Is Wise the Cheapest Way to Send Money Abroad?

Wise is the name most people think of first, and many review sites recommend it outright. This guide checks that against the quotes we collect: where Wise delivers the most, where it doesn't, and why.

We count a route as "led" by a provider on a day when that provider's quote put the most money in the recipient's hands. Over the last 91 days, Wise led 22 of the 214 corridors we can compare. On the routes where we hold a Wise quote, it led 22.7% of them.

The routes Wise led include CHF→INR, CHF→PHP, CNY→AUD, CNY→CAD and 18 more.

On the routes people send the most, these providers delivered the most most often over the last 91 days:

The leader also changes: on 26% of the corridors we compare, today's cheapest provider is not the one that usually wins. A ranking you read last month may not hold for the transfer you make today.

Every provider is paid in two places: the fee you see and the markup inside the exchange rate. Wise keeps its rate close to the mid-market rate and charges a visible fee. Other providers charge a smaller fee or none, take more in the rate, or run better rates on particular routes to win customers there.

Which mix delivers more depends on two things:

• Your route. Remittance specialists compete hardest on the big corridors to India, Mexico, Pakistan and Nigeria. The table above shows who led there.
• Your amount. A fee is a bigger share of a small transfer. The provider that wins at $1,000 is not always the one that wins at $200.

So "Wise is cheapest" and "Wise uses the real rate" are different claims. The second is how Wise describes its pricing; the first depends on the route and the day.

Wise publishes a comparison page that lists other providers beside its own quote. It is useful, with two limits worth knowing:

• Wise runs it and is in it. Wise chooses which providers appear.
• Its data is not all collected at once. Wise says it does not collect all of its comparison data at exactly the same time, so the table can differ from what a provider quotes you.

We are a comparison site and do not send money. We rank every provider we hold a quote for on your route by what your recipient receives. We earn referral fees from some providers; they never change the order, and partner offers are labelled "Sponsored". How we review providers explains what referral fees do and don't change.

1. Enter your real amount and route in the comparison.
2. Find Wise in the list and look at the amount your recipient gets, not the fee.
3. Compare it with the top row. If Wise is not first, the difference is what choosing Wise would cost you on this transfer.
4. Confirm in the provider's app before you pay. The quote at checkout is the one that counts.

If you're deciding between two names, Wise vs Remitly compares them in detail. If you want to grade a rate you've already been offered, see is my exchange rate good?

Lead counts, lead shares and markups are SendMoneyCompare's own research. We collect provider quotes every 6 hours and store them per route. A provider "leads" a route on a day when its quote delivers the most to the recipient; route leaders are counted over the last 91 days with quotes. Markups are medians of each quote's gap from our mid-market benchmark. The table and figures are recomputed at every build, so they change as providers' prices change. Wise's description of its own pricing is from its pricing page ("We only use the mid-market rate"); the description of its comparison page is from the page itself.