Airwallex Singapore 2026: fees, Xero feed and who it suits

Picture a design studio that bills two clients in USD and pays a contractor in the Philippines. Should it "just move everything to Airwallex"? Some of it, probably. For cross-border work, Airwallex's fees usually beat a full bank. However, it is not actually a bank, and that shapes how you should use it.

Our guide to the best corporate bank account in Singapore compares six providers. This one covers Airwallex's fees as at October 2026, its MAS licence, the Xero feed, GST, and which money should stay at DBS or OCBC.

What Airwallex is (and what it is not)

Airwallex was founded in Melbourne in 2015 and is now co-headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore. Its March 2026 update reported 107% revenue growth in Singapore for FY2025.

Airwallex (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a Major Payment Institution (licence PS20200541) under the Payment Services Act 2019. Its entry in the MAS Financial Institutions Directory lists five regulated services: account issuance, domestic money transfer, cross-border money transfer, merchant acquisition and e-money issuance. In practice you hold balances in 20+ currencies, pay out on local rails or SWIFT, and issue cards. There is no lending, and Airwallex is not a bank.

Airwallex Singapore fees in 2026

Every figure below comes from the Airwallex Singapore pricing page as at 22 October 2026. Prices are in SGD and exclude GST.

The FX margin is published. Here's an example: converting S$50,000 into USD at 0.4% above interbank costs S$200 in margin. A bank builds its margin into the rate it quotes, so the only fair test is a same-day quote from both for the same amount.

SWIFT is not free. With SHA, you and the recipient share the intermediary bank's charges; with OUR, you pay all of them. S$20 to S$35 is close to what a bank charges, so the saving comes from the FX margin and the free local rails.

Check receiving fees currency by currency. The pricing page lists no charge for collecting into your account, but third-party reviews report receiving fees on some currencies and a conversion fee when a payment arrives in a currency you have not opened. Check the fee Airwallex shows in your dashboard before you put new account details on a client invoice.

Yield is an investment, not a deposit. Airwallex's pricing page says Yield "is not a savings or deposit product", and instant withdrawals cost 0.2% on Explore. Use it for surplus USD, not your operating float.

What DBS and OCBC charge for the same things

Here's what the two banks our clients use most publish:

What "not a bank" means for your money

Safeguarding, not deposit insurance

Deposits at a Singapore bank are insured by the Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation up to S$100,000 per depositor per scheme member, and scheme members are banks and finance companies. Airwallex is neither, so its balances carry no SDIC cover. SDIC insures Singapore-dollar deposits only, though, so a USD balance at DBS is not insured either.

What protects Airwallex balances is safeguarding under the Payment Services Act. A Major Payment Institution must keep customer money separate from its own funds. Airwallex says Singapore customer money sits in a client segregated trust account separate from its own funds, and that money cannot be used to pay Airwallex's debts. That protects you if the firm fails. It is not an insured deposit, and it does not stop a compliance hold.

Account reviews can pause your payments

Licensed payment institutions must monitor transactions, and a review can hold outbound payments until you supply documents, such as the contract behind a large invoice. Reviews usually clear in days, but never leave the month's payroll in an account that could be under review on payday.

How the Xero integration works

We set up Xero for Singapore small businesses every week, and Airwallex is one of the smoother connections.

The bank feed

You connect from the Airwallex side and choose which currency accounts to feed. Airwallex creates a separate Xero bank feed for each currency, so SGD, USD and EUR balances become three feeds. Its help centre says transactions push to Xero every hour, covering deposits, conversions, payouts and card spend. The feed is free on Explore. Feeding a USD or EUR wallet needs a Xero plan that handles multiple currencies, which in Singapore is Xero Premium.

Bill Pay

Xero announced the Bill Pay integration in May 2024. Here's how a supplier invoice moves through it:

1. Upload the invoice to Airwallex, or import an approved bill from Xero.
2. Airwallex reads the vendor, amount and due date and codes the bill to your synced Xero chart of accounts.
3. The bill goes to an approver. Grow adds multi-conditional rules and vendor workflows.
4. Once approved, Airwallex pays it on local rails or by SWIFT.
5. The payment syncs back and marks the bill paid in Xero.

For a business paying 30 to 50 supplier invoices a month, that removes the "log into the bank, key the transfer, match it in Xero" cycle. Card spend syncs the same way, with zero fees on international purchases; a twelve-person team with everyone on a card pays S$35 a month for the seven users beyond the free five.

Three habits that keep the feeds clean

1. Use a clearing account for transfers. A top-up from DBS to Airwallex, or a USD-to-SGD conversion, appears on two feeds. Code both sides to a clearing account so a top-up is never booked as income.
2. Let Xero handle the FX. Set each wallet up as a foreign-currency bank account and Xero calculates realised gains and losses on conversions and revalues balances at month-end. The FX margin sits inside the rate; SWIFT and spend-user fees appear as lines and go to bank charges.
3. One feed per pot of money. If you also take card payments through Airwallex, connect the payments feed or the wallet feed for that money, not both, or every sale lands twice.

GST when your money runs through Airwallex

Here's where we see confusion:

• The subscription carries GST. Airwallex prices exclude GST, so Grow at 9% costs S$86.11 a month. If you are GST-registered, the S$7.11 is claimable as input tax, subject to the usual conditions.
• Currency exchange is an exempt financial service, so there is no GST on the FX margin. For SWIFT and other explicit fees, check Airwallex's tax invoice before claiming anything.
• Getting paid in USD changes nothing about your own GST. Zero-rating an overseas client's invoice depends on the export-of-services conditions in our guide to charging GST to foreign clients. IRAS requires a foreign-currency tax invoice to show the totals before and after GST, and the GST itself, in Singapore dollars.

Who Airwallex suits, and who should stay with a full bank

Many of our clients settle on two accounts. Here's the split that works:

• Full-bank SGD account: payroll and CPF, IRAS GIRO for corporate tax and GST, rent, the cash reserve, and client prepayments you are holding against future work.
• Airwallex: foreign-currency receipts, conversion, overseas supplier and contractor payments, and team cards.

How to open an Airwallex account in Singapore

Onboarding is online and, in our clients' experience, takes days. Airwallex does not publish a timeline, so plan for a week.

1. Gather your ACRA business profile, constitution, ID for every director and 25%+ shareholder, and a short note on what the company does, where its customers are and expected monthly volume.
2. Apply at airwallex.com/sg and complete identity checks (Singpass for local directors, passport and video verification for foreign ones).
3. Once approved, open the currency accounts you need.
4. Connect the Xero feed for each currency, confirm opening balances match, and set your Bill Pay approval rule before the first bill arrives.

Frequently asked questions

Is Airwallex legal in Singapore?

Yes. Airwallex (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. is licensed by MAS as a Major Payment Institution under the Payment Services Act 2019, with five regulated services listed in the MAS Financial Institutions Directory. It is not a bank.

What does Airwallex cost a small business in Singapore?

Explore has no monthly fee or minimum balance. You pay 0.4% above interbank on major-currency FX (0.6% on others), S$20 to S$35 per SWIFT transfer, and S$5 a month for each spend user beyond five. Grow is S$79 a month and Accelerate starts at S$399, both before GST.

Does Airwallex connect to Xero?

Yes. Airwallex creates a separate Xero bank feed for each currency and pushes transactions every hour. Bill Pay syncs your chart of accounts, pays suppliers and marks bills paid in Xero. Both are included on the free Explore plan; foreign-currency feeds need Xero Premium.

Is my money safe with Airwallex?

Airwallex must safeguard customer money under the Payment Services Act, and it says Singapore funds sit in a segregated trust account out of reach of its creditors. That money is not covered by SDIC deposit insurance, and a compliance review can hold payments for a few days.

Can I run payroll and CPF from Airwallex?

You can batch-pay salaries from an Airwallex SGD balance, but CPF contributions and IRAS GIRO deductions are set up against a bank account. Keep a full-bank SGD account for both.

Set up Airwallex and Xero so they reconcile themselves

Whether you are weighing Airwallex against your bank or already have it and the Xero feeds are a mess, our Xero setup and migration service wires the feeds, clearing accounts and Bill Pay correctly, and we handle the first month's reconciliation with you. Book a free, no-obligation consultation and we will look at your actual currency flows before recommending anything.