Braintree
- Braintree's card rate is 2.89% + $0.29, published on PayPal's own enterprise fee page and verified 2 August 2026
- Stripe's US card rate is confirmed at 2.9% + $0.30, one hundredth of a point and one cent away from Braintree
- There's no real price difference between Braintree and Stripe domestically. The gap is two cents on a $100 order, six cents on a $500 order. Any page that picks between them on cost is picking noise
- On international volume there is one. Braintree adds +1% for cards issued outside the US. Stripe adds +1.5%. That half-point is fifty times the domestic gap, and it's the only cost difference here worth a decision
- Choose on features. Braintree for native PayPal and Venmo in one integration. Stripe for the broader product surface and better docs
- Braintree charges $15 per dispute, not stated to be refunded on a win
- braintreepayments.com now redirects to paypal.com. Braintree is sold as part of PayPal's enterprise offering, not as a standalone brand
Braintree is PayPal's developer-focused payment platform. It gives you a modern API with built-in PayPal and Venmo checkout. Best for businesses that want multiple payment methods without multiple integrations.
Every Braintree fee on this page was read from PayPal's own fee page on 2 August 2026: paypal.com/us/enterprise/paypal-braintree-fees. That page carries its own stamp of "Last Updated: May 7, 2026."
braintreepayments.com now 301-redirects to paypal.com. Braintree pricing lives on PayPal's site. That's where the numbers below come from.
When to Use Braintree
You should use Braintree if:
- You want cards, PayPal, and Venmo in one integration
- You have developers on your team
- You're targeting a customer base where Venmo matters
- You want the full Venmo checkout experience, which PayPal Checkout alone doesn't give you
Skip Braintree if:
- You don't have developers (Stripe or Square are easier)
- You're primarily card-present (Square is better)
- You don't need PayPal or Venmo. In that case Stripe is the same price with more product around it
Pricing Breakdown
Published Rates
| Transaction Type | Rate |
|---|---|
| Cards and digital wallets | 2.89% + $0.29 |
| Venmo | 3.49% + $0.49 |
| ACH Direct Debit | 0.75%, capped at $5.00 |
| Same-day ACH | 1.5% + $0.10 |
| ACH returned or disputed | $5.00 |
| Non-USD currency | +1% |
| Cards issued outside the US | +1% |
| Disputes | $15.00, not stated to be refunded on a win |
Source: paypal.com/us/enterprise/paypal-braintree-fees, verified 2 August 2026.
Braintree's card rate is 2.89% + $0.29. If you find 2.59% + $0.49 anywhere, it's wrong, and it doesn't just shift the comparison - it reverses the shape of it.
A lower percentage with a higher fixed fee produces a breakeven. Under those wrong numbers Braintree looks cheaper above roughly a $61 ticket and dearer below it, so any comparison built on them hands you a threshold to optimise around. Under the real numbers both components are lower than Stripe's. Braintree is marginally cheaper at every ticket size, and no breakeven exists at all.
So there's no breakeven to recompute. The honest answer is that the domestic difference is too small to decide anything.
What Is Not Published
| Fee | Status |
|---|---|
| Card-present rate | Not separately published. The card rate above covers cards and digital wallets |
| Keyed-in rate | Not separately published |
| Monthly fee | Not published |
| Setup fee | Not published |
| Instant payout | Not published |
| Volume threshold or discount schedule | Not published |
| PayPal-wallet rate through Braintree | Not separately broken out on the fee page |
Five figures get quoted for Braintree that aren't on PayPal's Braintree fee page. $0 monthly, $0 setup, $0.05 per transaction for advanced fraud tools, $0.10 per card for account updater, and a $250K/month negotiation threshold with a 0.1 to 0.4% discount.
Ask Braintree sales, in writing: whether there's any monthly minimum. What a Venmo or PayPal-wallet transaction really costs against a card. What the fraud tooling costs. And whether the $15 dispute fee is ever refunded.
Braintree vs Stripe on Price: The Whole Answer
Braintree 2.89% + $0.29. Stripe 2.9% + $0.30.
| Order value | Braintree | Stripe | Braintree saves |
|---|---|---|---|
| $20 | $0.868 | $0.880 | $0.012 |
| $50 | $1.735 | $1.750 | $0.015 |
| $100 | $3.180 | $3.200 | $0.020 |
| $500 | $14.740 | $14.800 | $0.060 |
At $100,000 a month with a $100 average ticket, Braintree costs $3,180 and Stripe costs $3,200. Twenty dollars.
That's 0.02% of volume. Less than one dispute fee. Smaller than the month-to-month variance in your card mix. Choosing a processor on that gap isn't cost optimisation. It's noise.
That verdict is domestic only, and the international picture is genuinely different.
| Surcharge | Braintree | Stripe |
|---|---|---|
| Cards issued outside the US | +1% | +1.5% |
| Currency conversion | +1% | +1% |
Half a percentage point on international cards is fifty times the domestic gap this whole section just called noise. On a book that's 30% international, that's $150 a month on $100,000 of volume, against the $20 the domestic comparison argues over. If you sell across borders, this is the number to decide on, not the third decimal place of the domestic rate.
The recommendation: choosing between Stripe and Braintree, ignore price. Decide on what you need. Native PayPal and Venmo in one integration is Braintree. The broader product surface, better docs and deeper subscription tooling is Stripe.
What Braintree Does Well
1. Multiple Payment Methods, One Integration
Braintree includes in one SDK:
- Credit and debit cards
- PayPal
- Venmo
- Apple Pay and Google Pay
- ACH
Integrate once instead of Stripe plus a PayPal button plus Venmo. That's real engineering time saved. At these rates it's the actual argument for Braintree.
2. Developer Experience
Braintree's API is clearly better than PayPal's legacy one. Modern SDKs, reliable webhooks, sensible error messages. It's still narrower than Stripe's. But that gap is much smaller than the one between Braintree and PayPal classic.
3. Full Venmo Checkout
Venmo can appear as an option inside PayPal Checkout. The full Venmo checkout runs through Braintree. If Venmo matters to your customers, that's the reason to pick Braintree. It isn't a price reason.
Note the rate. Venmo is 3.49% + $0.49, not the 2.89% + $0.29 card rate. That's 0.60% plus 20 cents more than a card. On a $60 order, about 56 cents. Venmo is worth it only if offering it adds sales. Shifting them off a cheaper method doesn't count.
4. ACH at 0.75% Capped at $5
Braintree's ACH is genuinely cheap for large tickets. A $5,000 ACH payment costs $5.00, against $144.79 on cards. For B2B invoicing this is the single biggest cost lever on the page.
What Braintree Does Poorly
1. Venmo and Wallet Rates Are Higher Than Cards
Venmo at 3.49% + $0.49 is 0.60% + $0.20 more than a card. Shift a real chunk of checkout from cards to Venmo and your blended rate goes up. Model your method mix before assuming the card rate is what you'll pay.
2. Less Is Published Than With Stripe
Stripe publishes a monthly fee of $0, explicitly. Braintree's fee page doesn't address monthly fees, setup fees, instant payouts or volume discounts at all. That isn't evidence of hidden fees. It does mean the answers come from a salesperson, not a web page.
3. Still PayPal
Braintree has PayPal's risk posture. Account holds happen, though less often than with PayPal direct. Support is better than PayPal's and thinner than Stripe's.
4. Smaller Product Surface Than Stripe
Braintree's subscription billing exists but is less mature. There's no equivalent to Stripe's revenue recognition tooling, tax product, or breadth of marketplace integrations.
Who Braintree Is Best For
Perfect Fit
| Business Type | Why Braintree Wins |
|---|---|
| Multi-method checkout | Cards, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay in one SDK |
| Venmo-relevant audiences | Full Venmo checkout, which PayPal Checkout alone doesn't provide |
| B2B with large invoices | ACH at 0.75% capped at $5 |
| Developer-led teams already on PayPal | Much better API than PayPal classic |
Poor Fit
| Business Type | Better Alternative |
|---|---|
| Card-only | Stripe. Same price, more product |
| Card-present retail | Square |
| Non-technical | Square or PayPal |
| Cost-optimising at volume | Helcim or Stax. Both publish rates well below 2.89% all-in above roughly $50K a month |
Common Gotchas
1. The Fixed Fee Is 29 Cents, Not 49
The 49 cent figure belongs to Venmo and PayPal Checkout, not to Braintree card processing. Model Braintree at $0.49 a card transaction and you overstate your cost by 20 cents each. At 5,000 transactions a month that's $1,000 of imaginary cost.
2. Venmo Is US-Only
Venmo only works for US customers. If most of yours are international, the Venmo argument disappears. You're left choosing between two processors that cost the same.
3. Two Separate +1% Surcharges Can Stack
Cards issued outside the US add 1%. Non-USD currency adds 1%. A EUR-denominated payment on a European-issued card is 2.89% + 2% + $0.29, which is 4.89% + $0.29. That's PayPal-Checkout territory. Braintree's advertised card rate is a domestic-USD rate.
4. Subscription Billing Is Less Mature
Proration is manual, there's no usage-based billing, and dunning logic is simpler. For complex subscription businesses, Stripe Billing is better.
5. The Dispute Fee Is Not Stated to Be Refundable
$15 per dispute. Nothing on the fee page says it comes back if you win. Compare Helcim, which charges $0 when the case resolves in your favour. And Square, which publishes a flat $0.
Test to Run
Braintree vs Stripe decision. It shouldn't be a cost exercise.
Step 1: Kill the cost question in five minutes
- Take your monthly card volume and transaction count
- Braintree:
(volume x 0.0289) + (count x 0.29) - Stripe:
(volume x 0.029) + (count x 0.30) - The difference will be roughly 0.02% of volume. Write it down and then stop treating cost as the deciding factor
Step 2: Price the method mix, which is where the real money is 5. Estimate what share of checkout would move to Venmo if you offered it: ____% 6. Venmo costs 0.60% + $0.20 more than a card. Multiply 7. Estimate what share of your volume could move to ACH: ____% 8. ACH saves you roughly 2.14% capped at $5 per transaction. Multiply 9. For most B2B merchants, step 7 dwarfs everything else on this page
Step 3: Price the integration 10. One Braintree integration against Stripe plus a separate PayPal integration 11. Multiply the hours saved by your developer rate. This number is usually larger than the annual processing difference
Success criteria: you chose on payment methods and engineering time, not on 0.02%.
Scale Callout
Any volume, Braintree vs Stripe:
- The cost difference stays at roughly 0.02% of volume at every scale. It never becomes a reason to switch
- Decide on methods and engineering, then stop
Above roughly $50K/month:
- The real cost question isn't Braintree against Stripe, it's flat-rate against interchange-plus
- Helcim publishes IC + 0.45% + $0.20 online in the $50K-$100K band. On a typical card mix that lands well under 2.89%
- Stax charges no percentage markup at all above its subscription
- If you need Venmo, you pay the flat-rate premium for it. That's a legitimate trade. Price it so you know what Venmo costs you
Above $250K/month:
- Braintree publishes no volume threshold or discount schedule. Ask anyway, with a competing quote
- Get any offer as interchange-plus so you can audit it
Where This Breaks
-
Braintree and Stripe cost the same. If you came here to find the cheaper one, the question has no useful answer. Decide on features.
-
Method mix moves your rate more than processor choice does. Venmo at 3.49% + $0.49 against cards at 2.89% + $0.29 is a bigger swing than anything between processors.
-
International stacks. Two separate 1% surcharges can apply to the same transaction.
-
Little is published. No monthly fee, no volume schedule, no instant payout terms. You have to ask.
-
Both are flat-rate. Above roughly $50K a month the money is in moving to interchange-plus. Not in choosing between two flat-rate processors that differ by two cents.
Braintree vs Stripe: Summary
| Factor | Braintree | Stripe |
|---|---|---|
| Card rate | 2.89% + $0.29 | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Cost difference | About 0.02% of volume | About 0.02% of volume |
| PayPal and Venmo | Native, one integration | Separate integration |
| Venmo rate | 3.49% + $0.49 | Not offered |
| ACH | 0.75% capped at $5 | Published separately by Stripe |
| Disputes | $15, refund not stated | $15 received (never returned) + $15 countered |
| API quality | Good | Excellent |
| Subscription billing | Basic | Advanced |
| Documentation | Good | Excellent |
| Monthly fee | Not published | $0, stated explicitly |
Choose Braintree if you need native PayPal or Venmo, or you're moving significant volume to ACH. Choose Stripe if you're card-focused, need advanced subscription features, or value the documentation. Don't choose either on price. They're the same price.
Next Steps
Considering Braintree?
- Read the Braintree documentation to gauge complexity
- Confirm current rates yourself at paypal.com/us/enterprise/paypal-braintree-fees
- Ask sales for the monthly minimum, the PayPal-wallet rate, and the fraud tooling cost. None of the three is published
- Estimate Venmo uptake, and price it at 3.49% + $0.49
Already on Braintree?
- Check your method split: cards, PayPal, Venmo, ACH
- Move whatever you can to ACH. At 0.75% capped at $5 it's the cheapest thing on your rate card
- Don't switch to Stripe for pricing. There's nothing there
Switching from Braintree?
- Switch for features or support, not for two cents
- If cost is the driver, look at Helcim or Stax, not Stripe
- Evaluate whether losing full Venmo checkout hurts conversion
See Also
- Stripe - Same price, different product
- PayPal - Parent company
- Helcim - Where the actual savings are above $50K/month
- Processor Comparison - Full comparison
- Buying Payments - Selection framework
- Digital Wallets - PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay
- Checkout Conversion - Payment method optimization