The same carbon credit can reach you through very different routes. A tonne from one cookstove project might be sold by the developer itself, by a broker who knows the developer, by a reseller who bought a batch last year, or listed on a marketplace next to hundreds of other projects. The project is the same in each case. The price, the information you get and the risks you carry differ.
Carbon credit broker fees and other intermediary costs are rarely shown as a separate line. This guide explains how each channel earns its money, what you pay for, which risks come with each route and how to compare offers across channels.
The short answer. Buying direct from a developer avoids an intermediary margin but concentrates you in one project. Brokers and resellers add a margin in exchange for access, negotiation and immediate availability. Marketplaces charge platform or transaction fees and show prices openly, with varying depth of project information. Procurement partners charge for sourcing, due diligence, retirement and reporting. Ask each for its role and an itemised price.
The five ways to buy carbon credits
Channel | How it earns | What you get | Points to check |
|---|---|---|---|
Project developer or owner | The project price itself | Direct access, project detail, often multi-year contracts | Concentration in one project; minimum volumes; contract terms |
Broker | Commission or spread between seller and buyer | Access to sellers, negotiation, market knowledge | Is the margin disclosed? Who is the seller? Who holds the credits? |
Reseller or retailer | Margin on credits it bought earlier | Credits available now, often small volumes | Does it hold the credits? Will they be retired in your name? |
Online marketplace or exchange | Platform, listing or transaction fees | Listed prices, quick purchase, self-service | How much project information is shown? Who retires the credits? |
Procurement partner or portfolio manager | Service fee or margin on credits supplied | Sourcing, due diligence, portfolio across projects, retirement and reporting | How are projects assessed? How is the fee or margin structured? |
None of these channels is better in general; they suit different buyers and volumes. Most companies use more than one over time.
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What you pay for, line by line
A carbon credit price can contain several layers. Ask for each one separately:
The project price. What the developer receives per tonne.
The intermediary margin or commission. What a broker, reseller or partner adds. It pays for real work: finding supply, checking it, negotiating, carrying inventory or risk. The question is whether it is transparent.
Platform or transaction fees. Charged by marketplaces and exchanges, per transaction or as a percentage.
Registry costs. Registries charge for issuance, transfers, retirements and accounts. Verra, for example, charges project developers an issuance levy of USD 0.23 per credit and charges account holders USD 750 to open a registry account plus USD 750 a year, according to its fee schedule. Most companies retire through their supplier’s account rather than opening their own.
Retirement and reporting services. Retiring in your name, providing certificates and data for your reports.
Currency and VAT. Prices in dollars, conversion costs, and whether VAT applies.
Two offers can look EUR 2 apart per tonne and turn out to be the same price once these layers are added, or the other way round. Our guide to why carbon credit quotes differ shows how to normalise them.
Risks to check per channel
These are questions, whichever channel you use:
Who holds the credits today? A seller who does not yet own the credits depends on another party to deliver. Ask for the registry account they sit in.
Will they be retired in your name? Retirement in a pooled account of the seller makes it hard to prove which tonnes are yours. Ask for retirement with your company named as beneficiary.
Do you know the exact project? Some exchange products and portfolio offers bundle credits from several projects. That can be fine, but you need the project names and IDs behind what you buy for your claims and reporting.
Could the same credits be sold twice? Serial numbers in a public registry exclude this; ask for them before you pay.
What if delivery fails? For forward purchases, ask what remedy the contract gives.
How were the projects assessed? An intermediary that adds a margin should be able to explain its due diligence.
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Who you are matters too
Prices are negotiated more often than listed, and research shows it. A study by MIT Sloan and partners of more than 7,200 transactions between 2018 and 2024 found that the 20 biggest buyers paid 16% to 23% less than other buyers, and that buyer identity explained 62% of price variation. For smaller buyers, comparing several channels and asking for itemised prices narrows that gap.
Which channel fits when
Situation | Channels that tend to fit |
|---|---|
Small, one-off purchase for this year | Marketplace, reseller, procurement partner |
Annual purchases across several projects | Procurement partner, broker |
Large volume of one project type | Broker, developer direct |
Multi-year offtake for durable removals | Developer direct, procurement partner |
Public tender | Any channel that can meet the tender’s requirements and evidence |
For offtakes, the counterparty matters more than the channel: you depend on the developer delivering for years. Our carbon offtake due diligence checklist covers what to check.
Tip from Bernard de Wit, Co-founder of Regreener: “Ask every intermediary, including us, the same two questions: what is your role in this transaction, and what do you add to the project price? A clear answer is a good sign whatever the margin. If the answer is vague, the price usually is too.”
Regreener works as a procurement partner: we source credits, assess every project against our 100+ datapoint quality framework, and retire credits in our clients’ names. Our list of questions to ask every carbon credit supplier applies to every channel, including ours.
Compare offers from different channels
The fairest comparison puts every offer on the same basis: an all-in price per tonne in euros, for the same credit type, vintage window and delivery year. Regreener’s free quote comparer does that for up to five offers, from any channel, and shows the all-in price per tonne for each offer and the points to check. It does not rank offers or pick a winner, and your data stays in your browser.
Want a counter-offer to compare against? Ask a Climate Strategist; we reply within 48 hours on working days.
