One payment tells you almost nothing. A month of payments tells you everything — because the fixed fee, not the percentage, is what changes with your average ticket.
Every one of these processors charges a percentage plus a fixed amount per payment. The percentages differ by tenths of a point. The fixed amounts are 30¢ on most online rails — and 30¢ on a $8 payment is 3.75% on its own, more than the headline rate. The table above shows what share of your monthly bill is pure fixed fee, which is the number that tells you whether to bundle, raise minimums, or move rails.
Only rates that appear on each company's own published US pricing page are used, and only for the channel you selected. When a processor has no published rate here for that channel, it is left out and named rather than estimated. Stripe's in-person Terminal pricing, for example, is not in the fee table this site transcribes, so Stripe does not appear in the in-person comparison. An estimate would make the table look complete and the answer wrong.
All three publish an additional charge for an internationally issued card. Ticking that box adds it on top of the domestic rate for every processor that charges one — it does not replace the base rate. This is the most common arithmetic error in cross-processor comparisons.
Source: PayPal, Inc. (official merchant fees page) · verified 2026-09-04
| Payment type | Rate | Fixed fee (USD) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Send/Receive Money for Goods and Services | 2.99% | no fixed fee | This one has NO fixed fee. Many calculators wrongly add $0.49 here. |
| PayPal Checkout | 3.49% | $0.49 | |
| PayPal Guest Checkout | 3.49% | $0.49 | |
| Pay with Venmo | 3.49% | $0.49 | |
| Standard Credit and Debit Card Payments | 2.99% | $0.49 | |
| PayPal Pay Later options | 4.99% | $0.49 | |
| QR code Transactions | 2.29% | $0.09 | |
| QR code via third party integrator | 2.29% | $0.09 | |
| All Other Commercial Transactions | 3.49% | $0.49 | |
| Micropayments (domestic, US) | 4.99% | $0.09 |
International transactions add 1.5% on top. The fixed fee is charged in the currency received: USD $0.49, GBP £0.39, EUR €0.39, CAD 0.59 CAD, AUD 0.59 AUD, NZD 0.69 NZD, SGD 0.69 SGD, CHF 0.49 CHF, JPY 49.00 JPY, HKD 3.79 HKD, SEK 4.09 SEK, NOK 3.90 NOK, DKK 2.90 DKK, PLN 1.89 PLN, CZK 9.00 CZK, HUF 149.00 HUF, ILS 1.60 ILS, MXN 9.00 MXN, BRL 2.90 BRL, MYR 2.00 MYR, PHP 25.00 PHP, THB 15.00 THB, TWD 14.00 TWD.
Source: Stripe, Inc. (official pricing page) · verified 2026-09-04
| Payment method | Rate | Fixed fee |
|---|---|---|
| Cards and wallets (domestic) | 2.9% | $0.30 |
| Klarna (Buy Now Pay Later) | 5.99% | $0.30 |
| Bank-based payments (Link / bank debits) | 2.6% | $0.30 |
| Stablecoins (promotional through 2027-01-01) | 0.8% | $0.00 |
| Manually entered card | +0.5% | adds to the base rate |
| Internationally issued card | +1.5% | adds to the base rate |
| Currency conversion required | +1% | adds to the base rate |
Source: Block, Inc. — Square (official processing fees page) · verified 2026-09-07
| Payment type | Square Free | Square Plus | Square Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tap, dip, or swipe (card present) In-person payments when a card is present. | 2.6% + $0.15 | 2.5% + $0.15 | 2.4% + $0.15 |
| Online (checkout or invoice) Card payments made online or through an invoice. | 3.3% + $0.30 | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Online API Card payments taken inside your own web or mobile app through Square's payments APIs. | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Manual entry or card on file A card number typed in, or a saved card on file. | 3.5% + $0.15 | 3.5% + $0.15 | 3.5% + $0.15 |
| Afterpay (buy now, pay later) You are paid immediately; the buyer pays in four installments. | 6% + $0.30 | 6% + $0.30 | 6% + $0.30 |
| EBT (SNAP-eligible items) In-person EBT payments. Square states these fees are waived while the feature is in beta, through fall 2026. | 1.8% + $0.05 | 1.8% + $0.05 | 1.8% + $0.05 |
| ACH bank transfer (via invoice) Payment made on a Square invoice by bank transfer. | 1%, $1.00 min, no cap | 1%, $1.00 min, $10.00 cap | 1%, $1.00 min, $10.00 cap |
| ACH bank transfer (via API) ACH transfers through the Web Payments SDK and Payments API. | 1%, $1.00 min, $5.00 cap | 1%, $1.00 min, $5.00 cap | 1%, $1.00 min, $5.00 cap |
| Cash or check Recorded in Square but not processed by Square. | Free | Free | Free |
| Bitcoin payments (0% until 2027) In-person payments where the buyer scans a QR code to pay in bitcoin. | 0% + $0.00 | 0% + $0.00 | 0% + $0.00 |
On top of these, Square charges 1.5% on an internationally issued card. Cash, check and EBT are not affected by it.