Stripe vs PayPal Fees — Which Costs Less?
Type a sale amount into the calculator above and it instantly shows the fee and net payout for Stripe, PayPal Standard, PayPal Checkout, and Shopify Payments on that transaction, sorted from most to least you keep.
Stripe vs PayPal at a glance
| Stripe | PayPal Standard | PayPal Checkout | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic card rate | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.99% + $0.49 | 3.49% + $0.49 |
| International card | 4.4% + $0.30 | 4.49% + $0.49 | 4.99% + $0.49 |
| Monthly fee | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Payout speed | 2 business days | Instant to balance, bank withdrawal 1–3 days | Instant to balance, bank withdrawal 1–3 days |
| Best for | SaaS, APIs, B2B invoicing | Consumer trust, marketplaces | Express checkout button conversions |
On a $100 domestic card sale, Stripe takes $3.20 and you keep $96.80. PayPal Standard takes $3.48 ($96.52 net) — $0.28 more than Stripe. PayPal Checkout takes $3.98 ($96.02 net), the most expensive of the three.
Why PayPal is usually more expensive than Stripe
PayPal's per-transaction fixed fee ($0.49) is higher than Stripe's ($0.30), and its percentage rate is also higher on every tier. The gap widens on smaller transactions, where the fixed fee dominates the total cost. On a $10 sale, Stripe takes $0.59 (5.9% effective rate) versus PayPal Standard's $0.79 (7.9% effective rate).
PayPal can still be worth the extra cost: roughly 60% of US online shoppers have a PayPal account, and offering it as a checkout option measurably reduces cart abandonment for consumer-facing stores. Use the calculator above to see whether the conversion lift is likely to outweigh the fee difference for your average order size.
Where Shopify Payments fits in
If you sell through Shopify, Shopify Payments usually beats both Stripe and PayPal on domestic card rates (as low as 1.5% + $0.25 on the Advanced plan) and avoids the 0.5–2% third-party gateway surcharge Shopify otherwise charges for using Stripe or PayPal directly. Run your own numbers with the Shopify Fee Calculator.
Calculate your exact numbers
- Stripe Fee Calculator — domestic, international, and custom negotiated rates
- PayPal Fee Calculator — Standard and Checkout rates, domestic and international
- Shopify Fee Calculator — all three Shopify plans, with and without Shopify Payments
For the full three-way breakdown with worked examples at several transaction sizes, see the Stripe vs PayPal vs Shopify Payments fee comparison.