PayPal Crypto Fees vs Coinbase
PayPal now lets you buy bitcoin and other crypto.
Coinbase also allows you to buy crypto using PayPal.
Which has cheaper fees?
I did test transactions on both, and here are my results.
Here is the short answer:
Key Takeaways
- I used my bank account as a payment method for both for this test.
- PayPal was 0.2% cheaper than Coinbase in my testing.
- PayPal charged a higher fee, but Coinbase took more in the spread.
Now for the longer answer:
Coinbase
- Amount of Bitcoin: 0.01667265 BTC
- Exchange rate: $29,548.99 / BTC
- Price of Purchase: $492.66
- Coinbase Fee: $7.34
- Total Price: $500.00
PayPal
- Amount of Bitcoin: 0.01670742 BTC
- Exchange rate: $29,397.72 / BTC
- Price of Purchase: $491.16
- Transaction Fee: $8.84
- Total Price: $500.00
Comparison
Bitcoin Amount: The PayPal order was giving me a slightly higher amount of Bitcoin (0.01670742 BTC) for my $500 compared to the 1st order (0.01667265 BTC).
Exchange Rate: As you can see in my screenshot, Coinbase is charging a higher exchange rate ($29,548.99 / BTC) compared to the 2nd order ($29,397.72 / BTC). This means that the price of Bitcoin is higher on Coinbase, meaning you get slightly less bitcoin.
Fees: The Coinbase fee in the 1st order is $7.34, whereas the transaction fee in the PayPal order is slightly higher at $8.84.
Total Price: Both orders have a total price of $500.00, but you get a marginally higher amount of Bitcoin with PayPal due to its lower exchange rate, despite its slightly higher fee.