For more than a decade, one of digital payments’ strangest quirks was that you couldn’t send money directly from PayPal to Venmo — even though PayPal has owned Venmo since 2013. People worked around it by cashing out to a bank first, then re-sending. That era is ending. As of November 2026, the two apps are becoming interoperable, letting roughly two billion combined users move money across platforms.
This connection is the first consumer-facing piece of PayPal World, a broader initiative to link major global wallets and payment systems. Below is exactly how cross-app transfers work, whether they’re instant and free, and the one privacy setting you’ll want to check before anyone can find you.
What’s actually changing
You will be able to send money from a PayPal account to a Venmo account (and vice versa) without manually transferring to a bank in between. At launch, you locate the other person by their phone number. Support for finding people by email address is slated to follow in a later update.
One important limitation: this is sending money, not requesting it. Cross-platform payment requests are not supported yet — you can push money to someone on the other app, but you can’t send them a request to pay you across platforms.
Is it instant? Is it free?
For everyday U.S. transfers, the answer is encouraging: payments arrive right away, and there’s no fee when you fund the transfer with your PayPal/Venmo balance, a linked debit card, or a bank account. Credit-card funding is the usual exception — Venmo and PayPal typically add a card-processing fee (around 3%), so stick to balance, debit, or bank to keep it free.
International transfers are where costs and limits appear. Fees and any currency conversion are always shown up front before you confirm, so there are no surprises.
| Scenario | Speed | Fee (balance / debit / bank) | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| US → US (domestic) | Arrives right away | No fee | Standard account sending limits apply |
| Funded by credit card | Arrives right away | ~3% card fee | Standard account limits |
| International (cross-border) | Seconds | Fees + currency conversion shown up front* | $2,500 per transaction · $25,000 per month |
*Venmo has been waiving its international transfer fee for a limited promotional period, leaving only currency conversion costs — check the in-app quote, since promotions change.
The setting you must enable first: “Find Me”
Here’s the catch almost everyone misses. For someone on the other app to send you money, you have to be discoverable in search. This is governed by a privacy control called Find Me (your search-privacy setting), and depending on your account it may not be switched on by default.
If a friend says “I tried to send you money from PayPal and you didn’t come up,” this setting is almost always the reason.
Enable it on Venmo (so PayPal users can pay you)
- Open the Venmo app.
- Tap the Settings gear icon.
- Tap Privacy.
- Open Find Me (your search-privacy options).
- Turn on the option that lets People on PayPal find and pay you by phone number.
Enable it on PayPal (so Venmo users can pay you)
On the PayPal side, open your profile/search-privacy settings and update them to include People on Venmo. PayPal describes it plainly: “When you update your search privacy to include People on Venmo, you will allow people on Venmo to find and pay your PayPal account using your phone number.” If you’d rather stay private, leave this off — you can still send money out; others just can’t look you up.
How to send money, step by step
From PayPal to a Venmo user
- Open PayPal and start a new payment as usual.
- Search by the recipient’s phone number (the one tied to their Venmo account).
- Confirm the correct person appears, enter the amount, and pick your funding source.
- Review any fees/conversion shown, then send. Domestic payments land right away.
From Venmo to a PayPal user
- Open Venmo and start a payment.
- Enter the recipient’s full phone number linked to their PayPal account.
- For international sends, make sure you have an address on file and choose the currency (Venmo supports 25 for cross-border).
- Confirm. The money arrives in the recipient’s PayPal account in seconds.
Worked examples
Example 1 — Splitting rent (domestic). Maya uses PayPal; her roommate Dev uses Venmo. Maya owes $650. She opens PayPal, searches Dev’s phone number, selects his Venmo match, and pays $650 from her PayPal balance. Dev sees it in Venmo right away. Fee: $0.
Example 2 — Funding matters. If Maya had instead paid that $650 with a credit card, PayPal would add roughly a 3% fee (about $19.50). Paying from balance, debit, or bank keeps it free.
Example 3 — Sending abroad. Carlos (Venmo, US) sends $400 to his cousin’s PayPal account overseas. The transfer arrives in seconds. He’s well under the $2,500 per-transaction cap, and the app shows the exact currency-conversion cost before he taps send.
Who can use it, and where
PayPal operates in 90+ countries, so PayPal-side users in many markets can participate. Venmo itself remains a U.S.-only app, so Venmo accounts are held by U.S. users — but those users can now send across borders to PayPal recipients abroad.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is sending money between PayPal and Venmo really free?
For U.S.-to-U.S. transfers funded by your balance, a linked debit card, or a bank account, yes — there’s no fee and the money arrives right away. Funding with a credit card typically adds about a 3% fee, and international transfers may carry fees plus currency conversion, always disclosed before you confirm.
Why can’t someone find me to send money?
Your Find Me (search-privacy) setting is likely off. On Venmo, go to Settings → Privacy → Find Me and allow People on PayPal to find you by phone number. On PayPal, update search privacy to include People on Venmo. Both sides key off the phone number for now.
Can I request money from someone on the other app?
Not yet. At launch you can only send money across platforms. Cross-app payment requests aren’t supported, so to collect from someone on the other app, you’ll need them to send to you — after you’ve enabled Find Me.
Can I use an email address instead of a phone number?
Not at launch. The initial rollout matches people by phone number, with email-address lookup expected in a later update. Make sure the phone number on your account is current so people can find you.
The bottom line
Cross-app payments finally remove a decade-old headache: PayPal and Venmo users can send to each other directly, instantly, and — in the U.S., with the right funding source — for free. Before you rely on it, take 30 seconds to flip the Find Me setting in both apps so friends can actually reach you, and remember you can only send (not request) across platforms for now.
WalletWisp is an informational resource and does not provide financial advice. Fees, limits, and features change — always confirm current details in your PayPal or Venmo app before sending.
