Card reader / mobile POS · United Kingdom and United States
PayPal (Zettle) card processing fees: what a shop actually pays
On its cheapest published plan, PayPal (Zettle) charges 2.29% + $0.09 on a card taken in person. For a shop taking $5,000 a month on cards, that plan costs $132 a month — 2.67% of everything it takes once the monthly fee and the hardware are counted across three years. The shop keeps 97.33%.
That is 0.38 percentage points above the advertised 2.29%. The difference is the $29 hardware, spread over 36 months and the $0.09 charged on every sale.
What does the provider publish?
PayPal (Zettle) publishes the plans below on its own pricing page; the last column quotes the conditions in the provider's words.
| Plan | Monthly fee | Hardware | In person | Online or keyed | Effective at 5,000 a month | As published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point of Sale (in person) | none | $29 once | 2.29% + $0.09 | 3.49% | 2.67% | 2.29% + $0.09 card present; keyed 3.49% + $0.09. $29 for the first reader, $79 after. No monthly or setup fees. |
| Zettle Reader 2 | none ex VAT | £29 once | 1.75% (no flat fee stated) | 3.40% | 1.77% | GBP 29.00 for the first card reader; additional readers GBP 69.00. No monthly or setup fees. |
| Zettle Terminal | none ex VAT | £149 once | 1.75% (no flat fee stated) | 3.40% | 1.83% | GBP 149.00 for the terminal; GBP 199.00 with a built-in barcode scanner. |
UK providers do not publish on the same basis. Monthly fees and hardware are printed exactly as published, and where the provider states the basis we print it. At 20% VAT an ex-VAT fee is 1.2 times higher on the invoice, so an ex-VAT figure and an inc-VAT figure are not comparable as printed. We do not convert between them.
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Per-transaction fee: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
Chargeback fee: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
Time to payout: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
What does it cost at the size of shop you actually are?
The same plan is a different price depending on how much goes through the card machine, because the fixed part does not move.
| Plan | $1,000 | $2,000 | $5,000 | $10,000 | $25,000 | $50,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Point of Sale (in person) | 2.73% | 2.69% | 2.67% | 2.66% | 2.65% | 2.65% |
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The same provider in United Kingdom
PayPal (Zettle) publishes different figures for this market, in GBP. We do not convert between currencies, so the two are printed side by side and never averaged. Its cheapest published plan there is Zettle Reader 2 at 1.75% (no flat fee stated), which comes to 1.77% of card sales at £5,000 a month.
| Plan | £1,000 | £2,000 | £5,000 | £10,000 | £25,000 | £50,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zettle Reader 2 | 1.83% | 1.79% | 1.77% | 1.76% | 1.75% | 1.75% |
| Zettle Terminal | 2.16% | 1.96% | 1.83% | 1.79% | 1.77% | 1.76% |
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How that is worked out
The average sale is an assumption of this site, not a published figure: $25.00 in the United States and £20.00 in the United Kingdom. It decides how heavily a per-transaction fee lands, so the calculator lets you change it. Interchange, chargebacks, refunds, currency conversion, sales tax and VAT are not in any figure on this site, because the pricing page does not price them for a given shop. Every figure here is a floor. The full method is at Method.
What is fixed and what moves with sales?
PayPal (Zettle) publishes both the percentage and the per-transaction fee. checked 2026-08-25
A percentage on its own says nothing about what a small shop pays. The monthly fee, the terminal and the per-transaction fee are fixed amounts, so they land hardest on the shops with the least card volume — which is the opposite of how the headline rate reads.
Who owns it?
Owned by PayPal. Source. checked 2026-08-25
Where this leaves you
- The hardware is a one-off $29, spread here across 36 months. If you expect to change provider within a year, treat it as a year's cost instead: $2.42 a month.
- Do not decide yet, but a quiet month will not change this one: the plan holds at 2.67% of sales whether the shop takes $5,000 or $50,000 a month, because there is no monthly fee to spread. Chargebacks, refunds and foreign cards are in neither figure — what the headline rate leaves out.
Who this page is not for
This is not a review. We have not used PayPal (Zettle), we hold no opinion on its hardware or its support, and nothing here is a recommendation. It answers one question: what the published price turns into as a share of card sales.
Sources
- PayPal (Zettle) pricing page — every figure on this page. checked 2026-08-25
- PayPal (Zettle) UK pricing page. checked 2026-08-25
- Ownership source. checked 2026-08-25
- data.json — the row behind this page, with the source URL and check date on every figure.
Related
- PayPal (Zettle) alternatives, by effective rate
- Every provider we hold, and which publish a rate
- Work out your own effective rate
- The three numbers behind a card rate: the fixed fee, the flat fee and the floor
- How these figures are produced
- PayPal (Zettle) vs SumUp
- PayPal (Zettle) vs Square
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.