What are reserves?

An account reserve is an amount of funds set aside in your PayPal account to help make sure that you're able to meet any liabilities you may incur from a chargeback, claim or bank reversal, where no other funds are available. The reserved amount still belongs to you but is unavailable for use (including withdrawal).

A rolling reserve is a reserve where a percentage of each transaction you receive each day is held and then released later, on a scheduled basis. For example, your reserve could be set at 10% and held for a 90-day rolling period. It means 10% of the funds you receive on day 1 is held and then released on day 91, 10% of the funds you receive on day 2 is held until day 92, etc. Rolling reserves are the most common type of reserve.

A minimum reserve is a specific minimum amount of funds that you’re required to keep available in the balance of your business PayPal account. We either take the minimum reserve as a percentage of funds held until it reaches a certain amount, or a one-time amount (this is known as an upfront reserve).