Hands holding a payment card over an open laptop keyboard

Analysis · Bitcoin

How to buy bitcoin in the US: the steps, and the fees Coinbase, Kraken, Cash App, Robinhood and PayPal publish

Buying bitcoin in the US means opening a verified account at a broker or exchange, funding it, placing a buy and, optionally, withdrawing to a wallet. Fees published on 14 October 2026 range from 0% to 2.20% of the trade at five US apps, and most add a spread on top. One bitcoin is 100,000,000 satoshis, so any dollar amount can be bought.

Published 2026-10-14By the CryptoGuardz Register Desk6 min read18 sources

Photo: rupixen / Unsplash

To buy bitcoin in the US, open an account at a broker or exchange, verify your identity, fund it from a bank or card, place a buy order, and optionally withdraw the coins to a wallet you control. Published fees at five US apps, read on 14 October 2026, run from 0% to 2.20% of the trade, and most add a spread inside the quoted price on top of that.

Where to buy crypto is a question about counterparties, not tickers: each app below is a different company with a different fee table and a different custody clause. Nothing here says whether to buy bitcoin at all. It sets out what each provider's own pages say a purchase costs.

How do you buy bitcoin, step by step?

Coinbase's help centre gives the sequence most apps follow. On the web: "Select Buy on the Coinbase homepage", enter an amount, choose a payment method, pick the asset, then "Select Review order to confirm your purchase details" and "Buy now". Before any of that, the account has to be verified.

Verify identity. Coinbase asks for a government ID (its US list runs from driving licence, passport and passport card to residence and work permits), may ask for proof of address "issued within the last 3 months", and captures a selfie. Kraken lists full name, date of birth, physical address, "Social Security Number or Tax ID (US clients)" and a valid ID, plus a face photo in some cases, per its requirements page last updated 1 October 2026.
Add a payment method. Coinbase: "Customers with a verified payment method can use it to buy crypto on Coinbase." Card and bank fees differ by app, below.
Buy. Read the order preview, which is the only place some apps show the spread.
Withdraw, if wanted. Coins left on the app are held by the app. The exchange register quotes each one's custody and freeze clauses.

What does it cost to buy bitcoin at each app?

App	Fee on a standard buy	Spread	Minimum buy
Coinbase	Not stated as a figure on the fees page	Included, figure not stated	Varies by asset and payment method
Kraken app	1% instant or recurring, 1.5% custom orders	"where applicable", not stated	$1, or $10 by card
Cash App	2.0% to 0% by size; 0% on auto buys	0% to 0.75%	$1
Robinhood Crypto	No commission on default routing; 0.95% taker, 0.50% maker on Exchange Routing (under $10K)	Not stated in the fee schedule	$0.01 or $0.03 by routing
PayPal	2.20% to 1.50% by size	Estimated 1.00%	$1.00

Coinbase. The disclosures page says "When you place simple buy and sell orders, Coinbase includes a spread in the quoted price" and that it "may retain any excess spread". It gives no spread percentage. Limit orders carry "a separate limit order execution fee equal to 1% of the amount you trade", and the page adds that "Coinbase may also charge a 1.875% Coinbase fee (varies by payment method)." The order preview shows the total. More on the Coinbase entry.

Kraken. "Kraken charges a fixed 1% trading fee, which is waived for Kraken+ members on trading volume up to $10,000 per month." The fee schedule adds "a 1.5% fee on custom orders" and notes that "card processing fees still apply" for Kraken+ members, without a figure. Kraken Pro, the order-book product, starts at 0.40% maker and 0.80% taker. See Coinbase vs Kraken.

Cash App. A tiered fee on market buys: 2.0% from $1 to $499, 1.5% from $500 to $999, 0.9% from $1,000 to $1,999, and 0% from $2,000. Auto Invest, Round Ups and Paid in Bitcoin are 0%. The spread "may be anywhere between 0% and 0.75%", and is waived on auto buys and buys over $2,000. Cash App's crypto disclosures cover bitcoin and stablecoins only. See Cash App vs Coinbase.

Robinhood. Default routing sends orders to market makers, which carry "No commissions"; Robinhood says "We receive volume rebates from those market makers". Orders on Exchange Routing pay a fee from nine volume tiers, 0.95% taker and 0.50% maker under $10K of 30-day volume down to 0.03% and 0.00% above $25M. The schedule does not state a spread. See Coinbase vs Robinhood.

PayPal. A flat table: 2.20% from $1.00 to $74.99, 2.00% to $200, 1.80% to $1,000, and 1.50% above. On top, PayPal's terms say "The exchange rate will include an estimated spread of one percent (1.00%)". Sending to an outside wallet needs "an additional level of account verification", and the minimum external bitcoin transfer is 0.001 BTC.

A $100 market buy, using only the published fee lines, costs $1 at Kraken, $2 at Cash App, $0 in commission at Robinhood on default routing ($0.95 as an Exchange Routing taker order) and $2.00 at PayPal, before any spread. Coinbase's figure is shown only in the order preview: not verified.

Can you buy partial bitcoin?

Yes. bitcoin.org: "One bitcoin is equal to 100,000,000 satoshis, allowing very small payments to be expressed precisely." A satoshi is "the smallest unit of bitcoin recorded on the blockchain", so a buy of $1 or $10 is a buy of some number of satoshis. Robinhood says it plainly: "You don't have to buy full coins on Robinhood." Minimums are set by the app, not by bitcoin: $1 at Cash App, Kraken and PayPal, one cent at Robinhood.

A few silver coins and one copper coin on a pale surface — Illustration: loose change. A small buy is a buy of satoshis, the smallest unit of bitcoin. Photo: Erik Mclean / Unsplash

One unit trap. Cash App writes amounts with the ₿ sign, and its pages disagree on the on-chain withdrawal minimum. The fees page says "minimum withdrawal of ₿100,000"; the Bitcoin Disclosures say "Currently, there is a ₿5,000 minimum for on-chain withdrawals." Neither page defines ₿. A draft proposal, BIP 177, would use the sign for the base unit, the satoshi, but it is a draft. Which minimum applies today: not verified.

What happens after the buy?

The coins sit in the app's custody until withdrawn. Robinhood's agreement, as recorded on the register, holds them "in one or more omnibus cryptocurrency wallets"; Coinbase's uses "shared blockchain addresses". Withdrawing moves them to a wallet only the holder controls, and every on-chain send pays a network fee. Robinhood Crypto charges $0 for transfers but notes "every crypto transfer does require a network fee". Cash App says "There are no fees to withdraw bitcoin at standard speeds". The trade-offs of self-custody are on cold vs hot wallets, and the self-custody checklist covers the backup.

Which bitcoin purchases are scams?

Any purchase someone else tells you to make. The FTC: "Only scammers demand payment in cryptocurrency." It also warns that scammers "tell you to solve the problem or protect your money by buying cryptocurrency", and that "Cryptocurrency payments typically are not reversible." A real bank, government agency or employer does not ask for bitcoin sent to an address. Once a buy is withdrawn and sent, no app in the table can pull it back. Paid "recovery" offers after a loss are their own scam; the scam recovery page lists the official routes. Moving the bitcoin on to a casino has its own risks, set out in exchange to casino deposits.

A worn triangular warning sign on an orange wall — Illustration: a warning sign. Any purchase someone else tells you to make is the pattern the FTC warns about. Photo: Markus Spiske / Unsplash

Quick answers

How do bitcoin buying fees compare?

The published fee lines range from 0% (Cash App auto buys, or market buys over $2,000) to 2.20% (PayPal under $75), and most apps add a spread they do not state as a figure. Compare the order preview, not the headline rate. Exchange register.

Can I buy less than one bitcoin?

Yes. One bitcoin is 100,000,000 satoshis per bitcoin.org, and the app minimums read were $1 at Cash App, Kraken and PayPal and $0.01 at Robinhood.

Do I need ID to buy bitcoin in the US?

Kraken lists a Social Security Number or Tax ID and a valid ID, plus a face photo in some cases; Coinbase asks for a government ID and a selfie; PayPal requires an additional level of verification for external transfers. Cash App's and Robinhood's ID pages were not verified. Coinbase entry.

Is buying bitcoin a taxable event?

The IRS lists buying with dollars, without selling, as a "No" on the Form 1040 digital asset question; selling or swapping is a "Yes". See crypto taxes before withdrawal.

More analysis

2026-10-14How to buy Solana in the US: which exchanges list SOL, what they charge, and what moving it to a wallet costsCoinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, PayPal and Gemini each list SOL on their own pages, read on 14 October 2026; Cash App's crypto disclosures cover bitcoin and stablecoins, not SOL. Buy fees follow each platform's general crypto schedule. On-chain, Solana charges 5,000 lamports per signature, and the refundable rent-exempt minimum is being cut by up to 90% in five steps from September 2026.2026-10-14How to buy USDT, which exchanges list it, which network to pick and what it costsIn the US, Coinbase and Gemini list USDT and Robinhood shows it for market data only. Tether sells directly only to verified customers with a 100,000 USD minimum. In the EEA, Coinbase, Kraken and Binance have restricted or delisted it under MiCA. The network picked at withdrawal decides whether the tokens arrive.2026-10-14Coinbase withdrawal time, fees and how to cash out, from the Coinbase Help CenterSelling crypto to a Coinbase cash balance is instant. Moving that cash to a bank takes 1 to 5 business days by ACH, about 30 minutes by instant cashout, or a same-day wire for $25, per the Coinbase Help Center on 14 October 2026.2026-10-14Coinbase vs Gemini: licences, fees, custody and the Earn collapse, from the documentsBoth hold New York charters, but most US Gemini users now contract with Gemini Moonbase, LLC, which is not on the NYDFS list. Gemini's ActiveTrader fees start at 0.600% maker and 1.200% taker. Coinbase's record includes a $50 million NYDFS penalty and a 2025 insider data theft; Gemini's includes the Earn freeze of 340,000 investors.2026-10-14Coinbase scams: how the impersonation calls work, and what Coinbase says it will never askMost Coinbase scams are impersonation: a caller or text posing as Coinbase support pushes the customer to move coins to a "safe" wallet. Coinbase's help centre lists what its staff never ask for. In May 2025 Coinbase disclosed that bribed support contractors had taken customer data, including government ID images, for under 1% of monthly transacting users, which gave scammers real details to quote.2026-10-14Can you buy crypto with a credit card? What four exchanges and three card issuers sayIn the US, Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini accept debit cards, not credit cards, for crypto purchases. Crypto.com's Pay on-ramp lists credit cards at a 3.99% fee. Where a credit card purchase goes through, Chase, Capital One and American Express agreements class it as a cash advance with a 5% fee, minimum $5 or $10.

Sources

About this piece

Compiled by the CryptoGuardz register team from the sources listed above. Research and drafting are AI-assisted and reviewed by a named editor before publication. Nothing here is a recommendation to gamble. If a figure or a reading is wrong, tell us and the correction is logged in public.