route each one to the right place — all through the same dashboard, with no support ticket required.