Free Pay Stub Maker (Watermarked Preview)

The maker is the part of PayStubShop you can use as much as you like without paying. You build the stub, the preview recalculates on every keystroke, and nothing is blurred or held back. The only paid step is downloading the clean files.

Start from a preset

Every choice on the first screen can be set from the link, so you can open the maker already configured:

You want	Open
A California biweekly salary stub	/create?state=CA&freq=biweekly&pay=salary
Three weekly hourly stubs in Florida	/create?state=FL&freq=weekly&pay=hourly&qty=3
A contractor payment statement	/create?type=contractor
A New York semimonthly stub	/create?state=NY&freq=semimonthly

You can change any of these on the first screen.

What the maker asks for, step by step

1. Document type. An employee pay stub withholds taxes. A contractor payment statement doesn't, and it is labeled as a contractor statement so nobody mistakes it for wages.

2. State and schedule. The state decides which state lines appear. Texas and Florida have no state income tax. California adds state withholding and SDI. New York adds state, New York City or Yonkers withholding where they apply, plus SDI and Paid Family Leave. In other states you type the state and local amounts from your payroll records, and the preview shows them as entered.

3. Pay type. Hourly pay shows rate × hours for each period. Salary shows the period amount. Pick hourly if the person is paid overtime by the hour.

4. How many pay dates. Choose up to 26. The maker lays out consecutive pay periods from the frequency and the first pay date.

5. People and pay. Employer and employee details, pay rates, hours per period, bonus lines, pre-tax deductions, and the W-4 entries.

6. Prior year to date. If the first stub in your order isn't the first paycheck of the year at this job, enter the totals from the most recent real stub. The maker adds each new stub on top. It never invents past paychecks.

A worked example: three weekly hourly stubs

An hourly worker in Florida earns $18.00 an hour, with overtime at $27.00 (time and a half for hours over 40 in the workweek). They filed a 2026 W-4 as single with no other entries. The three weeks were 40, 44 and 36 hours.

Week	Hours	Gross	Federal tax	Social Security	Medicare	Net
1	40	$720.00	$44.48	$44.64	$10.44	$620.44
2	40 + 4 OT	$828.00	$57.44	$51.34	$12.01	$707.21
3	36	$648.00	$35.84	$40.18	$9.40	$562.58
YTD		$2,196.00	$137.76	$136.16	$31.85	$1,890.23

Two details the maker handles that a hand-made stub often gets wrong:

• Overtime is weekly. Federal law counts overtime per workweek, so the 4 extra hours in week 2 can't be offset by the short week 3.
• Withholding changes with the check. Week 2's federal tax isn't week 1's tax plus a fixed amount. Each paycheck is annualized and run through the IRS table on its own, which is why the preview recalculates every period.

Florida has no state income tax, so there's no state line. Three stubs in one order cost $19.47.

Check the preview before you buy

Use this short list on the watermarked preview:

• Names, the employer address and the SSN digits are spelled and typed correctly.
• Pay period dates and pay dates fall where your payroll calendar says they do.
• Hours and rates match the timesheets, including overtime weeks.
• The W-4 filing status and steps match the form on file.
• The first stub's YTD equals your prior YTD plus that stub's current amounts.
• Net pay matches the deposit in your bank account, if this documents a past payday.

If anything is off, change the input. The preview is free, so there's no cost to getting it right.

When you're ready to download

Payment is one-time, with no account and no subscription. Files are ready in seconds: one combined PDF, a PDF per pay date, a ZIP or JPEGs, plus an email link. Each stub includes a direct deposit advice slip at no extra charge. For 90 days you can re-download from order lookup, and corrections are free for 30 days.

Because you see every number in the free preview first, all sales are final. If we made an error, a document didn't arrive, or you were charged incorrectly, contact support within 14 days and we'll correct or refund it.

Looking for the free template comparison instead? Our free pay stub template page lists exactly which fields a complete stub needs and what is free versus paid.