Melio

Pays business bills by card or bank transfer, with AI reading the invoice details and scheduling the payment for you.

Money & invoicing Apps

Checked 25 Sep 2026

What you'd use it for

Getting a stack of vendor bills paid without adopting a full accounts-payable system -- upload or forward the invoice, let the AI read who to pay and when, and schedule the transfer.

Upload or forward a vendor invoice and have the AI auto-capture the vendor, amount and due date
Schedule a one-time or recurring payment by ACH bank transfer, credit or debit card, or paper cheque
Pay a vendor who only accepts cheques or bank transfer using a credit card, with Melio converting it on your end
Sync bills and payments automatically with QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, Xero or NetSuite, depending on tier
Collect vendor W-9s and generate 1099s automatically on Core tier and above

The verdict

The free Go plan is a genuine offer, not a bait-and-switch -- five ACH transfers a month, AI-assisted invoice capture, and QuickBooks/Xero sync, with no subscription. Its economics depend on staying inside that allowance and off the credit card rail, since Melio charges $0.50 per ACH payment past five a month and a flat 2.9% on every card payment. That makes it a good fit for a small US business that wants bills off its desk without buying accounts-payable software, and a worse one for anyone who will pay mostly by card or push well past five transfers a month.

What it costs

Tier	Price	For	Includes
Go (Free)	$0/month	A small business wanting simple bill pay with no subscription fee.	5 free ACH payments/month, card payments, invoice creation, payment links, up to 10 QuickBooks/Xero syncs, free accounts-receivable and invoicing.
Core	$25/month billed monthly, $20/month billed annually; +$10/mo per extra user (or +$8/mo annual)	A business ready to formalise its payment workflow.	20 free ACH payments/month, QuickBooks Online/Xero sync, batch payments, custom approval workflows, W-9 collection, 1099 automation, an AI assistant, priority chat support, branded invoices.
Boost	$55/month billed monthly, $44/month billed annually; +$10/mo per extra user (or +$8/mo annual)	Larger or more complex finance teams and accounting firms.	50 free ACH payments/month, QuickBooks Desktop sync, advanced user roles, vendor credit application, premium phone support, plus everything in Core.
Unlimited	$80/month billed monthly, $64/month billed annually; unlimited users	A business that doesn't want to think about per-user costs.	Unlimited free ACH payments, unlimited seats, NetSuite sync, plus everything in Boost.
Platinum	Custom pricing	High-volume businesses processing $300K+/month in credit-card payments.	Custom transaction fees, preferred card rates, priority processing, faster settlement, white-glove account management, discounted exchange rates, custom integrations and API access.

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

What you need to start

A US-domiciled business or freelancer -- Melio is not available outside the US and Puerto Rico
A business chequing account (not savings) or a Melio-supported credit/debit card to fund payments
A business verification document such as a business registration, DBA filing or recent tax filing

Account creation is under 15 minutes; bank verification adds nothing if your bank connects instantly, or 1-2 business days if Melio falls back to micro-deposits.

Your first run Connecting a bank account and uploading a first invoice takes minutes, and the AI pre-fills the vendor, amount and due date for you to confirm; the payment itself still takes 3-5 business days to land by standard ACH unless you pay the fee for same-day delivery.

Where it breaks

Browser-based, with syncs to QuickBooks, Xero and NetSuite depending on tier.

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

When not to use it

Not for a business outside the US or Puerto Rico -- Melio requires a US-domiciled entity. Also a poor fit for anyone planning to pay most bills by credit card, since the 2.9% card fee applies from the free tier up and can outweigh whatever the subscription would have cost.

Melio’s free tier is the actual headline: pay bills by ACH transfer at no subscription cost, five payments a month, with an AI layer reading the invoice and pre-filling who to pay, how much, and when. For a business that just wants bills off its desk without adopting a full accounts-payable system, that free tier alone may be enough.

Paying by credit card, or wanting more than five free transfers, is where the paid tiers start to matter — and where Melio makes its money, since card payments to vendors who don’t take cards carry a processing fee even on the free plan.

What the paid tiers actually change

The jump from Core to Boost is really about accounting-software depth: Boost adds QuickBooks Desktop sync (not just Online) and vendor credit handling, which matters mainly to accounting firms managing multiple clients’ books. Unlimited removes the per-seat cost entirely, which pays for itself once you pass about six or seven users on Core’s per-user pricing. Platinum is a different product — negotiated card-processing rates for genuinely high-volume payers, not a normal small-business tier.

Where it fits

Against Dext, the two solve adjacent but different problems: Dext extracts data from receipts and invoices into your books, Melio actually moves the money once the bill exists. Many businesses end up running both — one for capture, one for payment — rather than picking between them. If your volume is genuinely small, the free tier is worth trying before paying for either.

Alternatives

Money & invoicingApps

Dext

Scans receipts, invoices and bank statements and extracts the data straight into your accounting software.

Checked 25 Sep 2026

Money & invoicingAgents

QuickBooks

Bookkeeping, invoicing and payroll for small businesses, with Intuit's AI categorising bank transactions, matching receipts and chasing unpaid invoices on its own.

Checked 25 Sep 2026