Mercury vs Brex for startups: fees, eligibility and yield

Once you have formed a US company, or are about to, it needs its first business account. The same goes for founders living in India, the UAE, Southeast Asia or Europe who incorporated a Delaware C-corp, often through Stripe Atlas, to sell to US customers or raise from US investors.

Mercury and Brex are the two names most founders hear first. They are not the same kind of product. Mercury is a banking platform with a card attached. Brex started as a corporate card for funded startups and added banking. Relay and Wise Business fill gaps that both leave open, so they appear here too.

Which one to pick

If you are…	Start with
A non-US founder with a US company and no US office	Mercury
A venture-backed startup with a US address and $50,000 or more in cash	Brex or Mercury; compare card limits
A bootstrapped small business with many payees and bills	Relay or Mercury
Paid by clients in many currencies	Wise Business alongside your main account

Eligibility: who can actually open each one

Mercury

Mercury says it supports US companies founded by people across the globe. Its business banking page sets three conditions:

• The company must be formed and registered in the United States or a US territory.
• It must have some existing or planned operations in the US.
• It needs a US or international address for its principal place of business. A residential address is fine; a registered agent, PO box or UPS box address is not.

Mercury cannot support businesses with founders or financial controllers living in the countries on its prohibited list. Its help centre says the test is country of residence, not citizenship. The list is long and has included several South and Southeast Asian countries, so check the current page before you form a company with Mercury in mind. India was not on the list when I checked, but lists change.

Brex

Brex is stricter on location. Its account requirements page says every applicant needs a US EIN, a valid US incorporation, US operations and a US physical address. PO boxes, private mailboxes and mailbox services are refused. A virtual address is accepted only if a beneficial owner or control officer keeps a physical presence in the US and can be verified there.

Brex also screens by stage. It says it serves companies that meet any of these:

• Received an equity investment of any amount (accelerator, angel or VC), or plan to soon.
• More than $500,000 a year in revenue.
• Tech startups on a path to those criteria and referred by an existing customer or partner.

Funded startups need a $50,000 minimum cash balance for the card with monthly payments, or possibly less with certain partner referrals. Below that, Brex says you may still qualify for its business account with daily payments.

For a non-US founder with a Delaware C-corp, no US office and no US-resident officer, the address rule is usually the deciding factor.

What happened to Brex’s small-business customers

In June 2022 Brex told many small businesses it would stop serving them. TechCrunch reported that Brex would no longer work with businesses without some form of professional funding, such as venture capital, angel money or an accelerator, and that affected accounts had until mid-August 2022 to move. Brex’s leadership later said the communication had been handled badly.

The current criteria above are the result: funded startups and larger companies first, with a revenue route for established businesses.

The bigger change is ownership. Capital One completed its acquisition of Brex on 7 April 2026. Brex’s own pages now say Brex LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital One, N.A. Brex still operates under its own name.

Relay

Relay is aimed at small US businesses. Relay’s guide for non-residents says it lets non-residents from many eligible countries open a US business account online, once the LLC and EIN are in place, and links to a prohibited-countries list. The same guide is inconsistent on whether a physical US address is required, so confirm with Relay before you apply.

Wise Business

Wise Business is not a bank account in the same sense. It is a multi-currency account for receiving and paying in many currencies. In the US, Wise charges a one-time 31 USD set-up fee to get every Wise Business feature, including account details to receive money in 22 currencies.

A note on Stripe Atlas

Stripe Atlas incorporates a Delaware C-corp or LLC for a $500 one-time fee, which Stripe says includes government fees and the first year of registered agent service. You can apply from almost anywhere in the world. Atlas now promotes Stripe’s own Treasury account at the banking step, with a $500 incentive if you open it within seven days of incorporating. You are free to open Mercury or another account instead.

Fees

	Mercury	Brex	Relay	Wise Business (US)
Monthly plan	$0, $29.90 (Plus) or $299 (Pro)	$0 (Essentials) or $12 per user (Premium)	$0, $30 (Grow) or $90 (Scale, discounted from $120)	No monthly fee; 31 USD one-time set-up
Domestic ACH	$0	$0	Not checked	Not applicable
Domestic wire out	$0	$0	$8 (Starter), $5 (Grow and Scale)	Not applicable
International wire, USD	$0	$0	Not verified	Not applicable
International wire, other currency	1% currency exchange fee	$0 wire fee	Not verified	Conversion from 0.23%
Non-USD card spend	3% currency exchange fee	Not verified	Not verified	Not checked
Receiving a USD wire or Swift payment	Not checked	$0 incoming	Not checked	6.11 USD per payment

A few details matter more than the headline zeros:

• Mercury’s 1% FX fee applies to non-USD international wires. Mercury says it covers the cost of sending through the SWIFT network, and invites companies exchanging over $200,000 to contact it about fees.
• Mercury’s SHA and OUR options. On USD international wires, the default may leave intermediary bank fees to be absorbed by your recipient. Choosing OUR costs a flat $15, and Mercury pays the intermediary fees instead.
• Brex’s zero wire fees come with a footnote: the recipient’s bank may still charge on receipt. Brex says it sends ACH, checks and wires in 30 or more currencies.
• Wise is usually the cheaper way to convert currency. For how the FX margin compounds across invoices, see international payments and forex fees.

Cards and cashback

• Mercury IO is a Mastercard credit card issued by Patriot Bank. Mercury advertises unlimited 1.5% cashback on all spend, paid automatically into your account, and no annual fee. Limits are based on your Mercury balance, and Mercury says IO is only for Mercury account holders. Remember the 3% fee on non-USD card transactions if your team spends abroad.
• Brex cards are underwritten on the business rather than a personal credit score, and Brex says no personal guarantee is required. Rewards are points. Brex says it offers local-currency cards in 50 or more countries; the base plan includes one local card programme.
• Relay pays 1%, 1.25% or 1.5% cashback on its credit cards depending on plan.

For spending abroad, a card with no FX fee is worth more than an extra half-point of cashback. Compare the full cost on one month of your actual spend.

Treasury and yield

Both treasury products move idle cash into money market funds or Treasuries. That money is not an FDIC-insured deposit.

	Mercury Treasury	Brex Treasury	Relay savings
Minimum	$250,000 across Mercury accounts	No minimum	No minimum
Product	Government money market, ultra-short bond fund, or a Treasury ladder	BNY Dreyfus Government Cash Management Fund (DGVXX) plus a Brex additional return	Interest-bearing savings via Thread Bank
Advertised rate on 11 November 2026	From 3.32% net (money market, $250K to $2M tier), higher for larger balances and other products	3.60% to 3.95% “total treasury return”, depending on balance tier	1.19%, 1.87% or 3.21% APY, depending on plan
Protection	SIPC through Apex Clearing; not FDIC	Not FDIC-insured in Treasury	FDIC through Thread Bank’s sweep, conditions apply

Brex’s footnote explains that its posted figure is not the fund’s own seven-day yield (3.54% when checked). It is an annualised estimate that adds Brex’s tier-based additional return and assumes rates stay unchanged for a year. Mercury quotes yields net of fees by balance tier. Both will move with interest rates.

On deposit insurance, Mercury says it offers up to $5 million of FDIC coverage through its partner banks’ sweep networks, and Brex says up to $6 million through 24 partner banks for funds in its Vault product.

Who actually holds your money

Mercury describes itself as a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Its banking services are provided by Choice Financial Group and Column N.A. In April 2026 the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency gave Mercury conditional approval for a national bank charter. Banking Dive reported that Mercury still had to meet the OCC’s remaining requirements and obtain final approvals from the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. Until then, Mercury’s own pages still name its partner banks.

Brex’s checking account is provided by Column N.A., and its Treasury and Vault services by Brex Treasury LLC, now a Capital One company.

Relay’s banking services are provided by Thread Bank.

None of this makes one of them unsafe. It does mean you should read which bank holds your deposits, and how the sweep coverage works, before you keep a large balance anywhere.

Perks marketplaces

All three run discount catalogues, and all of them change often.

• Mercury’s perks page listed, when I checked, offers such as $10,000 in GitHub credits and $300 in Supabase credits, alongside percentage discounts on accounting and productivity software.
• Brex advertises over $350,000 in discounts and credits on AI and SaaS tools for startups.
• Stripe Atlas includes $2,500 in Stripe product credits in the first year, plus partner discounts.

Perks are a tie-breaker, not a reason to choose a bank. For a wider list, see startup perks and credits in 2026.

Which suits which founder

Mercury suits most early companies with founders outside the US. It accepts an international principal address, has no monthly fee on the base plan, and sends domestic and USD international wires for free. Its weak spots are currency: 1% on non-USD wires and 3% on non-USD card spend.

Brex suits funded startups with a US presence that want high card limits without a personal guarantee, expense software for a growing team, and free wires in many currencies. Its address and funding rules exclude many solo founders abroad.

Relay suits small, cash-flow-heavy businesses that want many sub-accounts and bill pay, and that are comfortable with per-wire fees on the free plan.

Wise Business suits anyone invoicing in several currencies. Use it beside a US account, not instead of one, and move funds between them in the currency that costs least.

Many founders end up with two: a primary US account for payroll, tax payments and investors, and Wise for receiving and converting foreign currency.

Before you apply

• Check the prohibited-countries list for every founder’s country of residence before choosing Mercury or Relay.
• If nobody on the team is physically in the US, assume Brex is out until Brex confirms otherwise.
• Price your real mix of payments: domestic wires, USD wires abroad, non-USD wires and foreign card spend.
• Treat treasury yield as an investment, not a deposit, and read the footnotes on how the rate is calculated.
• Note which partner bank holds your cash and how far the sweep coverage goes.
• Keep a second account so one frozen or closed account does not stop payroll.