Yes, indeed, now is as it switched to OA, but it used to be much less, but it is paid from grants anyway, not from the own pocket. But the true new outrage is the review charge (~2K euro). Now, I mostly teach (don't want to write grants anymore), but when i published there last, there was no charge for review...it is quite ridiculous.
Arxiv is great (and very popular) for physics, much less so for Biology.