Payment Processor Fee Calculator

Why Payment Processor Fees Destroy Freelance Margins

International freelancers lose 2-8% of every invoice to payment processor fees, currency conversion markups, and receiving bank charges. Over a year, that is one to two entire months of income disappearing before you touch the money. A $50,000/year freelancer on PayPal with currency conversion loses roughly $3,500-4,000 annually — more than a typical month of rent. Choosing the right processor for each invoice size is one of the highest-leverage financial decisions a freelancer makes.

This calculator takes the real fee structure of each major processor (PayPal, PayPal Business, Stripe, Wise, Payoneer, bank wire, Revolut) and tells you exactly how much you lose on a given invoice, what you net, and which processor would minimise the loss for that invoice size. Small invoices favour processors with low percentage fees; large invoices favour flat-fee bank wires; cross-currency invoices favour Wise and Revolut, which use the mid-market rate rather than hidden FX markups.

Real Processor Fee Structures (2026)

These rates are published on each provider's fee schedule. Wise and Revolut use the real mid-market FX rate, which is why they come out 2-3% cheaper than PayPal/Payoneer/banks on any currency-conversion transaction — the conversion markup is where the biggest hidden fees live. For US-to-US domestic transfers without currency conversion, ACH bank transfer (free) or Stripe (2.9% + $0.30) are usually the cheapest options.

Choosing the Right Processor by Invoice Size

Rules of thumb. For invoices under $500 with no FX: Stripe or PayPal Business (percent fees are small on small amounts, and the flat fee dominates wire transfers). For invoices $500-5,000 with FX: Wise is usually the winner because the percentage fee is under 1% and the mid-market FX saves you 2-3%. For invoices over $5,000 with FX: bank wire or Wise, depending on speed needs — the $40 flat wire fee is a small percent of a $10,000 invoice. For domestic US: ACH (free) or Stripe. For EU-to-EU: SEPA (usually free or ~1 EUR).

Check the recommendation panel in the calculator output: it runs the same invoice through all processors and identifies the cheapest one. For recurring invoices with the same client, set up the cheapest processor once and save 2-5% on every payment forever. That single optimisation is often worth $1,000-3,000/year for a mid-career freelancer.

How to Reduce Fees Further

Three tactics. First, pass the fee to the client when possible: many B2B contracts include a "client pays processor fees" clause that eliminates the cost entirely — worth asking for. Second, bundle smaller invoices: sending one $5,000 invoice costs less in percentage terms than ten $500 invoices because the flat fees stack. Third, hold a multi-currency account (Wise Business, Revolut Business, or a local business account in your client's country) so you receive in the local currency and convert on your schedule at mid-market rates, not at the processor's marked-up rate.

Estimates for planning only. Rates and terms may vary by jurisdiction and contract.