Airwallex Pricing Australia (2026): Plans, fees & costs

Airwallex is a global payments platform built for businesses operating across borders, offering multi-currency accounts, spend management tools, and payment gateway capabilities in one system. It’s designed to simplify global money management for growing companies in Australia.

The real cost of using Airwallex goes beyond the headline monthly fee, though. Depending on how you use the platforms, fees can apply when converting currencies, sending international payments, accepting customer payments, or issuing cards to your team.

In this guide, we’ll break down Airwallex pricing in Australia for 2026, covering monthly subscription fees and lots of other transaction costs, so you can get a better idea of what you’ll actually pay for.

What does Airwallex offer in Australia?

Airwallex helps businesses manage, move, and grow funds globally through services grouped under five distinct categories: Business Accounts, Spend, Payments, Billing, and Platform APIs¹. Within each of these are its core offerings, which are available across three subscription tiers.

The key features include¹:

• Complete global transfers to 200+ countries
• Global accounts with local account details in 20+ currencies
• Multi-currency corporate and employee cards
• Integrations with accounting software, including QuickBooks and Xero
• Subscription and recurring billing capabilities
• Expense management and bill pay tools for spend control
• API access for embedded finance and custom financial workflows

Airwallex pricing structure in Australia

There are three core Airwallex subscription plans, each tailored to different users. Here’s an overview of the pricing structure and target audiences².

Airwallex’s entry-level Explore plan can be used for $0, but only when depositing at least $5,000 per month or holding a minimum balance of $10,000. Otherwise, it costs $29 per month. The Grow plan is fixed at $99 per month, while the Accelerate plan starts from $999 per month.

Now, we’ll look at the features and service categories available across each of these three tiers and how they differ in more detail.

Business accounts

By subscribing to either Explore, Grow, or Accelerate, you get access to Airwallex’s core feature set, which includes²:

• Multiple accounts per legal entity
• Free local transfers to 120+ countries
• Local accounts in 20+ currencies
• Australian Banking Association (ABA) batch transfers
• Yield on AUD and USD balances

The Grow plan adds international batch transfers for larger outbound volumes. With the top-tier Accelerate plan, you then get a couple of enterprise capabilities: centralised finance management for multiple global entities, plus single sign-on for easier team logins (marked as ‘coming soon’).

FX & Transfers

Airwallex uses the same margins for foreign exchange rates across all three plans²:

• 0.5% above the interbank rate for 11 major currencies, including AUD
• 1% above the interbank rate for all other currencies
• Contact sales when converting more than $250,000 AUD

The rest of the feature set and pricing are almost identical, too. There are free local transfers to 120+ countries, and a $10-$30 fee per transfer for SWIFT to 200+ countries. Meanwhile, you can earn a yield of 3.53% on AUD funds and 3.29% on USD funds².

One notable difference: instant withdrawals cost 0.2% of the amount taken out on Explore, while it’s free with both Growth and Accelerate².

Spend

Airwallex’s Spend features are designed to help businesses control company and employee expenses in one centralised system, rather than relying on a disparate set of card providers and tools.

Corporate cards

Airwallex includes multi-currency company and employee cards across all plans for either shared or individual expenses. The corporate card features are ubiquitous with Apple Pay and Google Pay wallets, card controls to set limits and freeze them temporarily, and shared contact details present whichever plan you choose².

The number of company cards you can issue varies by tier, though. These are used for shared expenses like subscription services or ad spend²:

• Explore - up to 10 company cards
• Grow - up to 50 company cards
• Accelerate - Unlimited company cards

Airwallex also includes user-based charges for employee cards, which are used to run up individual expenses, such as travel and entertainment². There is a small difference in the terminology Airwallex uses here for cards. On Explore, they are called ‘employee cards’, while on Grow and Accelerate, it’s rebranded to ‘active spend’ to reflect the additional tools available, like approving payments and implementing spending controls.

• Explore - 2 free employee card users
• Grow and Accelerate - 2 free active spend users
• $15 per additional employee or active spend user per month

Expenses and bills

Explore misses out on two quite extensive spend feature categories: Expense Management and Bill Pay. With both Grow and Accelerate, you get more structured spend controls, including²:

• Expense management for cards and reimbursements
• Domestic and international bill payments
• Automated receipt and bill data extraction
• Multi-layer approval workflows

Payments

You can also accept online payments from customers and clients worldwide using Airwallex as your payment gateway. This is one area where the service is identical across all plans. There are 11 features overall here, including²:

• Card acceptance tailored for regional markets with 160+ payment methods
• Like-for-like settlement in 20+ currencies
• No-code payment links
• Ecommerce plugin integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, and more
• Custom website checkout builds via APIs and SDKs
• Dispute management

There are Airwallex payment gateway fees depending on the payment type accepted. These include²:

• 1.65% + $0.30 for domestic cards via Visa, Mastercard, and American Express, plus Apple Pay and Google Pay
• 3.40% + $0.30 for international cards
• 0.50% per successful card transaction for subscriptions

Integrations

Airwallex connects with a few popular platforms to automate tasks like bookkeeping and improve the overall experience, so it’s easier to keep your financial data accurate without manual reconciliation.

Integrations with software expand by tier. On Explore, you just get to sync your bank feeds (transaction and balance data) with three accounting tools: QuickBooks, Xero, and NetSuite². Grow then adds the ability to sync your expenses and bills with QuickBooks and Xero, as well as the option to export the data to a CSV file².

The Accelerate plan gives you all the above, plus HRIS platform and Advanced NetSuite integrations for more complex finance workflows and operations².

Support

Airwallex support levels vary depending on the tier, with more hands-on assistance available at the enterprise level. All plans include access to a library of help centre articles and FAQs, and email support for both self-service and direct contact when needed².

The Accelerate plan takes things further with onboarding support and a dedicated account manager², which might be useful for larger corps operating across multiple entities or regions.

Different types of Airwallex fees

There are quite a few fixed and variable fees to factor in outside the headline monthly subscription charges, all of which contribute to the total Airwallex cost over time. Below is a list of the main transaction-based costs for businesses in Australia to get a clearer picture of what’s involved.

• Domestic card payments - the fee for accepting any Australian-issued card payments. 1.65% + $0.30 per transaction.
• International card payments - charged when accepting cards issued outside Australia. 3.40% + $0.30 per transaction.
• Foreign exchange (FX) conversion - applied when converting between currencies in your wallet or during transfers. 0.5% above the interbank rate for major currencies, 1% for others.
• SWIFT international transfers - the cost of sending funds via the SWIFT network using SHA and OUR options. $10-$30 per transfer.
• Instant withdrawals - Fee for accessing funds immediately, rather than waiting for standard withdrawal times. 0.2% of the withdrawn amount (Explore).
• Local payment methods - charged when accepting alternative payment options like Zip. $0.30 per transaction + payment method fee (varies)³**:**
  • 1% for PayTo ($3.50 cap)
  • 5.90% for domestic Afterpay or Clearpay (7.90% international)
  • 4.90% + $0.20 for Zip
  • 10% for Paysafecard
• Subscription management - additional fee for collecting recurring card payments. 0.50% per successful transaction.
• Additional spend users - monthly fee for extra employee card users beyond the included allowance. $15 per additional active spend user per month.

Wise Business: Simplify cross-border business transactions

Wise Business offers multi-currency accounts where you can hold and convert money using local account details in 8+ currencies, plus complete international transfers using the real, mid-market exchange rate with no percentage markups added on top.

A Wise Business account allows users to can send, receive, and hold in multiple currencies. Experience hassle-free global transactions by transacting like a local business. Here's what you get with a Wise Business account:

• Free to register — Hold and convert between 40+ currencies. Send to 140+ countries
• Debit cards for you and your team, which you can use in 150+ countries
• Multi-user access for team members, with ways to control and manage permissions
• Pay up to 1,000 recipients at once with the Wise batch payments feature
• Integrate with your favourite cloud accounting solutions like Xero, QuickBooks, and more
• Get account details to receive in 8+ currencies for a one-time fee of 65 AUD
• Earn potential returns** on your everyday money through Wise Interest

Sign up for the Wise Business account! 🚀

This general advice does not take into account your objectives, financial circumstances or needs and you should consider if it is appropriate for you.
**Capital at risk, growth not guaranteed. Interest is the name of a custody and nominee service provided by Wise Australia Investments Pty Ltd in partnership with Franklin Templeton.

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Airwallex cost FAQs

1. Is Airwallex cheaper than Wise Business?
It depends on how your business uses each platform. Airwallex pricing typically includes, at a minimum, a monthly subscription charge and FX margins (0.5%-1%) for international transfers, and then additional costs for other features like payment gateways and active card users.

With Wise Business, there are no account creation or monthly management fees, and you simply pay a small, transparent fee (from 0.63%) to send or convert money internationally. In practice, your total cost will depend on how often you convert currencies, if you need to accept online payments, and how many of your team members need cards.

2. How does Airwallex's pricing compare to other payment gateways?
Airwallex’s payment processing features are competitively priced compared to other gateways. Stripe, for example, charges 1.7% +$0.30 for domestic cards, and 3.5% + $0.30 for international cards⁴, which works out slightly more expensive than Airwallex’s 1.65% + $0.30 and 3.40% + $0.30, respectively.

Check out our direct comparison of Airwallex vs Stripe for an exhaustive break down of features and fees for these two platforms.

Meanwhile, PayPal’s basic rates are higher, with commercial transactions from customers in Australia charged at 2.90%, in addition to a fixed fee ($.30 for AUD), plus a 1% markup for international transactions⁵.

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Sources:

1. Airwallex - Home Page
2. Airwallex - Pricing
3. Airwallex - Online payments capability
4. Stripe - Pricing
5. PayPal - Business fees