PayPal Fee Calculator

Calculate PayPal Goods & Services fees by country. See the exact net you will receive and the gross amount to invoice for a target net.

Enter Your Details

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When Reverse Calculation is OFF: amount the buyer pays (gross). When ON: amount you want to receive net of fees.
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Optional — your cost of goods, used to compute Net Profit. Leave at 0 if not relevant.
Enable when the buyer is in a different country than your account — adds the international surcharge.
Switch the calculator to compute the gross amount needed to net a target. Useful for invoices: "I need exactly $500 in my account — what should I invoice?"
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Varies by country — auto-filled from your country selection
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Per-transaction flat fee added by PayPal
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Applied only when International Payment is ON

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Amount to Charge —
Net Amount Received —
Total PayPal Fees —
Effective Fee Percentage —
Net Profit —
PayPal Fee (% + fixed) —
International Surcharge —

How PayPal Fees Work in 2026

PayPal Goods & Services charges a percentage of the transaction plus a fixed per-payment amount that varies by country. When the buyer is in a different country than your account, an international surcharge (typically 1.29–1.50%) is added on top.

  • Forward mode: enter what the buyer pays — the calculator returns the exact net you'll receive.
  • Reverse mode: enter the amount you want to net (e.g. "$500 in my account") — the calculator returns the gross amount you must invoice for.
  • Country presets: auto-fill PayPal G&S rates for the US, UK, EU, Canada and Australia.
  • Effective Fee %: the all-in PayPal cut as a percentage of the gross — useful for comparing PayPal to Stripe and other processors.

What are PayPal fees?

PayPal charges merchants a per-transaction fee on every payment received. The standard domestic commercial rate in the US is 2.99% + $0.49 per transaction for online checkout. Other markets have similar structures with different baselines: UK 2.9% + £0.30, EU 2.9% + €0.35, Canada 2.9% + C$0.30.

Different transaction types carry different rates. Goods and Services (the default for business transactions) is the standard rate. Charity transactions get a discounted rate. Friends and Family within the same country is free but cannot be used for commerce — and trying to use it that way violates PayPal's terms.

For sellers, PayPal's fee is the cost of accepting card and PayPal balance payments. Unlike marketplace platforms, PayPal doesn't bring traffic — it's just the payment rail. Compare its fees against Stripe or other processors based on your business's specific transaction volume and average ticket size.

How to calculate PayPal fees

PayPal's fee structure has two components that combine on every transaction:

Formula: Fee = Transaction × percent_rate + fixed_fee

Where percent_rate is the country-specific percentage (2.99% in the US, 2.9% in most other markets) and fixed_fee is the per-transaction cents charge ($0.49 US, £0.30 UK, €0.35 EU).

Worked example. A US merchant receives $100 from a customer for goods and services. Fee = $100 × 0.0299 + $0.49 = $3.48. The merchant nets $96.52. On a $25 transaction, fee = $0.75 + $0.49 = $1.24, or 4.96% of the order — the fixed cent fee disproportionately impacts small transactions.

At $5, the fee is $0.64 — 12.8% of the transaction. This is why PayPal isn't competitive for micro-transactions. For sub-$10 average ticket sizes, processors with lower fixed fees (or Stripe's micropayments program) are typically a better fit.

How to use this calculator

Pick your country at the top to auto-fill PayPal's rates for the right market — they vary by region (2.99% in the US, 2.9% in most others, plus the local fixed fee). Enter the transaction amount (the gross amount your customer pays).

The calculator returns the PayPal fee, the net amount you'll actually receive, and the effective fee percentage (useful for comparing against other processors or for setting prices that bake the fee into your margin). For international payments, switch to the PayPal International Fee Calculator which includes the cross-border surcharge and currency conversion margin.

Real-world examples

Example 1 — US freelancer invoicing. Freelancer sends a $1,500 invoice via PayPal Business. Fee = $1,500 × 0.0299 + $0.49 = $45.34. Net received: $1,454.66 (3.02% effective rate). Standard cost of doing business; bake the fee into project quotes by adding 3.1% to cover both the percent and the fixed cent fee on average invoice sizes.

Example 2 — UK seller, mid-ticket goods. £35 product, paid via PayPal. Fee = £35 × 0.029 + £0.30 = £1.32 (3.77% effective). Net: £33.68. The fixed £0.30 inflates the effective rate from the headline 2.9% to 3.77% on this ticket size — common pattern for sub-£50 orders.

Example 3 — Tip jar / micropayment scenario. A creator receives $3 tips via PayPal. Fee = $3 × 0.0299 + $0.49 = $0.58 (19.3% effective). On 100 tips/month, the creator loses $58 — vs Stripe's micropayment program at 5% + $0.05 ($0.20 per tip, $20/month total). PayPal is roughly 3× more expensive for micropayments. For tipping or small recurring donations, see the Stripe fee calculator for cheaper options.

Common mistakes and benchmarks

The biggest fee-modeling error is ignoring the fixed cent fee. New merchants quote PayPal as "around 3%" and forget the $0.49 baseline cost. On a $20 ticket size, that fee pushes effective costs to 5.4%; on a $10 ticket size, 7.9%. If your average order is below $25, this matters enough to consider Stripe or another processor with a smaller fixed component.

Second is accepting Friends and Family payments for business. F&F payments are free but explicitly forbidden for commerce by PayPal's terms. Doing it: (1) gives the buyer zero purchase protection, which they often realize later and try to claim back via card chargeback, (2) risks your PayPal account getting flagged or frozen if PayPal's algorithms detect the pattern, and (3) means no PayPal Seller Protection on the transaction.

Benchmarks. Average effective PayPal fee for US merchants: 3.2–3.6% when factoring in transaction-size distribution. For sub-$20 average ticket, expect 4.5–6%. For above-$100 average ticket, fees converge to roughly 3.1%. Compare against the Stripe fee calculator for a side-by-side; Stripe is typically 0.1–0.3% cheaper on US online payments at most ticket sizes.

Frequently Asked Questions

PayPal charges 2.99% + $0.49 per transaction for US merchants receiving payments for goods and services. UK is 2.9% + £0.30, EU 2.9% + €0.35, Canada 2.9% + C$0.30. These rates apply to online checkout and invoicing. International transactions add a cross-border surcharge (~1.5–2% extra) and a currency conversion fee (~3.5%) if conversion is involved. Friends and Family payments within the same country are free, but cannot be used for commerce.

Multiply the transaction amount by your country's percentage rate, then add the fixed cent fee. For a $100 transaction in the US: $100 × 0.0299 + $0.49 = $3.48 in fees, leaving $96.52 net. The fixed cent fee makes small transactions disproportionately expensive — a $5 transaction has the same $0.49 fixed component, pushing effective fee to 12.8%. The calculator does this math instantly across all supported countries.

For US merchants with $50+ average ticket sizes, effective rate is 3.0–3.3% after factoring in the fixed cents. For sub-$20 average orders, effective rate jumps to 4.5–6%. Small tip jars or micropayments can see 10%+ effective rates due to the fixed fee. Plan your pricing knowing that fees scale roughly with: effective % = stated % + (fixed / avg ticket × 100).

For US online payments, Stripe is 2.9% + $0.30 vs PayPal's 2.99% + $0.49 — Stripe is roughly 0.1–0.3% cheaper on most ticket sizes, more pronounced on small transactions. PayPal advantages: brand trust (some buyers won't checkout without it), faster setup, free Friends and Family within country. Most ecommerce shops use both, letting customers pick at checkout. See the Stripe fee calculator for the comparable model.

Yes for international clients (PayPal is widely accepted globally — Stripe coverage is sparser in some markets). For US-only freelancing, Stripe's invoicing and ACH support is usually cheaper. For physical goods ecommerce, the better answer is offer both — adding PayPal to a Stripe checkout typically lifts conversion 8–12% because some buyers won't enter card details on unfamiliar sites. The fee difference is worth it for the conversion uplift.

The fixed cent fee ($0.49 in the US) is the culprit. On a $100 transaction it's 0.49% of order value; on a $5 transaction it's 9.8%. The percentage rate doesn't change, but the fixed component dominates at low ticket sizes. PayPal has a micropayments program (5% + $0.05) for sub-$10 transactions if you apply for it, but most sellers aren't aware it exists. For sub-$20 average order businesses, consider alternative processors with smaller fixed fees.

Accept PayPal when: serving international buyers (especially Europe and Latin America), selling to consumers who distrust unfamiliar checkout pages, or operating in categories where buyer-side fraud protection (like collectibles or used electronics) builds buyer confidence. Skip PayPal when: average ticket is under $15 (fees too high), or processing recurring subscriptions where Stripe's subscription tools are more sophisticated. Many ecommerce stores offer both — PayPal as a secondary checkout option typically lifts conversion 8–12% even when Stripe handles the primary card flow.

Cross-border surcharges (1.5–2% extra on international transactions — use the international fee calculator instead), currency conversion margins (3–4% when receiving in a different currency), chargeback fees ($20 per chargeback if you lose the dispute), PayPal's micropayments program (different fee tier you must apply for), and any volume-discount rates negotiated for high-revenue accounts. It also doesn't model recurring-payment fees, which use a separate Subscriptions pricing tier.

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