Airwallex vs Ramp: Fees, cards, and expense management for Canadian businesses

Key takeaways

• Airwallex sets no minimum balance or province limits, while Ramp Canada requires CA$25,000 in connected bank accounts and serves only eight of Canada's 13 provinces and territories.¹

• Airwallex converts major currencies at just 0.5% above the interbank rate. Ramp issues only CAD and USD cards and adds up to 3% when a card payment is in a different currency.²

• Airwallex Expense Management pays card spend, bills, and reimbursements from Airwallex Business Account balances in 20+ currencies. Its CA$0 Explore plan covers up to 10 spend users.³

Airwallex combines corporate cards, bill pay, and expense management in one platform for Canadian businesses, offering cards with 0% foreign transaction fees. Ramp's Canadian program excludes businesses in Quebec and Saskatchewan, restricting cards and bills to CAD or USD. This comparison covers eligibility, pricing, foreign exchange (FX) fees, expense tools, and accounting integrations for Canadian finance teams.

Airwallex vs Ramp at a glance

Who can sign up for Airwallex and Ramp in Canada?

Airwallex accepts incorporated businesses registered in Canada, with no minimum balance and no province limits. Ramp requires at least CA$25,000 in connected bank accounts and accepts only corporations, incorporated partnerships, and not-for-profits registered in eight provinces. Businesses registered in Quebec, Saskatchewan, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, or Nunavut can’t use Ramp, and having CA$25,000 in connected bank accounts doesn't guarantee approval.

Ramp also sets each card limit based on the customer's cash and banking history. Airwallex's free Explore plan carries no minimum balance, letting a newly incorporated company open an account before it builds a cash reserve.

How much do Airwallex and Ramp cost in Canada?

Airwallex and Ramp both offer a free base plan and charge a per-user fee plus a platform fee on their paid plans. The bigger cost difference is FX because Airwallex adds just 0.5% to the interbank rate for major currencies and Ramp's card FX fee can reach 3%. For example, on CA$100,000 of EUR card spending in a year, Ramp's FX fee can reach CA$3,000 while Airwallex's conversion fee is CA$500, with Airwallex charging nothing if the business already holds EUR.

Airwallex plans and fees

Airwallex offers three plans in Canada: the Explore, Grow, and Accelerate plans. The starting free Explore plan already includes core products like multi-currency accounts, corporate cards, and expense management. 

Most finance teams upgrade to the Grow plan for automated policy enforcement or a connection to enterprise resource planning (ERP) software—the system that runs a company's accounting and purchasing. Airwallex sends funds from available currency balances in the same currency with no FX markup, and when a balance isn’t available, it converts at 0.5% above the interbank rate for major currencies such as USD, EUR, and GBP and at 1% for all others. It charges 0% foreign transaction fees on card spend, and just CA$20 to CA$35 for a SWIFT transfer.

Ramp plans and fees

Ramp offers a free base plan and generates revenue from card interchange, paid plan subscriptions, and supplementary services such as international payments.⁴ Merchants pay a small interchange fee on each card sale, which Ramp shares with Visa and the issuing bank. For 25 users, Ramp Plus costs CA$4,500 annually before platform fees. Additionally, Ramp's FX fee can add up to CA$18,000 on CA$600,000 of EUR or GBP card spend.⁵

Airwallex vs Ramp: Key features compared

Airwallex and Ramp both offer receipt capture, approvals, card controls, and accounting sync. The main difference is where the money comes from. Airwallex draws on held balances in 20+ currencies, and Ramp pays from bank accounts the business keeps at another bank.

Expense management

Airwallex and Ramp both automate policy enforcement, and Airwallex's Expense Policy Agent reads a company's written expense policy, evaluates every card expense and reimbursement against it, and flags policy violations with the rule that caught them. Airwallex reports that up to 73% of expenses need zero human review, and the agent reads receipts and policies in French natively, which suits Canadian teams that file expenses in both official languages.⁸ On its free plan, Ramp offers approval workflows, and it holds AI-driven expense reviews and parallel approvers back for Ramp Plus.

Receipt capture

Airwallex reads receipt details with OCR (optical character recognition), and its AI-powered receipt matching connects each receipt to the right card payment. Ramp collects receipts by text, email, and app and adds the correct GST, HST, or PST code from each receipt.⁶ Airwallex also uses AI for automated expense categorization and imports the company's own tax rates and account codes.

Corporate cards

The Airwallex Corporate Card spends directly from held multi-currency balances with 0% foreign transaction fees.  In contrast, Ramp's Canadian cards process only CAD or USD. A USD charge on an Airwallex card draws directly from the USD balance. If no matching balance exists, Airwallex converts at its published 0.5% or 1% markup. Finance teams track every card purchase in real time from a single dashboard. Ramp issues physical CAD cards but limits USD cards to virtual format, ships physical cards only to Canadian addresses, and restricts EUR or GBP cards to businesses onboarded to Ramp Enterprise through a US entity.

Multi-currency accounts and international payments

An Airwallex Multi-Currency Account holds 20+ currencies, and Airwallex Bill Pay pays bills in multiple currencies from those balances, letting USD revenue settle a USD invoice without a round trip through CAD. Ramp funds every bill payment from a CAD bank account and pays foreign vendors in USD, EUR, GBP, and other currencies by converting from CAD at the time of payment. Because Ramp won't accept a Canadian-domiciled USD account as a funding source, a business holding USD at its bank has to convert through CAD to pay a US supplier.⁷

Accounting and ERP integrations

Airwallex integrations include bookkeeping integrations with QuickBooks Online and Xero on the Explore plan and add ERP integrations with NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central on the Grow plan. Ramp connects to QuickBooks Online and Xero on its free plan and includes its NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and Microsoft Business Central integrations, along with AI coding for every field, back for the Plus plan. For a group with entities outside Canada, Airwallex's Accelerate plan manages up to three entities from one account and syncs bank feeds, expenses, and bills to NetSuite.

Why businesses choose Airwallex

Canadian businesses that earn or spend in more than one currency choose Airwallex. Airwallex holds USD, EUR, GBP, and 20+ other currencies, lets employees spend those balances on corporate cards with 0% foreign transaction fees, and pays suppliers over local rails in 120+ countries. Airwallex sets no minimum balance or province limits in Canada, and its free Explore plan includes expense management from day one.

Ramp fits a Canadian business in a province other than Quebec or Saskatchewan that spends almost entirely in CAD and USD. For a business that pays suppliers or staff in other currencies, Airwallex removes the extra currency conversion. Businesses can open an Airwallex account to issue multi-currency corporate cards with 0% foreign card transaction fees.

Frequently asked questions about Ramp vs Airwallex

What is the difference between expense management and spend management?

The difference between expense management and spend management is timing. Expense management records and repays spending after it happens. Spend management sets rules before money is spent, such as card limits and purchase approvals.

Is an Airwallex card a credit card or charge card in Canada?

Airwallex is a Visa debit card, not a credit card or charge card. It draws funds directly from the business’ Airwallex account balance and lets employees spend from balances the business already holds in 20+ currencies. 

Does Airwallex require a personal credit check in Canada?

No, Airwallex doesn’t require a personal credit check because the issued cards are debit cards that draw from the business’ Airwallex balance. Airwallex instead checks that the business is registered, active, and in good standing. 

Is a Ramp card a credit card or a charge card?

A Ramp card is a charge card. Ramp lists the card as a corporate liability charge card on its Canadian pricing page and collects each statement in full by pre-authorized debit.

Does Ramp require a personal credit check in Canada?

Ramp doesn't require a personal credit check in Canada because it underwrites the business itself, doesn't pull personal credit bureau data for Canadian applications, and asks for no personal guarantee. Beneficial owners with 25% or more ownership still must complete identity verification under FINTRAC rules.

Is Airwallex regulated in Canada?

Yes, Airwallex is regulated in Canada through Airwallex (Canada) International Payments Limited, which holds a money services business registration with FINTRAC and awaits registration as a payment service provider with the Bank of Canada. Peoples Trust Company issues the Airwallex Borderless Card under licence from Visa.

Sources

1. https://support.ramp.com/applying-for-ramp-as-a-canadian-business

2. https://support.ramp.com/foreign-transaction-fees

3. https://www.airwallex.com/en-ca/pricing

4. https://support.ramp.com/how-ramp-makes-money

5. https://ramp.com/en-ca/pricing

6. https://support.ramp.com/cards-for-canadian-businesses

7. https://support.ramp.com/bill-pay-for-canadian-businesses/

8. https://www.airwallex.com/en-ca/blog/expense-policy-agent