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Airwallex Review: Fees, Eligibility, and Restrictions

Airwallex is financial infrastructure for registered businesses — multi-currency accounts, cross-border payments, corporate cards, and payment acceptance. The single most important thing to know before you spend time on an application is that it does not serve individuals at all.

Last verified September 14, 2026

Go to Airwallex

Open an Airwallex business account

Affiliate link. BonusBench may be paid a commission if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you and with no effect on the terms Airwallex offers you.

What Airwallex is

Airwallex gives a registered business multi-currency accounts, the ability to collect and send money across borders, corporate cards, and card payment acceptance, through one platform and an API.

It is positioned further up the stack than a transfer service. Alongside moving money it handles payment processing, spend management with per-employee cards, and embedded finance for platforms.

It is business-only. Airwallex states directly that it does not offer personal accounts.

Best for

  • Registered companies selling internationally

    Collect in local currencies through Global Accounts, then convert and pay out without routing everything through a home-currency bank.

  • Businesses that need corporate cards with controls

    Multi-currency corporate cards with per-user spend permissions, rather than one shared card.

  • Companies taking card payments

    Payment acceptance sits on the same platform as the accounts, so collection and treasury are not two separate vendors.

  • Platforms embedding financial features

    API and connected-account infrastructure for building payments into your own product.

Personal use

There is none. Airwallex states: "Our services are designed for businesses, so we’re unable to offer personal accounts to individuals at this time." If you are an individual or an unregistered sole trader without the documentation below, Airwallex is not an option and Wise is the closer fit.

Business use

The whole product is the business case: multi-currency Global Accounts for receiving, cross-border payouts, corporate cards with spend controls, payment acceptance, and API access. Pricing is tiered by plan and charged per business legal entity rather than per account.

Airwallex fees and the exchange-rate model

  • Plan fees

    Explore is free at $0 per user per month. Grow is $12 per user per month plus a platform fee that depends on team size. Accelerate is custom-priced through sales. Airwallex charges the monthly fee per business legal entity.Source: Airwallex — Pricing (US)

  • Currency conversion (FX) fees

    0.5% above interbank rates for major currencies, and 1% for all other currencies.Source: Airwallex — Pricing (US)

  • Domestic transfer fees

    Free for USD and CAD.Source: Airwallex — Pricing (US)

  • International transfer fees

    Free to 120+ countries via batch transfer. SWIFT transfers to 200+ countries cost $15–$25 per transfer (SHA and OUR).Source: Airwallex — Pricing (US)

  • Card payment (transaction) fees

    Domestic cards 2.80% + $0.30 per transaction. International cards 4.30% + $0.30. Local payment methods $0.30 plus the payment method’s own fee.Source: Airwallex — Pricing (US)

  • Corporate card fees

    Unlimited multi-currency corporate cards, with up to 2% cash rebate on local USD spend. Explore includes up to 10 free Spend users; Grow allows up to 250 at the per-user rate.Source: Airwallex — Pricing (US)

Currencies and countries

Coverage changes by jurisdiction and is updated by the provider without notice. Confirm availability for your own country and residency before acting on anything above.

Eligibility

Restrictions worth knowing before you apply

  • Individuals are excluded outright

    This is the rule that disqualifies the most people. No amount of documentation makes an individual eligible — Airwallex simply does not offer personal accounts.Source: Airwallex Help Centre — Eligibility to open an account

  • Entity types that cannot be onboarded

    Airwallex states a company "cannot be on a sanctions list, be a shell bank, or be a bearer share entity".Source: Airwallex Help Centre — Eligibility to open an account

  • Unsupported industries

    Businesses in industries listed in Airwallex’s Acceptable Use Policy are not eligible. Airwallex also reserves the right to decline customers outside its stated risk appetite.Source: Airwallex Help Centre — Eligibility to open an account

  • Figures are read from the US pricing page

    Airwallex publishes regional pricing. BonusBench read these figures from Airwallex’s US pricing page; check Airwallex’s pricing page for your own region before relying on a number.Source: Airwallex — Pricing (US)

Opening Airwallex with a US LLC as a non-US founder

Airwallex’s document list for US-registered companies asks non-US owners for a passport or other government photo ID where a US person would give a Social Security number. What changes for a founder based outside the US is the extra evidence Airwallex may ask for about the business itself.

  • No SSN needed for non-US owners

    For the authorised person, the control person, and every owner of 25% or more, Airwallex asks for an SSN if they are US persons, and otherwise a government-issued photo ID such as a passport, national ID, or driver’s licence, plus residential address, date of birth, and job title.Source: Airwallex Help Centre — Documents required for companies in the US

  • Company documents for a US LLC

    An EIN letter showing the exact name of the business, and the Certificate of Formation (Articles of Organization) filed with the state. Airwallex states that operating agreements are not sufficient, because they are internal documents not filed with the state.Source: Airwallex Help Centre — Documents required for companies in the US

  • If the business is brand new

    Airwallex says it understands a new business may have little to show, and lists documents it will consider, including an invoice to a customer and an invoice from a supplier in the last 90 days, an investor presentation, contracts for sale, a bank statement showing business operations, or proof of business insurance.Source: Airwallex Help Centre — Documents required for companies in the US

  • Proof of US ties may be requested

    For foreign businesses and businesses largely run outside the US, Airwallex says it may request a recent statement from a brick-and-mortar US bank such as Bank of America or Chase, contracts with established US businesses, invoices to US-based customers, evidence of US-based employees, or a coworking service lease.Source: Airwallex Help Centre — Documents required for companies in the US

  • A Mercury statement does not count for that

    Airwallex’s US bank statement requirement explicitly excludes US neobank statements and names Mercury as the example. If Mercury is your only US bank, plan to use one of the other documents instead.Source: Airwallex Help Centre — Documents required for companies in the US

Is there an Airwallex referral code?

No. Airwallex does not run a customer referral programme, so there is no customer referral code to enter when you sign up. What Airwallex does run is an affiliate programme for publishers, which pays the publisher and does not change the pricing or terms you get.

Promotional offers

No current Airwallex promotional offer was confirmed against Airwallex’s own terms during this review, so none is listed. BonusBench does not publish promo codes or coupons it cannot verify.

How BonusBench is paid on this page

Approved affiliate · September 2, 2026 · impact.com

BonusBench was approved into the Airwallex Affiliate Programme on September 2, 2026, through impact.com. Under that programme, Airwallex pays a commission for customers BonusBench refers. Airwallex has no say in what BonusBench publishes: it did not review, approve, or supply any of this research, and the eligibility rules and restrictions are quoted from Airwallex’s own documentation whether or not they help Airwallex.

The link to the provider below is an affiliate link. If you open an account through it, BonusBench may be paid a commission. It does not change your pricing, your eligibility, or the terms you are offered, and you can reach the provider directly instead at any time.

Being paid does not mean there is a bonus in this for you. Airwallex has no customer referral programme at all — its help centre states: "Airwallex does not currently offer a general customer referral programme." Any page elsewhere selling an "Airwallex referral code" is describing something that does not exist, and an affiliate link gets you exactly what going to Airwallex directly gets you.

  • How commission is set: Airwallex states that after you apply, its affiliate team makes contact to learn about your audience and content, and then sets a tailored commission structure. There is no published standard rate.

Go to Airwallex

Open an Airwallex business account

This is an affiliate link. BonusBench may be paid a commission if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you and with no effect on the terms Airwallex offers you. To avoid it, type Airwallex’s address into your browser instead.

Alternatives

  • Wise

    Serves individuals as well as businesses. The right comparison if you are not a registered company, or if straightforward cross-currency transfers are all you need.

  • Mercury

    A US business bank account rather than cross-border infrastructure. Relevant if you have a US entity and want US banking rather than multi-currency collection.

  • Wise vs Airwallex

    Side by side on who can open an account, fees, and which one suits which kind of business.

  • Mercury vs Airwallex

    US business banking against multi-currency collection, and which one a US-registered company with overseas customers actually needs.

  • Payoneer

    Cross-border receiving aimed at marketplace sellers and freelancers. BonusBench has not researched it yet.

Bottom line

Airwallex is a business platform, not a consumer transfer app. If you have a registered company that collects or pays across borders, the coverage and the card controls are the draw, and conversion at 0.5% over interbank on major currencies is the number to compare.

The eligibility gate is strict and worth checking first: an incorporated, in-good-standing company registered in an eligible country, in a permitted industry. Individuals are excluded outright.

If you are an individual, a freelancer without a registered entity, or you mostly just need to send money abroad, this is the wrong product and Wise is the closer fit.

Open an Airwallex business account

Affiliate link. BonusBench may be paid a commission if you open an account through it, at no extra cost to you and with no effect on the terms Airwallex offers you.

Sources

Every fact on this page was read off one of these pages on September 14, 2026. Where Airwallex does not document something, this page does not claim it.