# What it costs to send money abroad: a bank wire, Wise or a stablecoin

URL: https://www.orla.finance/en/international-payment-cost-calculator
Markdown twin of that page. Append `.md` to any Orla page URL to get one.

Type the amount and the currency the other person wants. Each rail shows what it costs you and what actually reaches them, with every fee from the provider's own page.

Orla sells none of these rails and takes nothing on a payout, so none of them has to win. The form runs in your browser: nothing you type leaves the page.

#### The calculator, at its defaults

1,000 USD to a contractor who wants euros, one recipient, a wire in US dollars from a large US bank with charges shared, Wise paid by bank transfer, USDC on Base with a 1% cash-out. The page recomputes this for any amount, currency, bank, network and cash-out.

| Rail | You pay | Taken on the way | They receive | Total cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Bank wire (SWIFT) | $1,045.00 | $25.00 | 817.45 EUR | $113.80 (11.4%) |
| Wise | $1,000.00 | $0.00 | 869.18 EUR | $9.87 (1.0%) |
| USDC on Base | $1,000.00 | $0.00 | 869.07 EUR | $10.00 (1.0%) |

Fees read on 26 September 2026 from the pages linked below. Change any assumption. Not financial, tax or legal advice.

It does not know your bank's rate sheet, your contractor's bank or their country's rules, and it leaves out taxes and any fee a platform charges on top.

#### Where each one wins

##### Wise wins most everyday amounts

On 1,000 USD to euros Wise's fee is $9.87 at the mid-market rate, and 869.18 EUR arrives with nothing deducted on the way. The same amount as a wire in dollars loses $113.80 (11.4%) to fees, deductions and the receiving bank's rate. A transfer into their own bank also looks like any other transfer to their accountant.

Open the case: https://www.orla.finance/en/international-payment-cost-calculator#calculator

##### The stablecoin wins small amounts, if their cash-out is cheap

On 300 USD to Europe the wire costs $92.80, 30.9% of the payment, before anybody has done anything wrong. Wise charges $7.85. USDC on Base costs you a tenth of a cent and costs them $3.00 at a 1% cash-out, so 260.72 EUR arrives against 256.46 EUR through Wise. Under a few hundred dollars the fixed fees are the whole story.

Open the case: https://www.orla.finance/en/international-payment-cost-calculator?amount=300#calculator

##### The wire beats a careless cash-out on a large amount

On 20,000 USD sent in euros, Bank of America's "no wire fee" is not zero: at a 3% markup the rate carries it, $640.00 in all. Mercury's 1% conversion fee makes it $240.00. Wise's fee is $64.78. A stablecoin costs you cents and costs them $40.00 at a careful 0.2% or $1,000.00 at a careless 5%: the winner is decided at their end, and a wire can be recalled by request where a token transfer cannot.

Open the case: https://www.orla.finance/en/international-payment-cost-calculator?amount=20000&bank=mercury&wire=theirs&out=5#calculator

##### What you pay is half the answer

On 1,000 USD to India the wire leaves 89,189.59 INR. Wise leaves 94,700.73 INR for an $11.26 fee. USDT on TRON to an address that never held USDT burns 13.03 TRX, about $4.38, and the 1% cash-out costs them $10.00: 94,821.41 INR arrives. A transfer that costs you nothing and costs them 4% is not cheap, which is why the form prints what arrives beside what you pay.

#### How each column is worked out

##### Bank wire (SWIFT)

Three charges and a rate. Your bank's fee: Bank of America's page says $45 for an international wire in US dollars, and no wire fee in a foreign currency, with exchange rate markups applied instead. Mercury sends a US dollar wire free with the charges shared, or for a flat $15 if you cover them, and adds a 1% conversion fee to a wire in another currency.

On the way, correspondent banks deduct what they deduct. Wise's help page estimates 15 to 50 USD or equivalent, and higher depending on the banks, so the form starts at 25. At the far end the receiving bank keeps its own fee: Bank of America's is $15, and your contractor's bank publishes its own.

The rate is the charge nobody prints. A bank that converts sets its own rate, and no bank page we read gives the markup. Wise's public comparison feed listed Wells Fargo and Chase about 3% below the mid-market rate for euros and for rupees on 26 September 2026, which is Wise's data about banks, so the form starts at 3% and asks you to change it to your bank's. Arrival, on Bank of America's page: 1 to 5 business days.

##### Wise

One fee and the mid-market rate. The fee is a fixed part plus a percentage of the amount, fitted from two amounts on Wise's own public comparison feed and checked against its figure for a third to the cent: 6.98 USD plus 0.289% to euros, and 7.08 USD plus 0.418% to rupees, paying by bank transfer. Paying from a Wise balance or by direct debit costs less, and the form takes the way you pay.

Above 25,000 USD Wise says its fees are discounted, so the form prints no number there. At the recipient's end there is usually nothing to pay when the money lands in their own bank in their own currency.

##### USDC or USDT

The network fee, paid by you in the chain's own coin, and the recipient's cost to turn tokens into money. On 26 September 2026 a token transfer cost $0.001 on Base, $0.004 on Arbitrum and $0.002 on Polygon by each explorer's own figure, and Etherscan put a USDT transfer on Ethereum at $0.01 and an ERC-20 transfer at $0.02.

Solana's average transaction fee was about 0.00008 SOL, a cent, plus a deposit of about 0.002 SOL once for a recipient who never held the token. On TRON every USDT transfer we read that evening used 64,285 energy to an address that held USDT and 130,285 to one that did not: 6.43 or 13.03 TRX burned, about $2.16 or $4.38, and nothing if the sender has staked TRX for energy.

The cash-out is the recipient's. Done on an order book with a local withdrawal it lands near 0.2%; through buy buttons and a percentage withdrawal, near 5%. The form starts at 1%, which is what one payments vendor charges for its own off-ramp on its cheapest plan.

#### What this leaves in your books

Orla is not one of the rails: a payout is proposed, passes the space's rule, and leaves your bank or your wallet at that rail's price.

- A bank wire: A payment recorded as a bank transfer, made in the bank, then marked paid with the bank's confirmation. From a connected Mercury account the payment is requested into Mercury's own approval queue, and non-US payees go by international wire, in US dollars only; from a connected Slash account a person presses Send via Slash. A bank does not report its wire fee, and Orla says so: the Cost of moving money card in Reports counts network, exchange and card top-up fees, and states that bank transfers are in none of them.
- A Wise transfer: Recorded in Orla and made in Wise. Orla does not connect to Wise: it is on the Coming next, if you ask list under Connections. The month's Wise statement is filed against the account, and a transfer between two of your own accounts that arrived short is booked with the shortfall as the rail's fee, so both accounts still add up.
- A stablecoin payout: Sent from the run screen, which says up to X per run, Y per row before you send: an upper bound, not a quote. Afterwards the payment carries the transaction id linked to the block explorer and what the network actually charged, and the fee is its own row in the transaction list, named Network fee, in SOL, TRX or ETH, so the expense report agrees with how much the wallet went down by.
- A batch: Up to 200 rows from one account, typed or from a CSV, checked on its total by the approval rule and signed in one action. A batch runs on every plan; the breakdown of who was paid and which bills a batch settled starts on Pro.
- What Orla charges: On payouts and bills Orla takes nothing: each payment carries its own rail's cost. Orla's own fee sits in three places: a crypto swap and a card top-up, each named on the screen before you confirm, and what an AI agent's wallet spends on its own.

#### Every figure, its source and when it was read

| Figure | Value | Read | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| USD per international wire sent in US dollars | 45 | 26 September 2026 | Bank of America, wire transfers: https://info.bankofamerica.com/en/digital-banking/wire-transfers |
| USD per international wire sent in a foreign currency | 0 | 26 September 2026 | Bank of America, wire transfers: https://info.bankofamerica.com/en/digital-banking/wire-transfers |
| USD the receiving bank keeps from an incoming international wire | 15 | 26 September 2026 | Bank of America, wire transfers: https://info.bankofamerica.com/en/digital-banking/wire-transfers |
| USD per international wire in US dollars, charges shared | 0 | 26 September 2026 | Mercury, pricing: https://mercury.com/pricing |
| USD flat fee when you cover the correspondent charges on a US dollar wire | 15 | 26 September 2026 | Mercury, pricing: https://mercury.com/pricing |
| % conversion fee on a non-USD international wire | 1 | 26 September 2026 | Mercury, pricing: https://mercury.com/pricing |
| USD taken by correspondent banks on the way, charges shared | 25 | 26 September 2026 | Wise help, Swift correspondent fees: https://wise.com/help/articles/3KEJruODkhi59TZbSxO2xn/what-are-swift-correspondent-fees-when-sending-and-receiving-money |
| % a bank's rate sits below the mid-market rate when it converts | 3 | 26 September 2026 | Wise comparison feed (Wise's data about banks): https://api.wise.com/v3/comparisons/?sourceCurrency=USD&targetCurrency=EUR&sendAmount=300 |
| EUR per USD, mid-market | 0.8778 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | Wise comparison feed: https://api.wise.com/v3/comparisons/?sourceCurrency=USD&targetCurrency=EUR&sendAmount=300 |
| % of the amount, USD to EUR | 0.289 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | Wise comparison feed: https://api.wise.com/v3/comparisons/?sourceCurrency=USD&targetCurrency=EUR&sendAmount=300 |
| USD fixed part, paid by bank transfer | 6.98 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | Wise comparison feed: https://api.wise.com/v3/comparisons/?sourceCurrency=USD&targetCurrency=EUR&sendAmount=300 |
| USD fixed part, paid from a Wise balance | 0.55 | 26 September 2026 | Wise, USD to EUR page: https://wise.com/us/send-money/send-money-to-europe |
| USD fixed part, paid by direct debit | 2.58 | 26 September 2026 | Wise, USD to EUR page: https://wise.com/us/send-money/send-money-to-europe |
| USD fixed part, paid by debit card | 13.16 | 26 September 2026 | Wise, USD to EUR page: https://wise.com/us/send-money/send-money-to-europe |
| INR per USD, mid-market | 95.7792 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | Wise comparison feed: https://api.wise.com/v3/comparisons/?sourceCurrency=USD&targetCurrency=INR&sendAmount=300 |
| % of the amount, USD to INR | 0.4183 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | Wise comparison feed: https://api.wise.com/v3/comparisons/?sourceCurrency=USD&targetCurrency=INR&sendAmount=300 |
| USD fixed part, paid by bank transfer | 7.075 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | Wise comparison feed: https://api.wise.com/v3/comparisons/?sourceCurrency=USD&targetCurrency=INR&sendAmount=300 |
| USD fixed part, paid by direct debit | 1.566 | 26 September 2026 | Wise, USD to INR page: https://wise.com/us/send-money/send-money-to-india |
| USD, above which Wise quotes discounted fees | 25,000 | 26 September 2026 | Wise, USD to INR page: https://wise.com/us/send-money/send-money-to-india |
| USD per token transfer on Base | 0.001 | 26 September 2026, 15:49 UTC | Basescan gas tracker, ERC-20 Transfer: https://basescan.org/gastracker |
| USD per token transfer on Arbitrum | 0.004 | 26 September 2026, 15:51 UTC | Arbiscan gas tracker, ERC-20 Transfer: https://arbiscan.io/gastracker |
| USD per token transfer on Polygon | 0.002 | 26 September 2026, 15:51 UTC | Polygonscan gas tracker, ERC-20 Transfer: https://polygonscan.com/gastracker |
| USD per USDT transfer on Ethereum | 0.013 | 26 September 2026, 16:04 UTC | Etherscan gas tracker, USDT: Transfer: https://etherscan.io/gastracker |
| USD per USDC (ERC-20) transfer on Ethereum | 0.016 | 26 September 2026, 16:04 UTC | Etherscan gas tracker, ERC20: Transfer: https://etherscan.io/gastracker |
| SOL, the average fee of a non-vote Solana transaction | 0.00008267 | 26 September 2026 | Solana Compass, fee statistics: https://solanacompass.com/statistics/fees |
| SOL, the deposit that opens a token account for a recipient who never held the token | 0.00203928 | 26 September 2026 | Solana docs, accounts: https://solana.com/docs/core/accounts |
| TRX burned by a USDT transfer to an address that already holds USDT | 6.4285 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | TronGrid, 30 USDT transfers: https://api.trongrid.io/v1/contracts/TR7NHqjeKQxGTCi8q8ZY4pL8otSzgjLj6t/events |
| TRX burned by a USDT transfer to an address that never held USDT | 13.0285 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | TronGrid, 30 USDT transfers: https://api.trongrid.io/v1/contracts/TR7NHqjeKQxGTCi8q8ZY4pL8otSzgjLj6t/events |
| TRX for the bandwidth of one transfer beyond the free daily allowance | 0.345 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | TronGrid, chain parameters: https://api.trongrid.io/wallet/getchainparameters |
| USD per SOL | 121.16 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | CoinGecko: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/solana |
| USD per TRX | 0.336 | 26 September 2026, 18:38 UTC | CoinGecko: https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/tron |
| % the recipient loses turning stablecoins into bank money | 1 | 26 September 2026 | A payments vendor's off-ramp, cheapest plan: https://www.requestfinance.com/pricing |
| USD flat withdrawal fee at the recipient's exchange | 0 | 26 September 2026 | Orla blog, what it costs to get paid in crypto: https://www.orla.finance/en/blog/what-it-costs-to-get-paid-in-crypto |

#### Questions

**How much does an international wire transfer cost?**

On the sender's side, $45 for a wire in US dollars at Bank of America and nothing or $15 at Mercury on 26 September 2026, plus a markup inside the rate when a bank converts. On the way, correspondent banks' deductions, which Wise estimates at 15 to 50 USD and which are not known in advance. At the far end, the receiving bank's own fee, $15 at Bank of America. The form adds the three up and shows what arrives.

**Is Wise cheaper than a bank wire?**

For amounts up to 25,000 USD in a currency Wise pays out, usually yes: $9.87 on 1,000 USD to euros by bank transfer at the mid-market rate, against $113.80 lost on a wire in dollars. A bank can come close on a very large amount if its fee is waived and its markup is small, and a bank reaches accounts Wise does not. Put your own numbers in.

**How much does it cost to send USDT on TRON?**

6.43 TRX when the recipient already holds USDT and 13.03 TRX when they do not, read off 30 USDT transfers on 26 September 2026: 64,285 and 130,285 energy at 100 sun per unit, if the sender lets the network burn TRX. With TRX at $0.3360 that is about $2.16 or $4.38; with TRX staked for energy, close to nothing. Base, Arbitrum and Polygon priced a token transfer under half a cent the same day.

**Who pays the fees on a stablecoin payout?**

You pay the network, in the chain's own coin. The recipient pays to cash out: their exchange, their withdrawal, sometimes their bank. That second cost is what the They receive figure is for. Write who pays what into the agreement before the first payment.

**Can a stablecoin payout be reversed?**

No. A wire can be recalled by request and a Wise transfer behaves like a bank transfer; a token transfer settles in minutes and stays settled. What protects it happens before the send: the address on the contact card, the screening, the rule that the person who proposed a payment cannot sign it.

**Does Orla charge for payouts?**

No. A payout leaves your bank or your wallet and pays that rail's price. Orla's own fees are on a crypto swap, a card top-up and what an AI agent's wallet spends, and each is shown on the screen before you confirm.

#### Read next

- How to pay international contractors, five ways: https://www.orla.finance/en/pay-contractors/international
- Paying contractors in USDC or USDT: https://www.orla.finance/en/pay-contractors/usdc
- What it costs to get paid in crypto, from the other side: https://www.orla.finance/en/blog/what-it-costs-to-get-paid-in-crypto
- ACH vs SWIFT, in plain terms: https://www.orla.finance/en/glossary/ach-vs-swift
- What an off-ramp is: https://www.orla.finance/en/glossary/off-ramp
- Paying from Mercury: https://www.orla.finance/en/mercury