How the PayPal Fee Calculator works
PayPal deducts a percentage of each transaction plus a small fixed fee. This calculator uses that standard structure — Fee = (Amount x fee rate) + fixed fee — to show you either the fee and payout on a known charge, or the amount you need to charge to net a specific take-home figure after fees.
The formula
For a gross transaction amount A, a fee rate r (expressed as a decimal, e.g. 2.9% = 0.029), and a fixed fee f, the fee PayPal charges is:
Fee = A × r + f
The amount you actually receive is the transaction amount minus that fee:
Net = A − Fee
A commonly cited standard rate for U.S. domestic goods-and-services payments is 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, which is why the calculator defaults to those values. PayPal's actual rate depends on your country, account type, whether the buyer pays with a card versus a bank transfer or balance, and any volume-based discounts, so treat the default as a starting point and confirm the current numbers on your own PayPal fee schedule before relying on the result for bookkeeping.
Working backward: what to charge for a target payout
If you know how much you want to receive after fees — say, to cover a fixed cost — solve the fee formula for the gross amount instead:
Gross = (Desired net + fixed fee) / (1 − fee rate)
This "grossing up" step is what the calculator does when you set "What does this amount represent?" to "Amount I want to receive after fees." It finds the invoice amount that, once PayPal takes its cut, leaves exactly the net figure you entered.
Worked example
A $100 sale at the default 2.9% + $0.30: the fee is (100 × 0.029) + 0.30 = $3.20, so the net payout is $96.80, and the effective fee rate (fee ÷ gross) is 3.20%. Flip it around: if you want to receive exactly $100 after fees at the same rate, the gross-up formula gives (100 + 0.30) / (1 − 0.029) ≈ $103.30 — charge that amount and PayPal's $3.30 fee leaves you with $100.00.
International payments and small transactions
Cross-border payments typically carry an additional percentage on top of the domestic rate, plus a separate currency conversion spread if funds settle in a different currency — use the optional "Additional international fee" field to layer that percentage on top of the base rate. Because the fixed fee is a flat dollar amount, it also has a bigger relative impact on small transactions: $0.30 is 3% of a $10 sale but only 0.3% of a $100 sale, so the effective fee rate falls as the transaction size grows.