Stripe vs PayPal (2026): Which Is Cheaper for a Small Business, With the Fees at $25, $100, and $500
Stripe vs PayPal as of September 2026: Stripe charges 2.9% + 30 cents per online card; PayPal charges 3.49% + 49 cents through the PayPal Checkout button and 2.99% + 49 cents for cards. Side-by-side fees for wallets, pay-later, international, ACH, disputes, and instant payouts from both vendors' pages, the cost at $10,000 and $50,000 a month, and why most businesses run Stripe for cards with PayPal as a button.
Stripe vs PayPal: which is better for a small business?
As of September 2026, Stripe is cheaper for almost every card payment a small business takes online: 2.9% + 30 cents per domestic card, against 3.49% + 49 cents when a customer pays through the PayPal Checkout button and 2.99% + 49 cents for a card processed through PayPal. On a $100 order that is $3.20 on Stripe and $3.98 through PayPal Checkout. PayPal earns its higher rate only when the PayPal or Venmo button is the reason a customer finishes checking out. The practical answer for most small businesses is Stripe for cards and bank payments, with PayPal added as a button, not as the processor. Stripe's rates are from stripe.com/pricing and PayPal's from its merchant fees page (last updated September 1, 2026), both read September 16, 2026.
What is the difference between Stripe and PayPal?
Stripe is a payment processor you build into a checkout: cards, wallets, bank debits, subscriptions, and invoices, priced per transaction with no monthly fee. PayPal is two things at once, a consumer wallet that many of your buyers already have a login for, and a merchant processor that also takes cards. The fee difference follows from that. When a buyer pays with their PayPal balance or the PayPal button, you are paying for PayPal's wallet and its buyer trust, and the rate says so.
Stripe vs PayPal fees
| Payment | Stripe | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Domestic card, online | 2.9% + 30¢ | 2.99% + 49¢ (standard credit and debit card payments) |
| Wallet button | 2.9% + 30¢ (Apple Pay, Google Pay as cards) | 3.49% + 49¢ (PayPal Checkout, Guest Checkout, Pay with Venmo) |
| Buy now, pay later | 5.99% + 30¢ (Klarna) | 4.99% + 49¢ (PayPal Pay Later) |
| Manually entered card | +0.5% | Not broken out on the fee page |
| International | +1.5%, and +1% if currency conversion is required | +1.50%, plus a currency conversion spread when PayPal converts |
| Bank payment | ACH Direct Debit 0.8%, $5 cap | Pay by Bank on invoices 1%, $10 cap |
| QR code | No separate rate | 2.29% + 9¢ |
| In person | 2.7% + 5¢ on a Terminal reader (+10¢ per authorization with Tap to Pay) | PayPal Point of Sale, by application |
| Dispute | $15 per dispute received, plus $15 if you counter manually (refunded if you win) | $15 standard dispute fee ($30 at high dispute volume) |
| Instant payout | 1.5%, 50¢ minimum (standard schedule free) | 1.5%, 50¢ minimum (standard bank transfer free) |
| Monthly fee | None on standard pricing | None on standard pricing |
What Stripe and PayPal cost at three order sizes
| Order | Stripe card | PayPal card | PayPal Checkout button |
|---|---|---|---|
| $25 | $1.03 (4.1%) | $1.24 (4.95%) | $1.36 (5.45%) |
| $100 | $3.20 (3.2%) | $3.48 (3.48%) | $3.98 (3.98%) |
| $500 | $14.80 (2.96%) | $15.44 (3.09%) | $17.94 (3.59%) |
The fixed fee is where small orders get expensive on PayPal. At $25, PayPal's 49 cents alone is nearly two points of the sale.
Stripe vs PayPal at $10,000 and $50,000 a month
Assume a $50 average order, all domestic cards or wallet payments.
| Monthly volume | Stripe (2.9% + 30¢) | PayPal card (2.99% + 49¢) | PayPal Checkout (3.49% + 49¢) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10,000 (200 orders) | $350 | $397 | $447 |
| $50,000 (1,000 orders) | $1,750 | $1,985 | $2,235 |
If every one of those payments went through the PayPal button instead of Stripe, the difference is $97 a month at $10,000 and $485 a month at $50,000, about $5,800 a year. In practice only some buyers choose PayPal, so the real cost of offering the button is that premium times your PayPal share. That is the number to hold against whatever the button does for your checkout completion, which you can measure in a month by turning it on and watching both.
Which is cheaper for invoices?
For large invoices, whichever lets the customer pay by bank. A $5,000 invoice paid by card costs $145.30 on Stripe and $149.99 as a PayPal invoice card payment. The same invoice paid by bank costs $5 on Stripe's ACH Direct Debit (0.8%, capped at $5) and $10 through PayPal's Pay by Bank on an invoice (1%, capped at $10). Either way, getting a customer from card to bank on a $5,000 invoice saves about $140. If invoices are a real share of your revenue, the bigger win is automating the invoice and the follow-up, which is covered in invoice automation software.
Is Stripe worth it?
Yes, for any business that sells online through its own website or app and wants the lowest published card rate with no monthly fee. Stripe is built to be wired into a checkout: subscriptions, saved cards, payment links, and invoices on one account, and the developer tools are the reason most custom checkouts use it. It is less worth it for a business with no website and no developer, which will spend more time on setup than it saves on fees. Every Stripe line item, including the ones that switch on quietly like Instant Payouts and Billing, is on Stripe fees.
Is PayPal worth it for a business?
As a button, often yes. As the only processor, rarely. The PayPal and Venmo buttons let a buyer pay without typing a card, which matters most for a store that sells to consumers who do not know you yet. The cost is 3.49% + 49 cents on those payments. Where PayPal is the wrong choice is as the card processor for a business that already has a checkout, because its card rate is higher than Stripe's at every order size on this page, and its 49-cent fixed fee penalizes small orders more.
Can you use Stripe and PayPal together?
Yes, and it is the most common setup for an online store: Stripe processes cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, and PayPal appears as a separate button at checkout. Most e-commerce platforms support both. Your reporting will live in two dashboards, and refunds go back through whichever processor took the payment. If you also take payments in person, compare the in-person side separately, because Square's rates change the answer there; see Stripe vs Square, and for every Square rate by plan, Square fees.
The bottom line
- Stripe for cards and bank payments on your own website: 2.9% + 30 cents, ACH at 0.8% capped at $5.
- PayPal as a button beside Stripe, if your buyers are consumers who would rather not type a card, at 3.49% + 49 cents on the payments that use it.
- Bank payments for big invoices on either, which saves about $140 on every $5,000.
The processor is the smaller decision. The checkout it sits in decides how many people pay at all: a slow, generic template with five fields and no wallet buttons loses more sales than any fee difference on this page. If your site is the part that is costing you orders, that is what custom web design fixes.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Stripe, for card payments at every order size. As of September 2026, Stripe charges 2.9% + 30 cents per domestic online card, PayPal charges 2.99% + 49 cents for a card and 3.49% + 49 cents when the customer pays through the PayPal Checkout button. On a $100 order that is $3.20 on Stripe, $3.48 for a PayPal card payment, and $3.98 through PayPal Checkout.
-
From PayPal's merchant fees page, last updated September 1, 2026: PayPal Checkout, Guest Checkout, and Pay with Venmo are 3.49% + 49 cents; standard credit and debit card payments are 2.99% + 49 cents; PayPal Pay Later is 4.99% + 49 cents; QR code payments are 2.29% + 9 cents; international payments add 1.50%. Invoices paid by bank through Pay by Bank cost 1% capped at $10, the standard dispute fee is $15, and an instant transfer to a bank or card costs 1.5% with a 50-cent minimum.
-
From stripe.com/pricing as read September 16, 2026: 2.9% + 30 cents per successful domestic card or wallet payment, plus 0.5% for manually entered cards, 1.5% for international cards, and 1% if currency conversion is required. ACH Direct Debit is 0.8% capped at $5. In person on a Stripe Terminal reader it is 2.7% + 5 cents. A dispute costs $15, plus $15 if you counter it manually, refunded if you win. There is no monthly fee on standard pricing.
-
Most should use Stripe to process cards and bank payments and add PayPal as a checkout button if their buyers are consumers who prefer not to type a card. Stripe's card rate is lower at every order size, and its 30-cent fixed fee costs less than PayPal's 49 cents on small orders. PayPal's button is worth its 3.49% + 49 cents only on the sales it actually wins, which you can measure by turning it on for a month.
-
For large invoices, whichever gets the customer to pay by bank. A $5,000 invoice costs $145.30 by card on Stripe, but $5 by Stripe ACH Direct Debit (0.8%, capped at $5) and $10 through PayPal's Pay by Bank on an invoice (1%, capped at $10). Moving one $5,000 invoice a month from card to bank saves about $140 on either platform.
-
Yes. The most common online-store setup runs Stripe for cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay, with PayPal shown as a separate button at checkout. Most e-commerce platforms support both. Expect two dashboards for reporting, and process each refund through the platform that took the original payment.