PayPal international transfers from Australia: the exact fee table

Who operates PayPal in Australia

PayPal Australia Pty Ltd operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence and is registered with AUSTRAC for the payment and transfer services it provides in Australia. The AFSL and AUSTRAC framework is what governs PayPal's international-transfer feature, and it's the same regulatory basis that covers Xoom, PayPal's separate remittance brand, discussed below.

Anyone checking a provider's licence status before sending a large amount can confirm the specific licence number against the public ASIC and AUSTRAC registers directly.

The send fee — 5%, capped between $0.99 and $5.99

PayPal's own fee table, titled "Fee Table: Sending international personal transactions" (paypal.com/au/digital-wallet/paypal-consumer-fees, as at September 2026), sets out the send fee for a personal international transfer as: "5.00% of the send amount, but no lower than 0.99 AUD, and no higher than 5.99 AUD," when funded by your PayPal balance or a linked Australian bank account, with no separate funding fee on top.

Because the fee is capped, it behaves like a flat fee above a certain amount rather than a straight percentage. On a AUD 1,000 transfer, 5.00% would be AUD 50 — but the cap brings it down to AUD 5.99. On a AUD 20 transfer, 5.00% is AUD 1.00, which the AUD 0.99 floor barely touches. The cap matters most on mid-size and larger personal transfers, where it keeps the send fee itself small relative to the amount.

Funding by card changes the fee

PayPal's same fee table adds a second row for transfers funded by a card: the 5.00% (capped $0.99-$5.99) send fee still applies, but a separate funding fee is added — "2.6% of the portion funded by the card plus a fixed fee based on currency" (paypal.com/au/digital-wallet/paypal-consumer-fees, as at September 2026).

That means funding by card is more expensive than funding from your PayPal balance or a linked bank account, on top of whatever currency-conversion fee applies below. If you have a choice of funding source, PayPal's own table shows balance or bank-account funding avoids this extra card-funding charge entirely.

The currency-conversion fee — a separate, additive charge

This is the part most easily missed if the send fee is read as the whole cost. PayPal's own page states: "For any of the following transactions that involve a currency conversion in connection with your PayPal account, the currency conversion fee is 4.0%" — and specifically lists "Sending money to a friend or family member where they receive a different currency from the currency you pay in" as one of those transactions. "For all other PayPal transactions involving a currency conversion, the currency conversion fee is 3.0%" (paypal.com/au/digital-wallet/paypal-consumer-fees, as at September 2026).

This fee sits on top of the send fee above — it is not an alternative to it. A transfer that involves converting AUD into a foreign currency for a friend or family member carries both the capped send fee and the separate 4.0% conversion fee; combining the two into a single blended estimate understates what a currency-converting transfer actually costs.

A worked illustration

Take a AUD 1,000 personal transfer to a friend overseas who will receive a different currency, funded from your PayPal balance or a linked bank account (no card-funding charge applies). Per PayPal's own fee table: the send fee is 5.00% of AUD 1,000 — AUD 50 — but the AUD 5.99 cap brings it down to AUD 5.99. Separately, because the recipient is receiving a different currency, PayPal's currency-conversion fee of 4.0% applies. These are two separate line items on PayPal's own fee table, and the total cost of the transfer is the sum of both, not either one alone.

This is an illustration of how PayPal's own published structure applies, not a quote from a specific calculator run — the exact conversion-fee outcome for your own transfer depends on the currencies involved and is confirmed inside PayPal's checkout flow before you send.

Personal transfers versus goods and services

The fee table above applies specifically to what PayPal calls a "personal transaction" — money sent through the Friends and Family option "without making an underlying donation or commercial transaction (that is, the payment is not for the purchase of goods or services or for making any other commercial transaction)" (paypal.com/au/digital-wallet/paypal-consumer-fees, as at September 2026).

Paying for goods or services through PayPal is charged under a separate merchant fee schedule on the same fee page, which is a different table from the one covered here — if you're paying a supplier or making a purchase rather than sending money to family, check that section of PayPal's fee page instead.

Xoom: PayPal's dedicated remittance service

PayPal owns Xoom, a separate international money-transfer brand run by the same Australian entity and AFSL. Xoom is built specifically around remittance-style payout options — bank deposit, cash pickup and mobile wallet — that PayPal's main Friends and Family transfer feature doesn't offer, and it publishes its own fee and exchange-rate structure rather than using the fee table above.

If you're deciding between the two PayPal-owned options for the same transfer, it's worth running the same amount and corridor through Xoom's own calculator separately, since its fee and margin can differ from what PayPal's main transfer feature charges for the identical send. A full breakdown of what Xoom itself publishes is in the linked review below.

Transfer limits

PayPal's public fee page doesn't publish a specific dollar sending limit — limits are tied to your account type and verification level and are shown inside your own logged-in account rather than on the public fee page. If a specific limit is what you need, checking your account's own settings, or PayPal's help centre, is the direct way to find the figure that applies to you.

What are PayPal's fees for sending money overseas?

Two separate charges apply to a personal international transfer: a send fee of 5.00% of the amount (capped between AUD 0.99 and AUD 5.99), and a currency-conversion fee of 4.0% if the recipient receives a different currency to the one you pay in, or 3.0% for other PayPal conversions. Funding by card adds a further 2.6%-of-card-portion charge. These add together rather than replacing each other.

What are PayPal's friends and family fees in Australia?

PayPal's Friends and Family option is what its fee table calls a personal transaction. For an international send in this category, the published send fee is 5.00% of the amount, capped between AUD 0.99 and AUD 5.99, plus a separate currency-conversion fee (4.0% or 3.0% depending on the transaction type) if a currency conversion is involved.

Is PayPal's international transfer fee just the currency-conversion fee?

No — PayPal charges the send fee and the currency-conversion fee separately, and both can apply to the same transfer. Reading only the conversion-fee percentage, or only the send fee, understates the total cost of a transfer that both moves money and converts currency.

Does funding by card cost more on PayPal?

Yes. PayPal's fee table adds a funding fee of 2.6% of the card-funded portion, plus a fixed fee based on currency, on top of the standard send fee — this doesn't apply if you fund from your PayPal balance or a linked Australian bank account instead.

Is PayPal regulated in Australia?

Yes. PayPal Australia operates under an Australian Financial Services Licence and is registered with AUSTRAC for its payment and transfer services — the same regulatory basis that also covers Xoom, PayPal's separate remittance brand.