American Expressvs.PayPal
AXP vs PYPL · both in Payment rails & networks, part of the Banks, payments & capital markets value chain: The networks and processors that take a fee every time a card is swiped — the fee engine.
American Express is about 5.9× larger than PayPal by market cap; PayPal trades at the lower P/E (8.1 vs 21.3); year to date, American Express leads (−5.2% vs −20.7%).
Side by side
| AXP | PYPL | |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $239B | $40.9B |
| Price | $356.24 | $47.13 |
| Today | +1.6% | +1.7% |
| Return YTD | −5.2% | −20.7% |
| Return 1Y | +7.8% | −38.8% |
| P/E | 21.3 | 8.1 |
| P/S | 3.0 | 1.2 |
| P/B | 7.0 | 2.0 |
Data as of 2026-07-13 · updates daily after U.S. close
The two companies
American ExpressAXP
A closed-loop network and card issuer in one — it earns fees from merchants and interest from its affluent cardholders, and owns the customer relationship end to end.
Full AXP profile →PayPalPYPL
A digital-payments platform spanning online checkout, peer-to-peer (Venmo) and merchant services. Growth has matured and competition has intensified.
Full PYPL profile →More comparisons in Payment rails & networks
See where AXP and PYPL sit in the full Banks, payments & capital markets map — every segment from suppliers to end markets.Open the Finance value chain →