Payments
Venmo Fees: When Venmo Charges and When It’s Free
Most Venmo payments are free — but the moment money changes hands for goods or services, the seller pays 1.75% of the payment, with a minimum fee of $0.25 and a maximum of $25. Instant transfers to your bank cost the same 1.75%; standard transfers are free. On a $100 sale the fee is $1.75 and the seller keeps $98.25. This guide maps exactly when Venmo charges and when it doesn’t, and explains why the minimum and the cap matter more than the headline percentage.
When Venmo is free
Ordinary payments between friends are free when they are funded from a Venmo balance, a linked bank account or a debit card. Moving money to your own bank the standard way is also free — it simply takes 1–3 business days to arrive. Most of what most Venmo users do, most of the time, costs nothing at all, which is exactly why the exceptions surprise people when they appear.
The goods and services fee: 1.75%
The moment a payment is for a purchase — flagged as goods and services, covered by Venmo’s purchase protection, or sent to a business profile — the seller pays 1.75% of the payment. The buyer pays nothing extra; the fee comes out of what the seller receives:
Venmo fee = 1.75% × amount — but never less than $0.25 and never more than $25You receive = amount − Venmo fee| Venmo transaction | Fee | Who pays |
|---|---|---|
| Payment for goods & services (incl. purchase protection, business profiles) | 1.75% of the amount, min $0.25, max $25.00 | The seller |
| Instant transfer to a bank account or eligible debit card | 1.75% of the amount, min $0.25, max $25.00 | The person transferring |
| Standard transfer to a bank account | Free (1–3 business days) | — |
| Sending money to friends using a credit card | 3% of the amount | The sender |
Source: Venmo’s published fees (venmo.com and the Venmo Help Centre fee pages). Last verified: November 2026
The minimum and the cap matter more than the percentage
The 1.75% only holds in the middle. Below about $14.29, the $0.25 minimum takes over: a $10 sale loses $0.25, which is 2.5%, and a $5 sale loses $0.25 too — a full 5%. Sellers of small items pay a higher rate than the headline, the same fixed-fee physics as every other platform on this site. Above about $1,428.57 the $25 cap takes over, and the effective rate starts falling: a $2,000 payment loses just $25, or 1.25%. Venmo is quietly one of the cheapest ways to be paid for large personal-scale transactions, and one of the pricier ways to be paid for tiny ones. The Venmo fee calculator applies the minimum and the cap automatically, so the figure it shows is the figure that will actually be deducted.
Instant transfers: the same fee again
Moving your balance to your bank instantly costs the same 1.75% (min $0.25, max $25) — charged to you, on top of whatever fee the original payment carried. A seller paid $500 for goods who then withdraws instantly pays twice: $8.75 on the payment and about $8.59 on the transfer of what remains. Patience is the discount: the standard transfer is free if you can wait the 1–3 business days. The instant fee is a price on urgency, and for most sellers urgency is rarely worth 1.75% of every sale.
Venmo vs PayPal: same owner, different price
Venmo is owned by PayPal, yet being paid through it costs far less than a PayPal commercial payment: 1.75% against 3.49% + $0.49 — $1.75 against $3.98 on a $100 sale, as our PayPal fees guide details. The difference is the product: PayPal’s rate is a full checkout rate for websites and invoices, while Venmo’s is an app-to-app rate. Against Cash App’s business pricing (2.75% on payments received), Venmo’s 1.75% also wins for sellers — though both apps converge on the same 1.75% ceiling for instant access to your money.
Should sellers ask buyers to pay as friends?
The fee invites the obvious workaround — asking buyers to send the money as a personal payment. It is a bad trade. Personal payments carry no purchase protection, so buyers are being asked to give up their safety net; and using personal payments for commercial sales breaches the platform’s terms, putting the account — and any balance in it — at risk. The 1.75% is, by platform standards, a modest price for protection and legitimacy.
Do the maths in seconds
Enter any payment amount to see the goods and services fee with the $0.25 minimum and $25 cap applied correctly — plus reverse mode for the amount to ask for when you need a set sum to arrive.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Venmo charge for a $100 payment?
For a goods and services payment, the fee on $100 is $1.75 and the seller receives $98.25. A personal payment of $100 between friends, funded from a balance, bank account or debit card, is free. An instant transfer of $100 to a bank account also costs $1.75.
Is Venmo free between friends?
Yes, when the payment is funded from a Venmo balance, a linked bank account or a debit card. Funding a personal payment with a credit card costs the sender 3%. Business payments are never free — payments for goods and services, including those to business profiles, carry the 1.75% seller fee.
Why was the fee on my $10 sale 2.5%, not 1.75%?
Because of the $0.25 minimum fee. Below about $14.29, 1.75% of the payment is less than $0.25, so the minimum applies instead — $0.25 on $10 is 2.5%, and on a $5 sale it is 5%. Small sales always carry a higher effective rate under a minimum fee.
How much does Venmo’s instant transfer cost?
Instant transfers cost 1.75% of the amount, with the same $0.25 minimum and $25 maximum as the goods and services fee. The standard transfer to a bank account is free and takes 1–3 business days — so the instant fee is purely the price of not waiting.