PayPal fee calculator with inverse mode and currency comparison

PayPal takes anywhere from 0 percent (Friends & Family inside the EU) to roughly 5 percent plus a fixed fee (international and small-amount tiers) out of each transaction. The calculator below shows what lands as net after a gross input, and answers the less common reverse: what should the invoice say so net X arrives after fees?

How much are PayPal fees in 2026?

For 2026 the headline numbers look like this: Goods & Services inside the EU runs 2.49 percent plus a 0.35 EUR fixed fee per received payment (the "receive commercial payments" tier). Outside the EU a cross-border surcharge applies, sized by the sender's market - UK about 1.29 percent, the US and Canada 1.99 percent, all other markets up to 2.99 percent. Friends & Family is free inside the EEA when no currency conversion is involved. The Micropayment tier (4.99 percent plus 0.09 EUR) wins on amounts up to about 10 EUR, provided your account is enrolled in it.

PayPal revises these numbers every so often, and the calculator carries the data-as-of date for the loaded schedule. For a one-off large transaction it's worth a glance at the current PayPal fee schedule, because the cross-border table and foreign-currency fixed fees shift occasionally.

What should I invoice so net X arrives?

You add the fee on top of the net amount, not subtract it from one. The formula: gross = (net + fixed) / (1 - percent). For 100 EUR net at Goods & Services EU, you invoice 102.91 EUR. In the calculator, click the round Inverse button sitting between the two mode cards and enter your target net.

Three worked examples, all at the Goods & Services EU tier:

1. 100 EUR net invoices at 102.91 EUR gross - fee 2.91 EUR
2. 500 EUR net invoices at 513.13 EUR gross - fee 13.13 EUR
3. 50 EUR net invoices at 51.64 EUR gross - fee 1.64 EUR

The same gross-up runs across every tier in parallel. The comparison table shows what you'd need to invoice for the same target net under Friends & Family (still 100 EUR, no fee) or under the Micropayment tier (roughly 105.35 EUR for the same 100 EUR net).

When the payment crosses currencies, the calculator adds one more step: after the gross in your receiving currency comes a division by the PayPal exchange rate, so you can invoice in the sender's currency. Order of operations matters for VAT: add the fee first, then layer VAT on top if you charge it. The VAT calculator picks up from where this one stops.

What's the difference between Friends & Family and Goods & Services?

Friends & Family is for personal gifts: splitting a pizza, sending birthday money, sharing rent. It's free inside the EEA without currency conversion, and there's no buyer protection. Goods & Services is for commercial payments with active buyer protection, and that's what the percentage fee buys. Using Friends & Family for commercial transactions breaches PayPal's terms of service and can affect both accounts in the transaction.

The everyday difference is the part that gets argued about after a purchase goes wrong:

• Under Goods & Services, you can file a buyer-protection claim if the item never arrives or shows up broken. PayPal pulls the seller into the resolution process.
• Under Friends & Family, no PayPal buyer-protection claim applies - bank or card disputes stay possible, but they're a much heavier path.

Some sellers ask explicitly for a Friends & Family payment to save the fee. For you as the buyer that's a yellow flag: a couple of percent of savings against the entire buyer-protection mechanism is a bad trade. Whenever the calculator above sees a Friends & Family tier paired with an amount of 50 EUR or more, a warning fires that names the conflict directly.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does PayPal's currency conversion markup work?

PayPal uses its own exchange rate rather than the ECB reference, with a markup of around 3 percent on top of the market rate for business-balance and receiver-borne conversions (other conversion paths can carry a higher markup). For a 100 USD incoming payment that means: instead of the roughly 86 EUR the ECB rate would suggest, about 83.48 EUR lands in your euro balance before the transaction fee even runs. The calculator splits the conversion markup out as its own line, separate from the tier fee, so each cent is traceable.

How much are PayPal fees for international payments?

Outside the EU, PayPal adds a cross-border surcharge whose size depends on the sender's market - UK adds about 1.29 percent, the US and Canada about 1.99 percent, all other markets up to 2.99 percent. For Goods & Services from the US or Canada that works out to roughly 4.48 percent plus the 0.35 EUR fixed fee. When sender and receiver currencies differ, the conversion markup of around 3 percent stacks on top. A 100 USD incoming payment from the US lands at roughly 79 EUR net, not the 86 EUR the ECB reference rate would suggest.

Related calculators: hourly rate calculator for the step before invoicing, gross-net calculator for what's left after income tax.