Comparison — from the record, 2026-08-27
Stripe vs PayPal: the fee depends on where the card came from
OUR PICK
Our pick: Stripe — 1.5% + €0.25 on a standard European card against PayPal's most-quoted 3.49% + fixed, though the two figures come from different countries' pages and the card's origin moves Stripe's number a long way.
Read on 2026-08-27 from an EU address. Stripe's European page prices a standard EEA card at 1.5% + €0.25 — on a €50 sale that is €1.00. Its own page charges 2.5% + €0.25 for a UK card, 2.8% + €0.25 for an international one and 3.15% + €0.25 above that, plus a further 2% where currency conversion applies. PayPal's US business fees page quotes 3.49% + a fixed fee for standard checkout and 2.29% + fixed for card payments. If most of your customers hold European cards, Stripe's 1.5% is less than half of anything on PayPal's page, and that is the single biggest cost decision here.
The other way: Pick PayPal if the checkout itself sells for you — a wallet customers already have and trust converts differently from a card form, and no fee table captures that. Its card-payments rate of 2.29% is also much closer to Stripe's international tiers than its headline 3.49% suggests, so a merchant taking mostly non-European cards should compare 2.29% against Stripe's 2.8% rather than against 1.5%. And note the honest limit on this comparison: we read Stripe's European schedule and PayPal's US business one, because that is what each site served us. They are different jurisdictions, and neither number is the one you will be quoted unless you are in that market.
How to read this page: every number below was read from the vendor’s own public pricing page on the date shown, and the pages are re-checked daily. Currencies differ because that is what each vendor showed an EU visitor. Some links on this page are affiliate links — if you subscribe through one we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Per
our method, that never changes a number or a verdict. Source links always point to the vendor’s plain page.
The two pricing pages, side by side
Stripe — EUR, read 2026-08-27
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the EU, in EUR. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
| Plan | Price | Contacts | What the page says |
|---|
| Standard EEA cards | 1.5% + €0.25 | Per successful charge | 1.5% + €0.25 on a standard European card — the cheapest rate on the page and the one most European businesses will actually pay. |
| UK cards | 2.5% + €0.25 | Per successful charge | 2.5% + €0.25 — a UK-issued card costs a European merchant two thirds more in percentage terms than an EEA one. |
| International cards | 2.8% + €0.25 | Per successful charge | 2.8% + €0.25, with a further tier at 3.15% + €0.25 on the same page, and an additional +2% where currency conversion is involved. |
| Bank-based and other payment methods | €0.35 flat | Per transaction | €0.35 flat on bank-based and certain other methods, plus a separate 'starting at 2.99% + €0.35' line elsewhere on the page. |
| Disputes and hardware | Custom | Per event or per unit | Dispute received €20.00 and dispute countered €20.00; Visa resolution €20.00, Mastercard resolution €40.00. Card readers €59.00, €259.00 and €289.00 excluding VAT, with a mobile reader at €9.00 per reader per month. Instant bank account verification €1.25; balance API calls €0.10; card creation €3.50 per standard physical card. |
Source: https://stripe.com/pricing · read 2026-08-27 (UTC) · Not a plan ladder — a per-transaction fee schedule, and the rate depends on where the card was issued rather than on anything you choose. Read from an EU address, so these are the European figures: a standard EEA card is 1.5% + €0.25, a UK card 2.5% + €0.25, an international card 2.8% + €0.25, rising to 3.15% + €0.25, with a further +2% where currency conversion applies. A visitor in another market is shown a different table entirely. Read in a browser on 2026-08-27.
PayPal — USD, read 2026-08-27
Prices as this vendor showed them to a visitor in the EU, in USD. A reader elsewhere may be quoted a different figure — we publish what we were served, never a conversion.
| Plan | Price | Contacts | What the page says |
|---|
| Standard checkout | 3.49% + $0.49 | Per transaction | 3.49% + a fixed fee — the rate quoted most often on the page. The fixed component is 0.49 USD, 0.39 EUR, 0.39 GBP or 0.49 CHF depending on the currency received. |
| Card payments | 2.29% + $0.09 | Per transaction | 2.29% + fixed, listed once explicitly as '2.29% + 0.09 USD'. A materially lower rate than standard checkout for the same money moving. |
| Other published rates | Custom | Per transaction, by product | Further rates appear across the schedule at 2.89% + fixed, 2.99% + fixed and 4.99% + fixed, alongside percentage-only lines at 1.50%, 1.80%, 2.00%, 2.20%, 2.90%, 3.49% and 8.00%, and a 1% capped at $10.00 per transaction. Which product each attaches to is set out in the page's own tables and is not flattened into a single rate here. |
Source: https://www.paypal.com/us/business/paypal-business-fees · read 2026-08-27 (UTC) · A per-transaction fee schedule rather than a plan ladder, and this is the US business fees page — the URL itself carries /us/. Rates vary by how the payment is taken rather than by where the card came from: standard checkout is 3.49% + a fixed fee, card payments 2.29% + fixed, with further rates at 2.89%, 2.99% and 4.99% for other products. The fixed component is published per currency: 0.49 USD, 0.39 EUR, 0.39 GBP, 0.49 CHF. Read in a browser on 2026-08-27.
What the record says
The first thing that has to be said about comparing these two is that we could not do it cleanly, and neither can anyone else without saying which market they mean. Stripe served us its European page in euros. PayPal served us a page whose URL literally contains /us/ — the US business fees schedule, in dollars. Those are different jurisdictions with different card networks, different interchange and different regulation. We are publishing both because both are what the vendors show, and flagging the mismatch because the alternative is a comparison that looks precise and is not.
With that said, the structural finding survives the mismatch entirely, and it is the useful one: on Stripe, the fee depends on where the card was issued, and the spread is large. A standard EEA card is 1.5% + €0.25. A UK card is 2.5% + €0.25. An international card is 2.8% + €0.25, with a further tier at 3.15% + €0.25 on the same page, and an additional 2% where currency conversion is involved. That is not a plan you choose. It is a property of your customers.
Run a €50 sale through those rows and the range is stark. An EEA card costs €1.00. A UK card costs €1.50. An international card costs €1.65, and one that also needs conversion costs closer to €2.65 once the 2% is applied. The same transaction, the same product, the same processor — and a 165% difference between the cheapest and the dearest line, decided entirely by which bank issued the card in someone else's wallet.
PayPal's schedule is organised on a different axis and is considerably longer. Rather than pricing by card origin, it prices by product and method: standard checkout at 3.49% + a fixed fee, card payments at 2.29% + fixed — listed once explicitly as '2.29% + 0.09 USD' — and further published rates at 2.89%, 2.99% and 4.99%, alongside percentage-only lines running from 1.50% up to 8.00%, and one charge of 1% capped at $10.00 per transaction. We counted roughly seventy distinct rate lines on the page.
That 120-basis-point gap between PayPal's 3.49% standard checkout and its 2.29% card payments is the largest single choice on its page, and it is a choice about how you take the money rather than who is paying it. On $10,000 of monthly volume it is a $120 difference. It is also the reason 'PayPal charges 3.49%' is not a fact so much as a default.
PayPal does one thing on its page that Stripe does not, and it deserves credit: it publishes the fixed component per currency rather than converting it. 0.49 USD, 0.39 EUR, 0.39 GBP, 0.49 CHF. You are not left working out what a fixed fee becomes after an exchange rate, which is exactly the ambiguity that makes cross-currency comparisons on other vendors' pages so difficult.
The costs that sit outside the percentage are worth budgeting for on Stripe in particular. Disputes are €20.00 received and €20.00 countered, charged as separate lines — so contesting a chargeback costs money whether or not you win it. Visa resolution is €20.00 and Mastercard resolution €40.00. If you take payments in person, card readers are €59.00, €259.00 and €289.00 excluding VAT, with a mobile reader at €9.00 per reader per month. None of that appears in the 1.5%.
So the practical advice is narrower than a verdict. If your customers are European and hold European cards, Stripe's 1.5% + €0.25 is the cheapest published rate either company showed us, by a distance. If your customers are international, compare Stripe's 2.8% against PayPal's 2.29% card-payments rate rather than against its 3.49% headline — the answer may flip. And whichever you choose, open your own market's page rather than this one: both vendors localise, and the numbers above are the two schedules that happened to be served to a European reader on 27 August.
Beyond the price tag
Stripe: the rate is a property of your customer
On Stripe's European page a standard EEA card is 1.5% + €0.25, a UK card 2.5% + €0.25, an international card 2.8% + €0.25, and a further tier 3.15% + €0.25 — plus 2% where currency conversion applies. On a €50 sale that is €1.00 to about €2.65 for the identical transaction, decided by which bank issued the card.
PayPal: the rate is a property of your checkout
Standard checkout is 3.49% + fixed; card payments are 2.29% + fixed ('2.29% + 0.09 USD'). That 120-basis-point gap is $120 a month on $10,000 of volume and is chosen by how you take payment, not by who pays. Roughly seventy distinct rate lines sit on the page, from 1.50% to 8.00%, including one 1% charge capped at $10.00.
What sits outside the percentage
Stripe charges €20.00 for a dispute received and €20.00 for a dispute countered — contesting one costs money whether you win or not — plus €20.00 Visa and €40.00 Mastercard resolution fees. In-person hardware runs €59.00, €259.00 and €289.00 excluding VAT, with a mobile reader at €9.00 per month. PayPal publishes its fixed fee per currency instead of converting: 0.49 USD, 0.39 EUR, 0.39 GBP, 0.49 CHF.
Questions people actually search
Is Stripe cheaper than PayPal?
For European card payments, substantially — 1.5% + €0.25 against PayPal's most-quoted 3.49% + fixed. But that compares Stripe's European page with PayPal's US business page, because that is what each served us. And Stripe's own rate rises to 2.5%, 2.8% or 3.15% depending on where the card was issued, so for international customers the gap narrows sharply and may reverse against PayPal's 2.29% card-payments rate.
Why does Stripe quote four different card rates?
Because the fee depends on where the card was issued, not on anything you select. A standard EEA card is 1.5% + €0.25, a UK card 2.5%, an international card 2.8%, with a further 3.15% tier and an extra 2% where currency conversion applies. On a €50 sale that is a range from €1.00 to roughly €2.65 for the identical transaction.
What is PayPal's actual fee?
There isn't one. Its US business page carries around seventy distinct rate lines. The two that matter most are 3.49% + fixed for standard checkout and 2.29% + fixed for card payments — a 120-basis-point difference on the same money, or $120 a month on $10,000 of volume, decided by how you take the payment.
What costs are outside the percentage?
On Stripe: €20.00 for a dispute received and €20.00 for one countered, listed separately, so contesting a chargeback costs money regardless of outcome; €20.00 Visa and €40.00 Mastercard resolution fees; and card readers at €59.00, €259.00 and €289.00 excluding VAT with a mobile reader at €9.00 per month. PayPal publishes its fixed transaction component per currency: 0.49 USD, 0.39 EUR, 0.39 GBP, 0.49 CHF.
Can I rely on these numbers for my country?
No, and we would rather say so than let you assume otherwise. Both companies localise their fee pages, and we read Stripe's European schedule alongside PayPal's US business one. The structure of each — Stripe pricing by card origin, PayPal by product and method — will hold, but the specific rates are the ones served to a European reader on 27 August. Open your own market's page before budgeting.
THE VERDICT, ONE MORE TIME
Our pick: Stripe — 1.5% + €0.25 on a standard European card against PayPal's most-quoted 3.49% + fixed, though the two figures come from different countries' pages and the card's origin moves Stripe's number a long way.
Read on 2026-08-27 from an EU address. Stripe's European page prices a standard EEA card at 1.5% + €0.25 — on a €50 sale that is €1.00. Its own page charges 2.5% + €0.25 for a UK card, 2.8% + €0.25 for an international one and 3.15% + €0.25 above that, plus a further 2% where currency conversion applies. PayPal's US business fees page quotes 3.49% + a fixed fee for standard checkout and 2.29% + fixed for card payments. If most of your customers hold European cards, Stripe's 1.5% is less than half of anything on PayPal's page, and that is the single biggest cost decision here.
Every figure above was read from each vendor's own pricing page in a browser on 2026-08-27 from an EU address. This comparison carries a limitation we want stated rather than buried: Stripe served its European schedule in euros and PayPal served its US business fees page in dollars — the URL contains /us/ — so the two sets of rates come from different jurisdictions and are not directly equivalent. Both vendors localise, and a merchant in another market will be shown different tables. Neither company publishes a single headline rate; Stripe's European page carries four card tiers plus a currency-conversion surcharge, and PayPal's page carries roughly seventy distinct rate lines whose product attribution is set out in its own tables and is not flattened here. The €50 worked examples are arithmetic on the published rates. Both vendors were added to our daily price record on 2026-08-27, so these are first readings. We hold no affiliate relationship with either company and no tracking link appears on this page. The method →
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