Stripe vs PayPal Costs for US Small Businesses

Stripe has the lowest published processing cost in this comparison for a US small business taking domestic cards online. The Stripe standard US rate is 2.9% plus $0.30 per successful domestic-card transaction. The PayPal US fee schedule lists standard credit and debit card payments at 2.99% plus $0.49 when US dollars are received and PayPal Checkout at 3.49% plus $0.49.

That makes Stripe the economical default for the domestic card scenarios below, but not an automatic winner for every merchant. PayPal can still fit when customers actively use its wallet checkout or when its point-of-sale offering suits the business; some merchants may offer both, route cards through Stripe and measure whether PayPal produces enough additional completed orders to cover its higher Checkout fee.

Compare equivalent payment flows first

“PayPal” is not one processing rate. The US schedule updated July 15, 2026 lists PayPal Checkout and Guest Checkout at 3.49% plus the applicable fixed fee, standard credit and debit card payments at 2.99% plus that fee, and Advanced Credit and Debit Card Payments at a separate 2.89% plus a fixed fee. A useful comparison must name the integration rather than selecting whichever PayPal rate makes a table look favorable.

For Stripe, the comparable baseline is its standard pay-as-you-go online card flow. Stripe’s published US terms list 2.9% plus $0.30 for a successful domestic-card transaction and no setup or monthly fee for standard pricing. Custom contracts, ecommerce-platform commissions and optional products such as billing, tax automation or advanced fraud tools are separate costs and are excluded here.

The reproducible formulas are:

Stripe domestic card: sale amount × 2.9% + $0.30, using Stripe’s standard card rate.
PayPal standard card: sale amount × 2.99% + $0.49, using the standard US card rate and dollar fixed fee.
PayPal Checkout: sale amount × 3.49% + $0.49, using the US Checkout rate and dollar fixed fee.

The calculations assume a US merchant, a domestic transaction charged and received in US dollars, standard published pricing and no optional services. Results are rounded to the nearest cent.

Domestic online fees at four order values

Domestic US online sales at four values compared across Stripe cards, PayPal standard cards and PayPal Checkout by fee and net proceeds.

The following scenarios apply the official formulas to the same sale amount. Net proceeds are shown before product costs, shipping, taxes, refunds or other business expenses.

$10 sale: applying Stripe’s 2.9% plus $0.30 rate gives a $0.59 fee and $9.41 net. Applying PayPal’s relevant US rates gives a $0.79 standard-card fee and $9.21 net, or a $0.84 Checkout fee and $9.16 net.
$50 sale: the Stripe standard formula gives a $1.75 fee and $48.25 net. The PayPal standard-card and Checkout formulas give a $1.99 standard-card fee and $48.01 net, or a $2.24 Checkout fee and $47.76 net.
$100 sale: the Stripe standard formula gives a $3.20 fee and $96.80 net. The PayPal standard-card and Checkout formulas give a $3.48 standard-card fee and $96.52 net, or a $3.98 Checkout fee and $96.02 net.
$500 sale: the Stripe standard formula gives a $14.80 fee and $485.20 net. The PayPal standard-card and Checkout formulas give a $15.44 standard-card fee and $484.56 net, or a $17.94 Checkout fee and $482.06 net.

Compared with Stripe, PayPal’s standard-card route costs $0.20 more on the $10 example and $0.64 more on the $500 example; PayPal Checkout costs $0.25 and $3.14 more, respectively, under the same Stripe pricing and PayPal pricing. The fixed fee has greater weight on low-value orders, while the percentage gap produces a larger dollar difference as the order value rises.

International cards add a separate cost layer

A US-dollar charge is not necessarily a domestic-card transaction. For a US account, Stripe adds 1.5 percentage points for international cards, while PayPal adds 1.5 percentage points to international commercial transactions. The providers use their own transaction classifications, so merchants should not infer that a payment is domestic solely from the display currency.

For an illustrative $100 international-card payment received in US dollars without currency conversion, Stripe’s published international-card pricing produces a 4.4% plus $0.30 formula and a $4.70 fee. Applying PayPal’s international addition produces a $4.98 fee for its standard-card flow or $5.48 for PayPal Checkout.

Currency conversion must be modeled separately. Stripe lists an additional 1% when currency conversion is required, while the PayPal conversion table lists a 4% spread for specified payment scenarios and 3% for other transactions, subject to other amounts disclosed during a transaction. Export the card country, charge currency and settlement currency before estimating this cost from your own sales.

Checkout control and customer choice affect the decision

Stripe offers a progression from a managed page to a customized implementation. Its Checkout documentation describes a full payment page that can be hosted by Stripe or embedded, an embedded form and an Elements option for a customized payment page. More control can improve consistency with your store, but it also increases implementation and maintenance work.

PayPal Checkout serves a different purpose: it gives buyers a PayPal-branded payment route rather than merely processing a card behind the same merchant-designed form. Whether that option improves completed orders is merchant-specific. Measure checkout starts, completed purchases, average order value, refunds and net proceeds by payment method instead of treating familiarity as guaranteed conversion.

Using both providers is reasonable when customer choice matters. You can route the primary card form through Stripe and add PayPal as a separate option, but first confirm whether your commerce platform charges an additional fee for an external gateway and whether operating separate reconciliation and dispute workflows is worth the incremental sales.

Refunds leave the original processing cost behind

A fully refunded $100 Stripe or PayPal transaction that leaves the original processing fee as a merchant cost.

Under the standard policies compared here, neither provider returns the original processing fee after a relevant refund. Stripe’s refund terms say that standard-pricing businesses generally pay no separate fee to issue refunds for payment methods other than bank transfers, but the original payment-processing, Connect and currency-conversion fees are not returned. PayPal’s commercial-transaction refund terms likewise say there is no fee to make a full or partial refund while the original fee remains retained.

A fully refunded $100 domestic online sale therefore leaves a $3.20 processing cost under Stripe standard pricing, a $3.48 cost for a PayPal standard-card payment or a $3.98 cost for PayPal Checkout under the PayPal US schedule. These are the original charges calculated from the same domestic-payment formulas, not additional refund fees.

Model this expense as refunded orders multiplied by the average processing fee retained on those orders. Use payment-level data rather than multiplying one blended rate across every refund, especially when customers can choose between cards and PayPal Checkout. Cancellation before capture, clearer product information and appropriate fraud controls may matter more than a small headline-rate difference for a refund-heavy business.

Subscriptions need a full-stack calculation

Recurring-payment support does not mean subscription management is included in the base processing rate. Stripe documents one-time and subscription payments in Checkout, while its pricing page identifies Billing as a separately priced product. The PayPal fee schedule lists optional Recurring Billing at $10 per month and a Recurring Payment Tool at $30 per month, so the applicable cost depends on the chosen integration rather than the PayPal brand alone.

Request a written quote or build a worksheet covering processing, subscription management, retry tools, invoicing, tax automation, currency conversion and platform commissions. Include attempted renewals and failed-payment handling as operational inputs, not just active subscribers.

Stripe is the more natural shortlist candidate when the business needs programmable billing events, custom account states or deep checkout control. PayPal may still be valuable as an additional customer payment preference. Before committing, confirm whether stored payment credentials can be migrated if you later change providers, because switching constraints do not appear in the transaction-rate table.

In-person sales require a separate comparison

The online result should not be reused for a physical checkout. The PayPal Point of Sale schedule lists card-present and eligible QR transactions at 2.29% plus $0.09, manual card entry at 3.49% plus $0.09, and payment links using PayPal Checkout at 3.49% plus $0.49. Each is a distinct acceptance method.

An independent NerdWallet comparison updated April 3, 2026 judges PayPal a better fit for many brick-and-mortar businesses because of its hardware options and describes Stripe as a solid online option. That is an editorial assessment, not a universal result: hardware acquisition, inventory features, staff permissions, keyed-entry volume and compatibility with existing software should decide the point-of-sale shortlist.

Choose from your actual payment mix

Build a worksheet with separate rows for domestic cards, PayPal Checkout, international cards, converted currencies, subscriptions, in-person payments and refunds. For each row, multiply processed volume by the applicable percentage rate, add transaction count multiplied by the fixed fee, then add retained fees on refunded payments and any monthly or platform charges.

Use Stripe as the primary processor when domestic online cards dominate and checkout control is important. Prefer PayPal when its wallet route or point-of-sale setup is central to how customers pay. If both benefits matter, offer both during a representative sales period and compare method-level net revenue, completed-order rate, refund cost and staff workload before deciding whether either option should be removed.

Stripe vs PayPal for a US Small Business: Fees, Checkout and Refund Costs