ATM Revenue Calculator
Calculate monthly surcharge income from an ATM based on transaction volume, fees, and operating costs.
About this calculator
This calculator projects the monthly and annual profit of operating a surcharge-based ATM by combining transaction revenue against the full stack of recurring operating costs. Monthly Surcharge Revenue is simply Daily Transactions times Surcharge Per Transaction times 30, so it responds to those two inputs and nothing else — none of the fee or cost inputs (interchange, network, insurance, cash loading, telecom, or the ATM's own purchase price) feed into revenue at all. Total Monthly Expenses sums six cost streams: interchange fees paid to the card network (scaled with transaction volume), location commission (either a percentage of surcharge revenue, a flat monthly rent, or both), and four fixed monthly costs — network/processor fee, insurance, cash loading, and telecom.
Monthly Profit is Monthly Surcharge Revenue minus Total Monthly Expenses, and Payback Period divides ATM Purchase Cost by Monthly Profit to estimate how many months of operation recover the upfront hardware investment — it reads "Never" whenever Monthly Profit is zero or negative, since there is no profit stream to recoup the purchase cost with. ATM Purchase Cost itself has no effect on Monthly Surcharge Revenue or Monthly Profit; it only enters Payback Period and Annual ROI, the two outputs that measure return on the upfront hardware spend rather than ongoing operating economics.
Inputs
Results
Monthly surcharge revenue
$720.00
Monthly profit
$465.00
Payback period (months)
6.5
How to Use This Calculator
- Enter ATM purchase cost ($), Surcharge per transaction ($), and Daily transactions.
- Set Location commission (%), Location flat fee ($/mo), and Interchange fee / txn ($).
- Adjust Network/processor fee ($/mo), Insurance ($/mo), Cash loading cost ($/mo), and Telecom / internet ($/mo) as needed.
- Review Monthly surcharge revenue ($), Monthly profit ($), and Payback period (months).
- Use Annual profit ($) and Annual ROI (%) to inform your decision.
How the result changes with Surcharge per transaction ($)
| Surcharge per transaction ($) | Monthly surcharge revenue | Monthly profit | Payback period (months) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 | $360.00 | $105.00 | 28.6 |
| 2.25 | $540.00 | $285.00 | 10.5 |
| 4.5 | $1,080.00 | $825.00 | 3.6 |
| 7.5 | $1,800.00 | $1,545.00 | 1.9 |
What each input means
- ATM purchase cost ($)
- Cost to purchase the ATM. New: $2,000-$8,000, refurbished: $1,200-$3,000.
- Surcharge per transaction ($)
- Fee charged to the user per withdrawal. Typical: $2.50-$3.50.
- Daily transactions
- Average daily transactions. Bar/nightclub: 15-30, convenience store: 5-15, office: 3-8.
- Location commission (%)
- Percentage of surcharge revenue paid to location owner. Some deals are flat-fee instead.
- Location flat fee ($/mo)
- Fixed monthly rent paid to location. Alternative to percentage commission.
- Interchange fee / txn ($)
- Network/processor interchange fee per transaction. Typically $0.25-$0.75.
- Network/processor fee ($/mo)
- Monthly fee to the ATM processor/network.
- Insurance ($/mo)
- Monthly liability and theft insurance.
- Cash loading cost ($/mo)
- Cost to load cash (armored car service or your time). Self-loading is cheaper.
- Telecom / internet ($/mo)
- Monthly cellular or internet connection cost for the ATM.
What each result means
- Monthly surcharge revenue
- Gross monthly income from surcharge fees.
- Monthly profit
- Net profit after all operating expenses.
- Payback period (months)
- Months to recoup the ATM purchase cost. Reads "Never" when Monthly profit is zero or negative — there's no profit stream to recoup the purchase cost from.
- Annual profit
- Projected yearly net profit.
- Annual ROI (%)
- Annual return on the ATM investment.
- Profit per transaction
- Net profit earned on each transaction.
- Profit margin (%)
- Net profit as a percentage of surcharge revenue.
- Total monthly expenses
- All monthly operating costs combined.
- Location commission / month
- Monthly amount paid to the location owner.
How this is calculated
Worked example, using the default values
- Identify Input Parameters10 parametersATM purchase cost ($) = 3000, Surcharge per transaction ($) = 3, Daily transactions = 8, Location commission (%) = 0, Location flat fee ($/mo) = 0, Interchange fee / txn ($) = 0.5, Network/processor fee ($/mo) = 30, Insurance ($/mo) = 20, Cash loading cost ($/mo) = 50, Telecom / internet ($/mo) = 35 = 10 input(s) provided
- Calculate Monthly surcharge revenueMonthly surcharge revenue = dailySurchargeRevenue * 30720 = $720
- Calculate Monthly profitMonthly profit = monthlySurchargeRevenue - totalMonthlyExpenses465 = $465
- Calculate Payback periodPayback period (months) = ATM purchase cost / Monthly profit6.5 = 6.5
- Calculate Annual profitAnnual profit = monthlyProfit * 125580 = $5,580
- Calculate Annual ROIAnnual ROI (%) = (Annual profit / ATM purchase cost) * 100186 = 186%
Engine last updated . Checked against 2 independently-derived tests — how we verify calculators. Built by Paul Gunder, a software engineer, not a licensed financial, medical, or legal professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why doesn't ATM purchase cost affect Monthly profit?
ATM purchase cost ($) is a one-time upfront hardware expense, not a recurring operating cost, so it never enters the Monthly surcharge revenue or Total monthly expenses calculations. It only shows up in Payback period (months) and Annual ROI (%), the two outputs that measure how efficiently the upfront hardware spend pays for itself out of ongoing profit.
What drives Monthly surcharge revenue?
Monthly surcharge revenue is Daily transactions multiplied by Surcharge per transaction ($) multiplied by 30 days — a straightforward volume-times-price calculation. Every other input on this calculator (interchange, location commission, network fees, insurance, cash loading, telecom, and the machine's purchase cost) affects expenses and profit, but none of them change Monthly surcharge revenue itself.
What happens to Payback period (months) if the ATM isn't profitable?
Payback period (months) reads "Never" whenever Monthly profit is zero or negative, rather than a misleading number — there is no profit stream to recover the purchase cost from, so a traditional payback calculation doesn't apply. Treat "Never" alongside a negative or zero Monthly profit as a signal the location or fee structure isn't currently viable.
How does Location commission (%) differ from Location flat fee ($/mo)?
Location commission (%) takes a cut of Monthly surcharge revenue itself — so it scales up as transaction volume grows — while Location flat fee ($/mo) is a fixed rent paid to the location owner regardless of how many transactions occur. Many real-world placement deals use one or the other, but this calculator lets you combine both if your agreement includes a base rent plus a percentage split.
Does Interchange fee / txn ($) affect Monthly surcharge revenue?
No — Interchange fee / txn ($) is a per-transaction cost paid to the card network, and it only enters Total monthly expenses (as Daily transactions times Interchange fee / txn times 30). Monthly surcharge revenue is unaffected by it, since revenue is calculated purely from the surcharge you charge users, not from what you pay the network to process each transaction.
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