Fee Calculators
Stripe vs PayPal Fee Calculator
Enter one sale amount and see exactly what Stripe and PayPal each take — side by side, cited to each processor's own published US pricing.
Stripe
2.9% + $0.30
PayPal
3.49% + $0.49
How this is calculated
Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ per successful domestic online card transaction — one flat rate, no plan tiers.
PayPal charges 3.49% + 49¢ for PayPal Checkout (the PayPal button, guest checkout, Pay with Venmo) or 2.99% + 49¢ for standard card processing routed directly through PayPal — pick whichever matches how you actually accept PayPal.
Both figures are the processor's cut of a single sale; neither includes chargeback fees, monthly account fees, or currency conversion.
Sources
- Stripe standard rate: Stripe — Pricing
- PayPal standard rates: PayPal — Merchant and Business Fees (rates effective 2026-06-29)
Scope & limitations
Domestic (US) online card transactions only. Not modeled: international-card surcharges, currency conversion fees, manually-keyed-card surcharges, chargeback and dispute fees, and any negotiated/volume-discount pricing either processor may offer larger merchants. Treat this as a per-transaction estimate, not a full cost-of- processing comparison.
Last reviewed: July 2026
Frequently asked questions
Why does PayPal have two different rates?
"PayPal Checkout" (the PayPal button, guest checkout, and Pay with Venmo) is priced at 3.49% + $0.49, while routing card payments directly through PayPal's card processing is priced lower, at 2.99% + $0.49. Most small online stores that just add a "Pay with PayPal" button are on the Checkout rate.
Is Stripe's rate the same for every card?
2.9% + 30¢ is Stripe's standard rate for domestic US cards entered normally at checkout. International cards add 1.5%, currency conversion adds another 1%, and manually-keyed cards add 0.5% — none of which are modeled in this comparison.
Does this account for monthly fees or chargebacks?
No — this compares only the per-transaction processing fee on a single domestic online sale. Neither Stripe nor PayPal charges a monthly account fee at these standard rates, but both charge separate fees for disputes/chargebacks that aren't modeled here.
How often is this reviewed?
At least once a year, and sooner if either processor announces a rate change — PayPal's rates above reflect a change effective June 29, 2026. The review date is shown next to the methodology section below.
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