PayPal vs Square Pricing 2026: Head-to-Head
Side-by-side cost-per-$100 across four GMV bands, with each vendor's published rate card, dispute fees, and cross-border surcharge laid out under a single decision aid.
PayPal wins on online consumer ecommerce (Advanced 2.89% + 29c is fractionally cheaper than Square's online 2.9% + 30c) and on cross-border, where Square is not supported at all. Square crushes PayPal in-person at 2.6% + 15c plus $0 chargeback fee. Pick by where the revenue actually lives: online cart or physical till.
Both vendors at a glance
Feature comparison
Cost-per-$100 across four GMV bands
Illustrative examples, not a real company. Cost models use each vendor's published headline rate and per-transaction fixed fee. Quote-only vendors are not estimated.
Switching cost
If you're on PayPal and considering Square
PayPal to Square is a 2-4 week project for online-only stores, plus hardware buy-in for any card-present revenue. Square to PayPal is faster (1-2 weeks) but you lose in-person hardware integration and gain the FX margin and chargeback fees. Customer-saved cards do not transfer; expect re-tokenisation.
Related
See all vendor pages on the vendor index, or run your own numbers in the cross-vendor cost calculator.