Mercury
Business banking, cards, and spend management built for US startups and scaling companies
By Mercury · 4.5/5 verified-buyer score
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- US-incorporated startups and scale-ups wanting free business checking and savings with no minimums
- Finance teams consolidating banking, cards, bill pay, invoicing, and expense management in one place
- Companies moving high volumes of USD payments (ACH, wire, real-time) at no transaction fee
- Businesses with $250K+ in balances seeking yield through Mercury Treasury
- Multi-entity founders who want every business under one login
Ideal size: 5–500 people · US-incorporated startup to scaling company with a dedicated finance owner
Not for
- Non-US companies: accounts require US formation, US operations and a US principal address
- Money services businesses, cannabis, adult entertainment, internet gambling, or trust accounts
- Cash-heavy businesses that need frequent physical cash deposits or branch services
- Enterprises needing a directly chartered bank or FedRAMP-grade government compliance
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
Same day (about a 10-minute online application)
~1 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$420/yr
Starts at $0 · Core banking and essentials are $0/month; paid financial-workflow plans start at $35/month (Mercury Plus) and $299/month (Mercury Pro), with 15% off annual billing.
Implementation Friction
1/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Buyer Score
out of 5 · verified buyers
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Banking, cards and permissions are free for unlimited users; Mercury Plus reimburses out-of-pocket expenses for up to 5 active users per month.
Add-on costs
- 1% currency conversion fee on non-USD international wires
- $15 flat fee for OUR-processed international wires so intermediary fees are absorbed
- $1 per invoice ACH debit transaction on Mercury Plus; waived on Mercury Pro
- Treasury access requires $250K+ in total Mercury balances
- Mercury Personal standalone subscription is $240/year
Company & support
Who is behind Mercury, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- Not recorded
- Headquarters
- Not recorded
How you get support
- PhoneNot listed
- EmailNot listed
- Live chatAll plans
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsAll plans
- Dedicated account managerEnterprise only
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Not recorded
- Response time
- Not stated
Homepage states chat support for all customers plus dedicated account management for those who qualify; the Mercury Pro plan includes a relationship manager. A public help centre is linked from the contact page.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Mercury sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line. A dashed ring marks an outlier pinned to the edge; hover for its value.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Mercury
- SurePayroll
- AgencyAnalytics
- Expensify
- Flieber
- Uku
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Mercury. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
Ships an official MCP server. Connects to Claude Code, Claude Desktop, ChatGPT connectors and Cursor out of the box.
AI & MCP readiness
What Mercury ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
Mercury Command is described as built-in AI that completes financial work through natural language. Bill Pay uses AI to read and extract bill data automatically, and AI powers transaction categorization and other automated workflows. The Mercury MCP server exposes read-only account data to third-party AI assistants.
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Official MCP server
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Not recorded
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Mercury is business banking for US startups and scaling companies: free checking and savings with no minimums, debit and IO credit cards earning 1.5% cashback, free USD ACH and wires, invoicing, bill pay, spend management, 1099s, and accounting sync to QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite. Accounts open in about 10 minutes online. Core banking is $0/month; paid workflow plans start at $35/month. Deposits sit at partner banks with up to $5M FDIC insurance via sweep networks. A hosted MCP server and Mercury Command AI are in beta.
Frequently asked questions
What does Mercury actually cost?
Business checking and savings, debit cards, free USD ACH and wire payments, unlimited Bill Pay, basic invoicing, and QuickBooks/Xero automations are free. Paid plans start at $35/month (Mercury Plus) and $299/month (Mercury Pro) and add advanced payment workflows, recurring invoicing, enriched NetSuite automation, and a relationship manager. Some usage fees still apply, such as a 1% conversion fee on non-USD international wires and Mercury Treasury account management with a $250K balance threshold.
How quickly can we be live and getting value?
Mercury advertises a roughly 10-minute online application with no in-person visits or paperwork, and credit cards can be issued as early as day one. Once the account is approved, cards, payments, invoicing and spend controls are usable immediately, so most teams see production value within days rather than the weeks a bank onboarding typically takes. The main gating factor is account approval and document review, not configuration.
Is Mercury a bank, and how are deposits protected?
Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank. Banking services are provided through partner banks including Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC. Accounts are structured as individual demand deposit accounts held in your name, and deposits are spread across partner banks' sweep networks for up to $5M in FDIC insurance, with over 97% of customer deposits insured. Treasury balances are held in your name at Apex Clearing Corp and covered by SIPC.
Can our AI agents or internal tools connect to Mercury?
Yes. Mercury publishes an MCP server (currently in beta) that connects AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI Studio to Mercury accounts over OAuth with read-only actions covering transactions, balances, statements, cards and recipients. Mercury also references a public API and CLI for connecting Mercury data and actions to other tools. The MCP is explicitly labelled beta, so responses should be verified inside Mercury before acting on them.
Which companies are not eligible for Mercury?
Mercury requires companies formed and registered in the US or a US territory with US operations and a US or international principal address that is not a registered agent, PO box or UPS box. It does not open accounts for trusts or money services businesses, or for companies involved in adult entertainment, cannabis or internet gambling. Businesses that deal heavily in physical cash, and founders or financial controllers resident in restricted countries, are also excluded.
How does Mercury fit our accounting stack?
Mercury syncs with QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite. Bank feed connections across all three and enriched QuickBooks/Xero automations are free; enriched NetSuite categorizations require a paid plan. Bill Pay can push bill data directly into your accounting software, receipts are auto-attached to card transactions, and AI-assisted categorization reduces manual coding before month-end close.