Why is the effective rate so much higher than the percentage?

Three things stack. The base percentage is only the start; a cross-border payment adds its own percentage, and converting the currency adds another. On this invoice the surcharges alone are $14.40, which is what turns a 3.5% rate into 8.15% actually paid.

What is the micropayment schedule?

An alternative pricing plan with a higher percentage and a much smaller fixed fee, meant for small payments. On a large invoice it is worse; below a certain amount it is better, and the calculator says which side of that line you are on when you fill the micropayment fields in.

Should I add the fee to my invoice?

Adding the fee to the amount does not cancel it — the percentage then applies to the larger amount too. If you need a specific sum to arrive, work backwards from the amount you want to receive rather than adding the fee on top.

PayPal fee calculator

Invoice a Canadian buyer for $320.00 and, on your own 3.5% rate and $0.49 fixed fee plus the two international surcharges, $26.09 never arrives — an effective 8.15%, against a headline rate less than half of that. What lands is $293.91, and $14.40 of what went missing is the international part alone.

You receive$48.00

Threshold: Below $16.67 the fixed fee is larger than the percentage. You are $33.33 above it. Below it the effective rate passes 6.00 %.

Fee: $2.00
Effective fee rate: 4.00 %

Where the money goes

Payment fee: $2.00

The rates are yours to enter: this site publishes no marketplace tariff. Take them from your own invoice.

How the number is worked out

A payment fee is never one number. It is a percentage, a fixed amount, and — the moment the buyer is abroad — two more percentages.

What the calculator does

It applies your percentage to the amount, adds the fixed fee, then adds the cross-border and conversion surcharges as separate lines so you can see which one is doing the damage. What is left is what lands in the account.

The threshold it adds

Above $10.89 the international surcharge costs more than the fixed fee — on this invoice it is $14.40, over five times the fixed charge. For small payments the opposite is true and the fixed fee dominates, which is the question the micropayment fields answer.

What it will not do

It will not state PayPal’s rates. They differ by country, by account type and by how the money was taken, and this site publishes none of them: the fields take the numbers from your own statement.

Worked example

A $320.00 invoice paid from Canada: the seller's own 3.5% rate, $0.49 fixed, plus the cross-border and conversion surcharges they were charged last time.

You receive$293.91

Threshold: Above $10.89 the international surcharge costs more than the fixed fee. You are $309.11 above it. The surcharge on this payment is $14.40.

Fee: $26.09
Effective fee rate: 8.15 %
International surcharge: $14.40

Payment fee: $11.69
Cross-border surcharge: $4.80
Currency conversion: $9.60

Open this case in the calculator

Worked out by Markupo with the same engine as the calculator above.

What is different in the United States

In the United States the marketplaces settle their own money, so PayPal is mostly what invoices, own-store checkouts and off-platform sales run through. That is exactly where the surcharges bite: a domestic sale and a payment from a buyer in Canada or Europe are charged differently, and the second one also pays for the currency conversion. Stripe and the other own-store processors have the same percentage-plus-fixed shape, so the same fields fit them.

Questions sellers ask

Why is the effective rate so much higher than the percentage?: Three things stack. The base percentage is only the start; a cross-border payment adds its own percentage, and converting the currency adds another. On this invoice the surcharges alone are $14.40, which is what turns a 3.5% rate into 8.15% actually paid.
What is the micropayment schedule?: An alternative pricing plan with a higher percentage and a much smaller fixed fee, meant for small payments. On a large invoice it is worse; below a certain amount it is better, and the calculator says which side of that line you are on when you fill the micropayment fields in.
Should I add the fee to my invoice?: Adding the fee to the amount does not cancel it — the percentage then applies to the larger amount too. If you need a specific sum to arrive, work backwards from the amount you want to receive rather than adding the fee on top.

Last updated: 2026-09-20 · Sources: PayPal — merchant fees (official, US) (2026-09-20)

Other calculators for sellers

The percentages in the calculator are your own numbers, not a published tariff. Fees differ by category, by store subscription and by promotion, so take them from your last payout statement and type them in; the tool does the arithmetic on what you enter. This site publishes what your own inputs produce — one number, one band, one threshold — and never reproduces a marketplace's or a carrier's fee table.