Free calculator
PayPal Fee Calculator
The fee on a PayPal payment and what reaches your balance — plus the amount to invoice if you need a specific figure to land.
3.49% plus $0.49 per transaction
You keep
$96.02
- Sale price
- $100.00
- What I keep
- −$3.98
- You keep
- $96.02
Effective rate on this sale: 3.98%. The flat fee weighs more on small amounts.
A worked example
A $100 domestic payment for goods and services at 3.49% plus $0.49. The fee is $3.98 and $96.02 reaches you — an effective rate of 3.98%, not 3.49%.
| Payment received | $100.00 |
|---|---|
| PayPal fee | −$3.98 |
| Lands in your balance | $96.02 |
On a $3 payment the same schedule costs $0.59 — an effective rate of 19.67%. Small payments are where the fixed fee hurts.
Common questions
- How much does PayPal charge?
- For domestic goods and services payments in the US, 3.49% plus $0.49. International sales cost more, and micropayment pricing trades a higher percentage for a much smaller fixed fee.
- Can I pass the fee on to the customer?
- Adding a surcharge specifically for paying by PayPal is restricted in many countries and by PayPal's own terms. Building the cost into your price is the usual approach — the second mode above works out what that price is.
- Why was my fee higher than expected?
- Usually a currency conversion, which carries its own spread on top of the transaction fee, or an international rate applying because the buyer's account is registered abroad.
- Are friends and family payments free?
- For the sender within the same country, usually. But they carry no seller protection and using them for business breaches PayPal's terms — take commercial payments as goods and services and invoice properly.