FX Markup Calculator

The markup percentage = ((Mid-Market Rate − Offered Rate) ÷ Mid-Market Rate) × 100. For example, if the mid-market rate is 1.2850 and your bank offers 1.2500, the markup is ((1.2850 − 1.2500) ÷ 1.2850) × 100 = 2.72%. This represents the hidden fee baked into the exchange rate.

Banks make money on foreign exchange through the spread between the buy and sell rates. They add a markup to cover their costs, hedging, and profit margin. Unlike specialist providers who are transparent about their fees, banks often rely on the complexity of FX pricing to hide their true charges from customers.

Typical markups vary widely: Traditional bank wires: 3-5%. PayPal international: 4-4.5%. Western Union: 3-4%. Revolut Standard: ~1%. Remitly: ~1%. OFX: ~0.5%. Wise: ~0.43% (closest to mid-market). The best specialist providers charge 0.3-1% while traditional banks charge 2-5% or more.

Yes. The calculator has a "Fixed Fee" input where you can add any upfront transfer fee charged by the provider. The "Total Cost" and "Effective Rate" metrics combine both the hidden FX markup and the explicit fixed fee, giving you the complete picture of what you're paying.

On a $10,000 international transfer, switching from a typical bank (3% markup) to Wise (0.43% markup) saves approximately $257. For monthly transfers, that's over $3,000 per year. The savings scale linearly with transfer amount - the more you send, the more you save.

Yes. The rate you see on Google, Xe.com, or Reuters when you search a currency pair is typically the mid-market rate. It's the average of the bid and ask prices from the global forex market. No retail customer gets exactly this rate, but the best providers come very close (within 0.3-0.5%).

Yes. The calculator works for any currency pair. Just enter the offered rate and mid-market rate for whatever pair you're dealing with (USD→EUR, GBP→INR, AUD→JPY, etc.). The currency selector is for display purposes only - the math works regardless of which currencies you select.

The effective rate combines both the hidden FX markup and any fixed fee into a single percentage. This is the true cost of your transfer as a percentage of the amount sent. For example, a $10,000 transfer with a $25 fixed fee and 2.7% markup has an effective rate of ~2.95%. This makes it easy to compare providers - just pick the one with the lowest effective rate.