Stripe vs PayPal 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 Advanced Checkout (2.89% + 29c) is fractionally cheaper than Stripe (2.9% + 30c) at every band on raw rate, but the gap is roughly 0.3% of total cost and easily flips once you factor in dispute economics (Stripe $15 non-refundable + $15 refundable vs PayPal's flat $20), recurring-billing depth, and the FX margin (Stripe 1% vs PayPal up to 4%). Pick PayPal where the wallet-branded checkout drives meaningful conversion lift; pick Stripe where developer experience, recurring billing, and lower FX/dispute exposure matter more than the headline 0.01% + 1c.
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 Stripe and considering PayPal
Most platforms can switch from Stripe to PayPal (or vice versa) in 2-4 engineering weeks if you used a thin abstraction layer. Add 1-2 weeks if you used vendor-specific webhooks heavily. PayPal's Advanced Checkout requires re-onboarding and SAQ-A PCI scope review. Customer-saved payment methods do not transfer between vendors; expect a re-tokenisation flow.
Related
See all vendor pages on the vendor index, or run your own numbers in the cross-vendor cost calculator.