PayPal Goods and Services Fee 2026: 2.99% and Who Pays

What is the PayPal goods and services fee? It is 2.99% of the payment for a US PayPal account, and PayPal's fee table lists no fixed fee on it. The seller pays it; the buyer pays nothing. On a $100 payment you receive $97.01. If the buyer is in another country, 1.5% more is added, so 4.49%. Below: the fee on every amount, who pays it, what it protects and how to keep more of each payment.

Photo: M. Cooper on Unsplash

We checked every number on 1 November 2026 on PayPal's own pages: the Merchant Fees page (last updated 1 October 2026), the Consumer Fees page (19 May 2026), the User Agreement and PayPal's help pages on protection. Tax facts come from the IRS. Fees change, so the date matters; we re-check this page every month. Want your own numbers? Open the PayPal fee calculator with goods and services already chosen.

How much does PayPal charge for goods and services?

The PayPal fee for goods and services is 2.99% at home and 4.49% from a buyer abroad. Here are all the PayPal goods and services fees in one table:

The goods and services PayPal fee on a $100 payment, worked out from PayPal's fee table.

How much is the PayPal goods and services fee on every amount?

Because there is no fixed fee, the goods and services fee is the same share of every payment: 2.99% at home, 4.49% from a buyer abroad. PayPal rounds each fee to the cent.

So how much does PayPal goods and services charge on $1,000? $29.90. To work it out by hand, multiply the payment by 0.0299 and round to the cent: $73.40 × 0.0299 = $2.19, so you receive $71.21. For a buyer abroad, multiply by 0.0449.

Who pays the PayPal goods and services fee?

The seller. What percentage does PayPal take for goods and services? 2.99% of each payment, always from the person who receives it. PayPal's own help page says it plainly: when a buyer chooses "For Goods and Services", the seller pays a fee to receive the money. The fee comes out of the payment before it reaches your balance. For the buyer, paying for a purchase with PayPal is free unless their money has to be converted to another currency.

Can you ask the buyer to cover it? Not as an extra charge. PayPal's User Agreement says you "will not impose a surcharge or any other fee for accepting PayPal as a payment method." What you can do is set one price, for everyone, that leaves you what you want after the fee:

The formula is the amount you want ÷ 0.9701, rounded up to a cent that really works. The Price to ask button in our PayPal fee calculator does it for any amount and every payment type.

Is there a fixed fee on goods and services?

Not on PayPal's current table. On the US Merchant Fees page, "Send/Receive Money for Goods and Services" shows 2.99%, while every row around it (PayPal Checkout, card payments, Venmo, Pay Later) shows "+ fixed fee", which is $0.49 for US dollars. Many forum posts and older calculators still quote 2.99% + $0.49 or 3.49% + $0.49; they describe other payment types or older rates. The fee shown on the payment in your PayPal activity is the final word, and our calculator follows PayPal's published table.

Why you were charged 3.49% instead of 2.99%

The 2.99% rate is only for money sent to you as a goods and services payment. Everything else is priced as another kind of commercial payment, and that is the most common surprise in seller forums:

Goods and services is the cheapest PayPal option for a one-off sale, and on small amounts it beats Stripe too: $0.60 against $0.88 on $20. The two cross at about $333, where Stripe's 30¢ is paid back by its lower percentage (see the Stripe fee calculator). On $500, goods and services costs $14.95 and a Stripe card payment $14.80; on $1,000, $29.90 against $29.30. Above $1,000, a PayPal invoice paid by bank (1%, capped at $10) is far cheaper than either: $10 on $1,000.

International goods and services payments

When the buyer's PayPal account is in another country, PayPal adds its international fee of 1.5% for commercial payments, so a goods and services payment costs 4.49%. Two other costs can appear:

• Converting the money. If you convert the payment into another currency, PayPal keeps a spread in the exchange rate of about 3%. If the buyer pays in a different currency than your listing, the buyer pays a 4% spread.
• Rates outside the US. Everything on this page is for a US account. Accounts in Europe, the UK and other countries have their own fee pages, with different percentages and fixed fees.

The PayPal fee calculator has a "Buyer is in another country" box and 23 currencies for the fixed fees of other payment types.

Goods and services vs friends and family

Using friends and family for a sale saves the seller 2.99% but removes the buyer's protection, so a seller who insists on it is a warning sign. If you are buying, pay for goods with goods and services. If you are selling, accept goods and services and price the fee in.

What goods and services protects (and what it does not)

For the buyer: PayPal Purchase Protection. PayPal says you can protect eligible purchases "when you send money through Goods & Services at no cost to you." It covers an item that never arrived ("Item Not Received") and one that is "Significantly Not as Described". A dispute must be opened within 180 days of the payment, and the refund can cover the purchase price and the original shipping.

For the seller: PayPal Seller Protection. It covers two kinds of claims: item not received, and unauthorized payments (for those, the payment must show as eligible on the Transaction Details page). To be covered for a physical item you must ship it to the address on the Transaction Details page, keep valid proof of shipment or delivery, and answer PayPal's requests in time. For intangible goods you need evidence the item or service was delivered as described.

It does not cover claims that an item is "Significantly Not As Described", item-not-received claims a buyer files directly with their card issuer, vehicles, real estate, businesses, industrial machinery, gift cards and other items equivalent to cash, or items prohibited by PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy. Describe items exactly and ship with tracking.

How to send a goods and services payment

1

Open Send and Request

In the PayPal app or on paypal.com, go to Send and Request, or open the seller's PayPal.Me link.

Done

2

Enter the seller and the amount

Type the seller's name, PayPal username, email address or mobile number, then the amount and the currency.

Done

3

Choose "For Goods and Services"

When PayPal asks for the payment type, pick "For Goods and Services". This is what makes the purchase eligible for protection; the seller pays the fee.

Done

4

Check and send

Choose how you pay, review the details and send. A payment can't be cancelled once it is sent; if you picked the wrong type, the seller has to refund it.

Selling? Send the buyer your PayPal.Me link or your PayPal email and ask them to choose "For Goods and Services". A US business account can only receive goods and services payments from US accounts.

Done

Refunds, transfers and taxes

• Refunds: refunding a goods and services payment is free, but PayPal does not return the fee it took. Refund $100 and you are $2.99 out of pocket.
• Moving the money to your bank: a standard transfer is free when no currency conversion is involved. An Instant Transfer costs 1.75% for a personal account (minimum $0.25, maximum $25) and 1.5% for a business account (minimum $0.50).
• Form 1099-K: the IRS says payment apps must send one when your goods and services payments total over $20,000 in more than 200 transactions in a year, and you may receive one below that. Money from friends and family as a gift or a repayment is not taxable income and should not be reported on it.

How to keep more of each goods and services payment

1. Price the fee in. One price for everyone that covers the 2.99%: $103.08 to receive $100.
2. Don't bundle just for fees. With no fixed fee, one $60 payment ($1.79) and three $20 payments ($1.80) cost the same, give or take a cent. Bundle when it helps the buyer, not the fee.
3. Watch payments over about $333. Above that, a Stripe card payment costs less, and a PayPal invoice paid by bank (1%, capped at $10) costs far less on big amounts.
4. Avoid conversions. Price in your buyer's currency where you can, and keep balances in the currency you receive to skip the 3% spread.
5. Never switch a sale to friends and family. You save 2.99% and lose the protection that makes buyers trust you, and a business account can't receive it at all.
6. Use standard transfers. They are free; Instant Transfer costs 1.5-1.75%.

Where Sellwares fits

If you sell digital products, courses or coaching again and again, sending PayPal links by hand gets slow. A Sellwares store gives every product a checkout where buyers pay with your own PayPal or Stripe, and it delivers the file at once. Sellwares takes 0% of each sale on every plan, including the free plan (up to 3 products). PayPal's or Stripe's own fee still applies to each payment, Sellwares is not a merchant of record (sales tax stays your job), and it brings no marketplace traffic: you bring the buyers. Read more about how to sell digital products.

What we found in the top results

The results for this search disagree. Google's AI answer says 2.99% "or up to 3.49%", several calculators charge 2.99% + $0.49, and forum threads mix goods and services with invoices and checkout. They are all describing real PayPal fees, just different payment types. The table above shows which rate applies to which way of getting paid, every figure is from PayPal's own pages on the date at the top, and the calculator uses the same rates.