How to Receive Money on PayPal (2026)

To receive money on PayPal you need a PayPal account with a confirmed email address. The person paying you sends money to your email address or mobile number, pays your PayPal.Me link, or pays a request or invoice you send them.

Receiving money on PayPal is free when a friend in your own country pays you in your own currency. It stops being free when the payment is for something you sold, when it arrives in another currency, and in the UK, when you asked for it with a payment request.

Currency is where most of the money goes. On 5 November 2026, $1,000 sent through PayPal from the US to a UK account arrived as £706.84, against £741.21 at the mid-market rate.

Below we cover how to receive money on PayPal step by step, what it costs in the US and the UK, money from abroad, receiving without a bank account, holds and limits, and the scams aimed at people who get paid on PayPal.

How Can You Receive Money on PayPal?

There are four ways to receive money on PayPal: someone pays your email address or mobile number, pays your PayPal.Me link, pays a request you send, or pays an invoice. Each needs a PayPal account with a confirmed email address, and the money shows in your account once the payment goes through, unless it is held or still clearing.

The method matters more than it looks, because it decides how PayPal classes the payment. Money a friend sends from the Friends and Family option is a personal transaction. A payment for something you sold, an invoice and, in the UK, a paid request are commercial transactions, and those carry a seller fee.

Set Up Your PayPal Account to Receive Money

Sign up with your email address and confirm it, because PayPal will not release a payment to an address you have not confirmed. A personal account is enough for money from friends and family. PayPal's user agreements say business accounts cannot receive personal transactions at all, and the UK agreement says that if you use your account mainly to sell things, you must open a business account.

In the US there is one more step if you want to keep money in PayPal. A personal account without a PayPal Balance account cannot hold a balance, so anything you receive has to be moved to a bank account or debit card, or paid out as a check. Our guide on how to use PayPal walks through signing up and linking a bank or card.

Share Your Email Address or Mobile Number

The simplest way to receive money on PayPal is to give the sender the email address or mobile number on your account. They choose Send, enter it, pick the amount and, for a personal payment, the Friends and Family option. PayPal then sends you a message that the money is available, and it shows on your account home page.

If the sender types an address that has no PayPal account, or one you have not confirmed, the payment sits as unclaimed. You have 30 days to open or confirm the account and accept it, after which PayPal cancels the payment and returns the money to the sender.

Share a PayPal.Me Link

PayPal.Me gives you a personal link, paypal.me/yourname, that people can open to pay you without knowing your email address or phone number. You create it at paypal.me or in the app, choose a handle and share it by text, email or social media. Adding an amount, such as paypal.me/yourname/25, fills it in for the payer, and a currency code after the amount sets the currency.

Two details catch people out. Once the link exists you cannot change or delete it yourself, only switch it off or ask PayPal to remove it, so pick a handle you are happy to keep. And PayPal's page for PayPal.Me says an account is required to send money, so the payer still needs one.

Send a Payment Request

To request money in the US app, tap Send/Request, enter the amount, choose a contact and tap Request Now. On the website you choose Request, find the person by name, email or phone number, add the amount and review the request before you send it.

In the UK the flow is the same, and a request can also go out as a link that works with people in more than 110 countries and expires after 10 days. The person you ask needs a PayPal account to pay, and has to create one if they do not have it. Requests are handy for splitting rent or a dinner bill, but read the warning below before you send one to friends from a UK account.

Send an Invoice for Work or Sales

Invoices are for sellers and freelancers. Creating and sending one is included with a PayPal account, and the customer can pay by card or bank account without a PayPal account of their own, which makes invoices the usual way to receive payments on PayPal from clients.

The fee falls on you when the invoice is paid. In the US, an invoice paid through PayPal costs 3.49 percent plus $0.49, a card payment 2.99 percent plus $0.49, and a bank payment 1 percent capped at $10. A payer in another country adds PayPal's international percentage on top, which the next section sets out.

Does PayPal Charge to Receive Money?

PayPal charges nothing to receive a personal payment from friends or family, at home or from abroad, as long as no currency changes. It charges sellers: 2.99 percent on a US goods and services payment and 2.9 percent plus 30p in the UK, more when the buyer is abroad, and a spread whenever currency is converted.

Personal Payments From Friends and Family

On both the US and UK fee pages, receiving a personal transaction costs nothing when no currency conversion is involved. Any fee falls on the sender: 2.90 percent plus a fixed fee if a US sender pays by card, and the 5 percent international fee, capped at $4.99 or £2.99, if they pay from another country.

The trade-off is protection. PayPal's Purchase Protection does not cover personal payments, and its user agreements bar anyone from using a personal payment to pay for goods or services. Asking a buyer to pay you as friends and family to save the fee breaks those terms and leaves neither of you covered if something goes wrong.

PayPal Receiving Fees for Goods and Services

When someone pays you for something, the fee comes out of what you receive. PayPal receiving fees depend on how the payment is made and where the payer lives, and the fixed part depends on the currency you receive.

From PayPal's US and UK consumer and merchant fee pages (US merchant page last updated 4 November 2026, UK merchant page 1 October 2026), checked 5 November 2026. The US goods and services rate of 2.99 percent carries no fixed fee.

Read the table as a cost on every sale. On a $100 goods and services payment a US seller keeps $97.01, or $95.51 if the buyer is abroad. A UK seller receiving £100 keeps £96.80 from a UK buyer, £95.51 from a buyer in the EEA and £94.81 from anywhere else. Our full guide to PayPal fees lists every other charge, from card funding to chargebacks.

Receive Payments on PayPal as a Freelancer or Seller

For freelancers paid by clients abroad, the percentages stack. A UK freelancer whose US client pays a $1,000 invoice gives up 2.9 percent, plus 1.99 percent for an international payment, plus a 30 cent fixed fee: $49.20 in all. A UK account can only withdraw in pounds, so the remaining $950.80 then has to be converted, which on a business account costs 3 percent above PayPal's base rate, or about $28.52.

That puts one $1,000 invoice at roughly $78, close to 8 percent, before the money reaches a bank. Paid into Wise account details instead, the same client's domestic US payment arrives with no receiving fee, and converting $1,000 to pounds cost $3.29 at the mid-market rate on 5 November 2026. Our roundup of PayPal alternatives for freelancers compares the other ways to receive payments from clients.

What It Costs to Move the Money to Your Bank

A standard withdrawal to a linked bank account is free on both the US and UK schedules when no conversion is involved. In the US, an instant transfer to a bank or eligible debit card costs 1.75 percent, at least $0.25 and at most $25. A UK account pays 3 percent to withdraw to a US bank account, and 50p if a UK bank returns a withdrawal.

If your balance is in another currency, PayPal converts it before it leaves, at 3 percent on a US account. Our step by step guide to transferring money from PayPal to your bank account covers timings, limits and what to do when a withdrawal fails.

How to Receive Money From Abroad on PayPal

To receive money from abroad on PayPal, the sender pays your email, phone number or link from their own PayPal account, and both of you must be in markets PayPal serves. You pay nothing to receive a personal payment. The sender pays a 5 percent fee capped at $4.99 or £2.99, and whoever converts the currency pays PayPal's spread.

What the Sender Pays and What Reaches You

A payment counts as international when PayPal has you and the sender registered in different markets. The sender pays the international fee, and the currency settings decide who converts. If the sender chooses for you to receive your own currency, PayPal converts on their side, at a 4 percent spread on its US schedule, and you get pounds, dollars or euros straight away.

That convenience is where the money goes. On 5 November 2026, $1,000 sent from a US account to a UK account arrived as £706.84 after the $4.99 fee and PayPal's rate of 0.7104. At the mid-market rate it was worth £741.21, so £34.37 disappeared, 4.6 percent of the payment. Our guide to PayPal international transfer fees breaks down the sender's side route by route.

When the Money Arrives in a Currency You Don't Hold

If the sender pays in their own currency, the conversion moves to your side. PayPal's user agreements say some currencies can only be received by converting them, and others need a balance opened in that currency. A US account can only withdraw dollars and a UK account only pounds, so foreign money is converted at some point before it reaches your bank.

Converting a balance costs 3 percent on a US account. PayPal UK publishes no percentage for personal accounts and converts at its own transaction exchange rate; on our 5 November quotes for payments sent from pounds, that rate sat 4.2 to 4.7 percent below mid-market. Either way it is an exchange rate markup hidden in the rate rather than a fee on the receipt.

Some payments wait for you. PayPal says a recipient may have chosen not to accept certain payments automatically, such as those in another currency, and then has 30 days to accept or deny each one before it is cancelled and refunded. Business accounts choose under Payment Receiving Preferences whether to convert foreign payments automatically, keep them or block currencies they do not hold.

Where PayPal Works and Where It Doesn't

PayPal says it is available in more than 200 markets and supports 25 currencies, but not every market can receive in the same way. Pakistan and Bangladesh do not appear on PayPal's country list at all. In Nigeria you must link your account to a partner bank to receive money, and PayPal says personal payments to or from India are currently unavailable.

Check both ends before you ask someone to pay you. If PayPal cannot serve one side, a bank transfer to local account details or a remittance service is the route, and our guide to receiving money from abroad compares those options method by method.

Three Ways to Receive $1,000 or £1,000 From Abroad

The cheapest route depends on who converts and at what rate. This table prices the same two payments up to three ways: PayPal converting on the sender's side, the recipient converting inside PayPal, and the sender paying the recipient's Wise account details so the recipient converts at the mid-market rate.

PayPal quotes collected 5 November 2026 from the price comparison Wise publishes, against mid-market rates of 0.7412 pounds per dollar and 1.3494 dollars per pound at the same time. Wise conversion fees from Wise's own pricing the same day; the Wise rows exclude anything the sender's own bank charges for a domestic payment. The 3 percent row is our estimate from PayPal's US fee page. Rates move daily.

Paying local account details cut the loss from about $46 to about $3 on the dollar payment and from about £49 to under £4 on the pound payment. The sender also skips PayPal's international fee, because they make a domestic payment from their own bank: ACH in the US or Faster Payments in the UK.

Compare What the Sender Would Pay

If the person paying you would rather send from their bank, enter the amount and the two countries below to see what Wise, Remitly and Xe would deliver today, then set it against the amount PayPal shows them before they confirm.

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Recipient gets inIndia

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Can You Receive Money on PayPal Without a Bank Account?

Yes. You can receive money on PayPal without a bank account, because receiving only needs a PayPal account and a confirmed email. Getting the money out is harder: in the US you need a PayPal Balance account to hold and spend it, or a debit card or paper check to move it, and in the UK a debit card.

In the US: Open a PayPal Balance Account

A US personal account on its own cannot hold a balance, so money you receive has to go somewhere. A PayPal Balance account lets you keep it, spend it online, send it on and use the PayPal Debit Mastercard. To open one you must be 18 or over, live in the US, and have your name, address, date of birth and taxpayer identification number verified.

With the debit card you can spend the balance in shops and take cash from ATMs: free at MoneyPass ATMs in the US, up to $400 a day, and $2.50 at other ATMs, plus any fee the ATM operator adds. You can also have pay or government payments deposited straight into the Balance account. PayPal points out that it is a financial technology company, not a bank, and the card is issued by The Bancorp Bank.

Without a Balance Account: Debit Card or Paper Check

If you would rather not open a Balance account, PayPal's US user agreement gives three options for money you receive: move it to a linked bank account, move it to an eligible debit card, or have a paper check mailed to you. A standard transfer to a debit card is free, an instant one costs 1.75 percent, and a check costs $1.50.

A check must be cashed within 180 days of its issue date. If it is not, PayPal holds the money for you and keeps the $1.50. Card withdrawals are capped at $5,000 per transaction and $5,000 a day, so moving a large payment without a bank account can take several days.

In the UK: Spend the Balance or Withdraw to a Card

A UK account can keep what you receive as a balance, which you can spend wherever PayPal is accepted or send on to other people. To get it out without a bank account, withdraw to a debit card, which PayPal UK does for free when no currency conversion is involved.

Most UK debit cards sit on a bank account, so the no-bank route mostly suits people paid small amounts who spend them online. Foreign currency still has to be converted before it leaves, because a UK account withdraws only in pounds.

Limits Until You Verify

Unverified accounts hit limits sooner. PayPal UK says you may lose features such as the ability to send or receive money until you confirm your identity, and its user agreement lets it set a receiving limit that you lift by following the steps it gives you. In the US, completing two of three steps, verifying a bank account, linking and confirming a card or giving your Social Security number, may raise your withdrawal limit.

Our explainer on how PayPal works sets out the account types and what each one unlocks, including which checks lift which limits.

PayPal Payment on Hold or Pending: What It Means

A PayPal payment on hold or pending is not yet yours to spend. Unclaimed payments wait up to 30 days for you to accept them, eChecks take 4 to 7 business days to clear, and payments to sellers can be held for up to 21 days while PayPal checks the account, the buyer and the delivery.

Unclaimed and Unaccepted Payments

A payment shows as unclaimed when it went to an email address or phone number not linked to a confirmed PayPal account, and as pending when you have chosen not to accept some payments automatically. In both cases you have 30 days to act. After that PayPal cancels the payment and returns it to the sender, and a refund to a card can take up to 30 days to reach them.

The sender can cancel an unclaimed payment from their Activity page, but not one you are holding for review, which only you can accept or deny. If you are expecting money and see nothing, check that the sender used exactly the email address or number on your account.

eChecks: 4 to 7 Business Days

When a payment is funded straight from the sender's bank account, PayPal may process it as an eCheck, for example when the payment is unusual for that account. It stays pending until the sender's bank releases the money, usually 4 to 7 business days, not counting weekends and holidays.

PayPal's advice to sellers is plain: do not ship goods or deliver a service until the eCheck clears, because if it fails you will not be paid. The expected clearing date appears when you open the payment in your Activity.

Why PayPal Holds Seller Payments for Up to 21 Days

Holds hit goods and services payments, and PayPal lists the usual triggers: a new seller account, an account that has not sold for a while, complaints or refund requests, a sudden change in what or how much you sell, higher-risk items such as tickets, electronics and gift cards, and identity checks that are not finished.

You can release most holds early. Add tracking from an approved carrier and the money is released about 24 hours after delivery is confirmed; mark a service or digital item as completed and it is released 7 days later. In rare cases PayPal may still hold a payment for up to 21 days. Our guide to why PayPal transfers take so long covers the delays on the way out as well.

Verify Your Identity Before You Need the Money

PayPal checks your name, address and date of birth under what it calls its Customer Identification Process, and asks for documents when it cannot confirm them: a government-issued ID and proof of address issued within the last 12 months. In the app you can scan your ID and take a selfie; on the website you upload photos of the documents.

PayPal aims to review documents within 2 business days but says it may take longer, and unfinished verification is one of its listed reasons for holding a payment, so do it when you open the account.

Scams Aimed at People Receiving Money on PayPal

The scams aimed at people receiving money on PayPal all rely on a payment you cannot yet trust: an overpayment funded with a stolen card, a fake email saying money has arrived, or a buyer who controls the shipping. If a payment is reversed, PayPal's terms make you liable for the full amount plus fees.

Overpayment and Accidental Payment Scams

The most common trick on sellers is a buyer who pays more than the price and asks you to send back the difference, blaming a mistake, shipping costs or a tip. PayPal warns that the payment may come from a stolen card or bank account, and that even if it appears in your account it might not be safe to spend yet.

When the real account holder reports the payment, the money is taken back, and you lose the refund you sent, the item and the postage. A stranger who sends money by mistake and asks for it back by another method is often running the same play. PayPal's advice is never to wire money to people you do not know and to consider cancelling the order.

Fake Payment Emails and Invoices

Scammers also send emails made to look like PayPal saying a payment is waiting, or invoices and money requests for things you never ordered, often with a phone number to call. PayPal says not to reply, open links, download attachments or call numbers in suspicious messages, and to forward them to [email protected].

The only proof that you have been paid is the money showing in your PayPal account when you open the app or type the PayPal address into your browser yourself. If it is not there, you have not been paid, whatever the email says.

Shipping Tricks That Void Seller Protection

Buyers who want to keep the goods and the money ask you to use their courier account, send their own prepaid label, or reroute the parcel after it ships, then claim it never arrived. PayPal's Seller Protection requires you to ship to the address on the Transaction Details page, so a parcel sent anywhere else may not be covered. Use your own shipping account and ask your carrier to block rerouting.

Friends and Family Payments for Goods

A buyer who offers to pay as friends and family to save you the fee is giving up their own Purchase Protection and asking you to break PayPal's terms. Treat it as a warning sign rather than a favour. Our guide on whether PayPal is safe explains what each type of payment covers and who carries the risk.

Is PayPal the Best Way to Receive Money?

PayPal is the easiest way to receive money from someone who already uses it, and it is free for personal payments in your own currency. It is an expensive way to get paid across currencies or for work, where conversion takes 3 to 4 percent and seller fees run to almost 5 percent before the fixed fee.

PayPal: Our Rating

PayPal6.0

Read our review

Fees and exchange rates3.5

Transfer speed5.0

Safety and trust9.0

Service and quality6.0

Our rating reflects how PayPal works for the person being paid. It scores well on reach and safety: it is accepted almost everywhere online, and PayPal UK Ltd is authorised by the FCA as an electronic money institution. It scores low on cost whenever currency changes hands, because PayPal charges around 3 to 4 percent above the mid-market rate, while Wise charges a small fixed fee with no markup. Our PayPal review explains each score.

When It Makes Sense to Get Paid on PayPal

Use PayPal when the person paying you already has it, the amount is small and the money stays in one currency: splitting a bill, a gift from a relative in the same country, or a one-off sale where the buyer wants Purchase Protection. In the UK, ask friends to pay through Friends and Family rather than a request, and keep goods and services payments for real sales.

Look elsewhere when the payment crosses a currency or repeats every month. A freelancer paid $1,000 a month by a US client through a UK PayPal account could lose about $78 on each invoice, around $930 a year. Our PayPal vs Wise comparison runs the two side by side, and our guide on how to avoid PayPal fees covers the settings that cut the cost when you do use it.

Wise: Local Account Details Instead

Wise9.5

Read our reviewGo to Wise

Fees and exchange rates10.0

Transfer speed9.0

Safety and trust10.0

Service and quality9.5

Wise gives you account details to receive money in 22 currencies for free, including US routing and account numbers, a UK sort code and account number and a euro IBAN. A client or relative pays them with an ordinary domestic transfer, and receiving domestic payments in dollars, pounds, euros and six other currencies costs nothing.

You then convert at the mid-market rate whenever you choose, for a fee you see first: 0.33 percent to turn dollars into pounds and 0.36 percent from pounds to dollars on 5 November 2026. Wise is authorised by the FCA in the UK and is a licensed money transmitter in the US. Our Wise review covers the account, the card and its limits.

What Wise Cannot Do

Wise account details take bank transfers, so someone who only has a PayPal balance, or wants to pay you by credit card, cannot pay into them. There is no equivalent of PayPal's Purchase Protection for your buyers, which matters if you sell to strangers online, and payments that arrive by Swift carry the fixed fees above.

Wise also does not offer cash pickup, so it cannot help a relative with no account at all. For money from friends who already use PayPal in your own currency, PayPal stays free and simpler.

Bottom Line

To receive money on PayPal, give the sender your email address, mobile number or PayPal.Me link, or send a request or invoice, and confirm your email so the payment does not sit unclaimed. Personal payments in your own currency are free in the US and the UK. Sales cost about 3 to 5 percent plus, in most cases, a fixed fee, and any conversion takes 3 to 4 percent more.

Without a bank account you can still receive money, through a PayPal Balance account and its debit card in the US or a debit card in the UK. For money from abroad or from clients, local account details beat PayPal on price: $3.29 against $46.37 on $1,000 turned into pounds in our 5 November example.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• PayPal: US consumer fees
• PayPal: UK consumer fees
• PayPal: US merchant and business fees
• PayPal: UK merchant and business fees
• PayPal: US user agreement
• PayPal: UK user agreement
• PayPal: US PayPal Balance terms and conditions
• PayPal Help: How do I receive money through PayPal? (UK)
• PayPal Help: What is PayPal.Me? (UK)
• PayPal: request money (US)
• PayPal: request money (UK)
• PayPal: invoicing and invoice fees (US)
• PayPal Help: Why is the payment I sent pending or unclaimed?
• PayPal Help: Payment Receiving Preferences
• PayPal Help: Why is my payment on hold or unavailable?
• PayPal Help: What is an eCheck?
• PayPal Help: How do I confirm my identity? (US)
• PayPal Help: How do I confirm my identity? (UK)
• PayPal Help: Friends and family or goods and services payments
• PayPal Help: Common scams and how to spot them
• PayPal: countries and currencies
• Wise: fees for receiving money (US)
• Wise: fees for receiving money (UK)
• Wise: price comparison of banks and providers
• Wise Group plc: Q2 FY27 results, quarter to 30 September 2026
• FCA: financial services register