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PayPal Fee Calculator

Work out what PayPal takes on a sale and what you actually keep. The defaults reflect a typical domestic goods-and-services rate — adjust them for your country and for cross-border sales.

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Enter a sale amount to see the fee and what you keep.
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How PayPal fees work

For commercial transactions, PayPal charges a percentage of the sale plus a small fixed fee. A common domestic goods-and-services rate is around 3.49% + a fixed fee (for example $0.49 in the US), but the exact numbers vary by country and currency. PayPal fees tend to run a little higher than card processors like Stripe or Shopify Payments.

  • Percentage + fixed fee — applied to every commercial payment you receive.
  • Cross-border surcharge — receiving money from buyers in another country usually adds an extra percentage on top.
  • Currency conversion — if PayPal converts the currency, there’s a spread baked into the rate too.

Watch out for cross-border fees

If you sell internationally — common in dropshipping — a chunk of your orders may carry the higher cross-border rate. Bump the fee rate in the calculator to model that, so your margins reflect reality rather than the best-case domestic fee.

FAQ

How much does PayPal charge per transaction?

For commercial payments, typically a percentage of the sale plus a fixed fee. The defaults here reflect a common domestic rate; check PayPal’s fee page for your country and adjust the fields.

Are PayPal fees higher than Stripe or Shopify Payments?

Often slightly, especially on cross-border sales. If you use Shopify, note that adding PayPal alongside a third-party gateway can also trigger Shopify’s extra transaction fee — see the Shopify fee calculator.

Can I avoid PayPal fees?

Not on commercial sales — fees are unavoidable, so build them into your pricing. The only real control is your price and which processors you offer.

Price with fees baked in

SpotPeaks builds payment fees into the profit and breakeven numbers on real products, so you set prices that survive ads and processor cuts alike.

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