Entry Fees

Entry fees are how award programs fund themselves. AwardKit charges entry fees through Stripe Connect, with zero commission: the full amount (minus Stripe's processing fee) lands in your account. Entry fees, pricing tiers, and discount codes are all configured in the Categories tab of your program.

Before you start

You need an active Stripe Connect connection on your workspace. See Stripe Connect setup for the one-time onboarding. Without it, entrants will see an error when they try to submit a paid entry.

How the entry fee toggle works

Open the Categories tab on your program and find the Entry Fees card. The toggle controls whether your program collects fees at all.

• Toggle off (default): Submissions are free. Entrants skip checkout entirely.
• Toggle on: A standard fee field appears. Entrants are sent to Stripe Checkout after submitting their entry.

When you flip the toggle on for the first time, AwardKit checks whether your workspace has Stripe Connect set up. If it doesn't, the card surfaces a Connect your Stripe account to start charging entry fees prompt with a button that takes you straight into onboarding. You can configure the fee, pricing tiers, and discount codes before connecting Stripe, but entrants won't be able to pay until the connection is live.

Below the toggle you'll see:

• Standard entry fee: The amount every entry costs by default. Applied to all categories unless a category has its own override.
• Currency: Defaults to USD. Change it from the Settings tab → Prize currency before any paid entries come in.
• Add deadline pricing (early bird, late fee): Expands a panel where you can schedule pricing tiers that adjust the standard fee over time.

Saving happens automatically as you edit; there's no separate "save" button on this card.

Typical award program fees range from $50 to $850 per entry. The right amount depends on your audience: students and early-career professionals tolerate $50 to $150; established companies tolerate $250 to $850. Look at competitor programs in your space for a benchmark.

Per-category overrides

If different categories should cost different amounts, you can override the default fee per category. In the categories list, each category has an Entry fee field where you can set a category-specific amount.

Common patterns:

• Student rate: $50 for "Student Innovation", $250 for the rest
• Sponsor-backed categories: $0 for a category that a sponsor is funding directly
• Small / large entrant tiers: $150 for "Small Business", $500 for "Enterprise"

If a category doesn't have a specific override, it uses the default fee. If a category override is set to $0, that category becomes free even if the default fee is non-zero.

Pricing tiers

Time-based pricing tiers let you offer Early Bird discounts or charge Late fees as the deadline approaches. Up to 5 tiers per program.

Each tier has:

• Name: Displayed to entrants when they're submitting (for example "Early Bird")
• Adjustment: A percentage applied to the base fee. Negative for discounts (-20% means 20% off), positive for premiums (+30% means 30% more).
• Active until: A date / time after which this tier no longer applies. The next tier in the schedule becomes active automatically.

Example schedule

AwardKit pre-fills tier names and adjustments when you click Add Tier (Early Bird Pricing -20%, Standard Pricing 0%, Late Pricing +30%, Final Pricing +50%, Extended Pricing +75%). Rename or re-adjust them freely. A typical schedule for a program with a $300 base fee and a hard deadline of June 15:

The fee shown to an entrant on the form reflects whichever tier is active when they're filling it out. The submitted entry locks in that fee.

Discount codes

Discount codes give specific entrants (sponsors, partners, alumni, returning entrants) a reduced fee. AwardKit supports two types:

• Percentage off (for example, 25% off the calculated fee)
• Fixed amount off (for example, $50 off the calculated fee)

Each code has:

• Code text: What the entrant types on the form (case-insensitive). Use codes you can communicate easily ("EARLY2026", "SPONSOR", "ALUMNI50").
• Type: Percentage or fixed amount
• Value: The discount amount
• Use limit: How many entries can use the code total (leave blank for unlimited)
• Expiry: Optional date after which the code stops working

When an entrant types the code on the form, AwardKit validates and recalculates the total in real time. Codes are claimed atomically when the entry is submitted, so a code limited to 100 uses won't accidentally let 101 entries through if entrants submit at the same moment.

Workflow

1. From the Categories tab, scroll to the Discount codes section
2. Click Add code, enter the code text, type, value, and limits
3. Save. Codes are immediately active.
4. Share the code with the entrants who get to use it (typically by email or a private channel)

You can edit, deactivate, or delete codes at any time. Existing entries that already used a deactivated code keep their discount.

Use cases

• Returning entrants: 25% off for entrants from last year's program ("ALUMNI25")
• Sponsor allotment: 10 free entries for a sponsoring organization (fixed-amount discount equal to the full fee, limit 10)
• Partner pricing: Special rate for entrants from a specific industry association
• Internal testing: A staff-only code to submit test entries without paying

Currency

The currency is set per program (default USD). To change it, open the Settings tab → Prize currency. This affects:

• The currency entrants are charged in
• The currency prize amounts are displayed in on the program page
• The currency on payment receipts and exports

Set the currency before opening entries. Changing it after paid entries exist won't refund or recharge those entries: each payment is recorded in the currency that was active at submit time, so the program can end up with mixed currencies in the Entries table and exports.

What entrants see

On the entry form, AwardKit shows entrants a clear breakdown:

• The base fee (or category-specific fee)
• The active pricing tier (if any) and the adjusted total
• A field to enter a discount code; once applied, the total updates with the discount displayed
• The final amount they'll be charged

After submitting, they're redirected to a Stripe Checkout page. After paying, they land back on AwardKit with a confirmation banner and receive a Stripe email receipt.

How fees are paid out

Entry fees flow directly into your Stripe balance. Stripe pays out to your bank account on your usual payout schedule (typically rolling 2-day for US accounts, longer for international). You can change your payout schedule in the Stripe Dashboard.

AwardKit takes zero commission. Stripe's standard processing fees apply (2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for US cards).

Refunds

To refund an entry fee, do it from your Stripe Dashboard. AwardKit syncs the refund automatically. See Payments for full details.

Tips

• Set a clear price ladder. Entrants pay attention to fees. A program with messy or inconsistent pricing reads as unprofessional.
• Open Early Bird at least 4 weeks before standard. Entrants need time to budget and approve internally; rushing them costs entries.
• Be transparent about prize money relative to fees. A program with $500 entry fees and $1,000 prize money looks bad. A program with $250 fees and $25,000 prize money looks worth entering.
• Use discount codes for retention. Returning entrants are your most valuable audience. A 20% repeat-entrant discount makes the case for entering again next year.
• Test the entire flow by submitting a test entry yourself before opening to entrants. Use a real card if possible (you can refund yourself in Stripe immediately).