Amazon Pay vs PayPal
Last updated: September 6, 2026
Amazon Pay
B
Amazon's express checkout button for other people's websites. Amazon's merchant payments business dates to the Amazon Flexible Payments Service beta in August 2007; the product merchants use today launched as Login and Pay with Amazon on 8 October 2013 and took the Amazon Pay name later. A shopper clicks it, signs in with the Amazon account they already have, and pays with a card and address Amazon already holds. Pricing is published and ordinary — 2.9% plus a $0.30 authorization fee on US domestic transactions, 3.9% plus $0.30 when the card was issued abroad, no monthly fee and no setup fee — and Express Payout will fund a US bank account within 24 hours including weekends, for free. What Amazon Pay is not is a merchant account. It is online-only, it has no card-present product, its acceptable use policy bans a long list of categories outright including CBD regardless of state law, and it only ever captures the slice of your checkout that Amazon shoppers choose. Treat it as a second button next to your real processor, not as a replacement for one.
PayPal
A-
PayPal is a global, feature-rich digital payments platform (consumer wallet + merchant services) with extensive integrations and brand reach. It is trusted by many businesses but criticized in public reviews for dispute handling and account-hold practices.
VS
Overview
These are not really the same kind of product, and pricing them against each other only makes sense on one row. Amazon Pay is a checkout button: shoppers pay with the cards and addresses already in their Amazon account, and the merchant pays 2.9% + $0.30 with no monthly fee. PayPal charges 3.49% + $0.49 for the equivalent wallet button, which is the more expensive of the two by a clear margin — but PayPal is also a full processor, taking ordinary cards at 2.99% + $0.49, in-person QR payments at 2.29% + $0.09, invoices, Pay Later and Venmo. The realistic decision is not which one to use; it is whether adding Amazon Pay alongside PayPal is worth it.
Key Takeaways
- ✓Amazon Pay wins on the wallet button, at 2.9% + $0.30 against PayPal Checkout's 3.49% + $0.49 — about 66¢ less on a $50 order.
- ✓Amazon Pay wins on cross-border, at 3.9% + $0.30 all in against PayPal's 3.49% plus a 1.50% international surcharge and a $0.49 fixed fee.
- ✓PayPal wins on scope: ordinary card payments at 2.99% + $0.49, in-person QR at 2.29% + $0.09, invoicing, Pay Later and Venmo, none of which Amazon Pay offers.
- ✓PayPal wins on getting paid, with a free standard bank transfer in one to three business days against Amazon Pay's three to five.
- ✓Amazon Pay wins on expedited payouts, offering Express Payout within a day at no extra cost where PayPal charges 1.50% for an Instant Transfer.
Amazon Pay
Amazon Pay is for online stores selling physical goods to US consumers, added next to an existing processor as a cheaper wallet button that lets Amazon shoppers check out without typing a card or an address.
PayPal
PayPal is for merchants who need one account to cover everything — cards on their own checkout, the wallet button, invoices, in-person QR, Pay Later and Venmo — and will pay more per wallet transaction for that breadth.
Overall Winner
🏆 Winner
PayPal
A-expert grade
Runner-up
Amazon Pay
Why?
PayPal wins, but not on price. Amazon Pay is genuinely cheaper on the one thing both do — 2.9% + $0.30 for a wallet checkout against 3.49% + $0.49 — and cheaper again on cross-border, and it hands over expedited payouts without charging 1.50% for them. What it cannot do is be a store's payment processor. It does not take ordinary cards on your own checkout, has no in-person option, no invoicing and no pay-later product, and it only works for shoppers who already have an Amazon account. PayPal covers all of it on one account at 2.99% + $0.49 for cards and 2.29% + $0.09 in person, and pays out faster as standard. The practical answer for most online sellers is not one or the other: run PayPal as the processor, and add the Amazon Pay button beside it, where its lower rate applies to exactly the orders it wins.
Feature by feature
Detailed Comparison
Filter Options
Transaction rates
| Feature | Amazon Pay | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Wallet button, domestic | 2.9% + $0.30 Winner | 3.49% + $0.49 |
| Like for like: both are the rate for a customer paying through the provider's own wallet on a US ecommerce checkout. On a $50 order that is $1.75 with Amazon Pay against $2.24 with PayPal. PayPal charges the same 3.49% + $0.49 for Pay with Venmo and for guest checkout. | ||
| Ordinary card payment on your own checkout | Not offered | 2.99% + $0.49 Winner |
| Amazon Pay only settles payments made through the Amazon Pay button, so it cannot be a store's primary card processor. This is the row that decides whether the comparison is a replacement or an addition. | ||
| In-person | Not offered | 2.29% + $0.09 (QR code via third-party integrator) Winner |
| Cross-border | 3.9% + $0.30 all in Winner | 3.49% + 1.50% + $0.49 on the wallet button |
| Both figures are the total charged when the card was issued outside the US. Amazon Pay's cross-border rate replaces the 2.9% rather than stacking on it; PayPal's 1.50% is added to whichever domestic rate applies. | ||
| Buy now, pay later | Not offered | 4.99% + $0.49 Winner |
| PayPal's Pay Later options are priced above its ordinary rates, so this is breadth rather than value — but Amazon Pay has no equivalent at all. | ||
Wallet button, domestic
Amazon Pay
2.9% + $0.30
Winner
PayPal
3.49% + $0.49
Like for like: both are the rate for a customer paying through the provider's own wallet on a US ecommerce checkout. On a $50 order that is $1.75 with Amazon Pay against $2.24 with PayPal. PayPal charges the same 3.49% + $0.49 for Pay with Venmo and for guest checkout.
Ordinary card payment on your own checkout
Amazon Pay
Not offered
PayPal
2.99% + $0.49
Winner
Amazon Pay only settles payments made through the Amazon Pay button, so it cannot be a store's primary card processor. This is the row that decides whether the comparison is a replacement or an addition.
In-person
Amazon Pay
Not offered
PayPal
2.29% + $0.09 (QR code via third-party integrator)
Winner
Cross-border
Amazon Pay
3.9% + $0.30 all in
Winner
PayPal
3.49% + 1.50% + $0.49 on the wallet button
Both figures are the total charged when the card was issued outside the US. Amazon Pay's cross-border rate replaces the 2.9% rather than stacking on it; PayPal's 1.50% is added to whichever domestic rate applies.
Buy now, pay later
Amazon Pay
Not offered
PayPal
4.99% + $0.49
Winner
PayPal's Pay Later options are priced above its ordinary rates, so this is breadth rather than value — but Amazon Pay has no equivalent at all.
Best For Your Business
Recommendations based on your business type
US online store selling physical consumer goods
Both. PayPal handles the cards, the invoices and the guest checkouts; Amazon Pay sits beside it as a cheaper button at 2.9% + $0.30 for the shoppers who prefer to check out with their Amazon account. Neither excludes the other.
Merchant that needs one account for online and in person
Recommended
PayPal
PayPal takes QR code payments in person at 2.29% + $0.09 and cards online at 2.99% + $0.49 on the same account. Amazon Pay has no in-person product at all.
Store selling mainly to overseas customers
Recommended
Amazon Pay
Amazon Pay charges 3.9% + $0.30 all in when the card was issued abroad. PayPal adds its 1.50% international fee on top of the domestic rate, so the same sale through the PayPal button runs to 4.99% + $0.49.
Business that invoices clients rather than running a storefront
Recommended
PayPal
PayPal prices invoicing transactions directly — 2.99% + $0.49 for a card, 3.49% + $0.49 through its wallet, 1% capped at $10 for Pay by Bank. Amazon Pay does not do invoicing.
Merchant whose cash flow depends on same-week settlement
Recommended
PayPal
PayPal's free standard transfer lands in one to three business days against Amazon Pay's three to five after settlement. Amazon Pay's Express Payout is the faster of the two once eligible, and free where PayPal charges 1.50% — but the standard path matters more to most sellers.
Business selling to other businesses on terms
Neither. Both are consumer wallets priced for consumer card mix. A B2B seller taking large invoices will pay far less on an interchange-plus account with proper Level 2 and 3 handling than on 2.9%–3.49% of every transaction.
Amazon Pay: Best for 1 use case
PayPal: Best for 3 use cases
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this comparison
For the wallet button, yes. Amazon Pay charges 2.9% + $0.30 on a US transaction against PayPal Checkout's 3.49% + $0.49 — roughly 66¢ less on a $50 order. But PayPal's 2.99% + $0.49 rate for ordinary card payments on your own checkout undercuts its own wallet rate, and Amazon Pay has no equivalent product to compare it against.
No. Amazon Pay only settles transactions made through the Amazon Pay button by shoppers signed into an Amazon account. It does not process ordinary card payments on your own checkout, take payments in person, or handle invoicing. PayPal does all three, which is why the two are usually run alongside each other rather than instead of each other.
Neither on a standard account. Amazon Pay's published fee schedule lists transaction fees only, with no monthly, setup or minimum. PayPal's standard business account is free to hold, though optional extras such as its invoice subscription at $14.99 a month, and enterprise agreements, are priced separately.
Amazon Pay disburses on its settlement schedule and then takes three to five business days for the ACH to arrive, with an Express Payout option that lands within a day including weekends at no extra cost. PayPal's standard bank transfer is free and takes one to three business days, and its Instant Transfer costs 1.50% of the amount with a $0.50 minimum.
Both are $20 in the US, but they trigger differently. Amazon Pay charges $20 only when the merchant chooses to contest a claim that falls outside its Payment Protection Policy, and does not return it whatever the outcome. PayPal charges its $20 chargeback fee on the chargeback itself, and applies a separate standard dispute fee when a buyer opens a claim.
Amazon Pay. When the card was issued outside the US it charges 3.9% + $0.30 in total, replacing the domestic rate. PayPal adds a 1.50% international fee on top of whichever domestic rate applies, so its wallet button reaches 4.99% + $0.49 on the same sale, before any currency conversion spread.
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