Nium vs. Airwallex: compare on fees, features, and benefits

Key takeaways

• Nium focuses on global payouts, while Airwallex offers a broader platform for sending, receiving, and managing money.

• With Airwallex, you can combine payment acceptance, foreign exchange (FX), payouts, and expense tracking in one place.

• Airwallex helps businesses simplify operations, embed financial services, and confidently scale globally.

If your business handles global payments, you need more than a simple payout tool. Managing supplier transfers, payroll, and FX across multiple platforms can create delays, hidden fees, and unnecessary administrative tasks, especially as you scale.

That’s why many modern businesses are turning to platforms that offer both robust financial infrastructure and embedded finance capabilities. Whether you're looking to streamline your own operations or offer branded financial services, such as wallets, transfers, or card issuing, directly within your product, the right solution can help you move faster and build smarter.

Nium and Airwallex are two leading contenders. Both support global payments and embedded finance, but they’re built for different needs.

In this article, we’ll compare Nium and Airwallex on what matters most: fees, features, and how well they support your global ambitions. Whether you're sending payouts, accepting payments, or embedding financial tools into your platform, this guide will help you choose the right partner.

What is Nium?

Nium is a global payments infrastructure provider founded in 2014 and headquartered in Singapore. Its platform enables businesses to send high-volume international payouts, collect funds globally, convert currencies in real time, and issue cards via a single API.

Nium is well-suited for platforms that need to embed financial workflows at scale, particularly for use cases like mass payouts, global collections, and treasury operations. With coverage in over 190 countries and real-time payouts in more than 100, Nium is designed for businesses that rely on fast, efficient cross-border transactions and need to manage complex global payment flows.

What is Airwallex?

Airwallex is a global financial platform founded in 2015 that helps businesses manage payments, currencies, and expenses from a single, unified system. It’s built for fast-growing companies and platforms that need to streamline global financial operations or embed branded financial services directly into their product.

With Airwallex, businesses can accept payments from over 180 countries in local currencies, hold and convert funds in multi-currency wallets, and pay suppliers or contractors globally in real time, all while avoiding unnecessary currency conversion fees. The platform also offers features like card issuing, global accounts, and spend management, making it easier to scale cross-border operations without relying on multiple providers.

Compare Nium vs. Airwallex

The differences between Nium and Airwallex primarily stem from the breadth of their respective infrastructures and core use cases. Nium offers strong real-time payout capabilities and global collections, making it a strong fit for businesses focused on high-volume cross-border disbursements. However, it doesn’t currently support online payment acceptance or like-for-like settlement, and building more complex embedded finance products may require integrating with additional providers.

Airwallex takes a broader approach. Its platform combines global payment acceptance, multi-currency wallets, FX, card issuing, and spend management in one system. Businesses can open an account without setup or monthly fees and benefit from transparent FX rates, fixed at 0.5 to 1% above the interbank rate. For companies seeking to embed financial services, such as wallets, cards, or accounts, Airwallex offers a unified infrastructure to streamline operations and scale globally.

Nium vs. Airwallex: payment use cases compared

Nium and Airwallex both support cross-border transactions, but they’re optimized for different business needs. Nium is designed for enterprises that need fast, high-volume global payouts. It also offers some embedded finance capabilities, including virtual card issuance and API-based payout infrastructure. 

Airwallex, by contrast, provides a broader financial platform that combines global payment acceptance, multi-currency accounts, FX, spend management, and payouts into a unified solution. Its embedded finance offering enables platforms to launch branded financial services such as accounts, cards, and flexible pricing models via a modular API-first stack.

Here’s how the two platforms compare across key use cases.

Payout capabilities

Nium

• Supports payouts to 190+ countries, with real-time transfers in 100+¹

• Batch processing and support for multiple endpoints: bank accounts, cards, and wallets

• FX lock for up to 24 hours available in 60 currencies²

Airwallex

• Payouts to 200+ countries, with local rails in 120+ for faster settlement

• ~95% of transactions arrive within a few hours or the same day, with many being instant 

• FX engine supports 60+ currencies at interbank rates, with savings of up to 80% on FX fees

Payment acceptance and collections 

Nium

• Enables collections via local accounts in 25+ markets³

• Funds can be held in 100 currencies, but not settled like-for-like⁴

• 24-hour FX rate locking available

• No native checkout or gateway functionality for first-party payment acceptance

Airwallex

• Accept payments from 180+ countries using 160+ local methods

• Collect in 130+ currencies and settle like-for-like in 14

• Dynamic localized pricing display in 25+ currencies

• PCI DSS, SOC1, and SOC2 compliant, with flexible integration from no-code to full API

Embedded finance

Airwallex

• Offers embedded onboarding through three methods: embedded UI, redirect flow, or API

• Lets you customize every part of the experience, including branding and domain

• Supports embedded accounts, payment acceptance, payouts, cards, and FX through a single platform

• Application fees allow platforms to set custom pricing across currencies and transaction types via API

• Designed for platforms that build long-term financial infrastructure into their products

Nium

• Supports API onboarding for corporate and individual accounts

• Limited white-labeling available, with no native support for payment acceptance

• Markup tools available, but without fine-grained control across products

• Better suited to specialized payout needs rather than full-embedded finance offerings

Global money management

Airwallex

• Built-in expense management with real-time card tracking and controls

• Issue multi-currency cards in 40+ markets

• Set team and individual spend limits, approval workflows, and merchant rules

• Employees can upload receipts on mobile, submit expenses, and get reimbursed quickly

• Syncs with accounting tools like Xero, NetSuite, and QuickBooks for faster reconciliation

• Unified platform for treasury, payments, and spend

Nium

• Offers card issuance in 30+ countries, mostly across the US, UK, and EEA⁵

• Focuses on payout and FX capabilities, with limited tools for managing business expenses

When to consider Nium’s payment capabilities

• You only need a payout or issuing layer to plug into your existing infrastructure, and no spend management is required.

• You want a lightweight, single-function integration (e.g., payouts or cards) without broader financial platform features.

When to consider Airwallex’s payment capabilities

• You need a unified global platform that combines collections, FX, payouts, payment acceptance, accounts, and cards.

• You want to embed and monetize financial services under your own brand, with full control over pricing and onboarding.

• Your finance team wants to consolidate global operations with built-in expense controls, reconciliation, and integrations.

Final thoughts: why consider Airwallex vs. Nium?

Selecting the right payments provider depends on both your immediate needs and your long-term growth plans.

If your business primarily requires a streamlined solution for outbound payments, Nium offers a strong, infrastructure-focused option. It's well-suited for companies looking to integrate a specific capability, like payouts or card issuing, into their existing systems.

If your business needs to combine collections, FX, card issuing, and expense management, Airwallex may be a better fit thanks to its broader set of platform capabilities. Its unified platform reduces reliance on multiple vendors, helping businesses gain better visibility, control, and operational efficiency.

For companies scaling across markets, embedding financial services, or consolidating finance operations, Airwallex offers the tools to do more from one place, enabling teams to focus less on integrations and more on growth.

FAQ

What makes Airwallex different from Nium?

While Nium focuses on sending funds, Airwallex supports the full payment flow. You can accept payments, hold and convert funds, automate payouts, and manage expenses, all from one platform.

Does Airwallex support real-time payouts?

Yes. Around 60% of Airwallex payouts are instant, and over 95% arrive within a few hours or the same day using local rails in 120+ countries.

Can I use Airwallex to accept payments online?

Absolutely. Airwallex supports over 160 local payment methods and allows you to collect funds in more than 130 currencies. You can also settle like-for-like in 14 currencies to avoid FX fees.

Is Airwallex a good fit for platforms and marketplaces?

Yes. Airwallex is built for platforms that want to offer branded payment experiences, manage global funds, and control pricing. It’s especially valuable for businesses adopting embedded finance.

How does Airwallex help with global spend management?

You can issue cards, set spend limits, automate approvals, and track expenses in real time. All transactions sync with your accounting tools to save time on reconciliation.

Sources

1. https://www.nium.com/products/global-payouts

2. https://www.nium.com/products/global-fx  

3. https://www.nium.com/newsroom/nium-expands-cross-border-payments-platform-to-serve-global-marketplaces

4. https://www.nium.com/products/multi-currency-accounts

5. https://www.nium.com/products/issue-cards

Disclaimer: We wrote this article in Q2 2025. The information was based on our own online research, and we were not able to manually test each tool or provider. The information is provided for educational purposes only, and a reader should consider the specific requirements of their business when evaluating providers. This research is reviewed every six months. If you would like to request an update, feel free to contact us at [email protected].