Brex

Corporate cards and expense management that checks spend against your policy automatically and matches receipts to transactions without anyone filing them.

Money & invoicing Agents

Checked 25 Sep 2026

Open brex.com

What you'd use it for

Issuing employees a corporate card that enforces spend limits automatically and matches receipts to transactions so nobody files an expense report.

Issue corporate cards to employees with per-card or per-category spend limits set in advance
Match a photographed receipt to its transaction automatically instead of an employee attaching it by hand
Flag a purchase that breaks policy at the moment it happens, not weeks later at reconciliation
Sync transactions and categorisation straight into an accounting system through a two-way ERP integration
Route bill payments and invoice entry through the same platform as the cards

The verdict

Brex earns its keep the moment a company is tired of chasing down missing receipts at month-end, and the free Essentials tier means trying it costs nothing but the incorporation paperwork. That paperwork is the catch — this is built for an incorporated, US-based company clearing real funding or revenue, not a sole proprietor or a business still deciding on a legal structure. Brex is also a fintech routing money through partner banks rather than a bank itself, which matters for anyone treating a Brex balance as a savings account rather than an operating account.

What it costs

Tier	Price	For	Includes
Essentials	$0 per user/month	A startup or small business wanting corporate cards and basic expense controls without a subscription cost.	Corporate cards, spend limits, and automatic receipt matching, at $0 per user.
Premium	$12 per user/month	A mid-sized company looking to scale its finance operations.	Everything in Essentials, plus more advanced policy controls and reporting suited to a larger, more complex organisation.
Scale	Not verifiable at this check	Larger organisations needing custom limits and dedicated support.	Enterprise-level spend management, negotiated to the organisation's scale.

Read from Brex's own pricing page on 25 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.

What you need to start

A company incorporated in the US as a C-corp, S-corp, LLC or LLP, with a US EIN and a US physical address — sole proprietors and unincorporated businesses cannot apply
For a venture- or angel-funded startup, a minimum $50,000 cash balance; for a non-funded business, revenue thresholds instead (roughly $500,000 a year for the standard commercial track)

The application itself is a same-day form, but approval runs one to three business days, and a physical card takes three to eight more to arrive by mail.

Your first run Applying takes minutes online, but the account itself needs a US EIN and incorporation documents on file before Brex reviews it; once approved you get a usable virtual card within minutes and a physical card by mail in a few days.

Where it breaks

Brex operates as a financial technology company, not a bank — cash balances are held at partner banks and any investment sweep account explicitly does not guarantee the $1.00-per-share value it targets. The Scale tier's price could not be confirmed and is not stated; only Essentials and Premium's per-user figures were readable.

Browser-based dashboard and a mobile app for employees to snap receipt photos on the go; cards are issued directly through Brex rather than a traditional bank.

First entry in this reference. There is no previous check to compare it against.

When not to use it

A sole proprietor, an unincorporated side business, or any company outside the US cannot open an account at all — Brex refers unincorporated applicants to LegalZoom rather than approving them. It also is not the right choice for a company that wants its operating cash treated with bank-grade deposit guarantees, since Brex is explicit that its cash products are not guaranteed the way a bank account is.

Brex’s pitch is removing the monthly ritual of expense reports: instead of an employee spending on a personal card and filing a claim later, the corporate card enforces the policy at the moment of the swipe, and the receipt-matching AI pairs a photographed receipt to the right transaction without anyone manually reconciling the two. For a company tired of chasing missing receipts every month-end close, that alone is the value proposition.

At $12.3 billion valued and 30,000-plus customers reported, it has become something close to a default choice for startup finance stacks, particularly ones that also want a card that will actually issue to a young company a traditional bank might decline.

What Essentials actually costs

The base tier is free per user — Brex makes money on interchange (the fee merchants pay on every card transaction) rather than charging a subscription for basic card issuance and expense tooling. That changes the usual SaaS calculation: there is very little reason not to try Essentials, because the cost of trying is genuinely zero rather than a trial that expires.

The line worth reading once

Brex is a fintech company routing money through partner banks, not a bank itself, and its own site is explicit that an investment sweep account “cannot guarantee” the dollar-for-dollar value it targets. That is boilerplate that applies to most fintech cash products, but it is worth reading rather than assuming Brex functions identically to a bank account for every purpose.

Alternatives

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Ramp

Corporate cards and expense software where AI reviews every transaction, flags policy violations, and reconciles receipts automatically, free for smaller teams.

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Navan

A single system for booking business travel and submitting expenses, where the AI checks each expense against your policy automatically instead of a human reviewing every receipt.

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