ARDOTOOLS

PayPal Fee Calculator

Work out PayPal's cut on a payment: what lands in your account, and what to charge so you receive an exact amount. Free, runs in your browser.

Inputs

Result

Planning estimate only. Replace assumptions with your real costs, contracts, taxes, and market conditions.

How it works

  1. Start from PayPal's rate

    The fields open on 3.49% + $0.49, the US standard commercial rate for PayPal Checkout. Your own fee page is the authority — the product you use and the country you sell into both move it.

  2. See what actually lands

    What the customer pays, minus the percentage and minus the fixed amount, is what reaches your balance.

  3. Or work backwards

    Enter what you need to receive and it tells you what to charge to net exactly that, fee included.

Who this is for

Selling with a PayPal button

Set the price knowing what survives the cut, rather than discovering it when the payment clears.

Invoicing an exact amount

When you have agreed to receive a specific sum, the gross-up is the number that goes on the invoice.

Small payments

PayPal's fixed fee is the larger one, so it dominates small sales. This is where the damage is easiest to underestimate.

Comparing against Stripe

A different percentage with a different fixed fee can win or lose depending on your average order value. Run both — the Stripe fee calculator opens on Stripe's rate.

Questions

What does PayPal charge?
As of September 2026, PayPal Checkout's standard US commercial transaction rate is 3.49% + $0.49, which is what this page starts with. Rates differ by product, country and how the payment arrives, and they change — check your own PayPal fee page and enter what applies to you.
Why does PayPal take more than a card processor?
Its standard commercial rate is higher on both parts — a larger percentage and a larger fixed fee. The fixed part is what bites: on a $5 payment a $0.49 fee is nearly 10% of the sale before the percentage is applied at all.
Why is the charge-to-receive figure more than my target plus the fee?
Because the fee applies to the higher amount you are now charging, so it grows with the charge. Adding the fee to your target undershoots every time. Solving it properly means dividing rather than adding, which is what this does.
Why does it refuse to calculate at a 100% fee?
At 100% the processor takes the whole payment, so no charge amount nets your target. Above it, the arithmetic goes negative. The tool warns instead of printing a nonsense figure.
Does this account for refunds and chargebacks?
No. Refunded transactions often do not return the fixed fee, and chargebacks usually carry a separate charge. Both are worth checking in your own PayPal terms before pricing around them.
Is this tool affiliated with PayPal?
No. ArdoTools is independent and not connected to PayPal. The name is used because it is the processor most people are calculating for; the tool works with any rate you type in.