BitPay Review 2026: Fees, Settlement and Who It Suits

Our verdict

BitPay

#3 Best overall · 2026

Consider BitPay if you're an approved US or Canadian shop that needs bitcoin checkout and bank payouts. Small baskets are expensive. BitPay doesn't list its application fee, so ask for it and your account limits first. New EEA, UK and Australian applications are paused.

73

/100

#3 of 27 · Best overall

Best for

• Eligible shops needing bitcoin checkout
• Approved US businesses receiving dollars by ACH
• Shops on a platform with a maintained BitPay plugin
• Businesses ready for company and owner verification

Not for

• New EEA, UK or Australian applicants during the onboarding pause
• Small baskets where the fixed 25 cents eats into the margin
• Shops that need TRON or BNB checkout unless BitPay confirms it
• Subscriptions that depend on automatic wallet debits

Visit site See the feesScore breakdown

At a glance

Fees on a $10k month

$225

2.25% at $100 orders

Bank payouts

8

AUD · CAD · CHF · EUR …

Crypto assets

19

USDC · USDT · PYUSD

Trustpilot rating

1.2/5

299 reviews

Can your business open a BitPay account today?

US and Canadian businesses can currently apply. New merchant onboarding in the EEA, UK and Australia is paused. BitPay's country article also warns that its lists aren't exhaustive and that US state limits apply, so a supported country is only a starting point.^[1]

A new UK retailer should look at other providers. BitPay lists pound settlement, but being paid out in a currency doesn't mean you can open an account.

Before paying for an integration, give BitPay your company location, owners, products, customer markets and receiving bank, including any regulated activity.

The merchant agreement names BitPay, Inc. for locations outside its list of European countries and BitPay B.V. for those inside it. Neither clause overrides the application pauses. Which company your agreement names tells you which licence evidence matters.

If your application is blocked, go straight to the BitPay alternatives instead of waiting on a reopening date nobody has announced. Our guide to choosing a crypto payment processor helps you build a shortlist.

How does BitPay turn a crypto payment into your proceeds?

BitPay settles eligible proceeds to your bank or wallet once the invoice completes, so you may not end up holding the bitcoin you accept.

Your ledger tracks sales. It isn't spendable bank cash.

1. 
   01

   Create the invoice

   Your shop or billing tool creates a payment request with an amount and the coins customers can choose.

2. 
   02

   Customer pays

   The customer sends the requested asset through the selected network within the payment window.

3. 
   03

   Payment completes

   Your order system follows the verified payment state, and BitPay credits the proceeds to your merchant ledger.

4. 
   04

   Proceeds settle

   An eligible balance is released to your bank or wallet, and how long it takes to arrive depends on which one you use.

The terms describe a payment agency service, excluding general crypto custody. You have a claim to be settled, but you don't control the incoming coins.

How much does BitPay charge merchants?

BitPay's standard fee starts at 2% plus $0.25 per paid invoice below $500,000 of cumulative monthly volume. The percentage falls at the thresholds in the table, but the flat 25 cents stays. High-risk industries pay more, and the amount isn't public.^[2]

BitPay says the tiers move with cumulative monthly volume. That's why its help pages show a 1–2% range and the plugin listing still carries an older 1% example; neither is a cheaper entry rate.

The calculator below covers the fee only. It leaves out the application fee, minimum commissions, network costs, conversion margins and bank charges. B2BinPay is shown at its coin rate, not its stablecoin rate. It applies one tier to the whole month, so invoices that cross a threshold aren't shown, and annual totals assume twelve identical months.

A plain 1% offer would cost $100 on that month, $125 less than BitPay's fee on the $100-order example. Another provider only wins if it will take your shop and the full cost works out lower. Our BitPay fee guide explains the extra lines, and the full fee calculator compares other offers, if you'd be approved for them.

The curve shows the fee alone at $10,000 a month, with B2BinPay at its coin rate, and how the fixed charge takes a bigger share of smaller baskets.

Which costs sit outside the percentage fee?

The merchant terms require a non-refundable application fee, even if the application is denied or withdrawn, and they don't state the amount. Ask what it is before you apply.^[3]

BitPay calculates USD and EUR crypto rates from approved exchanges' buy orders, adjusting for volatility and market depth so it can honour the quote for up to 15 minutes. Other currencies use an indirect rate.^[5]

Does the customer pay a network fee too?

Yes. The customer's sending fee is on top of your fee, and Bitcoin invoices can also carry BitPay's Network Cost. Its help says that charge covers BitPay's own aggregation costs, and the estimate is left off only when it's below both $0.01 and 0.05% of the invoice price.^[6]

A network fee changes with the network and conditions. Not every shopper-paid cost comes out of your merchant balance, but it still raises the customer's total: on a cheap item, their fee can make buying unattractive even when yours is predictable.

Ask BitPay for a sample invoice showing the customer's total next to your proceeds.

When will BitPay money reach your bank or wallet?

BitPay issues eligible merchant settlements each business day, but the bank receives them later, and a balance below the minimum waits. Settlement sits between the invoice payment and the bank credit.

The developer table gives these details by payout type. Your own account's minimum may differ, so check it before building a cash-flow forecast.^[7]

Current settlement help instead gives €100 for euros and £1,000 for pounds, and includes rand, which the developer table lacks. It also says BitPay covers any miner fees when sending merchant crypto settlements.^[8]

Take a non-US shop that wants dollars by wire and starts from zero. After the $225 fee, its $10,000 of sales leaves $9,775, still below the $10,000 floor until more sales come in, so even one monthly wire isn't guaranteed.

If you split proceeds between bank and crypto, each part can land below its floor.

BitPay's help lists balances below the minimum, setting changes that haven't been confirmed, currency mismatches and wrong receiving details as reasons settlement stops.

Are BitPay Send payouts the same as withdrawing sales?

No. Send pays other people, such as staff or contractors, and has its own funding steps. The developer guide describes wiring fiat to BitPay and funding the payout plus a 1% fee.^[37] The payout reference's $5 is a minimum amount per instruction, not a minimum commission, and its batch cut-offs are examples that don't set merchant bank settlement times.

Is BitPay licensed, and what does that tell you?

BitPay has regulator listings you can point to, but they don't guarantee account access or payouts. As checked on 11 October 2026, New York's official list names Bitpay, Inc. with a Virtual Currency licence. NYDFS says this licence doesn't replace other required ones, including money transmission where it applies.^[10]

BitPay publishes state entries and NMLS ID 1496848, which we couldn't verify ourselves. Its California digital-asset licence application is reported as pending, and Alaska's licence excludes virtual-currency transmission. We couldn't verify the older FinCEN and Dutch AML-registration entries either.^[12]

AFM's register workbook, checked on 11 October, names BitPay B.V., Article 63 MiCA authorisation 41000045, dated 15 July 2026, for exchange of cryptoassets for funds and cryptoasset transfer services. MiCA authorisations cover named services, so what the authorisation covers matters as much as the number. This Dutch permission doesn't lift the new-account pause.

There's also an older enforcement case. Treasury's 18 February 2021 release records a $507,375 settlement of potential civil liability for 2,102 apparent sanctions violations tied to transactions in 2013–2018. The case was about screening information on merchants' buyers, and it isn't a new finding about today's checkout.^[13]

This is general information, not legal advice.

Which coins, wallets and networks can customers use?

BitPay takes bitcoin and several other kinds of payment, and what's on offer depends on the merchant's and customer's location. Current invoice help lists Bitcoin on-chain and Lightning, BCH, LTC, DOGE, XRP, Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Optimism, Arbitrum and Solana, including tokens on those networks.^[14]

The legal page names 18 assets, including DAI, while the business page advertises 100+ cryptocurrencies and 100+ wallets. The two count different things.^[17]

BitPay's own currency data, read on 11 October, shows 19 enabled asset groups. DAI entries are disabled, while BUSD and XAUT are still enabled in the data. That differs from the legal list, and neither tells you what a customer in your region will see.^[15]

Customers paying from an exchange may face delays or deductions on withdrawal, and token wallets may need native coins to cover fees.

Invoice acceptance, merchant settlement and Send recipients each have their own coin list. For New York merchants, the developer table restricts settlement to USD, BTC, BCH, ETH or USDC, and it describes a restriction on stablecoins in Japan. Those regional examples don't show that new Japanese accounts are available now.

Does BitPay work with your shop, API and accounting?

BitPay has WooCommerce and Shopify listings, and docs for Magento 2, WHMCS, Wix and BigCommerce.

WordPress.org lists BitPay Checkout for WooCommerce 7.1.3, which needs WordPress 6.6 or later and PHP 8.1 or later and is tagged as tested up to 6.9.10. Its changelog covers order and invoice-state handling. The listing's older 1% pricing example conflicts with the current starting tariff, so go by the pricing page for cost.^[19]

The Shopify app is free to install, though additional charges are possible. Shopify says third-party transaction fees may apply depending on your store plan, and crypto refunds have to be handled manually through the gateway.^[21] Ask whoever builds your store to include those charges and the manual refunds in their estimate.

A custom shop can use an API. BitPay's guide says a webhook should trigger a fresh status check. Don't ship just because the shopper reaches your success page.

The sandbox is good for testing order handling, but BitPay warns that it lacks some wallets, currencies and features, so testing there leaves out part of the live checkout.^[26]

BitPay's accounting docs describe CSV and IIF exports for Admin or Accounting users, plus API reconciliation data. Have your accountant look at a sample export for order references, fees, refunds and currencies.

Can you use BitPay for recurring bills and in-store payments?

Yes, with two limits: recurring billing needs the customer to pay each bill, and the old mobile Checkout app is retired.

BitPay emails bills on a weekly, monthly or yearly schedule, with custom timing through its API. The customer opens the bill and generates an invoice to pay, so it isn't an automatic debit from a saved wallet.^[29]

The POS help article says the BitPay Checkout app is no longer developed or supported and recommends Quick Checkout for Web in the merchant dashboard. Older getting-started documentation still mentions the app.

1. 
   01

   Choose the current tool

   Use browser checkout on a device your staff will have, not an old mobile-app guide.

2. 
   02

   Match payment to the sale

   The cashier needs to be able to find the right invoice and see that the payment was accepted.

3. 
   03

   Plan exceptions

   Decide what staff do if an invoice expires, a shopper underpays or a refund is requested.

What paperwork and processing limits should you expect?

Expect business and owner verification before a live account, with extra checks for higher limits. BitPay's compliance guide asks for company registration, tax and identity information, a live business website and receiving details. Owners with 25% or more interest need valid ID; a bank settlement account must belong to the business.^[31]

Have documents ready with matching names and addresses, and be ready to show how your shop brand relates to the legal entity, and ask BitPay how long approval takes for a complete application.

Verification tiers are unrelated to the pricing tiers above.

The upgrade help says daily volume uses a rolling 24-hour window and generated but unpaid invoices count until expiry. A burst of attempted checkouts can use up your limit before the payments arrive. Tier 3 needs recent business bank statements or a bank letter, and Tier 4 requires prior Tier 3 approval and enhanced review.^[32]

Shoppers may be checked too. Current compliance documentation lists VPN users, recipients of payouts or refunds and purchases above $3,000 among the cases that need a BitPay ID. Smaller purchases aren't guaranteed to skip checks. If you sell expensive equipment, tell buyers about the possible identity step before they reach payment.

Which businesses are restricted, and can BitPay hold funds?

Some activities are banned, others need BitPay's approval, and settlement can be delayed during a review. As checked on 11 October 2026, the merchant terms ban categories including sexually explicit content, cannabis dispensaries, weapons and cloud mining. Charities, money services, forex and legal gambling are on the restricted list and need BitPay's express approval.

Being on the restricted list means you can ask, not that a high-risk account is waiting. The activity must be lawful where you and your customers are, and the price can be above the public standard rate. Our guide to high-risk payment options covers what to ask.

The agreement lets BitPay delay settlement for investigations, disputes or legal requirements, and an agreed refund reserve can reduce the proceeds you can use, so keep a cash buffer.

How do invoice expiry, wrong payments and refunds work?

Refunding a sale and fixing a payment error are different jobs. Invoices have a 15-minute payment window, and the developer guide defines broadcast, confirmed and complete states, warning that a “paid” status is no guarantee of payment.^[27]

Wait for the accepted state. Speed settings change when “confirmed” appears, so the same status can mean a different number of blockchain confirmations on each account. A paid-but-unconfirmed invoice can become invalid after an hour and change again after a late confirmation.

Underpayments normally go through refund claims instead of a top-up on the partly paid order, and customers can also claim any overpaid excess. The terms let you agree a special underpayment procedure with BitPay; without one, another top-up may not complete the first invoice. Late or unsupported payments may need BitPay support or be unrecoverable.

What value does the customer get back?

The refund help describes full or partial refunds based on the original fiat invoice value, converted to crypto at the rate when the customer claims. You need enough ledger funds.^[33] A $100 refund can therefore return a different number of coins from the original $100 payment.

The terms also allow returning the original crypto amount and describe conversion at send time, so ask which method applies to you before you write your returns policy.

Who pays the refund fee, and how long does it take?

The documents disagree on who pays the network fee. The API defaults to the merchant paying, while BitPay, Inc.'s terms default to deducting it from the shopper unless told otherwise, and B.V.'s terms charge the merchant. The fees help describes merchant-paid fees for refunds of successful payments and customer-paid fees for payment exceptions.^[34]

The claim help says its email link lasts three days and aims to process refunds within one to two business days, as long as the merchant has funded the account. The shopper terms instead describe fiat-value refund links that don't expire and crypto-amount links that expire after three days. Don't promise customers one deadline.^[35]

1. 
   01

   Agree the refund

   Find the paid invoice, then agree whether it's a full or partial refund, how it's valued and who pays the network fee.

2. 
   02

   Fund and send the claim

   Keep enough funds in your account and tell the customer how to claim, and by when.

3. 
   03

   Confirm completion

   Check that the refund went through, note the transaction reference, and match it to the order and your books.

We couldn't find a public promise that the original fee is returned with a refund.

What support can you get, and what do users report?

BitPay offers phone, email and bot-assisted support, though a support channel doesn't tell you how fast anyone answers. Its current help gives 855-398-7660, support@bitpay.com, hours of 10:00–20:00 US Eastern on weekdays and 10:00–14:00 on weekends, with a 24-hour response expectation.^[40]

If an issue stays open after you've tried support, the formal procedure sends you to complaints@bitpay.com. It says most complaints get a response within five business days, and that unanswered support tickets sent there can be redirected and the complaint closed.^[41]

BitPay's status page covers widespread issues, but it isn't a measure of merchant uptime.

User reviews are poor. On 11 October 2026, Trustpilot showed 1.2 from 299 reviews, with 89% one-star and no replies to negative reviews. The profile mixes wallet users and shoppers with merchants, and Trustpilot warns that reviews may not be representative.^[43] That's a reason to ask harder questions about operations, but you can't work out a merchant failure rate from it.

Ask about account-review escalation and refund handling.

How should you read BitPay's score and trade-offs?

The score is preliminary. Plugins, coins and support channels earn points just for being listed, which says nothing about installation quality, support or bank reliability. The ranking methodology explains the inputs still pending.

What are the best BitPay alternatives to compare?

CoinGate is worth comparing if your country is on its list, Coinbase Business if you're an approved stablecoin business, and B2BinPay if its regional conditions allow you. Their headline rates are lower, but the total bill and availability may not be.

CoinGate publishes a 1% Standard fee but adds a risk margin, with no size given, to payment quotes. Its country list includes Canada, the UK, Australia and many EEA countries, but not the US.^[45] Standard settlement is weekly. The CoinGate review and CoinGate fee guide cover the costs in detail.

Coinbase Commerce's portal closed after 31 March 2026. Its Business successor publishes 1% for migrating merchants, while fees for new accounts are shown only inside the account. Availability names the US and Singapore, and the US contract names C corporations and multi-member LLCs, with other entity types at Coinbase's discretion.^[49] The BitPay versus Coinbase comparison covers the stablecoin and integration differences.

B2BinPay's first bands list 0.40% for coins and 0.50% for stablecoins, before minimum commissions and bank and network costs. Its El Salvador policy restricts US and Canadian residents and companies, even though a footer on the site says otherwise, so find out whether you could lawfully use it before treating it as a candidate.^[53]

1. 1

   CoinGate

   A hosted processor, if its country list covers you.

   81/100

   1%
   • 1% Standard fee, before the quote margin
   • SEPA withdrawals are labelled free, with a €50 minimum amount
   • Standard automatic settlement is weekly
   • The US isn't on its country list. SWIFT has a €50 minimum fee, and you'd need to ask about crypto network costs.
   Read review ↗Visit site
2. 5

   Coinbase Commerce / Coinbase Business

   Coinbase Business replaces the closed Commerce portal for eligible companies.

   67/100

   from 1%
   • Payment links accept USDC and USDT on named networks
   • Payments arrive as USDC in your account
   • Approved merchants moving from Commerce get the published 1% offer
   • New-account pricing is only shown inside the account. Approval depends on country, company type and activity, and it covers stablecoin billing, not bitcoin checkout.
   Read review ↗Visit site
3. 9

   B2BinPay

   Lower coin rates for an eligible business that's fine batching bank withdrawals.

   62/100

   0.4%
   • First band: 0.40% coins or 0.50% stablecoins and tokens
   • EUR and USD bank payouts with 5,000 minimum amounts
   • Published bank charges let you budget each payout method
   • Minimum commissions can make small payments cost more, and bank fees come on top. T+1 settlement isn't bank arrival, and the US and Canada restrictions conflict with a site footer.
   Read review ↗Visit site

Once you've ruled out providers that won't take you, the fee calculator estimates the fees and the full gateway ranking compares the rest. Ask each one for an offer on the same basket, currency, refund rules and payout schedule.

What evidence supports this review?

Most rows come from the 11 October check, including the Dutch register workbook. The B2BinPay policy source was rechecked on 14 October.

BitPay review FAQ

Change log: 14 October 2026, rechecked the B2BinPay policy and clarified the limits of the fee estimate. 11 October 2026, refreshed merchant eligibility, costs, settlement conflicts, integration and network details and refund options; removed old complaint samples and unsupported safety conclusions.