Venmo fees explained: what it takes in 2026
By Fees.tools · Updated · Fees verified
Venmo charges a US seller 2.99% to receive a payment the sender marks as goods and services, or 1.9% plus $0.10 on a payment sent to a business profile. Everything else most people do on Venmo — sending a personal payment, receiving one, moving money to a bank account with the standard transfer — costs nothing. This guide walks through each fee as Venmo publishes it, with worked examples computed by the same engine as the Venmo fee calculator. Every rate below is quoted from Venmo's official fees page, cross-checked where possible against Venmo's Help Center, and was verified on 3 September 2026.
The two seller rates
Venmo has one rate for selling from a personal profile and another for selling through a business profile. Which one you pay is decided by how the money arrives, not by what you sell.
| How the payment reaches you | Fee | Fixed fee |
|---|---|---|
| Sender marks it as goods and services (personal profile) | 2.99% | none |
| Sent to your business profile | 1.9% | $0.10 |
| Personal payment from another Venmo user | free | none |
The goods-and-services rate is the one that catches people out. Venmo's user agreement says a personal account "may not be used to conduct business, commercial or merchant transactions", and that to be paid for a sale you must either ask the buyer to identify the payment as for goods and services or open a business profile. When the buyer ticks that box, the 2.99% is deducted from what lands in your account.
On a $100 sale marked goods and services, the fee on $100.00 is $2.99 and you keep $97.01, an effective rate of 2.99%. On the same $100 through a business profile, the fee on $100.00 is $2.00 and you keep $98.00, an effective rate of 2%.The two rates cross at about $9.20 a sale: above that, 1.9% plus a dime beats a flat 2.99%, because the 1.09 percentage points you save outgrow the fixed $0.10. Below it the personal goods-and-services rate is cheaper. Venmo's Help Center also notes that business profiles are charged only on payments of $1.00 or more.
On a $25 sale marked goods and services, the fee on $25.00 is $0.75 and you keep $24.25, an effective rate of 3%. On the same $25 through a business profile, the fee on $25.00 is $0.58 and you keep $24.42, an effective rate of 2.32%.Refunds do not undo the fee. Venmo's user agreement states that if you refund a transaction to a buyer there are no fees to make the refund, but the fees you originally paid as the seller are not returned.
Getting the money out: standard versus Instant Transfer
Selling is only half the cost. Money sits in your Venmo balance until you move it, and that move has its own price.
| Way out | Fee | Speed |
|---|---|---|
| Standard transfer to a bank account or eligible debit card | free | 1–3 business days to a bank, about 48 hours to a debit card |
| Instant Transfer to an eligible debit card or bank account | 1.75%, minimum $0.25, maximum $25 | minutes |
The Instant Transfer fee is charged on what leaves your Venmo balance, not on the sale, so it applies to the money left after the seller fee has already come out. The calculator models it that way: choose "Instant Transfer" under How you cash out and the second fee line is a percentage of your proceeds rather than of the sale price.
The floor and the ceiling matter more than the percentage does. Below about $14.30 of balance, 1.75% comes to less than $0.25, so every small instant cash-out costs the same quarter however small it is — which is why the effective rate on a few dollars looks brutal. Above about $1,428 of balance the percentage would pass $25, so the fee stops there and every further dollar moves free.
If you can wait a day or two, the standard transfer is free and takes the whole payout question off the table. Every worked figure in this guide assumes it; the calculator will redo any of them for an instant cash-out.
The 3% credit card fee is the buyer's, not yours
Venmo charges 3.00% for "Sending money to a Venmo account or U.S. PayPal account using your credit card". That fee is paid by the person sending the money, and it is not deducted from what you receive, so the calculator lists it in the fee table but never subtracts it from your net.
Two things follow. First, if a friend pays you by credit card, they pay the surcharge, not you. Second, Venmo's Help Center says that users who pay a business profile with a credit card "will be exempt from the standard 3% Venmo fee on payments funded by credit cards", so a business profile removes that cost from your customers as well as lowering your own rate on anything over about $9.20.
Pricing so you keep a round number
Because the goods-and-services rate is a flat percentage with no fixed fee, adding 2.99% to the amount you want to keep is not enough: the fee is charged on the total the buyer pays, including the part that covers the fee. The business-profile rate has a fixed dime on top of that, and Instant Transfer adds a second percentage on the proceeds.
- Marked goods and services: To keep $100.00 you charge $103.08, and the fee is $3.08.
- Sent to a business profile: To keep $100.00 you charge $102.04, and the fee is $2.04.
The calculator's "I want to net" mode solves this for any amount, finding the smallest price whose net lands within one cent of your target, with or without an instant cash-out.
Venmo is United States only
There is no international Venmo rate on this page because there is no international Venmo. The user agreement opens by saying you must be in the United States and have a US bank account to use the Venmo services, and accounts are opened by residents of the United States or its territories. So there is no country selector on the calculator, no buyer-location surcharge, and no currency conversion on money you receive.
The one place another country appears is on the sending side: a US Venmo user can send money to an eligible non-US PayPal account, for a percentage fee with a floor and a ceiling that Venmo sets out on its fees page. That is a cost to the sender, not to a seller being paid, so it is not part of this schedule. Sellers who need to be paid from abroad generally reach for PayPal, whose schedule does price international payments; the PayPal fees guide covers those surcharges country by country.
How to pay Venmo less, honestly
- Open a business profile if you sell regularly. Above about $9.20 a sale it costs less than the goods-and-services rate, and it removes the 3% credit-card surcharge for your customers.
- Use the standard transfer. It is free. Instant Transfer is worth 1.75% only when you actually need the money today.
- Batch your instant cash-outs. The fee is capped at $25, so one large instant transfer costs less than several medium ones; and because of the $0.25 floor, several tiny ones cost far more than the percentage suggests.
- Do not dress a sale up as a personal payment. Venmo's user agreement prohibits it, purchase protection does not apply, and Venmo can reverse the payment — which costs far more than 2.99%.
What this guide leaves out
The calculator covers the fees a seller actually meets: the goods-and-services rate, the business-profile rate, the free standard transfer, Instant Transfer, and the sender's credit-card surcharge. Venmo's fees page runs much longer, and the following are deliberately out of scope: Tap to Pay contactless payments through a business profile, which Venmo's fees page lists at 2.29% + $0.09 while its Help Center article says 2.29% + $0.10; charity profile payments, which carry their own rate; chargeback fees; buying, selling and transferring cryptocurrency; adding money with the cash-a-check feature; the currency-conversion spread on sending a friend money in another currency; Venmo Debit Card and ATM fees; and everything to do with the Venmo Visa credit card. All of those are on Venmo's fees page.
Venmo also publishes no effective date on its fees page, so the schedule here is dated from the day it was checked rather than from a date Venmo states.
When these rates last changed
This schedule was first verified on 3 September 2026 against Venmo's fees page, cross-checked against the Help Center's "Business Profile Transaction Fees" article. That secondary page independently restates the business-profile rate and the credit-card fee; the 2.99% goods-and-services rate, the 1.75% Instant Transfer rate and the free standard transfer appear on the fees page alone, so the schedule is marked medium confidence. The Venmo fee changelog currently holds that single entry; every later change is added there with the date and the rule affected, and the schedule is re-verified at least every 60 days. If a figure here disagrees with what Venmo shows you, report it and it will be checked against the official page.
Frequently asked questions
Does Venmo take a percentage of money I receive?
Only when the money is for a sale. A personal payment from another Venmo user is free to receive. A payment the sender marks as goods and services costs you 2.99%, and a payment to your business profile costs 1.9% plus $0.10.
Is the Venmo fee taken from the buyer or the seller?
From the seller. Venmo's Help Center says the fees for using a business profile are charged to the merchant rather than the customer. The one fee the buyer pays is the 3% surcharge for funding a payment with a credit card, and business profiles are exempt from that.
Why did Venmo charge me a fee on a payment from a friend?
Because the sender ticked the goods-and-services box when they sent it. That flag is what triggers the 2.99% seller fee and, in exchange, brings the payment under Venmo's purchase protection programme.
Where do these numbers come from?
Every figure is quoted from Venmo's official fees page, saved as a dated snapshot and checked by a person. The methodology explains the process, and the schedule is quoted line by line, with the verbatim source text behind every rule, in the calculator's fee table for anyone who wants to check the work.
Work out your own numbers with the Venmo fee calculator, or read the changelog.