Use this PayPal Goods & Services Fee Calculator to estimate your processing fee, net receipt, or the payment needed to reach a target net. It covers standard Goods & Services payments sent between PayPal accounts and received by a US account in USD.
A domestic $100 payment through the Send/Receive Money for Goods and Services route has a $2.99 estimated fee, leaving $97.01, using the rate in PayPal’s US commercial fee schedule.
Calculate your fee and net receipt
US recipient account · USD
Standard account-to-account Send/Receive Money for Goods and Services.
The figures below show a $100 domestic example. If the fields are unavailable, use the calculation method below.
Estimated result
- Payment amount
- $100.00
- Processing fee
- $2.99
- Net received
- $97.01
Rate used: 2.99% + $0.00 fixed.
Example: $100.00 domestic payment. All amounts are USD.
Model: fees round to the nearest cent, with half cents rounded up. Reverse results are checked against that same model. Actual PayPal rounding or account terms may differ.
Excludes eCheck fee caps, negotiated rates, currency conversion, withdrawal fees, dispute charges, and other deductions. A reverse estimate is a pricing calculation, not authorization to add a PayPal-only surcharge.
Rate source: PayPal’s official US merchant fee schedule. Inputs are calculated in your browser; this tool does not send or store them.
For a payment you are receiving, enter the total before PayPal’s deduction. For a target net, enter the amount you want left after the modeled fee. The processing fee is calculated on the gross payment; reverse mode works out that gross amount from your target net. The calculator does not calculate shipping charges, sales tax, or other business costs separately.
Which PayPal fee applies to your payment?
Match the actual payment route before using a rate. The US fee schedule lists the Goods & Services send/receive route separately from Checkout and standard card processing. Paying for a service does not, by itself, identify which product processed the payment.
| Payment route | Domestic USD rate | Fee on $100 | Net received |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goods & Services: send/receive money | 2.99%; no fixed fee | $2.99 | $97.01 |
| PayPal Checkout | 3.49% + $0.49 | $3.98 | $96.02 |
| Standard credit and debit card payments | 2.99% + $0.49 | $3.48 | $96.52 |
Sources: PayPal’s commercial transaction rates and US checkout and card-processing prices. Invoice charges also depend on the method used to pay the invoice; this tool does not estimate invoice fees.
Do not choose the standard card-processing row solely because a buyer says they used a card. Confirm the payment product in your transaction or checkout arrangement. If that is unclear, check with PayPal before relying on a quote.
Calculate the fee or work backward from your target
The gross payment is the amount before the processing deduction. The net receipt is what remains after that deduction. A percentage rate of 2.99% is written as 0.0299 in the formulas.
Forward calculation: fee = gross payment × rate + fixed feenet received = gross payment − fee
Reverse calculation: gross payment = (target net + fixed fee) ÷ (1 − rate)
For this calculator’s supported Goods & Services scenarios, the fixed component is zero. With a $250 domestic payment, the unrounded fee is 250 × 0.0299 = 7.475. Rounding that fee to the nearest cent gives $7.48, leaving $242.52.
How much should you request to receive $100?
Under this calculator’s domestic rounding model, a $103.08 payment produces a $3.08 fee and a $100.00 net receipt. The fee before rounding is 103.08 × 0.0299 = 3.082092.
Simply adding 2.99% to your target gives a different result. A $102.99 payment has a modeled fee of $3.08, leaving $99.91. The reverse calculation accounts for the fee on the larger payment.
Results use whole cents, with half-cent fees rounded up. In reverse mode, the calculator finds a cent-denominated payment that reaches the target after that fee rounding, then checks it with the forward calculation. A method that always rounds the unrounded gross upward can instead produce $103.09 for this example. These are calculation conventions; the estimate does not guarantee PayPal’s final rounding or your account’s actual deduction.
Receiving a payment from another country
PayPal classifies domestic and international payments by the parties’ account markets. For the supported US receiving scenario, the standard international supplement is 1.50 percentage points, producing a modeled rate of 4.49%. Receiving USD does not make an overseas payment domestic. See the official international commercial transaction rules.
For example, a $200 payment gives these estimates:
- Domestic: $5.98 fee; $194.02 net received.
- International: $8.98 fee; $191.02 net received.
The $3.00 difference is the additional receiving charge in this example. It does not include a currency exchange. PayPal’s conversion rate includes a spread and can change; use the currency calculator and transaction exchange rate for a conversion estimate. This page keeps that cost outside its results.
Check a result against your PayPal transaction
If the actual deduction differs, compare the same payment amount, currency, and payment route first. A useful check is:
- Use the gross payment. Compare the transaction’s payment amount before deductions with the amount entered in forward mode.
- Confirm the scenario. Check the receiving account’s market, the buyer’s market, and whether a currency exchange occurred.
- Check for a different fee arrangement. This uncapped model excludes eCheck-specific caps and special pricing. PayPal lists eCheck caps in its merchant fee schedule and describes custom arrangements on its business pricing page.
- Separate other deductions. This tool does not estimate withdrawals, disputes, marketplace commissions, taxes, or your operating costs.
The displayed net is a processing-fee estimate, not business profit or a guaranteed bank deposit. If you are reconciling a completed payment, use the recorded transaction amounts and its applicable fee terms.
Common questions about Goods & Services fees
Who pays the Goods & Services fee?
The seller pays the fee for receiving the purchase payment, as explained in PayPal’s payment-type guidance. PayPal’s US consumer fee page lists ordinary purchases as free when no currency conversion is involved. The calculator estimates the receiving side of the payment.
Can I add a separate PayPal fee to the buyer’s bill?
PayPal’s US User Agreement, under “No surcharges,” prohibits charging an extra fee for accepting PayPal. Its allowance for handling charges has conditions, so renaming a PayPal surcharge is not a workaround. Use the reverse result to understand payment costs and plan your total pricing; it does not authorize a payment-method surcharge.
Are the original fees returned if I refund the payment?
PayPal says it does not charge a fee to issue a Goods & Services refund, but it retains the original receiving fees. Refunding the buyer therefore does not automatically restore your processing cost. See PayPal’s refund guidance.
Can I use Friends and Family for a sale to avoid the fee?
A purchase should be sent as a purchase. The US User Agreement’s receiving-payments rules prohibit asking a buyer to label a sale as a personal transaction. Personal payments also lack PayPal Purchase Protection; Goods & Services protection applies only to eligible transactions. See the official distinction between payment types.
Last verified: October 18, 2026.