Stripe vs PayPal Fees: The Cheapest Choice Changes With Your Checkout

Stripe costs less in the standard domestic-card, international-card and low-ticket subscription examples below, but PayPal can be cheaper for a card-paid invoice. The winner changes because PayPal applies different rates to standard card processing and its branded checkout, while Stripe adds separate charges for Invoicing or Billing.

The useful comparison is therefore a monthly bill, not one headline percentage. Match the actual checkout product on each side, then add fixed transaction fees, international and currency-conversion charges, billing tools, retained fees on refunds and the applicable dispute costs.

Match the payment routes before comparing rates

Stripe’s published U.S. schedule lists 2.9% plus $0.30 for a successful domestic online-card transaction, adds 1.5% for an international card and 1% when currency conversion is required, prices Invoicing Starter at 0.4% per paid invoice and pay-as-you-go Billing at 0.7% of billing volume, and charges both a $15 dispute-received fee and a $15 manual-countering fee that is returned after a win; for most standard-pricing payment methods, issuing a refund has no separate fee, but the original processing and currency-conversion fees are not returned.

PayPal’s U.S. merchant schedule, updated September 1, 2026, sets domestic standard credit and debit card payments at 2.99% plus $0.49 and PayPal Checkout, Guest Checkout and Pay with Venmo at 3.49% plus $0.49 when USD is received, adds 1.5 percentage points to international commercial transactions, offers an optional $14.99 monthly Invoice Subscription, lists optional recurring services at $10 or $30 per month, retains the original receiving fee after a commercial or invoicing refund, and distinguishes a $15 standard dispute fee, a $30 high-volume dispute fee and a $20 USD chargeback fee for card transactions outside a buyer’s PayPal account or guest checkout.

For a domestic sale of A dollars, Stripe Payments costs 0.029A + $0.30. PayPal costs 0.0299A + $0.49 through standard card processing or 0.0349A + $0.49 through PayPal Checkout. Stripe is cheaper at every positive ticket size in that base comparison, but adding a billing product changes the equations.

Four monthly bills expose the decisive variables

These conditional examples assume successful payments, a U.S. merchant and USD settlement. They exclude tax, negotiated pricing, failed payments, instant payouts, hardware, fraud products and non-card methods. TheMetricApp’s May 2026 comparison is useful for illustrating ticket-size calculations, but its international Stripe assumption does not match Stripe’s current U.S. rate card, so the calculations here use the official inputs above.

• Low-ticket store: Assume 1,000 domestic $10 card sales. Stripe costs 1,000 × ($10 × 2.9% + $0.30), or $590. PayPal standard card processing costs $789, while PayPal Checkout costs $839. Stripe’s lower fixed fee produces most of the gap.
• International SaaS: Assume 200 payments of $100 from internationally issued cards, charged and settled in USD without conversion or subscription software. Stripe costs 200 × ($100 × 4.4% + $0.30), or $940. PayPal standard card processing costs 200 × ($100 × 4.49% + $0.49), or $996; PayPal Checkout costs $1,096.
• Freelancer: Assume ten domestic $1,500 invoices paid by standard cards. Stripe Payments plus the 0.4% Invoicing charge costs 10 × ($1,500 × 3.3% + $0.30), or $498. PayPal’s standard card route costs $453.40, a saving of $44.60. Payment through PayPal Checkout would instead cost $528.40.
• Subscription service: Assume 1,000 domestic $29 monthly card payments. Stripe Payments plus pay-as-you-go Billing costs 1,000 × ($29 × 3.6% + $0.30), or $1,344. PayPal Checkout processing costs $1,502.10 before any optional recurring-service fee.

International sales, refunds and disputes need separate lines

An international-card surcharge and currency conversion are different costs. The SaaS example includes an internationally issued card but no conversion; applying Stripe’s additional conversion charge to the full $20,000 volume would add $200. For PayPal, the transaction exchange rate may include a separate conversion spread, so that cost should be applied only where PayPal actually converts currency.

Refunds should be modeled as lost revenue plus the original processing fee that remains with the processor. Ten fully refunded $100 domestic sales retain $32 in Stripe processing fees, $34.80 under PayPal standard card processing or $39.80 under PayPal Checkout.

Disputes cannot be represented by one shared chargeback figure. For Stripe, separate disputes received from disputes manually countered and allow for the countering-fee refund only after a win. For PayPal, assign the standard, high-volume or card chargeback fee according to the transaction route and the merchant’s dispute status.

The break-even point moves when an add-on enters the formula

TechnologyAdvice’s fee comparison likewise separates Stripe’s percentage-based invoicing and recurring-billing charges from PayPal’s monthly service fees. That difference matters because percentage add-ons respond to sales volume, while a monthly charge is spread across the number of payments.

For a standard card-paid invoice, compare Stripe Invoicing at 0.033A + $0.30 with PayPal standard card processing at 0.0299A + $0.49. The two are equal at approximately $61.29; above that ticket, PayPal is cheaper under these assumptions. The optional PayPal invoice subscription does not change its per-payment processing rate, but it should be added if the merchant selects it.

For recurring domestic payments, Stripe Payments plus Billing costs 0.036A + $0.30 per transaction. PayPal Checkout processing costs 0.0349A + $0.49, making the per-payment break-even ticket approximately $172.73 before a PayPal recurring-service charge. If that service costs M dollars per month across N payments, add M ÷ N to PayPal’s per-payment cost.

The complete monthly model is: processing percentages + fixed fees + international surcharges + conversion charges + invoicing or recurring-billing products + retained refund fees + expected dispute costs. Run the formula separately for each checkout route and funding method; the processor’s name alone does not identify the cheapest option.

Also read:

• Stripe vs PayPal for a US Small Business: Fees, Checkout and Refund Costs
• Stripe Atlas vs Clerky: Compare Formation Scope, Documents and Ongoing Costs
• Substack’s Easier iOS Checkout Still Leaves Creators With a Costly Choice