Does PayPal Charge a Fee to Send Money?
It depends on two things: how you fund the payment and whether it's domestic or international. This is about personal payments to friends and family, not paying a seller for goods or services, which always carries a fee, covered in how much is the PayPal fee for goods and services.
Domestic personal payments, by funding source
| Funding source | Fee |
|---|---|
| PayPal balance | No fee |
| Bank account (ACH) | No fee |
| Debit card | No fee |
| Amex Send account | No fee |
| Credit card | 2.9% + $0.49 |
Domestic, US, personal payments. Verified 2026-09-12 against paypal.com's consumer fee page.
International sends cost extra, regardless of funding source
Sending money to someone outside the US adds 5% on top of whatever the domestic rate would be, with a minimum fee of $0.99 and a maximum fee of $4.99. A free domestic balance-funded transfer becomes a $0.99-$4.99 charge the moment the recipient is international; a credit-card-funded transfer stacks the 5% on top of the 2.9% + $0.49 it would already cost domestically.
Why sellers should never use this to dodge the goods and services fee
Because a personal payment is free, it can be tempting for a buyer or seller to use it to pay for an actual item and skip PayPal's goods and services fee. Doing this strips the buyer of Purchase Protection and the seller of Seller Protection, and using a personal payment for a real transaction violates PayPal's terms of service, which can get an account limited. The fee on a goods and services payment is what funds that protection, see the goods and services fee calculator for what it actually costs.
If you received a payment and it came in short of what you expected, that's a goods and services fee, not a personal-payment fee, someone can't be charged for receiving a personal payment. See why does PayPal charge a fee to receive money.