PayPal Fee Sources & Methodology

Rule IDs below are this calculator's identifiers, not identifiers assigned by PayPal. Each result exposes its rule ID, version, source section, verification date and exclusions. A custom rate is a modeled rule, not an official rate. No matching supported rule means no quote, not zero fees.

For a US domestic USD Checkout payment of $100: round($100 x 0.0349, 2) + $0.49 = $3.98; net = $96.02. The result points to paypal-US-paypal_checkout-USD, version 1. Match that ID below, then check the linked source's commercial transaction row and USD fixed-fee table.

Invoice rules additionally match the selected payment method. International results show a corridor and currency-specific rule; personal payments, refund-policy assumptions and user-supplied FX quotes have separate evidence. This directory is not a list of all supported worldwide rules.

Money uses decimal arithmetic and the configured currency's minor unit: two decimal places for USD and EUR, zero for JPY. The calculator uses round-half-up, so a USD amount of 1.005 rounds to 1.01. This is our calculation policy, not a claim about every PayPal statement adjustment.

The fee engine rounds the combined base and international percentage once, adds the fixed fee, then applies any minimum or maximum. The displayed surcharge is the rounded combined percentage less the rounded base percentage so the breakdown reconciles. For $100 US Checkout, $3.49 + $0.49 = $3.98.

Reverse mode searches whole minor units for the smallest gross amount whose rounded net meets the target. For a $100 Checkout net target, the minimum is $104.12 less $4.12 = $100.00; one cent less falls short. A $1,000 ACH target requires $1,010 because the fee is capped at $10. The simple (net + fixed) / (1 - rate) formula alone does not handle caps or cent-level rounding.

International seller conversion rounds the post-fee converted balance in its destination currency. Buyer funding conversion rounds up to avoid underpaying the invoice. An entered transaction quote already incorporates its spread; comparison against a reference rate is not an extra deduction.

A source-page update date, our verification date, a rule-version date and a fee's effective date are different facts. A source refresh may correct our mapping without proving PayPal changed that rate on the same day. Where no effective date is established, this site does not certify historical calculations.

The October 9 US review used the official page/PDF dated October 1, 2026. It corrected the site's standard-card USD fixed fee from $0.29 to $0.49 and the all-other-APMs fixed fee from $0.19 to $0.29. These are mapping corrections, not asserted PayPal rate-change dates. The October 9 rule migration retained prior market review dates.

Full review log and source references | PayPal policy updates and effective-date notices