How do customer payments work? | Locus Founder
When a customer pays through your Locus-built business, the money goes straight into your own Stripe account — Locus never holds or passes through your revenue. This is the simplest way to accept payments with a Stripe AI builder: connect once, and every charge your business collects lands in Stripe exactly as if you had wired it yourself.
Your Stripe account, your money
Locus wires Stripe into your business during setup. The connection points to the Stripe account you own and control. When a customer checks out, Stripe handles the card processing and deposits the net amount into your bank on the normal Stripe payout schedule. Locus is not in the money path.
This matters more than it sounds. Some all-in-one commerce platforms hold your funds in a platform wallet or delay payouts until you hit a threshold. With Locus, there is no intermediary balance, no platform wallet, and no payout delay beyond Stripe's standard 2-day rolling schedule.
What Locus charges
Locus adds a 1% fee on each successful charge your business collects. That's it for routine transactions.
There is also a revenue-share tier that applies once a business clears real traction: once your business earns more than $1,000 in a calendar month, Locus takes 5% of revenue above that line. The first $1,000 every month is entirely yours.
To put it plainly:
| Revenue range | Locus fee |
|---|---|
| $0 – $1,000 / month | 1% per transaction |
| Above $1,000 / month | 1% per transaction + 5% of the amount over $1,000 |
For most early-stage founders the only fee that applies for a long time is the 1% transaction fee. The 5% tier is a milestone, not a penalty — it only kicks in once the business is generating real revenue.
What you own
Everything. The domain, the customer list, the Stripe account, and all the content the agent produces. One-click export of your domain, customer data, and Stripe connection is available at any time. Locus is the cofounder doing the operational work; ownership stays with you.
This is a meaningful difference from platforms like Shopify, which host your store and control the checkout experience, or creator platforms like Kajabi or Gumroad, where your customer relationship is mediated by the platform. If you're comparing options, the guides on Shopify alternatives walk through the tradeoffs.
How Stripe gets connected
During onboarding, Locus prompts you to connect your Stripe account via OAuth. If you don't have a Stripe account yet, the agent walks you through creating one. Once connected:
- Locus can create products and prices in Stripe on your behalf
- The agent can generate checkout links and embed them in your website
- Every transaction is visible in your Stripe dashboard in real time
- You can disconnect or rotate credentials at any time
The agent does the configuration work; you keep the credentials and the account relationship with Stripe.
Approval before any charge
Locus will never create a checkout link, set a price, or initiate any customer-facing payment flow without your explicit approval. The agent proposes; you confirm. This applies to pricing changes too — if the agent decides a product should be repriced, it surfaces the recommendation and waits for your sign-off before anything changes in Stripe.
This is the same approval model that governs every customer-facing action in Locus: messages, ad campaigns, prices. The agent has initiative but you have the final word.
Subscription and trial billing
Locus is billed separately from your business revenue. Your subscription is $25 your first month, then $50/month (or $500/year, which works out to two months free). Every new workspace starts with a 24-hour free trial — $5 of agent credit and a card on file. Cancel before the 24 hours ends and you're never charged.
That subscription covers the platform. Your Stripe business revenue is a completely separate flow and is not counted toward your Locus plan usage.
Related questions
The full FAQ covers onboarding, agent approvals, and what happens if you cancel your workspace.
Frequently asked questions
Does Locus take a cut of every sale I make? Yes — 1% per successful charge. Once your business earns more than $1,000 in a calendar month, Locus also takes 5% of revenue above that threshold. Below $1,000/month, the only Locus fee is the 1% transaction fee.
What if I already have a Stripe account? Connect it during onboarding. Locus uses OAuth, so you grant specific permissions — it doesn't get your full Stripe secret key. Existing Stripe customers, subscriptions, and payout schedules are unaffected.
Can I use a payment processor other than Stripe? Stripe is the supported payment processor. If you need a different processor, reach out at founders@paywithlocus.com.
What happens to my Stripe account if I cancel Locus? Your Stripe account is yours and remains active regardless of your Locus subscription. All historical transaction data, customers, and payouts continue normally. Nothing is deleted.
Ready to accept payments with an AI builder that handles the setup and hands you the keys? Start your free workspace at locusfounder.com — your first 24 hours and $5 of credit are on us.