Airwallex vs Wise Business for Canada (2026): Which Wins

Airwallex and Wise Business are the two multi-currency accounts Canadian businesses ask us about most once they start invoicing in US dollars or paying suppliers in euros. They look similar on the surface: both hold and convert many currencies, both give you local account details so foreign customers pay you like a local, and both charge a fraction of what a Canadian bank builds into its exchange rate. They are built for different jobs. This comparison is priced from each provider's own Canadian pricing page, read on 2 September 2026, by a CPA who sets up multi-currency banking for clients.

Last updated: September 2026. Every fee, rate and licence number below was verified at airwallex.com/ca and wise.com/ca on 2 September 2026.

The Short Answer: Who Should Use Which

Choose Wise Business if conversion is the whole job. Its fee starts at 0.19%, the lowest published margin of any account we cover, it pays 2.22% on CAD and 3.14% on USD balances, and its pricing is line-item transparent. You pay a one-time 55 CAD to set up, and fixed fees to receive some currencies by wire.

Choose Airwallex if you also want to run spending and payables from the same account. It costs nothing to open, converts at 0.5% above interbank on major currencies (1% on others), and adds what Wise does not have: unlimited corporate Visa cards with 0% foreign transaction fees and up to 1% cash rebates, bill pay with approvals, expense management, batch payouts to 1,000 recipients, and integrations built for Xero, QuickBooks and NetSuite. Read our full Airwallex Canada review for the detail.

Neither replaces a Canadian bank. Both are money services businesses, not banks: no cash or cheque deposits, no lending, and no CDIC coverage. Both are licensed in Quebec, which sets them apart from Venn.

Fees Side by Side

What Does Airwallex Cost in Canada?

Airwallex prices in CAD and puts almost everything a small business needs on the free Explore plan: Global Accounts in 20-plus currencies, FX at 0.5% on major currencies and 1% on the rest, free domestic CAD and USD transfers, free batch transfers to 120-plus countries where Airwallex has local rails, unlimited multi-currency Visa cards issued by Peoples Trust Company with 0% foreign transaction fees, bill pay, expenses and reimbursements for up to 10 Spend users. SWIFT transfers, where local rails do not exist, cost $20 to $35. The Grow plan is $12 per user per month plus a platform fee that scales with team size (Airwallex's own Canadian FAQ cites $99 CAD a month), for teams past 10 Spend users who want purchase orders and multi-step approvals. Accelerate is custom-priced. One gap to check before you route marketplace payouts through it: the Canadian pricing page lists no fee for receiving funds, but Airwallex charges 0.3% on inbound transfers from third parties in other regions, so read the fee schedule inside your account first.

What Does Wise Business Cost in Canada?

Wise charges no monthly fee but a one-time 55 CAD to set up, which unlocks every business feature including local account details to receive in 22 currencies. Conversion is the mid-market rate plus a fee that starts at 0.19% and varies by currency pair. Receiving is free in CAD locally, but wire and SWIFT receipts carry fixed fees: 6.11 USD per incoming USD payment, 2.39 EUR and 2.16 GBP for those currencies, and same-currency international transfers cost 0.3% up to 1 CAD. Card spending is free; ATM withdrawals are free to 100 CAD a month and then 2.69 CAD plus 2.69% above that; e-wallet top-ups are 2%. Holding money is free, and the Interest feature pays 2.22% on CAD and 3.14% on USD as of September 2026, paid monthly, after a residency check. Wise's Canadian pricing page does not publish a fee for the Interest feature; check the terms when you activate it.

FX: 0.5% Versus From 0.19%, and When the Gap Matters

On conversion alone Wise wins, and the gap is real money at volume. A business converting US$10,000 a month pays about $600 a year at Airwallex's 0.5% and about $230 at Wise's 0.19% starting fee, against roughly $3,000 at a bank spread of 2.5%. At US$100,000 a month the difference between the two fintechs grows to about $3,700 a year. Two things narrow it. Wise's 0.19% is the floor, and its fee varies by currency, so check the live quote for your corridor. And Airwallex's 0.5% applies to major currencies; it does not publish which currencies count as major, though USD, EUR, GBP, AUD, HKD, SGD and CNY are the ones its Canadian pricing page names. If your volume is in an exotic currency, Airwallex's 1% tier applies and Wise's advantage widens. If most of your foreign currency never gets converted because you spend it on the same currency's card or pay suppliers from the balance, the conversion fee matters far less than the card and payables features, which is where Airwallex pulls ahead.

Receiving Money: Local Account Details Compared

Both give a Canadian business US account details so an American customer pays by ACH with no wire on their side, plus local details for GBP, EUR, AUD and others: 22 currencies at Wise, 20-plus at Airwallex. The difference is the receiving fee. Wise is free for local CAD and charges fixed amounts on wire and SWIFT receipts, which is trivial on a $20,000 invoice and painful on twenty $200 marketplace payouts. Airwallex's Canadian pricing page is silent on inbound fees, which we read as a reason to confirm in-app rather than as a guarantee of zero, because its other regions charge 0.3% on money received from accounts you do not own. For Amazon and Shopify sellers this is the single number to pin down before choosing.

Cards and Spend Management

This is Airwallex's category. The free plan issues unlimited Visa cards, virtual for the company and physical or virtual for employees, with per-card and per-period limits, Apple Pay and Google Pay, 0% foreign transaction fees and up to 1% cash rebates on local CAD spend, and it wraps bill pay with approvals and expense and reimbursement workflows around them for up to 10 users. Wise Business offers physical and digital debit cards for the team with custom spending permissions and free spending in the currencies you hold, which covers a founder and a few staff paying for software and travel, but there is no bill-pay or expense-approval workflow, and ATM withdrawals beyond 100 CAD a month cost 2.69 CAD plus 2.69%. A team of five that submits expenses, pays supplier bills and needs approvals will feel the difference every week.

Interest on Balances

Wise pays interest on Canadian business balances through its Interest feature, 2.22% on CAD and 3.14% on USD as of September 2026, from as little as 1 dollar, paid monthly. Airwallex does not advertise interest on Canadian balances. On a $100,000 USD balance held across the year, Wise's rate is worth about $3,100 before tax, which more than cancels its setup and receiving fees. If you hold large foreign-currency balances waiting for a better rate, this alone can decide it.

Safety and Regulation in Canada

Neither is a bank. Wise Payments Canada Inc. is registered with FINTRAC as a money services business (M15193392), holds a Revenu Québec MSB licence (902804), and is a registered payment service provider with the Bank of Canada. Airwallex (Canada) International Payments Ltd is registered with FINTRAC (M19395067), holds a Revenu Québec MSB licence (14460), and its registration as a payment service provider with the Bank of Canada is pending. Both say client funds are safeguarded and held separately from company money, neither is CDIC-insured, and Airwallex's Visa cards are issued by Peoples Trust Company. For a Canadian business that wants insured deposits, the answer is to keep the operating float at a bank or at Venn, whose balances sit at Bank of Montreal with CDIC eligibility, and use Airwallex or Wise for the foreign-currency layer.

Which One Works in Quebec?

Both. Airwallex and Wise each hold a Revenu Québec money-services-business licence, so a Quebec corporation or sole proprietor can open either. That matters because Venn, our usual pick for a primary account elsewhere in Canada, states on its pricing page that it is not available to businesses in Quebec. A Quebec company that wants one fintech account for everything is choosing between these two.

Our Verdict

For a business whose foreign-currency activity is receiving payments and converting them, Wise Business is cheaper and pays interest, and its transparent fee table makes it easy to model. For a business that also pays overseas suppliers, runs employee cards, wants bill pay with approvals, or takes payouts in five currencies from three marketplaces, Airwallex does more on a plan that costs nothing, and its Xero and QuickBooks integrations were built for that spend-and-payables workflow. Plenty of our clients would sensibly run both: Wise for the cheapest conversion of large balances, Airwallex for the day-to-day cards and payables. Whichever you pick, keep a Canadian bank account for payroll, CRA remittances, cash and cheques. Start with the Airwallex Canada review or the wider multi-currency account comparison, and open an Airwallex account if the cards and payables are what you need.

Frequently Asked Questions

Airwallex or Wise Business: which is cheaper for a Canadian business?

For pure conversion, Wise: its fee starts at 0.19% against Airwallex's 0.5% on major currencies, so US$10,000 a month costs about $230 a year at Wise and $600 at Airwallex. Wise charges a one-time 55 CAD setup and fixed fees to receive some currencies by wire (6.11 USD per USD wire); Airwallex charges nothing to open and nothing for domestic transfers. Once you add corporate cards, bill pay and expense management, Airwallex includes them on its free plan and Wise does not offer them.

Is there an Airwallex or Wise promo code for Canada?

No. Neither publishes coupon codes, and the "$300 cashback" or "free FX" codes on aggregator sites are not offers a Canadian business can redeem at signup. The published pricing is the offer for both. If either partner gives our readers a customer-side offer, our deals hub will list it with the terms.

Do Airwallex and Wise work for Quebec businesses?

Yes, both. Wise Payments Canada Inc. holds Revenu Québec MSB licence 902804 and Airwallex (Canada) International Payments Ltd holds licence 14460, alongside their federal FINTRAC registrations. Venn, by contrast, is not available to businesses in Quebec.

Are Airwallex and Wise safe? Is my money CDIC-insured?

Both are FINTRAC-registered money services businesses, not banks, and neither is CDIC-insured. Both state that client funds are safeguarded and held separately from their own money. Wise is a registered payment service provider with the Bank of Canada; Airwallex's registration is pending. Keep insured deposits at a bank or a CDIC-eligible account such as Venn.

Can a sole proprietor open Airwallex or Wise Business in Canada?

Airwallex's Canadian FAQ lists a Social Insurance Number as the identifier for sole proprietors, alongside proof of business formation and photo ID, and its help centre documents sole proprietorships and corporations. Wise Business is open to Canadian businesses, and its pricing page does not restrict by structure; confirm at signup with your registration documents.

Which is better for Amazon or Shopify payouts in USD?

Both give you US account details to receive payouts directly. Wise charges 6.11 USD per incoming USD wire and nothing for local receipts, and pays 3.14% on the USD you hold. Airwallex's Canadian pricing page does not list a receiving fee, but it charges 0.3% on third-party inbound transfers in other regions, so confirm the in-app fee schedule before routing payouts through it.

Do Airwallex and Wise integrate with Xero and QuickBooks?

Yes. Airwallex lists Xero, QuickBooks and NetSuite integrations. Wise offers Xero and QuickBooks bank feeds that sync every currency account you connect, plus bill import and mark-as-paid for Xero. In either case, set each currency account up as its own bank account in the ledger, in that currency, so FX gains and losses are recorded properly.

Can I use Airwallex and Wise together?

Yes, and it is a sensible split for a business with large balances: convert big sums at Wise's lower fee and earn its interest, run cards, bill pay and supplier payouts on Airwallex's free plan, and keep a Canadian bank account for payroll, CRA remittances and cash. The accounts coexist; each currency balance is just another bank account in Xero or QuickBooks.

Not sure which fits your flow of funds? Ask us, or compare every option in the Canadian business banking comparison.