What PayPal Charges to Take a Card Payment
PayPal posts its rates on one fee page. Here is what it says a US small business pays for online, in-person and international card sales, plus the optional extras.
A customer taps, clicks or types a card number. PayPal takes a cut before the money reaches you. How big that cut is depends on how the card came in. PayPal's fee page spells out each rate, and this walkthrough reads it line by line so you can weigh it against your own sales mix.
What PayPal charges to process a card payment
The core rates sit at the top of the fee page. PayPal's fee page says PayPal Checkout and PayPal Guest Checkout cost 3.49% plus a fixed fee.
PayPal's fee page says standard credit and debit card payments cost 2.99% plus a fixed fee.
PayPal's fee page says Pay with Venmo costs 3.49% plus a fixed fee.
The fixed fee and how it lands on small tickets
Every one of those rates carries a fixed fee on top. PayPal's fee page says the fixed fee for commercial transactions received in US dollars is 0.49 USD.
The percentage scales with the sale. The fixed fee does not. On a $100 order it barely registers. On a $5 order it is close to a tenth of the sale before the percentage is even counted. A shop with many small tickets feels the fixed fee more than a shop selling one big item a day.
Run the numbers on your own average sale. A coffee stand and a furniture store get very different answers from the same rate.
International transactions and the extra percentage
Selling across borders costs more. PayPal's fee page says international commercial transactions add a 1.50% fee. That 1.50% is added to the domestic rate and the fixed fee.
PayPal's fee page says other PayPal Card Payment Services transactions pay an extra 1.50% for international transactions. The same border penalty applies across those services.
If most of your customers hold US cards, this line matters little. If you ship overseas or sell to travelers, it changes your real cost per sale.
In-person point of sale rates versus online rates
Card payments taken face to face are priced apart from online ones. PayPal's fee page says PayPal Point of Sale card present transactions cost 2.29% + 0.09 USD.
PayPal's fee page says PayPal Point of Sale manual card entry transactions cost 3.49% + 0.09 USD. Typing a card number at the counter costs more than a tap. The fixed fee here is 0.09 USD, PayPal's fee page says, lower than the 0.49 USD it lists for online commercial transactions.
A market stall taking taps pays a different cut than the same stall taking phone orders keyed in by hand. Know which of those describes your day before you compare rates.
Optional services and their prices
PayPal lists add-on services that carry their own prices. None are required to take cards. They sit on the fee page as choices.
PayPal's fee page says the Fraud Protection Advanced optional service costs 0.07 USD per transaction. PayPal's fee page says the Account Updater optional service costs 0.25 USD per update. PayPal's fee page says the Network Tokenization optional service costs 0.15 USD per token issued.
Two recurring billing tools carry monthly prices. PayPal's fee page says the Recurring Billing optional service costs 10.00 USD per month. PayPal's fee page says the Recurring Payment Tool optional service costs 30.00 USD per month.
PayPal's fee page says the Smart Retries optional service costs 0.6% per successful recovered transaction. PayPal's fee page says the 3D Secure Advanced optional service costs 0.03 USD per lookup.
A few more sit on the page. PayPal's fee page says the Account Monitoring Service optional service has a 29.95 USD set up fee and 19.95 USD per month. PayPal's fee page says the Buyer Authentication Service optional service costs 10.00 USD per month and 0.10 USD per transaction. PayPal's fee page says the Foreign Exchange as a Service optional service has a 3% currency conversion spread.
These are per-use and monthly prices, not card rates. They only cost you money if you switch them on.
How PayPal's fees behave like other credit card processing fees
Laid out together, PayPal's card fees have four parts. A percentage of the sale. A fixed fee on top. A surcharge for international commercial transactions. A higher rate for keyed-in payments than for taps.
PayPal's fee page says the monthly fee is no fee for Advanced Credit and Debit Card Payments and ACH Services. So those two services carry no monthly fee, though the optional tools above can add one.
PayPal's fee page says its domestic ACH Services rate is 0.80%, capped at $5.00 per transaction.
A few smaller lines round out the page. PayPal's fee page says an uncaptured authorization transaction costs 0.30 USD. PayPal's fee page says each card verification account verification request costs 0.30 USD. PayPal's fee page says a Payflow Pro transaction costs 0.10 USD and a Payflow Link transaction costs 0.10 USD.
PayPal's fee page says Pay by Bank through an invoicing transaction is charged 1% capped at $10.00 per transaction.
To see your true cost, add up a month of percentages, fixed fees and any optional tools, then divide by your card sales. That single number is the one to hold against another company's sheet.
Where to read next
PayPal's rates are one piece of a bigger picture. To see how a PayPal merchant account works, read our page on that subject. For the other costs of running a PayPal business account, we break those out separately. Our page on PayPal business fees covers the account-level charges.
Still weighing processors? Then read about the fees a merchant account carries and the charges you will see on a statement. Our guide to credit card processing for your business walks through the choice from the start.
PayPal moves its prices from time to time. Check its fee page on the day you sign up, and work the math on your own sales before you commit.