Pricing

No subscriptions. No vendor fees. 5% of what you sell, and that is all.

Unlimited events, unlimited booths, full analytics, for every organizer. Captain Expo costs nothing at all until a vendor pays for a booth.

Create your event

Free to start - no card required

  • $0

    To sign up, run events and draw floor plans

  • 5%

    Of the booth subtotal, deducted from proceeds

  • $0

    Charged to your vendors, on every booking, always

The Captain Expo fee

Five percent of what actually sells, and nothing else, ever.

When a vendor pays for a booth, Stripe splits 5% of the booth subtotal off to Captain Expo and sends the rest to you. There is no invoice, no monthly bill, and nothing to cancel.

A $400 corner booth

Booth price you set
$400.00
What the vendor pays
$400.00
Captain Expo fee (5%)
-$20.00
What lands in your Stripe account
$380.00

Stripe’s own card processing rates are separate and are billed to your account by Stripe, exactly as they are today. You are the merchant of record; the money never passes through Captain Expo.

  • The base is the booth subtotal only. If you charge your own processing fee, we take no percentage of it.
  • No minimum and no flat component. 5% of a $15 table is 75 cents, and 75 cents is the whole bill.
  • A $0 sale carries a $0 fee. Comped booths, free applications and promo-covered spots cost nothing, because the fee only exists as a fraction of a charge.
  • Refund a booking and the 5% comes back to you with it, automatically.
  • It is deducted at the moment of the charge, so your Stripe balance is already correct. Nothing to reconcile at month end.
Merchant of record

Your vendors never see a fee.

There is no Captain Expo line at your checkout. No toggle that moves the 5% onto the vendor, and no setting that would create one. A vendor sees the booth price you set, plus your own processing fee if you charge one, and pays it to you under your name on your Stripe account.

The 5% comes out of your side, after the sale. Which means the person you spend all year building a relationship with never has to wonder what the software cost them.

AI detection credits

The only other thing with a price tag.

Upload a floor plan and AI detection finds the booths for you, so you start by correcting a drawn floor instead of drawing one. Each run costs us a real API call, so it is metered in credits - and it is the only part of Captain Expo that is.

  • On signup

    2

    Free credits, immediately

    Enough to run detection on a real floor plan and see what it gives you back, before you have connected anything.

  • On connecting Stripe

    5

    More once Stripe connects

    They land the moment Stripe Connect onboarding completes, which is a step every selling organizer takes anyway.

  • Refills

    $10

    For a pack of 10

    A one-time payment when you want more. No subscription attached to it, and no expiry to watch.

Only a successful run spends a credit. If a detection fails, you keep it. Drawing, editing and re-arranging a floor plan by hand is unlimited and never costs a credit.

Questions

The answers, before you ask them.

Who actually pays the 5%?
You do, and only after a booth has been paid for. Stripe deducts it from your proceeds at the moment of the charge, so there is no invoice to settle and no bill at the end of the month. If you sell nothing, you owe nothing.
Will my vendors see a Captain Expo fee at checkout?
No. There is no Captain Expo line on a vendor's checkout, no toggle that would move the fee onto them, and no setting that creates one. They see the booth price you set - plus your own processing fee if you charge one - and that is the whole receipt.
What about Stripe's processing fees?
Those are Stripe's standard rates, charged by Stripe, and they are completely separate from our 5%. You are the merchant of record, so card processing is billed to your Stripe account exactly as it would be if you took the payment yourself. We never take a percentage of it, and we never calculate our 5% on top of it - the fee is a fraction of the booth subtotal and nothing else.
What happens to the fee when I refund a booking?
It comes back to you. A refund returns the vendor's full payment and returns our 5% at the same time, and the booth goes straight back onto the map. The rule is simple enough to say in one line: if the vendor got their money back, so did everyone.
Is there a free trial, or a plan I graduate onto?
Neither, because there is nothing to trial and nothing to graduate onto. Every organizer gets unlimited events, unlimited booths and full analytics for $0. Draw floor plans, open applications, review vendors, send announcements - none of it costs anything until a booth is actually paid for.
What does a detection credit actually do?
One credit runs AI detection over one floor plan: you upload a PDF or an image, and it comes back with the booths marked out so you are editing a drawn floor rather than starting from a blank one. Only a successful run spends a credit. You get 2 when you sign up and 5 more when Stripe Connect onboarding completes, and packs of 10 are $10 whenever you want more.
Can I charge my vendors a processing fee of my own?
Yes. Each event can carry its own processing fee, set by you, shown under your name on the vendor's checkout, and Captain Expo takes none of it - it exists so you can recover what the card companies charge you. It is your line and your disclosure. Our 5% is never calculated on it.

Put your floor plan to work.

Create your event

Free to start - 5% only when you sell