PayPal pricing, price hikes and cheaper alternatives
PayPal (paypal.com) is a payment provider. Pay-as-you-go: a percentage plus a fixed fee per transaction, with no monthly fee; +1.50% on international payments.. Free plan: No monthly fee; you pay only per-transaction fees..
What PayPal costs
- $10k/mo sales: $347/mo (Advanced card payments, 2.89% + $0.29: 200 x ($1.445 + $0.29) = $347. Standard card payments (2.99% + $0.49) would be $397; PayPal Checkout (3.49% + $0.49) would be $447.)
- $10k/mo, 50% intl: $422/mo (100 x $1.735 domestic + 100 x ($1.735 + 1.50% international fee of $0.75) = $422. Interchange++ pricing has no international fee, but its markup isn't listed.)
- $1k/mo sales: $40.50/mo (40 x (2.89% of $25 = $0.7225 + $0.29) = $40.50)
Plan compared: Advanced Credit and Debit Card Payments (2.89% + $0.29). Total fees in USD per month at standard published rates for one-off online card payments at each sales level: percentage and fixed per-payment fees plus any monthly or gateway fee. Merchant-of-record prices include sales tax and VAT handling, while processor prices cover payment processing only, without tax, billing or fraud add-ons.
PayPal price hikes
- PayPal raised US checkout fees from 2.9% + $0.30 to 3.49% + $0.49 · Aug 2, 2021
On August 2, 2021, PayPal raised US fees for PayPal Checkout and Pay with Venmo from 2.90% + $0.30 to 3.49% + $0.49. Online card payments moved to 2.59% + $0.49.
Alternatives to PayPal
PayPal is the cheapest payment provider we track at $10,000 a month in card sales. The others:
- Square: $350/mo
- Stripe: $350/mo
- Lemon Squeezy: $600/mo
- Paddle: $600/mo
PayPal alternatives: 4 payment providers compared, at every size.
Every change we logged
- Aug 2, 2021 · Price increase: On August 2, 2021, PayPal raised US fees for PayPal Checkout and Pay with Venmo from 2.90% + $0.30 to 3.49% + $0.49. Online card payments moved to 2.59% + $0.49. In the $10k/month scenario, wallet payments went from $350 to $447 (+27.7%) and card payments from $350 to $357.
Sources
Pricing page: paypal.com/us/business/paypal-business-fees. Prices last checked Oct 16, 2026. Current rates come from PayPal's US merchant fees page (last updated October 1, 2026). PricingSaaS tracks no PayPal changes. The 2021 change is from news reports; it is unclear when card rates later moved from 2.59% + $0.49 to today's 2.89% + $0.29, so that change isn't recorded. The ref-point pct uses card payments.