PayPal

PayPal, at paypal.com, is a payments service that lets a business take card, wallet and bank payments through checkout buttons, invoices, payment links and QR codes. Its corporate site describes a company that has “remained at the forefront of the digital commerce revolution for more than 25 years,” based in San Jose, California, with 439 million active consumer and merchant accounts at year-end 2025.¹ For a one-person company, the cost is per payment rather than per plan: the US business fee page lists no monthly fee for a standard account, only for optional services such as an invoicing subscription at 14.99 USD a month.²

The fee page, last updated October 1, 2026, prices payments as a percentage plus a fixed fee that depends on the currency received, which is 0.49 USD for US dollars.² PayPal Checkout and Guest Checkout, where a buyer can pay by card without an account, are 3.49% + the fixed fee; invoices paid by card, Apple Pay or other third-party wallets are 2.99% + the fixed fee; and invoices paid with PayPal Pay Later are 4.99% + the fixed fee.² Pay by Bank (ACH) on an invoice is 1%, capped at 10.00 USD per transaction, and QR code transactions are 2.29% + the fixed fee, or 2.29% + 0.09 USD through a third-party integrator.² International commercial transactions add 1.50% to the domestic rate.² PayPal is a payment processor, not a merchant of record, so sales tax and VAT stay with the seller; the fee page is a price list and says nothing about tax filing.²