How much does PayPal take from sellers?

PayPal takes a percentage of every Goods & Services payment you receive. Whether a $0.49 fixed fee lands on top depends on how the money arrives: as a direct payment, through an invoice, or through a checkout button on your site. PayPal lists those routes in separate tables, which is how so many freelancers end up budgeting with the wrong rate.

PayPal takes 2.99% of a direct Goods & Services payment in the US, with no fixed fee. That's $14.95 on $500, so you receive $485.05. Invoices cost 2.99% + $0.49 when the client pays by card, 3.49% + $0.49 when they pay with a PayPal account, and 1% (capped at $10) by bank. PayPal Checkout costs 3.49% + $0.49. Payments from abroad add 1.5% on top.

We re-read PayPal's fee page, last updated October 1, 2026, for this post on October 30, 2026.

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What percentage does PayPal take?

PayPal's Goods & Services charge is a flat 2.99% when a client sends you money marked that way, with no fixed fee on top. That's the rate for the simplest way of getting paid for work.

That 2.99% is the whole fee. There's no monthly charge or separate processing fee behind it. The rate does change with how the money reaches you, though. PayPal publishes a separate set of rates for invoices, and most routes add a $0.49 fixed fee that a direct payment doesn't:

• Direct Goods & Services payment: 2.99%, no fixed fee.
• Invoice paid with the client's PayPal account: 3.49% + $0.49.
• Invoice paid by card: 2.99% + $0.49.
• Invoice paid by bank transfer: 1%, capped at $10.
• PayPal Checkout on your own website: 3.49% + $0.49.

On the same $500, that's anywhere from $5.00 to $17.94, depending on the route. It's also why different sites quote different numbers: each one describes a single row of PayPal's published fee schedule as if it were the only one. Our breakdown of PayPal business account fees goes through every route in detail.

The $0.49 fixed fee and small payments

A direct Goods & Services payment has no fixed fee, so a $20 payment and a $2,000 payment both cost exactly 2.99%. Invoices paid by card or PayPal account, and checkout payments, add $0.49 to every transaction. On a $2,000 invoice you'd barely notice it. On a $20 invoice it adds almost two and a half percentage points, which takes a card-paid invoice to about 5.4% of the payment.

What PayPal charges per transaction at four payment sizes, by route:

On $20, a card-paid invoice costs nearly twice what a direct payment does ($1.09 against $0.60). On $1,000, the same gap is 49 cents. Bank transfer is the cheapest route at every size, and the $10 cap makes it cheaper still as invoices grow.

If you collect lots of small amounts, have clients pay them directly rather than by invoice, or combine several small invoices into one. The fixed fee is charged per invoice, not per dollar.

Friends & Family vs Goods & Services

Within the US, PayPal's Friends & Family option is fee-free, as long as it's funded from a linked bank account or your PayPal balance rather than a card. Send it to another country and the sender pays 5% (minimum $0.99, maximum $4.99), however it's funded. On paper, that makes it tempting for anyone trying to avoid the Goods & Services cut.

A surprising number of "Friends and Family" payments on PayPal are neither friends nor family. They're freelancers and clients agreeing to pretend otherwise to dodge the fee.

The problem is that Friends & Family payments come with no Buyer or Seller Protection. If a client disputes the payment, claims the work never arrived or reverses it, PayPal won't step in for you. Using Friends & Family for business payments also breaks PayPal's terms, and PayPal can limit accounts that break them.

For a one-off payment from someone you trust, the risk is small. For a client who pays you every month, saving 3% isn't worth losing your only protection in a dispute. And disputes happen with honest clients too, usually over scope or delivery.

International fees and currency conversion

Cross-border payments add 1.5% to the domestic rate, so an international Goods & Services payment costs 4.49%, and an invoice paid from abroad gets the same 1.5% added to whichever invoice rate applies.

If the payment also needs converting into a currency you hold, PayPal builds a spread of 3% or 4%, depending on the type of transaction, into the exchange rate it gives you. That spread costs more than the 1.5% cross-border fee itself, and because it's inside the rate rather than listed as a fee, it never shows up on your receipt.

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Two habits cut this cost. Invoice clients in a currency you hold, so nothing needs converting. And if you do hold several currencies, use PayPal's multi-currency balance to choose when to convert, rather than letting PayPal convert each payment the moment it lands.

Does PayPal refund its fees when you refund a client?

No. Sending a refund costs nothing, but PayPal keeps the fee it took on the original payment. Its fee page says so for both full and partial refunds, on direct payments and invoices alike. PayPal will happily process your refund for free. It just won't give its own cut back.

A partial refund doesn't get you a partial fee back either. Refund $100 of that $500 invoice and PayPal still keeps the whole $15.44.

If refunds are a realistic part of your work, such as deposits on projects that might be cancelled, say in your quote or terms that refunds are paid minus payment processing fees. Agree it before the client pays, not in the refund email.

PayPal chargeback and dispute fees

If a client goes to their card issuer or files a dispute instead of asking you for a refund, a separate fee can apply on top of losing the payment. Which one depends on how they paid:

• Card payments not made through a PayPal account or guest checkout: a $20 chargeback fee.
• Payments made through a PayPal account or guest checkout: PayPal may charge a $15 dispute fee, or $30 if you're a high-volume seller.

Our PayPal business account fees breakdown has more on both, and Stripe's version is in how much Stripe takes.

How to keep more of what you're paid

• Withdraw to a linked bank account. Standard withdrawals are free when no currency conversion is involved. Instant ones cost 1.5% from a business account and 1.75% from a personal one, with a minimum fee.
• Build the fee into your prices. Budget for roughly 3% from the start, so it isn't a surprise deduction later. Our PayPal vs Stripe comparison shows whether another processor would take less.
• Let clients pay large invoices by bank. PayPal's invoice bank-transfer option is 1%, capped at $10, so a $5,000 invoice costs $10 instead of about $150 by card.
• Check the rates for your country. PayPal's fees vary by region and merchant category, so the US rates here may not be the ones on your account.

Our PayPal fee calculator works out what you'll receive on any payment, domestic or international, with or without currency conversion.

How we made this: researched and drafted with AI assistance, with any figures checked against their sources and the post reviewed by Hamza before publishing.

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