Calculate fees for every Venmo transaction type — business, G&S, personal, and instant transfers.
Business, G&S & personal · 2026
✓ Rates from Venmo's business and Purchase Protection pages · checked September 2026
Venmo's evolution from a casual peer-to-peer payment app into a legitimate small business payment tool has made its Business profile one of the more competitively priced options for US-based sellers — provided you understand the meaningful distinctions between its various transaction types, which carry very different fee structures depending on how a payment is initiated.
At 1.9% + $0.10, Venmo's Business profile rate undercuts both PayPal Checkout (3.49% + $0.49) and Stripe's standard online rate (2.9% + $0.30) by a meaningful margin. On a $50 sale, that translates to a fee of $1.05 through a Business profile versus $2.24 through PayPal Checkout — more than double the cost for the identical transaction. It also beats Venmo's own personal-profile Goods & Services fee (2.99%) on any payment above about $9. For sellers whose entire customer base already uses Venmo socially, switching to a Business profile rather than asking customers to use a separate payment app can meaningfully reduce friction at checkout while also lowering processing costs.
It's worth being explicit about a common point of confusion, because Venmo has three ways to receive money. Payments to a registered Business profile cost 1.9% + $0.10. On a personal profile, a payment the buyer marks as "goods and services" costs you 2.99% (no fixed fee) and gives the buyer Purchase Protection — fine for occasional sales, like selling a couch. Ordinary personal payments are free, but they're meant for friends and family: using them for business sales goes against Venmo's terms and leaves the buyer without Purchase Protection. If you sell regularly, a Business profile is both cheaper and the intended setup.
Consider a freelance tutor charging $80 per session, accepting payment through a Venmo Business profile after each appointment. The fee on each session is $80 × 1.9% + $0.10 = $1.62, leaving $78.38 net per session. Across 20 sessions a month, total fees come to just $32.40. The same $1,600 received as personal-profile Goods & Services payments would cost $47.80, and through PayPal Checkout $65.60 — so the Business profile saves about $33.20 a month compared with PayPal.
Beyond transaction fees, Venmo charges 1.75% (minimum $0.25, maximum $25) to instantly transfer your balance to a linked bank account rather than waiting the standard 1–3 business days for a free transfer. For sellers who don't need immediate access to funds, simply waiting for the free standard transfer eliminates this cost entirely — a simple habit that adds up over dozens of transfers per year.
Venmo remains exclusively a US-based service with no international payment support, which immediately rules it out for any business serving customers outside the United States. For purely domestic operations, however, its combination of low business fees and near-universal recognition among US consumers — particularly younger demographics — makes it a genuinely strong option worth considering alongside, or even instead of, traditional processors.
| Transaction Type | Fee | On $100 | You Keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business profile payment | 1.9% + $0.10 | $2.00 | $98.00 |
| Goods & Services, personal profile | 2.99% | $2.99 | $97.01 |
| Personal (balance/bank) | Free | $0.00 | $100.00 |
| Instant bank transfer | 1.75% (min $0.25, max $25) | $1.75 | $98.25 |
| Credit card send | 3% (sender pays) | $3.00 | — |
US Venmo accounts. Business profile fees apply to payments of $1 or more and aren't refunded. Source: Venmo business profile and Purchase Protection pages, checked September 2026.
Business profile vs personal Goods & Services payments, plus the instant transfer fee for cashing out immediately. The instant transfer fee hits its $25 cap at about $1,429.
| Amount | Business profile (1.9% + $0.10) | Personal G&S (2.99%) | Instant transfer (1.75%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $5.00 | $0.20 | $0.15 | $0.25 |
| $10.00 | $0.29 | $0.30 | $0.25 |
| $25.00 | $0.58 | $0.75 | $0.44 |
| $50.00 | $1.05 | $1.50 | $0.88 |
| $100.00 | $2.00 | $2.99 | $1.75 |
| $250.00 | $4.85 | $7.48 | $4.38 |
| $500.00 | $9.60 | $14.95 | $8.75 |
| $1,000.00 | $19.10 | $29.90 | $17.50 |
| $2,000.00 | $38.10 | $59.80 | $25.00 |