How to Create a PayPal.Me Link (and When to Use Payment Links)
Set up your paypal.me link, add an amount to it, and pick the right one of PayPal's three link types, with 2026 fees, protection rules and the checks that spot a fake.
A PayPal.Me link is a free, permanent address, paypal.me/yourname, that lets anyone with a PayPal account pay you without your email or phone number. You create it at paypal.com/paypalme with a name of up to 20 letters and numbers, which PayPal treats as effectively permanent, and you can add an amount or currency such as /25 or /25EUR. Because the payer needs a PayPal account, businesses whose customers pay by card should use a PayPal Payment Link, which accepts cards, Apple Pay and Venmo without a PayPal account. PayPal's one-time links expire after 10 days and do not belong in a bio. Goods and services payments cost 2.99% in the US and carry Purchase Protection; friends-and-family payments do not.
- Create your link at paypal.com/paypalme: up to 20 letters and numbers, and treat the name as permanent.
- Add an amount or currency to the URL, such as paypal.me/yourname/25 or /25EUR.
- The payer needs a PayPal account; a Payment Link accepts cards, Apple Pay and Venmo without one.
- Goods and services payments cost 2.99% in the US (checked September 2026) and are covered by Purchase Protection; friends and family is not.
- A real link redirects to paypal.com/paypalme, but check the name, photo and city too, since scammers have abused PayPal's own pages.
A PayPal.Me link is a free, permanent web address, paypal.me/yourname, that lets anyone with a PayPal account send you money without knowing your email or phone number. To create one, go to paypal.me, log in, choose a name of up to 20 letters and numbers, and save it. Add an amount to the end, like paypal.me/yourname/25, to request a set sum.
Before you put it in your bio or on an invoice, know its one real limitation: the person paying needs a PayPal account (PayPal help). If your customers might want to pay by card without one, a PayPal Payment Link is the better tool.
How to create your PayPal.Me link
- Go to paypal.com/paypalme and log in, or sign up for a free PayPal account.
- Choose your name. It can be up to 20 characters, letters A–Z and numbers 0–9 only, with no spaces, dashes or symbols. It is not case-sensitive.
- Confirm your photo and display name, then save.
- Copy your link:
paypal.me/yourname.
Forgotten a link you made years ago? It appears in your account's profile settings. Each PayPal account gets one PayPal.Me link, names are first come, first served, and anyone who opens the link sees your name or business name, profile photo and city (PayPal.Me FAQ, terms).
Choose the name carefully. PayPal's FAQ says a PayPal.Me link cannot be changed once it is created and can only be turned off, though the same page says you can contact PayPal to ask. Treat the name as permanent, and if you are a business, use the business name rather than a personal nickname.
PayPal.Me works on personal and business accounts. On a business account, every payment to your link is a goods and services payment, which matters for fees and protection (below).
How to add an amount or currency to the link
PayPal documents two formats in its FAQ:
paypal.me/yourname/25requests 25.00 in your account's default currency.paypal.me/yourname/25EURrequests 25 euros. Use the three-letter currency code.
Fixed amounts suit fixed prices: a $40 deposit, a $15 class fee, a set tip. There is no official parameter for a note or memo. Open your own link on a phone before sharing it, because the way the amount appears to the payer has changed across PayPal redesigns.
PayPal.Me vs Payment Links vs PayPal links
PayPal now has three things called some version of "link", and they do different jobs.
| PayPal.Me | Payment Links | PayPal links (one-time) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Looks like | paypal.me/yourname | A checkout page for a product | A single link from the app |
| Who creates it | Any PayPal account | Business accounts | Account holders, in the app |
| Payer needs a PayPal account | Yes | No: card, Apple Pay, Venmo (US) accepted | Yes |
| Amount | Any, or set in the URL | Fixed, or customer enters it | Fixed |
| Shipping and tax | No | Yes | No |
| Works in a bio | Yes | Yes | No: one use, expires after 10 days |
PayPal.Me is a "send me money" link. Use it for tips, deposits, invoices for regulars, and customers who already pay with PayPal.
Payment Links are a hosted checkout for a product or service. From a business account, go to Pay & Get Paid, then Payment Links and Buttons, and add a name, a price (or let the customer enter one), an optional image, variants, shipping and tax. PayPal gives you a link and a QR code. Customers can pay by card, Apple Pay, Pay Later or, in the US, Venmo, with "no PayPal account needed", and the same link works for any number of buyers (PayPal). Change the price later and the shared link updates.
PayPal links launched in September 2025 as one-time links created in the PayPal app. Each can be paid once and expires if nobody accepts it within 10 days (PayPal help). They are handy for a one-off request in a chat and useless in a bio, where the link has to work for everyone. PayPal.Me still exists alongside them.
PayPal fees in 2026
Receiving money through PayPal.Me costs nothing when someone sends it as a personal payment to friends and family. Payments for goods and services carry a fee. From PayPal's US business fee page, checked September 2026 (confirm there before you set prices):
| When a customer pays you with… | Rate | Fee on a $50 sale |
|---|---|---|
| PayPal.Me, as goods and services | 2.99% | $1.50 |
| Your PayPal seller QR code | 2.29% + $0.09 | $1.24 |
| A card, through a Payment Link or checkout | 2.99% + $0.49 | $1.99 |
| PayPal, through a Payment Link or checkout | 3.49% + $0.49 | $2.24 |
| Any of the above, from another country | +1.50% | +$0.75 |
PayPal's Payment Links page quotes the same percentages with a lower fixed fee, $0.10, and says the fixed fee varies by currency. Check the fee on your first real sale. If the payer uses a different currency, PayPal also builds a conversion spread into the exchange rate: 4% for goods and services payments, 3% for others.
For US tax reporting, PayPal sends a Form 1099-K once you pass the IRS threshold of more than $20,000 and more than 200 transactions in a year. You must report the income whether or not you receive the form.
Friends and family vs goods and services
When someone pays a personal account's PayPal.Me link, they may be asked whether they are paying a friend or paying for an item or service. That choice decides who is protected.
- Friends and family has no fee for you and no Purchase Protection for the payer. PayPal says personal payments are for gifts, splitting bills and the like, and are not covered if something goes wrong (PayPal help).
- Goods and services carries the fee, and the buyer can file an eligible claim within 180 days if an item does not arrive or is significantly not as described (Purchase Protection).
If you are selling something, ask for goods and services and set your price to cover the fee. Asking customers to pay as friends and family to save 2.99% strips out their protection, and careful buyers notice. Seller Protection has conditions of its own, such as shipping to the address on the transaction and keeping proof of delivery (Seller Protection).
How to tell a real PayPal link from a fake
A real PayPal.Me link opens www.paypal.com/paypalme/yourname, because paypal.me redirects there. The PayPal domain alone proves little, though. In 2025 scammers used PayPal's own no-code checkout links to push fake support phone numbers through search ads (Malwarebytes).
For payers, the checks are:
- The page shows the name, photo and city you expect for that seller.
- You found the link on the seller's own profile or website, not in an ad or an unsolicited message.
- Nobody is pushing you to pay as friends and family for a purchase.
- If anything feels off, log in to PayPal directly instead of through the link. PayPal's phishing guide covers more.
For sellers, the best defence is to publish your link in one place customers already trust, such as your own website or bio page, and point everything else there.
Putting your PayPal link in your bio
Instagram allows up to five links in a bio: Edit profile, Links, then Add external link. Many other profiles give you a single website field. And PayPal shows you each payment, not which post or profile sent the payer.
A link-in-bio page solves the one-link limit: a single address for every profile, with PayPal beside your other ways to pay and your booking or product links. For a stall or counter, PayPal's app can show a seller QR code, or you can make one for your PayPal.Me link with our free PayPal QR code generator. Print it big enough to scan from where customers stand; our QR code size guide has the numbers.
On Whooshly, you add PayPal to a free link-in-bio page by typing your PayPal.Me name. The button is built from that name, so it can only ever open paypal.me, and it sits beside Venmo, Cash App and 25 other methods, with taps counted per method. Whooshly never touches the money or takes a cut. For customers without a PayPal account, add a Stripe Payment Link (shown as "Pay by card"), or your PayPal Payment Link as an ordinary link.
