The relationship between sea surface height and transport is explored using a steady, geostrophic, thermocline model. Given an imposed sea surface height (SSH), analytical solutions reveal different patterns for the transport over the interior of a subtropical gyre determined by the background stratification. For no mixed layer or the limit of weak stratification, transport increases more rapidly westward than SSH across a subtropical gyre, whereas in the limit of strong stratification, transport increases linearly with SSH, and streamlines become more orientated from the northwest to southeast. A modified version of the thermocline model is applied to the subtropical gyre of the North Atlantic and uses SSH from TOPEX/Poseidon altimetry and a functional relationship between potential vorticity and density derived from the National Oceanographic Data Center climatology. The model suggests that the transport over the interior of the subtropical gyre reaches 30¿13 Sv, which is broadly in accord with the independent Sverdrup estimate from the wind-stress climatology. The transport pattern includes a north-south asymmetry, which is consistent with both the mixed layer and background stratification influencing the solution. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union