Brex vs Mercury: plans and fees, September 2026
Both start at $0. Brex's paid tier costs $12 per user per month, so it passes MercuryPlus's shown $29.90 at three users and MercuryPro's $299 at 25, but the tiers buy different things: policy controls at Brex, invoicing and accounting at Mercury.
Brex and Mercury both start at $0, checked 28 September 2026. Brex charges $12 per user per month for Premium and quotes Enterprise on request.1 Mercury’s pricing page shows MercuryPlus at $29.90 a month and MercuryPro at $299 a month, with no per-user unit, while its own FAQ says paid plans start at $35 a month.2 So Brex’s paid cost grows with headcount and Mercury’s doesn’t.1,2 Mercury also publishes its wire, currency and Treasury fees on the pricing page.2 Brex’s pricing page says only that some products carry fees.1
TL;DR
- At list price, Brex Premium costs more than MercuryPlus from the third user and more than MercuryPro from the 25th. The two paid tiers buy different things, though: Brex Premium adds expense policy and approval controls, and Mercury’s paid plans add invoicing and accounting features.1,2
- Both free plans carry working features. Brex Essentials includes bill pay, reimbursements and travel booking.1 Mercury’s base plan includes free ACH, domestic wires, bill pay and unlimited invoices.2
- Mercury’s published fees include 1% on non-USD international wires, an optional $15 flat fee on USD international wires and a 0.15% to 0.60% annual fee on Treasury, which opens at a $250,000 balance.2
- Brex’s captured pricing page gives no transaction fee schedule.1 Get it in writing before you compare foreign-exchange or wire costs.
- Mercury’s page carries two entry prices for paid plans, $29.90 and $35.2 Confirm the billing period in a quote.
How this comparison was built
We compared the two companies on their own pricing pages, brex.com/pricing and mercury.com/pricing, both captured on 28 September 2026.1,2 The subject sits in our spend management coverage. Plan names, prices, units and fees are copied as each page displays them, in dollars. Neither capture states how tax applies.
No single published field can rank these plans, so the article compares them side by side. A price on a company’s own page is that company’s statement, and we report it as one. Our research standard explains how we date and source figures.
Brex’s own Brex vs Mercury page is used only for Brex’s claims about itself.3 Two third-party comparisons give context. FintechLabs, dated 16 April 2026, discloses Mercury as a sponsor.4 Rippling, updated 25 November 2025, sells its own spend product.5
What do Brex and Mercury charge for each plan?
Brex prices by the user and Mercury by the account. Brex Essentials is $0 per user per month, Premium is $12 per user per month, and Enterprise and the Smart Card procurement product are custom-priced.1 Mercury’s base plan is $0 a month. MercuryPlus shows $29.90 a month, MercuryPro shows $299 a month and larger customers can ask for custom pricing.2
| Company | Plan | Published price | Unit | Who the page says it’s for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brex | Essentials | $0 | per user, per month | Startups and growing companies |
| Brex | Premium | $12 | per user, per month | Mid-sized companies looking to scale |
| Brex | Enterprise | Custom pricing | quote | Global enterprises with custom needs |
| Brex | Smart Card | Custom pricing | quote | Companies that want to simplify procurement |
| Mercury | Mercury | $0 | per month | Every account |
| Mercury | MercuryPlus | $29.90 shown; FAQ says paid plans start at $35 | per month | More efficiencies and streamlined invoicing |
| Mercury | MercuryPro | $299 shown | per month | Complex operations that need a relationship manager |
| Mercury | Custom | On request | quote | Contact sales |
Sources: Brex pricing page1; Mercury pricing page2.
Mercury’s two entry figures need one more step. Its page shows an “Annual Pricing (15% off)” option next to the $29.90 and $299 figures, and its FAQ says paid plans start at $35 a month.2 A 15% cut from $35 gives $29.75, not $29.90, so the capture doesn’t show which billing period each number belongs to. Rippling’s November 2025 comparison listed Mercury at the same $29.90 and Brex at the same $12 per user.5
What does each Brex plan include?
Brex Essentials, at $0 per user, covers the core spend system: cards, bill pay, reimbursements, accounting integrations, travel booking and API access.1 Premium, at $12 per user, adds policy depth. Enterprise adds unlimited entities and local card issuance.1
Essentials lists global card acceptance with one local card program, AI-powered custom rules, up to two entities (one global), local currency wires, real-time reporting, bill pay and reimbursements.1 Travel booking is marked free on Essentials.1
Premium includes everything in Essentials plus multiple customisable expense policies, dynamic expense review chains, AI-powered compliance audit detection, dynamic spend-limit approval chains, US and international multi-entity support, customisable ERP and HRIS integrations, VAT documentation, group travel and live budgets.1
Enterprise includes everything in Premium plus unlimited US or global entities, local card issuance, collections, reimbursements and policies, a named account manager, an admin centre and customisable implementation services.1 The Smart Card product lists global cards, local-currency cards in 50+ countries and merchant card controls with custom approvals.1
The plan grid on the page also lists unlimited global cards accepted in 210+ countries and territories, and local-currency cards and billing in 50+ countries. The captured grid doesn’t show which tiers get each row.1
What does each Mercury plan include?
Mercury’s $0 plan is the banking layer: accounts, free ACH and domestic wires, bill pay and unlimited invoicing.2 The paid plans add invoicing, tax-form and accounting features.2
On the base plan, customers can create, send, track and take payment on as many invoices as they like.2 Mercury Bill Pay costs nothing to use.2 QuickBooks and Xero enriched automations, bank-feed imports across QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite, debit and IO credit cards, receipt policies and user permissions are free.2 Mercury Personal, which Mercury prices at $240 a year, comes free with any business plan.2
MercuryPlus adds invoicing with ACH debit at $1 per transaction, recurring invoices, unlimited 1099 tax filings, $50 off eligible LegalZoom Compliance Plans and six months of free Xero with a $100 Amazon gift card.2 MercuryPro adds a relationship manager, cuts the ACH-debit invoice charge to $0 per transaction and adds NetSuite categorisations.2 The FAQ also says a paid plan is needed to reimburse more team members and to use enriched NetSuite automations.2 The page doesn’t say how many team members the free plan can reimburse.2
Which fees do Brex and Mercury publish?
Mercury publishes a fee schedule on its pricing page, and Brex’s pricing page doesn’t.1,2 Mercury lists free ACH, domestic wires and real-time payments, a 1% fee on non-USD international wires and a 0.15% to 0.60% annual Treasury fee.2 Brex’s page says: “Some Brex products have associated fees.”1
| Fee item | Brex (captured pricing page) | Mercury (captured pricing page) |
|---|---|---|
| Plan fee | $0 or $12 per user per month; Enterprise custom | $0, $29.90 or $35, or $299 per month; custom on request |
| Minimum balance, overdraft, account opening | Not shown | None |
| ACH and domestic wires | Not shown | Free to send and receive |
| Real-time payments | Not shown | Free; Column-held accounts only |
| USD international wire | Not shown | Free (SHA), or a $15 flat fee (OUR) so the recipient is more likely to get the full amount |
| Non-USD international wire | Not shown | 1% conversion fee; contact Mercury above $200K |
| Non-USD card transactions | Not shown | International transaction fee; rate not shown |
| Card annual fee | Not shown | None on IO credit cards |
| Invoice paid by ACH debit | Not listed | $1 per transaction on Plus, $0 on Pro |
| Invoice paid by card | Not listed | Stripe’s fee, typically 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Bill pay | Included from Essentials | Free |
| Travel booking | Free on Essentials | Not listed |
| Treasury | Not shown on pricing page | Opens at $250,000 in balances; 0.15% to 0.60% annual fee |
Sources: Brex pricing page1; Mercury pricing page2.
Mercury also names fee-bearing features it doesn’t price on the page, including mass payments through its API and Treasury account management.2 Brex’s own Brex vs Mercury page says its treasury product comes with “no hidden fees and no minimums”.3 That’s Brex’s claim. Its pricing page capture shows no treasury fee schedule to test it against.
The gap in the Brex column is a gap in the published record, not evidence that those fees are zero. A team that sends foreign-currency wires or spends in other currencies can’t compare the two companies from these pages alone.
How does per-user pricing compare with a flat monthly fee?
At list price, Brex Premium costs more than MercuryPlus from three users and more than MercuryPro from 25 users.1,2 Brex Premium is $12 per user per month.1 MercuryPlus shows $29.90 a month, or $35 on the FAQ’s figure, and MercuryPro shows $299 a month.2 The table multiplies those published figures, and the tiers it prices buy different things.
| Users | Brex Essentials | Brex Premium ($12 × users) | Mercury base | MercuryPlus | MercuryPro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $0 | $12 | $0 | $29.90 ($35) | $299 |
| 2 | $0 | $24 | $0 | $29.90 ($35) | $299 |
| 3 | $0 | $36 | $0 | $29.90 ($35) | $299 |
| 5 | $0 | $60 | $0 | $29.90 ($35) | $299 |
| 10 | $0 | $120 | $0 | $29.90 ($35) | $299 |
| 24 | $0 | $288 | $0 | $29.90 ($35) | $299 |
| 25 | $0 | $300 | $0 | $29.90 ($35) | $299 |
| 50 | $0 | $600 | $0 | $29.90 ($35) | $299 |
Monthly list cost from each company’s pricing page, checked 28 September 2026. Mercury’s plans are shown with no per-user unit.1,2
The crossover points matter less than what each upgrade buys. Brex Premium buys multiple expense policies, review chains and multi-entity support.1 MercuryPlus buys recurring invoices, ACH-debit invoicing and unlimited 1099 filings.2 A company that needs layered approvals across entities should weigh Brex Premium’s per-user cost against its own finance workload. A company whose main need is billing customers already gets unlimited invoicing on Mercury’s free plan, and needs MercuryPlus only for recurring or ACH-debit invoices.2
Run the numbers on your own case. Take your headcount, your monthly non-USD wire volume and your foreign-currency card spend. Price them against Mercury’s published rates, then ask Brex for its schedule for the same three lines.
What the published prices cannot tell you
The pricing pages settle plan prices and plan contents. They don’t settle total cost. Brex’s transaction fees, card reward rates and Enterprise pricing aren’t on its captured pricing page.1 Mercury doesn’t state its non-USD card fee rate or the billing period behind its $29.90 and $35 figures.2 Neither captured page states tax treatment.1,2
Mercury’s page also carries the line “$35/mo, waived until Dec 31, 2026” in the block that lists the free plan’s contents.2 The capture doesn’t show which item it’s attached to, so we haven’t assigned it to a plan.
Ownership has changed. Brex’s pricing page states that Brex LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital One, N.A.1 The prices here are the ones both pages showed on 28 September 2026. Pricing pages change, so check both again before signing.
For a comparison of two other spend-management systems, see our Center vs Ramp guide, or browse all published research.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mercury a bank?
No. Mercury describes itself as a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank, with banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC.2 Brex’s business account also uses a partner: its Checking account is provided by Column N.A., and funds in Brex Treasury aren’t FDIC-insured.1
What happened to Brex?
Capital One now owns it. Brex’s pricing page states that Brex LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Capital One, N.A.1 FintechLabs reported in April 2026 that Capital One had agreed in January 2026 to buy Brex in a $5.15 billion cash-and-stock transaction.4 The pricing page still listed Essentials at $0 and Premium at $12 per user on 28 September 2026.1
Who is Brex’s main competitor?
The captured sources don’t name one main competitor. Brex runs a dedicated Brex vs Mercury comparison page.3 FintechLabs groups Mercury, Brex and Ramp as the three main digital players in small and mid-sized business finance.4
Is Mercury the best bank for startups?
The published evidence can’t settle “best”, and Mercury says it isn’t a bank.2 FintechLabs calls Mercury widely considered the default bank for startups, but it also discloses Mercury as a sponsor.4 On price, Mercury’s base plan is $0 a month with no minimum balance, overdraft or account opening fees.2
Does Mercury charge for Treasury?
Yes. Mercury Treasury opens to customers with more than $250,000 across their Mercury accounts and carries an annual fee of 0.15% to 0.60%, depending on total Mercury balances.2
Is a Brex card worth it?
The published figures can’t answer that for a given company. Brex Essentials, which includes global card acceptance, costs $0 per user per month.1 The captured pricing page lists “Competitive card rewards” as a feature but gives no reward rates or card fees, so the card’s value can’t be calculated from it.1
Sources checked
Company-owned pages establish what a company says. They do not prove a market conclusion. Each source is dated so readers can judge each claim.
