PayPal Processing Fees for a US Business: Published Rates and Worked Examples

PayPal processing fees for a US business are a percentage of each payment plus a fixed fee, and the percentage depends on how the customer paid. PayPal's US merchant fee page lists 3.49% + $0.49 for a PayPal Checkout payment, 2.99% + $0.49 for a standard card payment and 2.29% + $0.09 for a card taken in person through its point-of-sale product (checked October 2026).

Every figure below comes from PayPal's own pages for the United States. Fees differ by country, so if your account is registered somewhere else, read the fee page for your own country. Billing Model is not affiliated with PayPal, and this is a description of its price list, not a recommendation.

Quick answer: On PayPal's US fee page (last updated October 1, 2026), a domestic PayPal Checkout payment costs 3.49% + $0.49 and a standard card payment costs 2.99% + $0.49. A payment from a buyer in another country adds 1.50%. On a $100 PayPal Checkout sale that works out to $3.98.

PayPal processing fees at a glance

The table lists the rates a US business pays to receive a payment. All of them are from PayPal's merchant fees page, which says the rates apply to PayPal accounts of residents of the United States (checked October 2026).

Two surcharges sit on top of that list:

• International sales. When the buyer is a resident of a different market, the domestic fee applies plus 1.50%.
• Currency conversion. PayPal lists a currency conversion spread: 4.00% when you pay for something in another currency and on certain sends and payouts, and 3.00% for all other conversions, unless a different amount is disclosed during the transaction.

The fixed fee follows the currency you receive, so $0.49 is the US dollar figure. PayPal's page shows no monthly fee for advanced card payments and lists $5.00 a month for Payments Advanced and $30.00 a month for Payments Pro. Its point-of-sale rates are subject to eligibility and approval.

Worked examples: $20, $100 and a $1,000 international sale

The formula is the same every time: sale amount × percentage, plus the fixed fee. Amounts here are rounded to the nearest cent, and PayPal's own rounding on a live payment could differ by a cent.

A $20 sale through PayPal Checkout

1. 3.49% × $20 = $0.70
2. Add the fixed fee: $0.70 + $0.49 = $1.19
3. You receive $20.00 − $1.19 = $18.81

The fee is 5.95% of the sale.

A $100 sale through PayPal Checkout

1. 3.49% × $100 = $3.49
2. $3.49 + $0.49 = $3.98
3. You receive $96.02

The fee is 3.98% of the sale. Paid as a standard card payment instead, the same $100 costs 2.99% × $100 + $0.49 = $3.48.

A $1,000 sale to a buyer in another country, paid in US dollars

1. Domestic rate plus the international fee: 3.49% + 1.50% = 4.99%
2. 4.99% × $1,000 = $49.90
3. $49.90 + $0.49 = $50.39
4. You receive $949.61

The fee is 5.04% of the sale. If the buyer pays in another currency and you convert the money to dollars, the 3.00% conversion spread applies as well. By our arithmetic, 3% of roughly $950 of converted funds is about $28, a figure PayPal's page doesn't print. PayPal lists this charge as a spread on the conversion, separate from the fee for receiving the payment.

The same published rate on three sales. The fixed fee weighs most on the smallest one.

The $0.49 fixed fee is 2.45% of the $20 sale and 0.05% of the $1,000 sale.

How the fixed fee affects small tickets

PayPal processing fees take the largest share of the smallest sales, because the $0.49 doesn't shrink when the sale does. This is arithmetic on the published 3.49% + $0.49 rate:

On the $5 sale, the fixed fee alone is 9.8% of the price. By $1,000 it has almost disappeared and the fee is close to the bare percentage.

PayPal publishes a second rate aimed at this problem. Its fee page says a business may apply to receive micropayments pricing for certain lower-value transactions, at 4.99% + $0.09 in the US. On a $5 sale that is $0.25 + $0.09 = $0.34, about half of the $0.66 above.

The two rates cross where the extra 1.50% equals the $0.40 saved on the fixed fee: $0.40 ÷ 0.015 = $26.67. Below that amount the micropayments rate is lower, and above it the standard rate is. That break-even is our calculation from the two published rates. Whether an account qualifies is PayPal's decision.

The in-person rates carry a smaller fixed fee. A $5 QR code or card-present payment at 2.29% + $0.09 costs $0.11 + $0.09 = $0.20, or 4% of the sale.

Fees after the sale: refunds, disputes and transfers

Refunds

PayPal's fee page says there are no fees to make a full or partial refund of a commercial or invoicing transaction, but the fees you originally paid to receive the payment are not returned. Refund the $100 sale above and the customer gets $100 back while you remain out the $3.98.

Disputes and chargebacks

PayPal's page lists two separate charges, also quoted in our guide to the chargeback fee:

• A chargeback fee of $20.00 on card payments that were not processed through a buyer's PayPal account or guest checkout.
• A dispute fee that PayPal may charge when a buyer files a dispute claim or chargeback on an eligible transaction: $15.00 standard, or $30.00 at the high-volume rate.

The fee page leaves the conditions to the user agreement. PayPal's help article on how the dispute rate is applied (checked October 2026) fills in some of them. The high-volume fee applies to a seller with more than 100 sales transactions in the previous three full months and a dispute rate of 1.5% or more over that period. Everyone else pays the standard fee.

The same article says the standard fee isn't charged when a dispute is resolved directly with the buyer and never escalated to a claim, is filed with PayPal as an unauthorized transaction, is eligible for PayPal's Seller Protection program, involves a transaction worth less than twice the standard fee, or is decided in the seller's favor. The high-volume fee has only the first two exceptions and isn't reimbursed, because it doesn't depend on the outcome. The practices that keep that rate low are covered in the guide to chargeback prevention.

Moving money to your bank

A standard transfer to a linked bank account or eligible debit card has no fee when no currency conversion is involved. An instant transfer costs 1.50% of the amount, with a minimum fee of $0.50 and a limit of $25,000 per transaction to a bank account. Moving $2,000 instantly costs 1.50% × $2,000 = $30.00, and the standard transfer of the same amount costs nothing.

Watch out: Dispute fees and instant transfer fees are charged separately from PayPal processing fees, and a refund leaves the original fee with PayPal. Count all of them when you work out what a sale cost you.

How to read the fee line on a PayPal transaction

PayPal describes each payment with three numbers: the gross amount, the fee and the net. To see the fee on one payment, PayPal's help page on account fees gives the route: click Activity near the top of the page, then click the transaction you want to check.

For many payments at once, download a report. PayPal's activity download specification defines the columns: Gross is the amount of the transaction including fees, Fee is the fee associated with that transaction, and Net is "typically the gross minus any fees."

You can work backward from those columns to the rate PayPal applied:

1. Subtract the fixed fee from the Fee column.
2. Divide the result by Gross.

For the $100 sale, ($3.98 − $0.49) ÷ $100 = 3.49%, the PayPal Checkout rate. For the $1,000 sale, ($50.39 − $0.49) ÷ $1,000 = 4.99%, which tells you the 1.50% international fee was added. If the answer matches no published rate, check whether the fixed fee was the $0.29 or $0.09 one.

How PayPal's blended rates relate to interchange

PayPal's standard rates are blended: one price per payment type, whichever card the customer used. The US Government Accountability Office's report on payment card costs describes this flat-rate model as a uniform rate for all transactions that blends credit and debit card rates, and says smaller merchants may choose it to simplify how they manage card payments.

Behind any card payment sit interchange, paid to the bank that issued the card, and network fees. The guide to payment processing fees explains both. PayPal's page doesn't split its standard rates into those parts. It does list an optional structure for its card payment services, priced as interchange pass-through costs plus 0.49% and a fixed fee, which has to be activated in the account settings. That is a form of interchange plus plus pricing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the PayPal fee on a $100 payment?

On PayPal's US fee page it is $3.98 for a PayPal Checkout payment (3.49% + $0.49) and $3.48 for a standard card payment (2.99% + $0.49), as checked in October 2026. A buyer in another country adds 1.50%, which brings the PayPal Checkout fee to $5.48.

Does PayPal return its fee when I refund a customer?

No. PayPal's fee page says there is no fee to issue a full or partial refund, but the fees you paid to receive the payment are not returned to you.

Are PayPal processing fees the same in every country?

No. The page used here applies to accounts of US residents, and the fixed fee changes with the currency received. Check the fee page for the country where your account is registered.

Is an invoice cheaper to collect by bank transfer?

On PayPal's US price list, yes. An invoice paid by bank (ACH) costs 1% capped at $10.00, so a $1,000 invoice costs $10.00, against $30.39 by card at 2.99% + $0.49. The guide to ACH processing fees covers how bank payments are priced in general.

Does PayPal charge to open an account?

PayPal's help page says it doesn't charge any fee to open an account. Some of its card products carry a monthly fee: the fee page lists $5.00 for Payments Advanced and $30.00 for Payments Pro.