Paystub Generator
Fill in the company, employee, and earnings details and watch the earnings statement build itself in real time — gross pay, FICA, federal and state withholding, and net pay calculated as you type. Download the finished stub as a PDF when it looks right.
Live preview
| Earnings | Rate | Hours | Amount | Year To Date |
|---|
| Deduction | Statutory |
|---|
| Other Benefits and Information | This Period | Year To Date |
|---|
| Deposited to the account of | Account Number | Transit | ABA | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| XXXX | XXX |
Where this paycheck goes
The verified reference example
These are the default numbers on PayStubsNow's own live preview with no data entered, checked live on 2026-11-10. The generator above is calibrated so its defaults reproduce them exactly — set $20.00 × 80 hours, Single, Bi-Weekly, no state, and compare.
| Line | This period | How it's derived |
|---|---|---|
| Regular pay | $1,600.00 | $20.00/hr × 80.00 hrs |
| Gross pay | $1,600.00 | Regular pay, no overtime or extras |
| FICA — Medicare | −$23.20 | 1.45% of gross |
| FICA — Social Security | −$99.20 | 6.2% of gross |
| Federal tax | −$108.15 | Withholding estimate — the site does not disclose its exact federal formula |
| State tax | −$0.00 | No state selected in the default preview |
| Net pay | $1,369.45 | Gross minus all deductions; the amount is also spelled out in words on the stub |
| Year-to-date gross | $36,800.00 | 23 × $1,600 — YTD is computed from pay periods completed (bi-weekly = 26/year), not the full year |
Source: live preview at paystubsnow.com, verified 2026-11-10. Default period shown there was 10/28/2026–11/10/2026, pay date 11/10/2026, Advice Number 00000442.
What PayStubsNow charges
Verified on its pricing page, crawled 2026-11-10. This page's generator is free to use in your browser — the figures below are the reference product's, kept here so a rebuild can be priced against the real thing.
Pay stub
Per stub. The homepage FAQ mentions bundle discounts for multiple stubs, but no bundle amounts are published on the pricing page.
W-2 form
Per form, from the separate W-2 generator.
1099 form
Per form, from the separate 1099 generator.
Invoice
Invoices are the one free product in the lineup.
Refunds: strict no-refund once downloaded
PayStubsNow's Terms (§7.7, effective 4 Feb 2024) state that because the documents are intangible, a document is deemed "used" after download and purchases are non-refundable, non-cancellable, and non-exchangeable, unless applicable law requires otherwise. Before checkout, users must also confirm acceptance of the Terms and Privacy Policy and confirm no illegal or fraudulent purpose (§3.2.1). Payment runs through a third-party processor the site does not name on any public page — do not assume it is Stripe or PayPal.
Sources: paystubsnow.com/pricing · Terms & Conditions
How the original is built — and the API answer
Checked live and by index on 2026-11-10: homepage navigation and footer, the sitemap, site search, robots.txt, Terms, and Privacy Policy.
Public API None found
PayStubsNow has no public, developer, or affiliate API, no developer docs, no webhook, and no documented endpoint. No Developers/API/Docs link exists in its nav, footer, or sitemap, and site:paystubsnow.com API returns no results. The only "API" mention in its Terms (§6.2) lists APIs among its intellectual property — a licence clause, not an offer.
Slashdot/SourceForge comparison pages contradict each other on "Has API" for this product, so those badges are directory filler, not evidence. A private backend endpoint certainly exists — the form submits somewhere — but it is not public, documented, or authorised for use, and network traffic was not inspected.
The form itself
- Two modes: Classic Form (one long page) and a 5-step Wizard — Template → Company → Employee → Earnings → Preview. Both are built into the generator above.
- 7 templates (Template 1–7) with a Classic / New style toggle; sample renders carry "THIS IS NOT A CHECK" and "NON-NEGOTIABLE".
- No signup to start: the form sits on the homepage at #paystub-form with a live preview.
- Checkout flow: form → earnings/tax step → pay a third-party processor → instant PDF download (single PDF) or ZIP (multiple PDFs), or email delivery. No payment, no final document.
- Only visible third-party integration: a Customerly live-chat widget — support chat, not an API.
The unnamed tax engine
The site claims it "uses the same industry-leading tax calculation software trusted by top payroll providers" — and never names the vendor on any public page. Do not claim it uses Symmetry, TaxJar, Avalara, or any other named product; that is unverified. Its homepage FAQ says taxes are calculated from the employee's address "following the latest guidance from the IRS and state tax law", and its per-state calculator pages show state-specific logic (for example: Texas has no state tax; Indiana is a flat 2.95% plus county tax of 0.5–2.96%; New York runs 4–10.9% plus NYC 3.078–3.876%; Minnesota 5.35–9.85%; Oregon 4.75–9.9% plus transit taxes).
What a rebuild should actually plug in
| Need | Right tool | Pricing / notes | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payroll tax calculation (gross-to-net withholding) | Symmetry Tax Engine — HTTPS/JSON & XML API, 50 states + territories + Canada, 7,000+ jurisdictions; powers Gusto, Deel, Paychex | No published list price — quote only. A secondary estimate (Vendr, 2026) puts it at $0.15–$0.75/employee/month, with module licences of $5,000–$50,000+/yr and implementation of $3,000–$25,000 — verify before quoting. | Best fit |
| Payroll tax, do-it-yourself | IRS Publication 15-T withholding tables + each state's own tables, implemented in code (this page's federal estimate works this way) | Free. FICA is fixed: Social Security 6.2%, Medicare 1.45%. The cost is maintenance — tables change annually and local taxes are the hard part. | Workable |
| Sales-tax services (TaxJar, Avalara, Stripe Tax) | TaxJar ~$39–$99/mo; Avalara from ~$69/mo (secondary reports) | These calculate sales tax, not income-tax withholding. | Not suitable |
| PDF generation | Puppeteer / Playwright (HTML → PDF) for stub templates; pdf-lib for filling official W-2/1099 PDF forms | Both free and open source; the cost is the server/Chromium infrastructure. This page instead renders the PDF in your browser, so no server is involved. | Best fit |
| Payments | Stripe | US standard pricing: 2.9% + $0.30 per successful domestic card payment, no setup or monthly fee (2026 secondary checks — re-check stripe.com/pricing). This is a rebuild recommendation only; PayStubsNow's own processor is unnamed. | Suitable |
| Email delivery of PDFs | Resend · Twilio SendGrid · Amazon SES | Resend: free 3,000/mo (100/day cap), Pro $20/mo for 50,000. SendGrid: no permanent free plan since 2025 — 60-day trial, then Essentials from $19.95/mo for 50,000. SES: $0.10/1,000 à la carte (new accounts since 21 Jul 2026 start on Essentials at $0.16/1,000). Secondary-source pricing — verify before quoting. | Suitable |
Rebuild sources: symmetry.com · Vendr (Symmetry estimate) · IRS Publication 15-T explainer
The privacy contradiction, in the open
PayStubsNow's homepage says "We do not store sensitive data longer than necessary and never share your information with third parties." Its own Privacy Policy (§4, effective 4 Feb 2024) says the opposite: information may be used to "share or sell information to third parties, including to help advertisers and other partners measure the effectiveness of their ads", plus location-based tailored advertising. The policy collects name, address, phone, SSN, birthday, email, and payment-card data, states no retention period, and notes no internet transmission can be guaranteed 100% secure. This generator takes the homepage's promise literally instead: everything runs locally in your browser and nothing is transmitted or kept.
Source: paystubsnow.com/privacy-policy
What could not be verified
Stated plainly, so nothing below gets quoted as fact:
- Earnings-step fields on the original site (extra earnings/deductions rows, date pickers) sit behind entering employer/employee data and were not observed; the Earnings step above follows the Wizard's step label and the rows visible in its template previews (Regular, Overtime).
- Checkout UI and payment provider — the Terms say only "third-party payment processor".
- Whether its tax math runs server-side (Symmetry or similar) or in client-side tables — the vendor is unnamed everywhere.
- Actual PDF output quality, and the W-2/1099/invoice generators' fields — none was generated, as that requires payment or data entry.
- Bundle discount amounts — mentioned in the FAQ, never priced.
- Data retention period — none is stated in the Privacy Policy.
- Logged-in account features (saved stubs, order history, API keys) — not checked; no sign-in was made.
- Founding year — the site claims 2014 ("trusted choice since 2014", "1,000,000+ paystubs created"); a third-party directory lists 2019. The discrepancy is unresolved.
Questions, answered straight
Is it legal to make my own pay stub?
Yes — only if the information on it is accurate and truthful. PayStubsNow's own FAQ says exactly this, and its Terms (§§2.2, 4.1.1.7) prohibit falsifying documents or misrepresenting any person or entity. A stub with false information used to deceive — for a loan, a rental, a purchase — is fraud and can bring serious penalties, including fraud charges.
Does PayStubsNow have an API I can plug into another app?
No public one. There is no developer portal, documentation, webhook, or documented endpoint anywhere on its site, in its sitemap, or in search results as of 2026-11-10. If you are rebuilding this in a tool like Base44, the tax calculation has to come from Symmetry Tax Engine (quote-only, credentials from Symmetry sales, called from a backend function so the key stays server-side) or from IRS Publication 15-T tables you implement yourself — there is no PayStubsNow key to recover or reuse.
How accurate is the tax math on this page?
FICA is exact (Social Security 6.2%, Medicare 1.45%). Federal withholding is an estimate using the IRS Publication 15-T percentage method with 2025 brackets, calibrated so the defaults reproduce the verified $108.15 reference figure — the original site does not disclose its exact federal formula, so treat any federal figure as an estimate. State withholding here is a simplified flat rate you can override; real state withholding is graduated and may add county or city tax. The original's Terms (§§5, 11) likewise disclaim any warranty that its results are accurate, and present the software "as is" — it is not tax, legal, or financial advice, and neither is this page.
What does an employee need to provide for a stub?
Per the original's FAQ: the employer's name, mailing address, and EIN, plus the employee's personal and contact information, federal filing status, and deduction amounts. One wrinkle: no EIN field actually appeared in the live form when it was checked — only the last 4 digits of the employee's Social, and only optionally, under Advanced Settings.
How fast is a stub delivered, and in what formats?
On the original: instantly after payment — download as a single PDF, a ZIP of multiple PDFs, or receive it by email. Here, the PDF is generated in your browser the moment you press Download PDF, with one page per stub if you asked for several.
Will a stub from a generator be accepted as proof of income?
Not guaranteed — by anyone. The original's Terms warrant nothing about accuracy or acceptance, and some reviewers on Trustpilot (4.3/5, about 1,500 reviews) report stubs being rejected as unverifiable by a lender or dealer; the company replies that verification criteria vary by institution. Those anecdotes are unverified either way. A stub documents pay — it does not replace payroll records.