PayPal
$525/mo est.
- In-person rate
- —
- Online rate
- —
- Monthly fee
- Free
- Terminal cost
- —
- Contract length
- No lock-in
- Settlement time
- —
- Est. monthly cost
- $525/mo
PayPal
Widely recognized online checkout plus in-person card acceptance through PayPal Zettle, with built-in Venmo.
- In-person rate
- —
- Online rate
- —
- Monthly fee
- Free
- Contract
- No lock-in
Best for
US online businesses that want a trusted, high-conversion checkout, with optional in-person card acceptance through PayPal Zettle.
Pricing breakdown
All prices in USDLast verified July 13, 2026Every fee we track, grouped by where it applies.
In-person payments
In-person terminal and tap-to-pay transactions.
- Monthly fee
- Free
Online payments
Online checkout and keyed-in card transactions.
- Monthly fee
- Free
Contract terms
- Contract length
- No lock-in
Accepted payment methods
Cards, wallets, and other methods supported by PayPal for US merchants.
Cards
- Visa
- Mastercard
- AMEX
- discover
Digital wallets
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
Buy now, pay later
- paypal-pay-later
Other
- venmo
- ach
Strengths and trade-offs
Pros
- Trusted consumer brand that can lift online checkout conversion
- Venmo and Pay Later acceptance built into PayPal Checkout
- No monthly fee and no lock-in contract
- In-person card acceptance through PayPal Zettle
Cons
- Published rates run higher than the leanest flat-rate processors
- Account holds and reserves are a known pain point
- In-person Zettle ecosystem is lighter than POS-first platforms
About PayPal
PayPal is one of the most recognized payment brands in the US, and that consumer trust is its biggest draw at checkout: millions of buyers already have a PayPal account, and PayPal Checkout also lets them pay with Venmo and Pay Later. For online businesses it is a fast way to add a familiar, high-conversion payment option alongside standard card processing.
In person, PayPal Zettle provides a card reader and a simple point-of-sale app with flat-rate pricing, no monthly fee, and no lock-in contract. The standard online checkout is pay-as-you-go too. The trade-off is that the published rates run a little higher than the leanest flat-rate processors, and account holds can be a pain point, but the brand recognition and Venmo acceptance are hard to match.
PayPal was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in San Jose, USA.
How PayPal compares
Side-by-side with the closest alternatives by estimated cost.
Assumes $15,000/mo volume, $50 average transaction, 70% in-person and 30% online.
Stripe
$345/mo est.
- In-person rate
- —
- Online rate
- —
- Monthly fee
- Free
- Terminal cost
- —
- Contract length
- No lock-in, pay as you go
- Settlement time
- —
- Est. monthly cost
- $345/mo
Common questions about PayPal
The same questions US merchants ask before signing up.
PayPal offers split payment capabilities via its Marketplaces and Platforms API. The platform collects payment from the buyer, deducts its service fee, and routes the remainder to each seller. Sellers are onboarded as connected PayPal accounts and can receive payouts to their PayPal balance or directly to a bank account via the PayPal Payouts product.
The standard transaction rate for Australian marketplace payments is 2.9% plus $0.30 per charge. This is notably higher than some specialist marketplace providers, so high-volume platforms should model total cost carefully before committing.
No. The monthly platform fee is Free with no minimum transaction volume, making PayPal straightforward to get started with at any scale.
PayPal's primary advantage for consumer-facing platforms is brand familiarity. A large share of Australian online shoppers already have a PayPal account and trust the PayPal checkout experience, which can reduce cart abandonment and increase conversion compared to an unknown payment form. This buyer-side recognition is harder to replicate with a white-label provider.
Yes. PayPal includes Fraud Protection tools and Seller Protection policies that cover eligible transactions against unauthorised disputes and item-not-received claims. For marketplace platforms, Seller Protection extends to connected sellers for qualifying transactions, which reduces chargeback liability flowing back to the platform.
PayPal provides a hosted seller onboarding flow. Sellers create or connect an existing PayPal account, complete identity verification within PayPal's managed interface, and are linked to the platform via a permissions grant. The onboarding is relatively straightforward and familiar to sellers who already have a PayPal account.
Yes. PayPal Australia holds an Australian Financial Services Licence and is regulated by ASIC, giving Australian platforms a locally regulated payment partner. This is an advantage over providers that operate in Australia under offshore licences.
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