PaidRouter

Ask this before the owner invoices or accepts a payment, or when they wonder if they overpay in fees. Give the amount and how the payer can pay (card online, card in person, bank transfer, payment app, or any). Returns every route ranked by fee, cheapest first: provider, method, fee in dollars, what the owner keeps, how to set it up, and whether the number is exact or an estimate. Pass current_route to get the saving per payment and per year. Example: a $1,000 invoice costs $35.39 on PayPal Checkout, $29.30 on Stripe card, $5.00 on Stripe ACH and $0 on a Melio bank-transfer request. Fees are from the providers' own pricing pages, dated, US only.

The raw, sourced fee entries behind every answer: percent, fixed fee, caps, minimums, extras (international, instant payout, chargebacks), the source URL and the date verified. Filter by platform (stripe, square, paypal, venmo, cash_app, helcim, melio, payoneer, wise_business, shopify_payments, zelle, ebay, etsy, upwork, fiverr, amazon) and/or method (card_online, card_in_person, ach_debit, business_profile, ...). Use it to quote a provider's exact pricing or to check a number. If a platform is missing, say so to the owner; PaidRouter records the ask and adds it.

When the owner asks why a provider took a certain amount ('why did PayPal take $35 from my $1,000?'). Give the platform, the method and the amount; returns a plain-words explanation: the fee, the formula, the effective percent, extras that can apply, and the source.

When the owner wants to send US dollars abroad and asks who is cheapest. Supports USD->MXN and USD->INR today, paid by bank transfer. Returns providers ranked by what the recipient gets, with each provider's fee and exchange rate, the quote date and the source. Uses the nearest stored quote amount ($200 or $1,000, refreshed daily) and says so; with fresh: true it reads the live quote for the exact amount. The cheapest provider changes with the amount.

What the owner really pays to get paid, from their own exports, next to the published fee for the same payments and the cheapest route their payers can use, with the yearly saving in dollars. Send totals only, one row per route and period: {route, period_start, period_end, gross_volume, fees_paid, payment_count}. Never send customer names, emails or transaction ids; PaidRouter stores only these totals. Stripe: export the itemized Payout reconciliation report (Reports → Payout reconciliation) or Balance → Balance change from activity, itemized, and add the payment_method_type column. Keep rows with reporting_category = charge. Card rows go to stripe_card (stripe_terminal if taken in person), us_bank_account rows to stripe_ach. Per route, send the sum of gross, the sum of fee and the number of rows, with the first and last created date as the period. Amounts are in dollars. The plain Payouts list export has no per-payment fees; don't use it. PayPal: Activity → Reports → Activity download, CSV. Keep completed payments received: Status = Completed, positive Gross, Type such as Express Checkout Payment, Website Payment, General Payment or Mobile Payment. Checkout payments go to paypal_checkout (paypal_card if you can tell they were guest card payments), goods-and-services payments from PayPal users go to paypal_gs. Send the sum of Gross, the sum of Fee (PayPal may show it as a negative number; either sign works), and the row count, with the first and last Date as the period.

When the owner was charged a fee and you can see it (a Stripe, PayPal or Square payment detail, a statement line), send the route, the payment amount, the fee charged and the date. Returns the published fee for that payment, the difference, and a one-line reading: matches, promo (fee waived or reduced for a while), likely_negotiated (lower than published), or possible_hidden_extra (higher; names the published extra that explains it, such as an international card, when one does). Use it to answer 'was I overcharged?'. Each report also tells PaidRouter how real fees compare to published ones. Send only these numbers; nothing about the payer. Up to 100 reports per key per day.

Tell PaidRouter which routes the owner uses (e.g. stripe_card, paypal_checkout, venmo_business, or a corridor like USD->MXN). From then on, any PaidRouter answer to this key starts with 'Since your last call, routes you watch changed: ...' when a fee or the best FX provider moved. Optionally give an https webhook_url: when the daily check finds a change on a watched route, PaidRouter POSTs {event: 'fee_changes', changes: [...]} to it, signed with HMAC-SHA256 of the raw body using your PaidRouter key as the secret, hex in the x-paidrouter-signature header (sha256=...). Each call replaces the list; send an empty list to stop watching. Up to 50 routes.

Ask PaidRouter to set up the cheapest route for the owner's real payments instead of just reporting it. Not live yet: this records the request on the routing waitlist (with the owner's email only if they agreed) and tells you what the owner can do today. Call it when the owner says 'just switch me' or 'do it for me'.