PayPal Fee Calculator

How PayPal's fee stacks up depending on the payment type

For a standard goods & services payment inside the US, PayPal charges the seller 3.49% plus a fixed $0.49 per transaction. Smaller micropayments (generally payments under about $10, useful for sellers of low-cost digital goods or small items) can opt into a different rate of 5% plus $0.05, which trades a lower fixed fee for a higher percentage -- worth comparing for your typical sale size. Note: confirm your account's exact rate, since PayPal offers negotiated and merchant-specific rates for higher-volume sellers.

An international payment, where the buyer and seller are in different countries, adds roughly 1.5 percentage points on top of the base rate to cover cross-border processing. This is separate from any currency conversion fee, which applies additionally if the payment settles in a different currency than your PayPal balance.

Moving money out of PayPal is free with a standard 1-3 business day transfer to your bank, but an instant transfer to a debit card or eligible bank account costs about 1.75% of the transfer amount, with a minimum fee of $0.25 and a cap of $25 -- so on larger balances the instant transfer fee stops growing past a certain point.

Where these numbers come from

The formulas and default values in this calculator are based on:

• PayPal's publicly published fee schedule for 2025-2026: standard goods & services rate of 3.49% + $0.49 (US, domestic)
• micropayments rate of 5% + $0.05 for qualifying small transactions
• approximately +1.5% surcharge for international transactions
• instant transfer fee of 1.75% (minimum $0.25, maximum $25). Note: PayPal offers different negotiated rates to high-volume merchants and nonprofits
• confirm your account's actual rate in your PayPal fee settings

Platform fee schedules change. These are planning estimates based on the most recently published rates -- always confirm the current fee schedule on the platform itself before relying on the exact number for a real payout.