Mercury vs Relay (2026): Which Is Better for Small Businesses?

Mercury wins when USD wires should be free and checking yield is not the point. Relay wins when savings should earn without a $250,000 treasury gate. Relay Starter has no monthly fee and pays 1.19% APY on savings. Grow is $30 a month at 1.87% APY. Scale is $90 a month, against a $120 list price, at 3.21% APY.

This matchup is for a US company picking an operating account, not a personal budget and not a card program. Toolradar data: the finance ranking we publish, updated September 2026, evaluated 1,040 tools. Directory pages for the two accounts are Mercury and Relay.

Plan prices and yields below were read on 24 September 2026 from Mercury's pricing page, Mercury Treasury, and Relay's pricing page. The wider operating-account list is business bank accounts, and the single-product write-up is the Mercury review.

At a glance

Plan	Best for	Price (USD, September 2026)	What actually changes
Mercury checking and savings	Free USD payments, with yield only after Treasury	No monthly fee	ACH, domestic wires, and standard USD international wires are included. The Choice savings agreement lists 0.00% APY
Mercury Plus	Recurring invoices, ACH debit, and reimbursements past five users	$35/mo, or $29.90/mo on annual pricing	Recurring invoices, unlimited 1099 filings, and reimbursements for more than five active users a month
Mercury Pro	NetSuite coding and a named relationship manager	$350/mo, or $299/mo on annual pricing	ACH debit invoices included, NetSuite categorizations, and a relationship manager
Relay Starter	Envelope accounts plus a savings yield	No monthly fee	Up to 20 checking accounts (10 for a sole proprietorship), two savings accounts at 1.19% APY, outgoing domestic wire $8
Relay Grow	Approval rules and a higher savings APY	$30/mo	1.87% APY on savings, outgoing domestic wire $5, same-day ACH at $0.50
Relay Scale	More than 20 checking accounts	$90/mo while discounted, $120/mo list	50 checking accounts, 3.21% APY, same-day ACH included

A business banking platform, for this decision, is the operating account a US company uses to hold cash, pay vendors, and keep payroll off the tax reserve. Mercury and Relay both sell that login as software while a partner bank holds the deposit. Idle cash either earns inside a savings deposit, or wires stay free and yield waits for a securities account.

Question	Mercury	Relay	Who wins
Monthly cost of the operating account	No monthly fee for checking and savings	Starter has no monthly fee. Grow and Scale are paid	Tie on the free tier
Savings yield without a large balance	Choice agreement lists 0.00% APY	Starter pays the published savings APY with no minimum balance	Relay
Domestic wires	Included, send and receive	Priced on every plan	Mercury
Separate checking account numbers	Up to 100 checking and 100 savings	20 on Starter and Grow, 50 on Scale	Mercury if you need more than 20, and more than 50
Where yield sits	Treasury, a securities account, after the balance gate	Savings deposits, FDIC through the sweep	Relay if the cash must stay a deposit
USD international wires	Standard option included. A flat fee buys the OUR code	Local-network and SWIFT wires are priced by plan	Mercury for USD wires

The savings APY does not pay for Grow or Scale at $50,000

Relay's yield is a savings rate, not a checking rate. The deposit agreement calls checking non-interest-bearing, and each plan includes only two savings accounts, so payroll left in the account you pay from never earns until someone moves the reserve.

The pricing footnote dates the yields to 17 September 2026 and prints an interest rate beside each APY: 1.18% on Starter, 1.86% on Grow, and 3.16% on Scale. All three move with the federal funds target, Relay says fees may reduce earnings, and the page names no balance cap and no minimum to earn.

Multiplying the APY by a balance that never moves, the same flat-balance method Relay's calculator describes, is how you test the plan fee. On $50,000 in savings for a year, Starter earns $595 and Grow earns $935, so the extra yield is $340.

Twelve months of Grow cost $360, so the higher rate finishes $20 short of the subscription, which means you bought approvals, batch vendor payments, and recurring invoices rather than a profit on the interest.

Scale on that balance earns $1,605, and twelve months of the discounted plan cost $1,080 and leave $525. Starter, with no plan fee, still earns $595, so discounted Scale is $70 behind on a pure yield test.

If the 17 September APY and the current price both held, extra yield covers a year of Grow at $52,941 of savings and a year of discounted Scale at $53,465. If the Scale discount ends, that second line moves up, and checking cash does not belong in the math.

Mercury does not publish a competing savings rate: the Choice Financial Group commercial savings agreement, updated 25 June 2026, lists a 0.001% rate and a 0.00% APY, with no minimum, and the live rate in the account can change daily. Column N.A. is the other deposit bank, and the statement names which one holds each account, so the Choice table is not a promise about every Mercury savings bucket.

Treasury is a fund, and the free accounts are not

Mercury's yield opens only after balances across Mercury accounts clear the gate, and it is not a deposit. Treasury buys two mutual funds held in your name at Apex Clearing. The State Street government money market can return the same day if you start by 3pm ET. The Morgan Stanley ultra-short fund takes one to two business days and can take four, so do not park tomorrow's payment in that sleeve.

Net yields as of 18 September 2026, already after an annualized advisory fee of 0.15% to 0.6%, are 3.20% and 3.46% on the entry band, and 3.65% and 3.91% from $20 million to $50 million of Mercury deposits, and above that band both columns say to ask. The entry ultra-short figure beats Relay's top savings APY, but the funds hold short-term debt and can lose value.

SIPC at Apex covers up to $500,000 of securities and cash, with a $250,000 cash cap inside that limit. LLCs taxed as sole proprietorships and nonprofits are outside Treasury even when the balance would qualify. A reserve that must stay a deposit, under FDIC rules, is in the wrong product the moment it leaves checking or savings.

Do not subtract the advisory fee again, because the net yield already excludes it, and opening or moving money inside Treasury has no separate fee. Under the gate, the Choice table is the savings yield Mercury actually prints, which is why a smaller reserve earns more on Relay Starter than in a Choice savings account.

Account numbers are the other reason to pick

Relay's free tier is envelope cash with a cap: enough for a tax bucket and a payroll bucket, and not for a number per location. The Starter article, updated 11 August 2026, allows 20 checking accounts and two savings accounts, and 10 checking accounts for a sole proprietorship. Grow keeps that checking cap and users stay unlimited on every plan, while Scale is the only tier with 50 checking accounts, still with two savings accounts, so a 21st checking number forces Scale rather than Grow.

Mercury's ceiling is higher, and the extra accounts do not add a monthly fee. A Mercury post updated 15 September 2026 says a business can open 100 checking accounts and 100 savings accounts, each with its own number, and can move cash by rule. That fits a close that needs a number per store or per entity, and it does not fit a company that opened the extra account in order to earn, because those savings accounts do not pay Relay's APY.

Each extra number is another feed to reconcile in bookkeeping software or accounting software. Relay syncs QuickBooks Online and Xero on every plan, and Starter also names Gusto. Mercury includes QuickBooks and Xero automations, plus bank feeds to those two and to NetSuite, on the free plan, while NetSuite categorizations are Pro. Scale adds six months of Xero for new Xero accounts, useful only if you would have paid for Xero anyway (Xero review).

Ten domestic wires a month is a wash

Mercury includes the wires a US company actually sends, so a weekly payment habit should not sit on a per-wire price list. Business banking includes ACH, domestic wires, and USD international wires in both directions, with no monthly fee and no minimum, and real-time payments are included. A non-USD wire is a flat 1% exchange fee, and Mercury asks for a conversation above $200,000 of exchange, which is not a published discount you can budget.

The standard USD international wire can still leave intermediary fees with the recipient. Pay the flat $15 OUR code when the vendor must receive the full amount, because that code brings the intermediary fees back to Mercury.

Relay prices the same payments, so a wire habit is a fee even on the free plan. Outgoing domestic wires are $8 on Starter and $5 on Grow and Scale, and incoming wires use that Grow rate on every plan, while standard ACH is included everywhere. Same-day ACH, in before 4:15pm ET on a business day, is $1 on Starter, $0.50 on Grow, and included on Scale with no monthly cap on the count, per Relay's same-day article updated 11 August 2026. Local-network international wires are $5, then $3, then $1.50, and SWIFT wires are $25, $22, and $20. Currency exchange starts at Mercury's non-USD wire rate on every plan.

Ten outgoing domestic wires cost $80 on Starter, and Grow's per-wire fee plus the plan also comes to $80, so the upgrade is a wash when wires are the only purchase. One more wire and Grow costs less than paying the Starter fee each time. Scale does not cut the domestic wire below Grow, so buy it for the higher account cap, included same-day ACH, or the higher savings APY. If the payment is a supplier invoice rather than a bank wire, compare B2B payment platforms first. If the exchange fee on non-USD volume dominates the plan fee, price Wise against the wire.

Cards, invoices, and the close

Credit cash back is not a reason to pick Mercury. The IO card, issued by Patriot Bank, pays 1.5% on eligible credit spend, has no annual fee, and is paid in full each month, so it does not accrue interest. Eligible customers can get it when the account opens, with limitations, and cash back posts when the repayment runs. Relay's Visa credit card pays 1% on Starter, 1.25% on Grow, and 1.5% on Scale, and the top plan matches Mercury. Debit spend is not that reward on either side. Limits and what the card is for sit in corporate cards and what a corporate card is.

Non-USD card spend is a fee the reward does not cancel. Mercury's business disclosures cap debit and IO currency exchange at 3%, USD transactions on those cards are free, and Relay publishes no separate card foreign-exchange percent. A European software charge on the Mercury card should be compared with a local-currency wire at Mercury's exchange fee before you assume cash back won.

Sending an invoice is free on both, and the pull is where they split. Customers can pay a Mercury invoice by ACH transfer, wire, or check at no Mercury fee. ACH debit, Mercury pulling the customer, is $1 on Plus and included on Pro, so the free plan cannot use that flat pull. Mercury describes card payments as Stripe's typical 2.9% plus $0.30. Relay charges the same card price on every plan, and Grow and Scale can surcharge up to 2.9% so the payer covers it.

Pay-by-bank, Relay's pull, is 1%, 0.75%, and 0.50% by plan, capped at $10. On a $400 invoice the Starter pull is $4, above Mercury's flat debit, but only after Plus is already on the bill. A Starter pull of $1,000 or more costs the cap rather than a percent of the face, so upgrading to shave a large invoice is a weak trade. Recurring invoices start on Grow and on Plus, and batch payments start on Grow. If that invoice is missing a step, use the invoicing tools roundup. Bill pay is free on both, and Mercury's paid plans add reimbursements past five users, NetSuite coding, and richer invoices. The free plan lists Mercury Books at $35 a month, waived until 31 December 2026, a books promotion rather than a discount off Plus. A bank inbox is still not a payables product, which is the BILL review.

Neither one is the bank that holds the cash

Both companies say they are not FDIC-insured banks, so the statement names the insurer, not the logo. Mercury's deposits sit at Choice Financial Group or Column N.A., and Relay's sit at Thread Bank. Insurance covers a bank failure only when pass-through conditions are met, and money you already hold at a program bank, in the same ownership capacity, counts toward that bank's cap, so an older account at the same bank can eat the new coverage.

Mercury describes FDIC coverage up to $5,000,000 across up to 20 banks in the partner sweeps. Relay's pricing footnote describes up to $3,000,000 through Thread Bank's program banks. A round above Relay's ceiling that must stay a deposit, rather than a Treasury fund, has a coverage gap the savings APY does not close.

Treasury does not fill that gap, because a loss in the fund is an investment loss and SIPC at Apex does not turn it into an FDIC claim. Mercury says conditional OCC approval for Mercury Bank, N.A. arrived in April 2026, with FDIC and Federal Reserve approvals still pending, and customers stay on the partner banks meanwhile, so the charter is not a reason to open today, and Relay publishes no charter application. Venture debt from Mercury Lending is unavailable to businesses operating in California, and neither side publishes a line-of-credit rate, so neither account is a priced loan.

Both want a US operating company: Mercury requires formation in the United States or a US territory, some US operations, and a principal address that is not a registered agent, a post office box, or a UPS box, while founders can live abroad except where Mercury lists a restriction. Relay wants a US-registered, US-operating business in a supported industry, will not open personal accounts, escrow, trusts, or 401(k)s, and signup asks for Gmail, Outlook, or a business-domain email. Mercury's Choice agreement includes remote deposit of checks, and Relay lists check deposit as a way to fund the account.

Who should open which account

Pick Mercury when domestic or USD international wires are a weekly habit, or when you need more than 50 checking numbers. Stay on the free plan unless you need recurring invoices, ACH debit, NetSuite coding, or reimbursements for more than five people. Use Treasury only after the gate, and only if a securities account is acceptable for that reserve. The Mercury review is the single-product write-up if this is the account you will open.

Pick Relay Starter when you will split cash across checking accounts and you want the savings APY with no plan fee. Keep the reserve in savings, or the rate never touches the cash you spend. A sole proprietorship should count on 10 checking accounts, not the higher company cap. Move to Grow for approvals, batch payments, or recurring invoices, or when savings is past the break-even above. Move to Scale for more checking accounts than Grow allows, or when included same-day ACH matters more than the plan fee. Do not buy Scale to beat Starter on yield at the balance we tested.

If the checking balance itself should earn, start with the Bluevine review, because neither checking product here is a rate you can budget. If the decision is a card and spend software, read the Ramp review and the Brex review, and the wider shelf is the business bank account roundup.

How we compared

We read Mercury's pricing, treasury, business banking, and disclosures pages, the Choice savings agreement, and Relay's pricing page, deposit agreement, and Starter, Grow, Scale, and same-day ACH articles on 24 September 2026. Yield gaps are our multiplication of the published APYs and monthly prices. The 1,040-tool count is Toolradar's finance ranking that month.

Finpresso data: Beehiiv's export for this newsletter, refreshed 20 September 2026, counts 30,221 active subscribers, and the average open rate on that export is 32.6%. Neither company paid for a place here. Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, edited the matchup. Recheck both pricing pages before you apply. Relay's savings yields move with the federal funds rate, and the Scale discount is marked limited time.

FAQ

Which is better in 2026, Mercury or Relay?

Mercury is the better operating account when USD wires should be free and savings yield is not the point. Relay Starter is the better account when you want envelope checking and the published savings APY with no monthly fee, including a lower cap if you are a sole proprietorship. The paid Relay plans buy workflows, more account numbers, and a higher savings APY, not a cheaper domestic wire. At a $50,000 savings balance, a year of extra yield does not cover either paid plan.

How much do Mercury and Relay cost in 2026?

Mercury checking and savings have no monthly fee, which is enough when wires and a login are the whole job. Plus is $35 a month, or $29.90 a month on annual pricing, and the annual price fits a team that will keep those tools. Pro is $350 a month, or $299 a month on annual pricing, which is NetSuite coding and a named manager, not a small-team default. Relay Starter has no monthly fee, while Grow is $30 a month and Scale is $90 a month for a limited time, against a $120 list price. Those stickers were on the vendors' pricing pages on 24 September 2026, and Treasury opens only after the balance gate.

Does either account pay interest on checking?

No. Relay's deposit agreement calls checking non-interest-bearing, so cash you pay vendors from earns nothing until it moves to savings. The savings APYs, as of 17 September 2026, apply to the two savings accounts: 1.19% on Starter, then 1.87% and 3.21% on the paid plans. Mercury's Choice savings agreement, updated 25 June 2026, lists 0.00% APY. Mercury's published yield is Treasury, a securities account, after balances across Mercury accounts pass $250,000.

Which is cheaper for domestic wires?

Mercury, because domestic wires are free to send and receive and the standard USD international wire is free, so a weekly wire habit does not add a line to the bill. The OUR code is $15 when the recipient must get the full amount. Relay charges $8 per outgoing domestic wire on Starter and $5 on Grow and Scale. Ten Starter wires cost $80 in a month, and Grow lands on that same total once the plan fee is included, so a lighter month should stay on the free plan. Same-day ACH is $1 on Starter, $0.50 on Grow, and included on Scale.

How are deposits insured, and what happens in Treasury?

Mercury describes FDIC coverage up to $5,000,000 through Choice Financial Group, Column N.A., and sweeps of up to 20 banks. Relay describes FDIC coverage up to $3,000,000 through Thread Bank's program banks, so a deposit above that ceiling is the coverage gap. Both need pass-through conditions, and deposits you already hold at a program bank count toward that bank's cap. Treasury is held at Apex and covered by SIPC up to $500,000, so a loss in the fund is not an FDIC claim.

Can a sole proprietor open either account?

Relay can, and the Starter article caps a sole proprietorship at 10 checking accounts rather than 20, so a stack of client envelopes can outgrow the free tier. Mercury requires a company formed in the United States or a US territory, the Choice savings agreement covers an individual using the account for a trade or business, and Treasury still excludes LLCs taxed as sole proprietorships. Relay will not open a personal account, an escrow, a trust, or a 401(k).

Is Mercury or Relay a bank?

Neither is an FDIC-insured bank; the statement names the charter that insures the cash. Mercury's deposits sit at Choice Financial Group or Column N.A. Mercury says conditional OCC approval for Mercury Bank, N.A. arrived in April 2026, with further approvals still pending, so today's cash stays at the partner banks. Relay's deposits sit at Thread Bank, and Relay publishes no charter application.

This page is general information, not personalized financial advice; confirm current terms with each provider.

Cite this: Finpresso, "Mercury vs Relay (2026): Which Is Better for Small Businesses?", September 2026.

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