Guide · Processors
Dispute deadlines and fees by processor, side by side
Your processor, not the card network, sets your real deadline. Square gives you 7 days, Toast 15, Stripe and Shopify 7 to 21, and some processors publish no number at all. Fees run from nothing to $20 per dispute, before any network fees.
Key takeaways
- Your processor sets your clock. The networks give your processor’s bank a month or more. You get a week or two.
- Square is the tightest flat window. Seven days. Adyen gives 9 on local US and Canada Visa disputes.
- Fees run from $0 to $20, and some processors don’t publish theirs at all.
- No published number? Your notice is the rule. It always is, actually.
Why every processor gives you a different deadline
When a customer disputes a card payment, the card network gives the response time to your processor’s bank, called the acquirer. Under Visa’s rules, that bank has 30 days. Under Mastercard’s, 45.
You never see those numbers. Your processor needs time to review what you send and file it, so it hands you a shorter window. How much shorter is up to them. That’s why the same Visa dispute can give you 7 days at one processor and 21 at another.
We checked each processor’s own public help pages and docs on October 25, 2026. Where a processor doesn’t publish a figure, the table says so. We didn’t fill the gap with a guess.
Response windows and dispute fees, side by side
| Processor | Your time to respond | Dispute fee | If you miss it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square | 7 days | No dispute management fee | Square challenges with only the information it already has |
| Stripe | Usually 7 to 21 days, by network | $15 when it arrives; $15 more to counter, returned if you win | You lose automatically |
| Shopify Payments | 7 to 21 days; 11:59 PM store time if no time is shown | Shown on your dispute notice; returned if you win | Shopify sends the evidence it has on the due date; nothing can be added after |
| Chase (Chase Business) | 7 to 21 days, by processor and network | “May apply”; shown on your dispute notice | You lose automatically |
| PayPal (PayPal payments) | Respond within the first 10 days; 10 days to answer a claim | $15 standard; $30 high-volume | An unanswered claim closes in the buyer’s favor |
| PayPal (card chargebacks) | Shown on your dispute notice | $20 | Shown on your dispute notice |
| Toast | 15 calendar days from the report date | $15 per notice, win or lose; networks may add up to $500 | Ruled for the cardholder |
| Clover (Fiserv) | Shown on your dispute notice | A dispute processing fee applies; shown on your dispute notice | The dispute expires and you lose the money |
| Adyen | Visa: 9 days for local US and Canada payments, 18 elsewhere; Mastercard 40; Amex 14; Discover 25 | Shown on your dispute notice | Shown on your dispute notice |
| Sunbit (through Stripe) | 12 calendar days | No Sunbit dispute fee | Sunbit decides within 35 days; no appeal |
| Affirm (through Stripe) | 15 calendar days | Shown on your dispute notice | Affirm decides within 60 days |
Adyen counts from the date of the chargeback notice, and its 9-day Visa window applies to disputes opened from 21 July 2025. Toast’s $500 network fee applies to disputes the networks consider nearly impossible to win, such as some authorization and chip cases.
The tightest clocks are getting tighter. Adyen cut its local US and Canada Visa window to 9 days in 2025. Square’s is 7. Plan for a week, every time, no matter who processes your cards.
Where each processor shows the dispute
- Stripe: the Disputes tab in the Stripe Dashboard, plus email. Stripe disputes guide.
- Square: Square Dashboard, Orders & payments (or Payments), then Disputes. Square disputes guide.
- PayPal: the Resolution Center. PayPal disputes guide.
- Clover: an email to the account owner, and Finances, then Disputes, in the Clover dashboard. Only the account owner with two-factor sign-in can see disputes.
- Shopify: a chargeback banner on the order, or filter Orders by chargeback and inquiry status.
- Toast: Toast Web, Reports, Payments, Chargebacks, then Chargeback Challenger.
- Chase: Chase Business Online, Accepted Card Payments, Disputes, then “Challenge & document.”
If your processor isn’t here
Many processors and merchant banks don’t publish a fixed merchant window at all. Their rules sit in your merchant agreement, and the deadline arrives on your notice or in a portal.
Same rule everywhere: find the due date on the notice, write it down, and set a reminder two days earlier. Our deadline calculator does the date math for you.
What the table doesn’t tell you
- One submission is the norm. Stripe, Square, Shopify and Toast all say you can’t add evidence after you submit.
- The fee is the small part. The disputed amount is usually held or debited the day the dispute arrives.
- Most lenders aren’t on this list. Patient-financing and pay-later disputes run on each lender’s own clock and your agreement with it. How lender disputes differ.
Dispute Daddy doesn’t connect to any processor. You upload what your processor shows you, Dispute Daddy keeps the due date in view and builds the response, and you submit it to your processor yourself. See pricing.
