PayPal publishes a full fee schedule by product. The cheapest US tier is Advanced Credit and Debit Card at 2.89% + $0.49, slightly under the Stripe headline on percentage but with a higher fixed fee. Standard PayPal Checkout is 3.49% + $0.49. Micropayments (under $10) are 4.99% + $0.09. Chargebacks are $20, refunded if won outside Seller Protection.
Pulled directly from the vendor pricing page, verified 2026-06-19. We do not re-state any rate the vendor has not put in writing on their own site.
PayPal is the right gateway when accepting the PayPal wallet itself is a conversion lever, not just an afterthought. The Advanced Card product means a merchant can take both cards and PayPal wallet under one settlement without needing a second processor.
The trade-off is the $0.49 fixed fee, which is materially higher than Stripe / Square at $0.30 and Braintree at $0.49 (same parent). On baskets under roughly $25 the fixed fee dominates and PayPal is no longer the cheapest card path.
The number on the homepage of PayPal is rarely the number a finance team books. Below are the line items that almost always show up, sourced from the same vendor pricing page where possible.
Comprehensive published fee schedule with PayPal wallet acceptance bundled in. Advanced Card rate beats Stripe headline by 1 bps; standard PayPal Checkout is 60 bps worse.