The Cheapest Money Transfer Service, Corridor by Corridor
We ask every service we track for its own current price on the same $1,000 transfer, on 14 corridors. 4 different services come out cheapest, which is why a single recommendation cannot work.
Why One Answer Fails
No service is cheapest everywhere. Across the 14 corridors on our board, on the same $1,000 paid from a bank account and delivered to a bank account, 4 different services came out cheapest: Taptap Send on 4 routes, Revolut on 2 routes, WorldRemit on 1 route and Remitly on 1 route. On 6 more, no single standing price came in below every other quote, so we name no one there. The question worth asking is never “which service is cheapest” but “which is cheapest to where I am sending, at the amount I am sending.”
Cheapest Service by Corridor
Every row is the same test: $1,000 paid from a bank account and delivered to a bank account, from each provider’s own current quote. “Best to worst” is what you lose on that one transfer by picking the most expensive standing option instead of the cheapest.
Every figure on the board comes from the providers themselves, in quotes collected November 9–12, 2026. All-in cost is the fee plus the exchange-rate markup; the percentage is its share of the amount sent. “No clear cheapest” marks a corridor where the top of the table was a tie, a promotion or a rate better than our mid-market reference, none of which we name as cheapest. Revolut’s quotes are for its free Standard plan. Pricing moves, so check your own route before sending.
Check Your Own Route
The board above holds the amount and the kind of transfer fixed. Here you set both yourself, for any route.
Compare Money Transfer Services
Sending 1,000.00 USD → INR · Estimated typical cost · bank deposit, bank-funded
Showing 12 of 17 services we can price for USD → INR
Estimates only, not live quotes. "Recipient Gets" is for a bank deposit funded from a bank account, on today's mid-market rate: for a "provider quote", minus the rate markup and fee from that provider's own recent quote; for an estimate, minus the provider's typical markup and fee. Rows are ranked by total cost, the fee plus the rate markup, so a fee charged on top of the amount sent counts against a provider even when its recipient gets more. Real cost varies by corridor, amount, delivery and payment method, and promotions (e.g. new-customer offers can be cheaper). Tap a provider to get its live rate before sending. The dot by each provider shows confidence, and the label says how the figure was grounded: "corridor estimate" is a rate we measured for this exact pair; a currency-code estimate (e.g. "USD estimate") is measured for that source currency but not this destination; "typical estimate" is the provider's general figure across all its corridors; "provider quote" is that provider's own recent quote for this pair, its markup and fee applied to today's mid-market rate exactly as its calculator shows them, and a provider whose quote depends on a payment or delivery choice is left out here and priced on its own calculator. Margins are verified against live provider quotes and the World Bank Remittance Prices database; the date above is the most recent collection. See how we collect these prices and our advertising disclosure.
Why the Winner Changes
Providers do not set one price and apply it everywhere. Each negotiates its own rates and payout arrangements corridor by corridor, so a service can be excellent on one route and ordinary on the next. The clearest evidence is what happens inside a single company:
Exchange-rate markup only, on the corridors of the board above, leaving out any quote running a promotion or better than our mid-market reference. Wise is built differently: it converts at the mid-market rate and takes its margin as a visible fee instead.
On the corridors on our board, Western Union’s exchange-rate markup on a bank deposit ran from 0.62% to India up to 7.83% to Ghana, from the same provider. A one-word verdict on any provider is too blunt to be useful, and the table shows why. The same caution applies in reverse to any service you have heard is cheap.
One caveat on OFX. It is built for large transfers: no maximum and a dealer on the phone, so a $1,000 board is not where it is meant to shine. On $1,000 to India its own quote came to 3.87% all-in, and 3.39% on $5,000. Worth knowing if you are moving a large sum and want to speak to someone, but compare it on your own amount.
Two Ways to Be the Cheapest
Split each corridor’s cheapest quote into its fee and its markup and you can see how it is priced. There is no single cheap pricing model. The rate column shows what one dollar buys on the route once that markup comes off the current market.
Taptap Send offers some routes here as several services at different fees. Where a fee is a range, the figures shown are for the cheapest.
No fee, margin in the rate
- Taptap Send to Kenya and Taptap Send to Egypt. Nothing is charged up front: the whole cost sits in the exchange rate.
A visible fee plus the rate
- WorldRemit to India, Revolut to the Philippines, Taptap Send to Mexico, Remitly to Bangladesh, Taptap Send to Colombia and Revolut to the Dominican Republic. Part of the cost is a fee you can see, and the rest sits in the exchange rate.
Across the whole board, 66 of the 158 quotes carry no fee at all, at both ends of the table. A $0 fee is common enough that on its own it tells you almost nothing: the markup in the rate decides most of the price.
Does the Cheapest Option Hold as You Send More?
It depends on how the leader prices. A fixed fee shrinks as a share of a bigger transfer, so a rival can overtake a leader that charges one; a leader that prices as a percentage does not care how much you send. Here is the cheapest service on three corridors at three amounts, paid from a bank account and delivered to a bank account:
In our current data the cheapest service changes with the amount to India, Mexico and the Philippines. Check the board at your own amount, not just at $1,000.
Some Regions Are Simply Cheaper
Grouping the corridors shows a floor that varies by region: how cheap the best available option is, before you have chosen anything.
Africa has the lowest floor in our current data, a median of 0.38% across the 2 corridors where one service led; Latin America the highest, at 0.54%. Payout networks, competition and currency rules differ from region to region. None of this changes what you should do, since you still compare your own route, but it does explain why the floor moves from one region to the next.
How We Work This Out
A quote only becomes comparable once the fee and the exchange rate are collapsed into one number. For each provider we take the live mid-market rate, measure how far below it the offered rate sits, add the fee, and express the result as a single percentage of the amount sent.
- That makes a $5 fee with a clean rate directly comparable to a $0 fee with a poor one, the comparison a fee table on its own can never make.
- Figures are per corridor, never averaged across a provider, because averaging hides exactly the variation shown above.
- A promotional fee, or a rate better than our mid-market reference, is a real quote but not a standing price, so it is never named cheapest.
The sourcing and grading rules are set out on our methodology page. If you want the mechanics of fees versus markups rather than the results, that is covered in how to save on transfer fees. For what each individual service charges, see money transfer service fees.
Comparing Providers: Your Questions
Which money transfer service is cheapest?
There is no single answer, and that is the most useful thing we can tell you. On the same $1,000 bank-to-bank transfer across 14 corridors, 4 different services held the lowest price somewhere, and none held it on more than 4 routes. All are the providers’ own figures, in quotes collected November 9–12, 2026. A guide that names one overall winner is describing one route and generalising from it.
How much does picking the wrong service cost?
On the corridors on our board, the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive standing quote on $1,000 ran from $1.16 to Nigeria up to $70.31 to Ghana, with a median around $29.53. That is on a single transfer. The gap also grows with the amount: on USD to INR it was $3.60 on $200 and $165.52 on $5,000.
Why does the cheapest service change from country to country?
Because each provider prices one route at a time, and nothing obliges it to be as sharp on the next. A keen rate to Mexico says little about what the same service charges to Vietnam. Western Union is a case in point: its bank-deposit markup was 0.62% to India but 7.83% to Ghana.
Is the service with the lowest fee the cheapest?
Often not, because the fee is only the part of the price you can see. The markup in the exchange rate never appears as a line item, and it can outweigh the fee. On our current $1,000 USD to INR board, Wise charged a fee of $6.85, the largest there, and came to $7.07 all-in; OFX charged no fee and came to $38.71. The markup sitting behind the smaller fee more than closed the gap.
How do you decide which service is cheapest?
We judge every quote by what it costs in total. Its exchange rate is checked against the live mid-market rate for the pair, that gap is turned into money and added to the fee, and the sum becomes one percentage of the amount sent, so a fee-free quote and a fee-charging one sit on the same scale. This is done route by route; no provider is given a single averaged score. Promotional fees, and rates better than our mid-market reference, are displayed but cannot take the top spot.
Are the cheapest services safe to use?
Cost and safety are separate questions. Every service on our board is a licensed money transmitter in the markets it serves. In the US, remittance transfers also carry federal protections: you are entitled to see the exchange rate, the fees and the exact amount your recipient will receive before you pay, and you generally have at least 30 minutes to cancel. A cheaper service is usually one taking a smaller margin on the rate, not one cutting regulatory corners.
Price your own transfer
Your own amount, route and way of paying will move these numbers, so price your transfer before you send.
Related Guides
Every fee on an international transfer, from the exchange-rate markup to card, cash pickup and bank wire charges, and how to see the real price.
The best apps and online services for sending money abroad, matched to the job: live costs on major routes, best for cash pickup, best for the real exchange rate, and which to use for your transfer.
ACH vs wire transfer in 2026: free and slow vs fast with a bank fee, reversible vs final, US-only vs worldwide. When to use each.
Brokers, platforms and banks compared for five- and six-figure transfers.
Sources & References
- TransferFees Methodology: how we measure transfer costs
- World Bank: Remittance Prices Worldwide
- Federal Reserve: H.10 Foreign Exchange Rates
- CFPB: What is a remittance transfer and what are my rights?
Provider pricing and exchange rates are set by the companies named and can change. Figures in this guide are checked against these official sources. Always confirm the live rate before you transact.