Stripe processed $1.9 trillion in total payment volume in 2025, ahead of PayPal’s $1.79 trillion on the same calendar year, reshaping the head-to-head between the two largest internet payment companies according to Stripe’s 2025 annual letter and PayPal’s full-year 2025 earnings release. The crossover lands as Stripe shows investment in agentic commerce while PayPal captures a repositioning under new leadership.
Key Takeaways
- Stripe businesses generated $1.9 trillion in total volume in 2025, up 34% from 2024 and equivalent to roughly 1.6% of global GDP, according to Stripe’s 2025 annual letter.
- PayPal recorded $1.79 trillion in full-year 2025 total payment volume, up 7% year over year (6% currency-neutral), per PayPal’s Q4 and full-year 2025 earnings release.
- PayPal active accounts reached 439 million by the end of Q1 2026, after adding 4.7 million active accounts during 2025.
- Stripe powers more than 5 million businesses at a $159 billion (€135 billion) valuation.
- Stripe’s customer footprint includes 90% of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and 80% of the Nasdaq 100.
- PayPal returned $6.0 billion to stockholders by repurchasing approximately 100 million shares of common stock on a trailing 12-month basis ending Q1 2026.
- Stripe’s standard US online rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction versus PayPal Checkout at 3.49% + fixed fee.
Editor’s Choice
- PayPal full-year 2025 TPV: $1.79 trillion, up 7% year over year.
- Stripe 2025 total volume: $1.9 trillion, up 34% from 2024.
- PayPal Q1 2026 net revenues: $8.4 billion, up 7% year over year.
- PayPal Q1 2026 payment transactions: 6.5 billion, up 7% year over year.
- Stripe employee tender offer valuation: $159 billion (€135 billion).
- PayPal full-year 2025 free cash flow: $5.6 billion, with operating cash flow of $6.4 billion.
- Stripe’s Revenue suite is on track to hit an annual run rate of $1 billion this year.
Recent Developments
- May 2026: PayPal Q1 results. PayPal reported Q1 2026 total payment volume of $464.0 billion (up 11%, 8% currency-neutral), payment transactions of 6.5 billion, and net revenues of $8.4 billion.
- May 2026: Stripe tender offer. Stripe signed agreements with investors including Thrive Capital, Coatue, and a16z to provide liquidity to current and former employees through a tender offer at a $159 billion valuation.
- September 2025: Tempo blockchain. Stripe unveiled Tempo, a blockchain purpose-built for payments, incubated together with Paradigm.
- July 2025: Privy acquisition. Stripe acquired Privy, which powers more than 110 million programmable wallets.
- February 2026: PayPal FY 2025 results. PayPal closed 2025 with full-year TPV of $1.79 trillion, net revenues that grew 4% in Q4 to $8.7 billion, and GAAP EPS up 38% to $1.53 in Q4.
- 2025: Agentic Commerce Protocol. Stripe and OpenAI co-developed the Agentic Commerce Protocol to establish a shared technical language between AI platforms and businesses.
Total Payment Volume Head-to-Head
- Stripe businesses generated $1.9 trillion in total volume during 2025.
- PayPal recorded $1.79 trillion in full-year 2025 TPV.
- Stripe’s 2025 volume is equivalent to roughly 1.6% of global GDP.
- PayPal Q4 2025 alone processed $475.1 billion in TPV, up 9% year over year (6% currency-neutral).
- PayPal Q1 2026 TPV was $464.0 billion, up 11% year over year (8% currency-neutral).
- Stripe’s volume sat ahead of PayPal’s by the difference between the two disclosed totals on the 2025 calendar year.
- Of PayPal’s FY 2025 payment transactions, 16.1 billion were branded (ex-PSP), up 6% year over year, while total transactions were 25.4 billion.
- The crossover answers the most common question readers bring to this comparison: which platform is bigger by volume? In 2025, that title shifted from PayPal to Stripe.
| Metric (2025 full year) | Stripe | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Total payment volume | $1.9 trillion | $1.79 trillion |
| Year-over-year growth | +34% | +7% (FXN: +6%) |
| Equivalent to % of global GDP | ~1.6% | ~1.5% (derived from same base) |
| Q4 2025 TPV | not disclosed | $475.1 billion |
Source: Stripe 2025 annual letter (stripe.com/newsroom/news/stripe-2025-update); PayPal Q4 + FY 2025 earnings release (investor.pypl.com).
By the numbers: Stripe’s 2025 annual letter reports businesses running on Stripe generated $1.9 trillion in total volume, up 34% year over year, moving past PayPal’s $1.79 trillion in full-year TPV and putting Stripe at roughly 1.6% of global GDP.
Payment Volume Growth Rate: Comparing YoY Momentum
- Stripe’s 2025 total volume was up 34% from 2024.
- PayPal’s FY 2025 TPV grew 7% year over year (6% currency-neutral).
- Stripe’s volume growth rate ran at roughly 4.9x PayPal’s pace through 2025.
- PayPal’s Q1 2026 TPV grew 11% year over year (8% currency-neutral).
- PayPal’s Q1 2026 payment transactions grew 7% to 6.5 billion.
- PayPal’s FY 2025 TPV finished at 6% currency-neutral growth, with Q4 2025 TPV at 6% FXN against a 9% reported gain.
- Companies in Stripe’s 2025 customer cohort grew around 50% faster than the 2024 cohort.
Active Users vs. Active Businesses
- PayPal counted 439 million active accounts at the end of Q1 2026, up 1% year over year.
- PayPal added 4.7 million active accounts during 2025, finishing the year at 439 million.
- Stripe powers more than 5 million businesses directly or via platforms.
- Stripe’s customer base includes all of the top AI companies, 90% of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and 80% of the Nasdaq 100.
- 25% of all Delaware corporations are now created with Stripe Atlas.
- PayPal’s Q1 2026 payment transactions grew 7% to 6.5 billion alongside active-account growth of 1% to 439 million.
- The unit comparison is asymmetric. PayPal counts consumer and merchant accounts together; Stripe counts businesses. Direct equivalence is impossible, which is part of why the volume figure has become the cleaner head-to-head metric.
- PayPal’s Q4 2025 active-account growth was +1.1%, or 4.7 million new accounts on the year.
For users who think of these companies primarily through peer-to-peer (P2P) channels, the comparison breaks differently. PayPal owns Venmo, the dominant US P2P brand, which the active-account figure includes. Stripe runs no consumer P2P product; its business-count figure is pure business-to-business infrastructure.
Valuation and Market Cap: Public PayPal vs. Private Stripe
- Stripe’s employee tender offer valued the company at $159 billion (€135 billion).
- Investors in the tender offer include Thrive Capital, Coatue, a16z, and others; Stripe also used a portion of its own capital to repurchase shares.
- PayPal is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker PYPL, with cash, cash equivalents, and investments of $13.5 billion as of March 31, 2026.
- PayPal’s debt totaled $11.6 billion as of March 31, 2026.
- Stripe partnered with OpenAI on the Agentic Commerce Protocol and with Microsoft on Copilot as core elements of its 2025 strategy.
Why is Stripe worth more than PayPal? PayPal’s value is anchored in proven cash generation; Stripe’s reflects expected category dominance in AI-era payments.
Net Revenues and Profitability
- PayPal Q1 2026 net revenues were $8.4 billion, up 7% year over year (5% currency-neutral).
- PayPal Q4 2025 net revenues were $8.7 billion, up 4% year over year (3% currency-neutral).
- PayPal Q1 2026 transaction margin dollars were $3.8 billion, up 3% year over year.
- PayPal Q1 2026 GAAP operating income was $1.5 billion, down 3% year over year, with a GAAP operating margin of 17.8% (down 182 basis points).
- PayPal Q4 2025 GAAP EPS was $1.53, up 38% year over year; non-GAAP EPS was $1.23, up 3%.
- Stripe’s Revenue suite is on track to hit an annual run rate of $1 billion this year.
- Stripe remained robustly profitable in 2025, with more than 350 product updates and continued investment in acquisitions.
By the numbers: The headline revenue figure from Stripe’s 2025 annual letter is the $1 billion annual run rate for the Revenue suite, alongside PayPal’s $8.4 billion in Q1 2026 net revenues.
| Metric (Q1 2026) | Stripe | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Net revenues | not disclosed | $8.4 billion (+7%) |
| Transaction margin dollars | not disclosed | $3.8 billion (+3%) |
| GAAP operating income | not disclosed | $1.5 billion (-3%) |
| GAAP operating margin | not disclosed | 17.8% (-182 bps) |
| GAAP EPS | not disclosed | $1.34 (+1%) |
Source: PayPal Q1 2026 earnings release; Stripe 2025 annual letter.
Cash Flow and Shareholder Returns
- PayPal full-year 2025 cash flow from operations was $6.4 billion with free cash flow of $5.6 billion.
- PayPal full-year 2025 adjusted free cash flow was $6.4 billion.
- PayPal Q1 2026 cash flow from operations was $1.1 billion with free cash flow of $0.9 billion.
- PayPal returned $1.5 billion to stockholders in Q1 2026 by repurchasing approximately 34 million shares of common stock.
- On a trailing 12-month basis, PayPal returned $6.0 billion to stockholders by repurchasing approximately 100 million shares.
- PayPal’s Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.14 per share.
- Stripe used a tender offer at a $159 billion valuation to provide liquidity to current and former employees.
Geographic Footprint: Countries and Currency Coverage
- Stripe’s direct dashboard onboarding covers 44 countries and regions across North America, South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and parts of the Middle East.
- An additional 5 African markets (including Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana) are accessible via Stripe’s extended network through Paystack.
- More than 57% of new businesses joining Stripe in 2025 are based outside the United States.
- 30% of international revenue earned by Stripe businesses comes from countries that are neither their home market nor one of the top 10 global economies.
- Companies incorporated via Stripe Atlas charged their first customer within 30 days in 20% of 2025 cases, up from 8% in 2020.
- Combining direct onboarding and the Paystack extended network puts Stripe at 49 countries/regions globally.
- PayPal’s published market footprint reaches roughly 200 countries and regions, with support for around 25 currencies, the legacy of two decades of consumer expansion. Stripe’s narrower country list reflects a deliberate business-to-business focus on markets with developed acquiring infrastructure.
Customer Base Profile: Consumer Wallet and Business Infrastructure
- Stripe’s customer base spans 90% of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 80% of the Nasdaq 100, and all the top AI companies including ChatGPT, Claude, and Cursor.
- 25% of all Delaware corporations are now created with Stripe Atlas.
- The number of Stripe-onboarded companies reaching $10 million ARR within 3 months of launch was double the 2024 count.
- Stripe businesses with mostly international revenue earn 30% of that revenue from countries neither their home market nor in the top 10 global economies.
- PayPal counts 439 million active accounts globally as of Q1 2026, up 1% year over year.
- PayPal added 4.7 million active accounts in 2025, finishing at 439 million.
- Both companies offer merchant checkout and process card payments, but the overlap is narrow. PayPal is consumer-and-merchant; Stripe is business-only.
- Stripe’s programmable financial services power more than 5 million businesses directly or via platforms, including all of the top AI companies and many of the largest blue-chip companies (compare with Visa transaction data for context on card-network volumes).
Why it matters: Stripe powers 90% of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and 80% of the Nasdaq 100 plus the top AI companies; PayPal owns 439 million consumer and merchant accounts. The two companies are no longer chasing the same customer.
SaaS startups, marketplaces, and AI companies overwhelmingly route through Stripe; small merchants and consumer P2P payments (see also Zelle vs Venmo comparison data) anchor to PayPal and Venmo.
| Customer-base dimension | Stripe | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Active accounts / businesses | 5M+ businesses | 439M accounts |
| Top AI companies | ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Midjourney, others | not the primary ICP |
| Dow Jones / Nasdaq footprint | 90% / 80% | not measured this way |
| Atlas / new-business incorporation | 25% of Delaware corps | not offered |
| Consumer P2P brand | none | Venmo |
Source: Stripe 2025 annual letter; PayPal Q1 2026 earnings release.
Transaction Fees: Stripe vs. PayPal Published Rates
- Stripe’s standard US online rate is 2.9% + 30¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards.
- Stripe charges an additional 0.5% for manually entered cards and 1.5% for international cards.
- Stripe ACH Direct Debit is 0.8%, capped at $5.00.
- Stripe in-person card-present rate is 2.7% + 5¢ for domestic cards.
- PayPal Checkout, Pay with Venmo, and PayPal Guest Checkout each carry 3.49% + fixed fee per transaction.
- PayPal Standard Credit and Debit Card Payments charge 2.99% + fixed fee per transaction.
- PayPal QR-code transactions through a third-party integrator carry 2.29% + $0.09 USD per transaction.
- PayPal payment links for Checkout, Venmo, and Pay Later carry 3.49% + $0.49 USD per transaction.
- On the percentage line item alone, Stripe’s 2.9% card rate sits beneath PayPal Checkout’s 3.49%, leaving a gap before per-transaction fixed fees are layered on.
- Both providers add 1.5% for international commercial card transactions on top of the domestic rate.
| Fee type (US standard) | Stripe | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Online card payment | 2.9% + 30¢ | PayPal Checkout: 3.49% + fixed fee; Std card: 2.99% + fixed fee |
| In-person card | 2.7% + 5¢ | 2.29% + $0.09 |
| ACH / bank debit | 0.8% (cap $5.00) | 2.99% (Send/Receive Goods and Services) |
| International surcharge | +1.5% | +1.50% |
| Payment links | 2.9% + 30¢ | 3.49% + $0.49 (Checkout); 2.99% + $0.49 (standard cards) |
Source: Stripe pricing page (stripe.com/pricing); PayPal merchant fees page (paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees), captured May 23, 2026.
Acquisitions and Product Strategy
- Stripe shipped more than 350 product updates in 2025.
- Stripe acquired Bridge, the stablecoin orchestration platform, the prior year; in 2025, Bridge volume more than quadrupled.
- Stripe acquired Privy in July 2025; Privy powers more than 110 million programmable wallets.
- Stripe unveiled Tempo in September 2025, a blockchain purpose-built for payments, incubated together with Paradigm.
- Stripe partnered with OpenAI to power the first shopping experiences inside ChatGPT and co-developed the Agentic Commerce Protocol.
- Brands onboarding to Stripe’s Agentic Commerce Suite include Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Etsy, Coach, and Kate Spade.
- PayPal’s Q1 2026 release described new leadership taking “deliberate steps to sharpen focus and accelerate growth.”
- Stripe acquired payment-stack components in 2025; PayPal sold receivables. The two strategies bracket opposite ends of the build-versus-divest spectrum.
| Initiative (2025) | Stripe | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Product velocity | 350+ updates | not disclosed in same form |
| Acquisitions | Bridge (2024, 4x in 2025), Privy (Jul 2025) | none disclosed |
| New blockchain | Tempo (Sept 2025) | none |
| AI partnerships | OpenAI (ACP), Microsoft Copilot | none disclosed |
| Capital-structure moves | $159B tender offer (May 2026) | BNPL receivables sale; share buyback |
Source: Stripe 2025 annual letter; PayPal Q1 2026 earnings release.
Stablecoin and Crypto Footprint
- Stablecoin payments volume doubled in 2025 to around $400 billion, of which 60% is estimated to represent business-to-business payments.
- Bridge, the stablecoin orchestration platform Stripe acquired the prior year, saw volume more than quadruple in 2025.
- Stripe launched machine payments, a way for developers to charge agents directly for API calls, MCP usage, and HTTP requests using stablecoin micropayments.
- Stripe introduced Shared Payment Tokens, a new payment primitive that lets agents initiate payments without exposing credentials.
- Tempo, Stripe’s blockchain unveiled in September 2025, is purpose-built for payments and was incubated together with Paradigm.
- PayPal’s Q1 2026 GAAP EPS included an approximately $0.08 negative impact from its strategic investment portfolio and crypto assets held for investment.
- PayPal anchored crypto under its own brand on existing chains, while Stripe went the opposite direction: infrastructure-first.
- Stripe’s stablecoin acquisitions and partnerships with OpenAI and Microsoft position the company across the agentic-commerce stack (see also crypto exchange market data for surrounding market context).
| Crypto-strategy dimension | Stripe | PayPal |
|---|---|---|
| Stablecoin volume cited | Bridge: 4x growth in 2025; industry total ~$400B | PYUSD (own brand) volume not disclosed in Q1 2026 release |
| Stablecoin acquisitions | Bridge (2024), Privy (Jul 2025) | none disclosed |
| Purpose-built blockchain | Tempo (Sept 2025, with Paradigm) | none |
| Agent / machine payments | Yes (Shared Payment Tokens, machine payments) | not announced |
| Branded stablecoin | none | PYUSD (launched 2023) |
Source: Stripe 2025 annual letter; PayPal Q1 2026 earnings release.
Conclusion
The 2025 figures tell the head-to-head plainly. Stripe’s $1.9 trillion in total payment volume edged past PayPal’s $1.79 trillion on the headline metric. Stripe is growing roughly 4.9x faster than PayPal by TPV, carries a $159 billion tender-offer valuation, and powers 90% of the Dow Jones Industrial Average plus all the top AI companies.
PayPal remains the deeper financial benchmark for disclosed cash flow, dividends, and margin trends; Stripe is the higher-growth bet for AI-era and agentic-commerce exposure. The crossover in volume, alongside the divergence in strategy across acquisitions, fees, and stablecoins, will shape which platform leads on each KPI through this year.
