How to Get a PayPal Fees Report

To get a PayPal fees report, download your activity as CSV from Activity → Statements → Activity report (or Reports → Activity download) and total the Fee column by month. PayPal shows fees per transaction, not per month, so the monthly figure is one you build from the download.

Upload the PayPal activity download and ask "PayPal fees by month as a share of sales" — withdrawals and holds are left out for you.

Download the activity

In PayPal go to Activity → Statements → Activity report (older accounts: Reports → Activity download). Choose Completed payments or All transactions, pick the date range — up to 12 months per download — and CSV. The file arrives in the reports list after a few minutes.

Total the fees by month

Fee is negative on each payment. In Excel, add a month column from Date and a PivotTable with month in Rows and the sum of Fee and Gross in Values; fees as a share of sales is Fee ÷ Gross. Filter Type to payments first: withdrawals, transfers and currency conversions carry no fee but distort the Gross total.

Refunds and fees

When you refund a payment PayPal may not return the fixed part of the original fee, so a refunded sale can still cost you. Keep Payment Refund rows in: their Fee column shows what, if anything, came back.

Drop your file in and ask a question — no account needed.

Upload your spreadsheet.xlsx .xls .csv — free to try, no account

Or start with

PayPal fees by month as a share of sales How much did refunds cost us in fees?Which items have the highest fee share?Reconcile PayPal withdrawals against sales Net received per month after fees

See it on a sample file

What DataMimi shows for a PayPal activity download

1,875 rows, Jul 2025 – Aug 2026. Computed by DataMimi from a sample export with the same columns as yours — the data is invented, the figures are exactly what the app produces from it.

Open this sample in DataMimi

Ask the sample — no account

How much did PayPal fees cost us each month?What were refunds as a share of sales?Which items sell the most?Reconcile withdrawals against sales

What this export contains

Date

Time

TimeZone

Name

Type

Status

Currency

Gross

Fee

Net

From Email Address

To Email Address

Transaction ID

Item Title

Balance

What usually goes wrong with it

Withdrawals mixed in with sales
General Withdrawal and transfer rows sit in the same file with large negative Gross amounts, which makes a month look like a loss.
DataMimi It recognises a PayPal activity download by its headers and leaves withdrawals, conversions and holds out of sales, and says how many rows it left out.
Twelve months per download
A longer period needs several downloads that overlap if the dates are not set carefully.
DataMimi Several downloads can go into one analysis; a month sent twice is not counted twice.
Several currencies
Payments in other currencies appear with their own Currency value plus conversion rows, so one SUM adds dollars to euros.
DataMimi It groups by Currency before totalling and names each currency in the answer.
Fees are negative
The Fee column is negative on payments, so a total of "fees" comes out as a negative number unless it is flipped.
DataMimi It reports fees as a positive cost and as a percentage of gross sales.

Common questions

How do I get a PayPal fees report?

Download the activity report as CSV and total the Fee column by month. PayPal does not show a monthly fee total on its own.

How much does PayPal charge in fees?

It depends on the product and country; your activity download shows the exact fee on every transaction, which is the number to report.

How far back can I download PayPal activity?

Up to 12 months per download, and several years back in total. Run one download per year for longer periods.

Why does my PayPal total look negative?

Withdrawals to your bank are in the same file as sales. Leave out rows whose Type is a withdrawal or transfer before totalling.

Does PayPal refund its fee when I refund a customer?

Not always in full. The Fee column on the Payment Refund row shows what was returned.

Try it with your own file

DataMimi reads the file you actually have — merged cells, headers below row one, totals pasted at the bottom — and shows which rows and columns every number came from.

Ask about your file