PayPal Fee Calculator

Gross basis: fee = amount × rate + fixed fee, and net = amount − fee. Net basis: amount to charge = (the net you want + fixed fee) ÷ (1 − rate), rounded up to the cent, and then fee = that gross × rate + fixed fee.

amount

Whatever you entered: the amount the buyer pays on the gross basis, or the amount you want to end up with on the net basis

rate

The percentage fee for your payment type, taken from the card below or from your own market's fee page

fixed fee

The flat amount added to every transaction, which is what makes small payments proportionally expensive

gross

The amount the buyer actually pays, which equals what you entered on the gross basis and is solved for on the net basis

fee

What PayPal keeps: the percentage applied to the gross, plus the fixed fee

Use the gross basis when a customer is about to pay a known amount and you want to know what you keep. Use the net basis when the number you care about is the one that has to arrive — an invoice total, a price list, or a split you have already promised someone — and you need to quote a higher figure to cover the fee. Remember that the fee is charged on the gross, not on your target, which is why the reverse direction is not simply the forward one with a bigger number in it.

1. The standard US card rate on a 100.00 payment: 2.99% plus 0.49

   1. Percentage part: 100.00 × 2.99% = 2.99
   2. Add the fixed fee: 2.99 + 0.49 = 3.48, so the fee is 3.48
   3. Net: 100.00 − 3.48 = 96.52
   4. Share of the payment taken: 3.48 ÷ 100.00 = 3.48%

   On the gross basis the amount to charge is the amount you entered, so that row and the input agree by construction. The fee is 3.48% of the payment rather than the 2.99% headline rate, and the difference is entirely the fixed fee.

2. Solving the other way: you want 100.00 to arrive, at 3.49% plus 0.49

   1. Add the fixed fee to the target: 100.00 + 0.49 = 100.49
   2. Divide by one minus the rate: 100.49 ÷ (1 − 0.0349) = 100.49 ÷ 0.9651 = 104.1239…
   3. Round up to the cent, because rounding down would leave you short: the amount to charge is 104.13
   4. Fee on that gross: 104.13 × 3.49% + 0.49 = 4.12, so the net is 104.13 − 4.12 = 100.01
   5. Share of the payment taken: 4.12 ÷ 104.13 = 3.96%, above the 3.49% you entered

   The net lands 0.01 above the target, not on it: the rounding up to the cent is not swallowed by the fee, so asking for exactly 100.00 to arrive means charging 104.13 and keeping 100.01. The share is higher than the rate because the buyer is paying 104.13 while the fixed fee is charged on the whole of it.

3. The QR code rate on the same 100.00: 2.29% plus 0.09

   1. Percentage part: 100.00 × 2.29% = 2.29
   2. Add the QR fixed fee: 2.29 + 0.09 = 2.38
   3. Net: 100.00 − 2.38 = 97.62
   4. Share taken: 2.38%

   The QR rate is lower on both halves — 2.29% instead of 2.99%, and a fixed fee of 0.09 instead of 0.49 — so it keeps 1.10 more of a 100.00 payment than the standard card rate does.

4. A small payment where the fixed fee dominates: 10.00 at 2.99% plus 0.49

   1. Percentage part: 10.00 × 2.99% = 0.299
   2. Add the fixed fee: 0.299 + 0.49 = 0.789, which rounds to 0.79
   3. Net: 10.00 − 0.79 = 9.21
   4. Share taken: 0.79 ÷ 10.00 = 7.9%, more than twice the headline rate

   The fixed fee is 4.9% of a 10.00 payment on its own, before the percentage is added. This is the arithmetic behind every minimum-charge rule and every surcharge on small payments.

5. Goods and services at 2.99% with no fixed fee, on 250.00

   1. Percentage part: 250.00 × 2.99% = 7.475
   2. Add the fixed fee of zero: the fee is 7.48 once rounded to the cent
   3. Net: 250.00 − 7.48 = 242.52
   4. Share taken: 2.99%, exactly the rate entered, because there was no fixed fee to lift it

   With a zero fixed fee the share of the payment taken equals the rate you entered, at any amount. It is the fixed fee, not the percentage, that makes the effective cost differ from the headline rate.

This page does arithmetic on numbers you supply; it does not know your rate. The card below is the United States one, taken from PayPal's own business fee page on the date printed in its title, and rates differ by market, by payment type and by account: a Chinese, British or Australian seller is on a different card, a charity rate or a negotiated merchant rate is on a different card again, and PayPal revises them every few months. Whatever the card says, the number that binds you is the one on the fee page for your own market and your own account type, so check it before quoting a price from this page. Only the two fees the card states are counted here — a percentage and a fixed amount. Currency conversion, when the buyer pays in a currency you do not hold, carries a spread the page does not model, and a cross-border payment carries the additional percentage shown in the last row of the table, which you have to add to your rate by hand. Chargebacks, disputes, refunds, subscriptions and payout fees are separate lines on the same card and are not part of this calculation. Two smaller points are worth knowing. The reverse direction rounds the amount to charge up to the cent, so the net you actually receive can be one cent above your target — that is deliberate, since rounding down would leave you short. And when the fixed fee is larger than the payment itself, the fee exceeds the payment and the net comes out negative; the calculator prints that rather than refusing it, because it is what the arithmetic says, but no real transaction of that size makes sense through a channel with a fixed fee.

How do I work out the net amount after PayPal fees?

Multiply what the buyer pays by the percentage rate, add the fixed fee, and subtract the total from what the buyer paid. At the standard US card rate of 2.99% plus 0.49, a 100.00 payment costs 3.48 and leaves 96.52. What surprises people is the gap between that and the headline rate: 3.48% of a 100.00 payment, 7.9% of a 10.00 one, because the fixed fee does not shrink with the payment.

How much should I charge so that exactly 100.00 arrives?

Not 103.49. Adding the fee to your target undercharges, because the fee is charged on the amount the buyer pays, which is now larger than your target. Divide instead: (100.00 + 0.49) ÷ (1 − 0.0349) = 104.13, at the 3.49% rate. The page rounds that up to the cent, so you receive 100.01 rather than being a cent short — which is the right way round for an invoice, and the reason this calculator has a second direction at all.

Is the goods and services payment fee the same as the card rate?

It is 2.99% either way, but money sent for goods and services carries no fixed fee, while standard credit and debit card payments carry the per-currency fixed fee, which is 0.49 for US dollars. The two land on the same number only if you enter a fixed fee of zero on this page; with the card's fixed fee in place, the card rate costs 0.49 more on every payment, whatever its size.

Is the PayPal QR code fee lower?

Yes, on both halves: 2.29% rather than 2.99%, and its own fixed fee table, which is 0.09 for US dollars rather than 0.49. On a 100.00 payment that is 2.38 instead of 3.48, so 1.10 stays with you. The same rate applies to card-present and QR payments, and it exists because those payments are typically smaller — which is also why the fixed fee is smaller, since a 0.49 fixed fee on a 3.00 coffee would be 16%.

What is the international transaction fee for?

It is an addition, not a rate of its own: the United States card lists 1.50% as an additional percentage-based fee on international commercial transactions, which is added to whichever domestic rate applies. A card payment from a buyer abroad is therefore 2.99% + 1.50% + 0.49 rather than 2.99% + 0.49. Enter the sum of the two percentages as the rate and the fixed fee separately, and the calculator gives you the right answer without needing to know that the fee has two parts.

Why is every rate an input instead of being built into the page?

Because rates move, and a page with a rate inside it goes stale silently. This page is arithmetic; the table below it is a labelled snapshot of one market's rate card on one date. That split means the calculator stays correct when PayPal changes a rate — you enter the new one — while the table stays honest about which version it is describing. On the day a rate changes, the arithmetic on this page is still right and the table is visibly out of date, which is a better failure than a page that quietly computes yesterday's fee.

• PayPal User Agreement — the contractual basis for the fee: who pays it, when it is deducted from the amount you receive, and the notice PayPal must give before changing it — PayPal (United States)
• PayPal business fees — the source of every rate in the table above: the commercial transaction rates for the United States, with the per-currency fixed fee tables, last updated 1 September 2026 — PayPal (United States)
• PayPal 商家费用 — the same company's fee card for a different market, mainland China, in Chinese: proof that these rates are market-specific, and the reason the table above carries a country and a date — PayPal (mainland China market)