What you lose to fees depends on the route your money takes, not the work you did. PaidRouter ranks every way to get paid by what you keep, for you or for your AI agent. Every fee is sourced and dated.
| Bank transfer request (Melio) | $0.00 |
| Stripe ACH | $5.00 |
| Stripe card | $29.30 |
| PayPal Checkout | $35.39 |
Calculator · fees checked 2026-10-29
Enter a typical payment. We rank every route your client could use, using each company's published fees.
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Ranked by fee only. Helcim uses an interchange estimate (2.0% + 10¢ online, 1.7% + 10¢ in person), marked "estimate". We may earn a referral fee from some providers; it never changes the order.
In their own words
Public posts from people who get paid for a living, quoted exactly as written. None of them were asked; the links go to the originals.
“I don't want to pay the fees for paypal or credit card processing if I can avoid it.”
“just a tiny market girl ,(tallow business) but the fees are killing me”
“I get charged ~8% in fees on a 10 euro transaction on Stripe… it's brutal for a small business like myself.”
“I do about 10 transaction a month for rent purposes. The new 1% (max $10) will end up costing me over $1000 per year.”
“I too have held out for 8 years not accepting credit card due to the added fees”
The fee is taken before the money lands, so it never shows up as a cost. The calculator above shows it; your agent can check it before every invoice.
Sending money abroad
Sending $1,000 to India, Remitly delivers the most. At $200, Wise does. Sending $1,000 to Mexico, PayPal delivers about $49 less than Wise. A router checks every time.
For agents
PaidRouter is an MCP server and a JSON API. Your assistant asks how to get paid; PaidRouter answers with the route, the fee and the source.
cheapest_way_to_get_paid: rank every route for an amount, with yearly savingsget_fees and explain_fees: sourced fees for any platformcompare_send_money: US → Mexico and India, by what arrivesroute_it_for_me: ask PaidRouter to set up the route (waitlist for now)Get a free key
MCP server URL
Or call the API
Sources
Read from each company's own pricing page on 2026-10-29. Also as JSON at /fees.json and summarized for AI tools at /llms.txt.
| Platform | Method | Fee | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|
| stripe | card online | 2.9% + $0.30 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| stripe | card in person | 2.7% + $0.05 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| stripe | ach debit | 0.8%, cap $5 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| stripe | stablecoin | 1.5% | source, 2026-10-29 |
| square | card online or invoice | 3.3% + $0.30 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| square | card in person | 2.6% + $0.15 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| square | ach invoice | 1%, min $1 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| paypal | paypal checkout | 3.49% + $0.49 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| paypal | card online | 2.99% + $0.49 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| paypal | goods and services | 2.99% | source, 2026-10-29 |
| paypal | ach pay by bank | 1%, cap $10 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| venmo | business profile | 1.9% + $0.10 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| cash_app | business account | 2.6% + $0.15 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| helcim | card online or keyed | interchange + 0.5% + 25¢ | source, 2026-10-29 |
| helcim | ach | 0.5% + $0.25, cap $6 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| melio | ach received | 0% | source, 2026-10-29 |
| melio | card received | 2.9% | source, 2026-10-29 |
| payoneer | receive usd from client | 0%, min $1 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| wise_business | receive usd local | 0% | source, 2026-10-29 |
| shopify_payments | online card basic | 2.9% + $0.30 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| shopify_payments | online card grow | 2.7% + $0.30 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| shopify_payments | online card advanced | 2.5% + $0.30 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| zelle | receive business | 0% | source, 2026-10-29 |
| payoneer | withdraw to us bank | 0% + $1.50 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| ebay | final value fee most categories | 13.6% + $0.40 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| etsy | transaction fee | 6.5% | source, 2026-10-29 |
| etsy | payment processing us | 3% + $0.25 | source, 2026-10-29 |
| upwork | freelancer service fee | 10% | source, 2026-10-29 |
| fiverr | seller service fee | 20% | source, 2026-10-29 |
| amazon | referral fee most categories | 15%, min $0.3 | source, 2026-10-29 |
Fee changes
Every source page is re-read within 30 days. What changed, and when we caught it: