ToolNestFree PayPal Fee Calculator
Last updated: October 22, 2026
Quick answer: PayPal's cut is easy to underestimate — 2.99% plus a fixed fee sounds small until it comes out of every invoice. This free PayPal fee calculator shows exactly what you'll receive after fees on any amount, or flips it around: enter what you want to net and it tells you what to charge. Domestic, international, micropayment, and QR rates are built in — and because PayPal changes its fee schedule, the rate fields are editable so the math never goes stale. Everything runs in your browser.
—PayPal fee
—You receive
—Effective rate
✓ Free forever · ✓ No signup · ✓ Tool inputs stay in your browser — never sent to our servers.
How to Use the PayPal Fee Calculator
- Enter the payment amount in dollars.
- Pick a transaction type — or choose Custom and type your own rate.
- Use 'Fee on this amount' to see the fee and what you keep, or 'I want to receive this amount' to get the charge-back price.
- Adjust the % and fixed fee if your country's rates differ.
- Copy the numbers into your invoice or price list.
Why Use Our PayPal Fee Calculator?
- Two directions — fee on an amount, or the charge needed to net a target.
- All major rate types — domestic, international, micropayments, QR, friends & family.
- Editable rates — PayPal changes fees; type your country's current numbers and the math follows.
- Effective rate shown — see the true percentage the fee eats, which climbs steeply on small amounts.
- Private — runs 100% in your browser; no data sent anywhere.
Common Use Cases
- Freelancer quoting: Price the project so the net matches your quote — enter your day rate in reverse mode and invoice the gross, not the shortfall.
- Online sellers: Bake the exact fee into product prices on Etsy, eBay, or your own store instead of discovering the haircut after the sale.
- Invoicing for exact nets: When a client agrees to '$500 net', the invoice must read $516.97 at standard rates — compute it here, not by guessing.
- Donation pages: Nonprofits can estimate what actually lands after fees on a $25, $50, or $100 donation and set fundraising targets on net figures.
- Comparing payment options: Run the same amount through PayPal, then compare against Stripe or bank transfer to pick the cheapest rail for each invoice size.
- Pricing a digital download: A $19 ebook at PayPal's standard rate nets $17.94 after the $1.06 fee — a 5.6% haircut that matters more than it looks, because digital goods have near-zero marginal cost and the fee is the main cost. Price at $19.99 instead and the net is $18.90; the $1 price rise buys $0.96 of net per sale, which is why fee-aware pricing beats round-number pricing for downloads.
- A $2,500 project invoice, priced to net the quote: A freelancer quotes $2,500 and wants to actually receive $2,500. At 2.99% + $0.49 the fee on $2,500 is $75.24, so invoicing $2,500 nets $2,424.76 — a $75 shortfall. The reverse mode solves it: charge $2,577.55 and the fee ($77.56) leaves $2,499.99 — within a cent of the quote, instead of a $75 pay cut.
- Subscription pricing, monthly vs annual: A $15/month subscription costs $0.94 in fees per payment ($14.06 net) — 6.3% of revenue, because the $0.49 fixed fee bites hardest on small payments. The same plan billed annually at $150 costs $4.98 (3.3%). That fee drag is a real argument for annual billing beyond cash flow: it roughly halves the fee percentage on small subscriptions.
PayPal Fee Calculator vs Alternatives
- Thin fee-calculator sites: Dozens of single-purpose PayPal calculators rank today, but most hardcode the old 2.9% + $0.30 schedule and offer no reverse mode — their answers are wrong the moment rates change. This page's rates are editable and it computes both directions.
- PayPal's official fee pages: The authoritative source for current rates in your country — but no interactive calculator. Look up your rate there, type it into the fields here.
- '2026 fee guide' blog posts: Good explainers of how the fee structure works, but static: you still do the arithmetic yourself for every amount.
- Spreadsheet formulas: =A1*0.0299+0.49 is free and flexible, and the right call for a price list of hundreds of SKUs. For a one-off quote or invoice, this page is faster — and the reverse math is already done.
- Stripe's fee calculator: The natural comparison when you are choosing a processor: Stripe's tool shows its own 2.9% + $0.30 math cleanly, and Stripe's rate beats PayPal's by $0.28 per $100. What it cannot do is show PayPal's side of the comparison or the reverse-charge figure for a PayPal invoice — use both calculators when the decision is PayPal vs Stripe, not Stripe alone.
- Wise / cross-border transfer comparisons: For receiving money from abroad, a transfer service like Wise often beats PayPal's combined international fee plus 3-4% conversion spread, especially on large invoices. The trade-off is friction: the buyer needs a Wise account and a transfer, where PayPal is one click. Use Wise math for large, regular cross-border invoices; use PayPal where buyer convenience closes the sale.
If you invoice through PayPal regularly, the reverse mode is the feature that pays for itself — it kills the most common fee mistake, absorbing the fee instead of passing it through. And whichever tool you use, re-check the rate inside your PayPal account once a year: fee schedules change, and editable rates beat hardcoded ones.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does PayPal take from $100?
At the standard US domestic goods-and-services rate (2.99% + $0.49): $100 × 2.99% + $0.49 = $3.48 in fees, so you receive $96.52. International payments add a 1.5% cross-border fee on top.
How do I calculate PayPal fees?
Fee = amount × rate + fixed fee. Going the other way — 'what must I charge to receive $X?' — use gross = (X + fixed) ÷ (1 − rate). This calculator does both directions instantly.
What are PayPal's fees for goods and services?
For US domestic online payments: 2.99% + $0.49 per transaction. Rates differ by country, currency, and payment type (in-person, QR, micropayments), which is why the rate fields on this page are editable — always confirm the current schedule inside your PayPal account.
How much should I charge to receive $100 after fees?
About $103.59 at 2.99% + $0.49: (100 + 0.49) ÷ (1 − 0.0299). Switch the calculator to 'I want to receive this amount' mode and it computes the charge-back price for any target.
Are there fees for Friends & Family payments?
Sending from a PayPal balance or bank account is free in the US — but there's no seller protection, so never use it for business. Payments funded by credit/debit cards still incur a fee.
Do international payments cost more?
Yes — typically an extra 1.5% cross-border fee on top of the standard rate. If the payment also involves currency conversion, PayPal adds roughly a 4% spread above the base exchange rate, which dwarfs the transaction fee itself.
What are PayPal micropayment fees?
5% + $0.05 per transaction for payments under $10 — cheaper than the standard rate on tiny amounts. On a $3 payment: $0.20 micropayment fee vs $0.58 standard. If you sell low-priced digital goods, ask PayPal about micropayment pricing.
Can I avoid PayPal fees?
Not on goods-and-services payments — the fee is the cost of the network and the protection. You can shrink the bite: use micropayment rates for sub-$10 sales, invoice in your own currency to dodge conversion spreads, and build the fee into your prices with the reverse mode above instead of absorbing it.
What are PayPal fees for invoices vs checkout?
The same commercial rate applies either way: sending a PayPal invoice does not change the fee — a $500 invoice paid online costs the same $15.44 (2.99% + $0.49) as a $500 checkout payment. What changes the fee is the payment type (goods and services vs friends and family), the currency, and whether the payment is international — not the button the buyer clicked.
Do refunds return the PayPal fee?
Only partly. On a full refund, PayPal returns the percentage portion of the fee but keeps the fixed $0.49 — so refunding a $100 payment returns $2.99 of the $3.48 fee and $0.49 stays with PayPal. On a partial refund, the returned fee is proportional. That kept fixed fee is why high-refund-rate sellers (apparel, tickets) feel PayPal as more expensive than the headline rate suggests.
Are PayPal fees tax-deductible for a business?
Generally yes, as an ordinary business expense — payment-processing fees are a cost of doing business, and PayPal's annual statements and monthly summaries give you the totals to hand to your accountant. This is general information, not tax advice: deductibility rules and record-keeping requirements vary by country and business structure, so confirm with your own tax professional.
How do PayPal fees compare with Stripe?
Stripe's standard US online rate is 2.9% + $0.30 vs PayPal's 2.99% + $0.49, so on a $100 payment Stripe costs $3.20 and PayPal $3.48 — PayPal is $0.28 more per $100, or $280 more per $100,000 processed. The gap is small per transaction and real at volume; the reason sellers keep PayPal anyway is conversion (buyers who trust it and check out faster), which is worth more than $0.28 per order if it lifts completion rates.
What does PayPal charge for currency conversion?
On top of the international transaction fee, PayPal applies a currency-conversion spread — typically around 3-4% above the wholesale exchange rate — when it converts the payment into your currency. A $1,000 payment from a euro buyer can therefore lose roughly $30-40 to conversion alone, before the standard fee. Sellers with steady cross-border volume often hold balances in the buyer's currency or price in it to avoid converting every payment.
Should I pass the PayPal fee to customers as a surcharge?
Usually not as a line item: PayPal's user agreement restricts adding a surcharge specifically for paying with PayPal in many regions, and card-network and local laws add their own limits on surcharging. The safer and universally accepted route is the one this calculator's reverse mode supports — build the fee into your price so the net matches your target, with no surcharge line for anyone to object to.