PayPal Fee Calculator
What a payment leaves you with, and what to charge so the amount you receive is the amount you meant. Adding the percentage does not do it.
Fee rate 2.9% plus $0.30
If you charge $500.00
Fee $14.80
You receive $485.20
Fee as a share 3%
To receive $500.00
Charge $515.24
Fee $15.24
Adding 2.9% to the price does not cover the fee: charging $514.80 still
leaves you short, because the fee applies to the larger amount too. The
figure that works is $515.24, which is the amount you want plus the
fixed fee, divided by 0.9710.
Rates are fields here rather than a built-in table, because PayPal
charges differently by country, by payment type and by month. Take the
two numbers from your own account page.
Output is valid and updates as you type.
Fix the highlighted fields to update the output.
Two questions, and the second one is the one people get wrong.
What does a 500 payment leave me with? Easy: 500 less the percentage, less the fixed fee.
What do I charge so that 500 arrives? Not 500 plus the percentage. The fee applies to the larger amount too, so charging 514.80 still leaves you short. The figure that works is the amount you want plus the fixed fee, divided by one minus the rate: 515.24.
How to use
- Put in the amount. It is read both ways: as the amount you charge and as the amount you want to receive.
- Put in your own percentage and fixed fee, from your account page.
- Read both directions.
Example
At 2.9 percent plus 0.30:
If you charge $500.00
Fee $14.80
You receive $485.20
Fee as a share 3%
To receive $500.00
Charge $515.24
Fee $15.24The gap between 514.80 and 515.24 is small on one invoice and is the whole difference between an invoice that settles cleanly and one that is 44 cents short, every time, on every invoice.
Pitfalls
Grossing up is a division, not an addition. Amount wanted plus the fixed fee, divided by one minus the rate. Adding the percentage always undershoots.
Passing the fee to the customer may not be allowed. PayPal’s terms, and card network rules in many countries, restrict surcharging. Raising your price is always allowed; adding a line called “PayPal fee” sometimes is not.
Currency conversion is a separate fee. Receiving in a currency other than your balance’s adds a conversion spread on top of these fees, and it is usually larger than the percentage fee. This tool does not model it.
Micropayments have their own rates. For small payments the fixed fee dominates, and PayPal offers a different rate structure that is cheaper below roughly ten units of currency. Put those rates in the fields and compare.
Refunds do not always return the fee. Policies have changed more than once and differ by country. Check before you promise a customer a full refund on your side.
Compatibility
Arithmetic in the browser: nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored. The share link carries the figures.
The rates are fields rather than a built-in table, deliberately. PayPal charges differently by country, by whether the payment is commercial, by whether it crosses a border, and the numbers change. A table baked into a page is wrong within a year, and a wrong fee table is worse than no fee table.
The same arithmetic applies to Stripe, Square, Mollie and any other processor with a percentage plus a fixed fee. Change the two numbers.