Comparison guide by Paymos
NOWPayments review, fees, and alternatives
NOWPayments is a multi-asset crypto gateway. Its published service fee is flat: 1% on a payment that needs no exchange, and 1.5% once the payment is multi-currency, uses a fixed rate, or has the fee charged to the payer. Custom offers or a discount system can take the rate as low as 0.3%. Custodial withdrawals and non-custodial forwarding follow different network-fee paths, so there is no universal double-network-fee rule. Read eligibility before the rate: NOWPayments does not serve the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Arab Emirates or Russia. On a 50 USDT invoice in Tron, followed to the merchant’s wallet, the 1% is half a dollar and the Tron transfer off the invoice address costs five times that — about 6% all in.
Reviewed
Published terms at a glance
| Published acceptance fee | 1% for a payment processed without an exchange; 1.5% for multi-currency payments, fixed-rate payments and payments where the fee is charged to the payer. Neither figure covers moving the accepted asset off the invoice address, and on a 50 USDT Tron invoice that is what puts the delivered cost near 6%. |
|---|---|
| Settlement model | Merchants can use custody, forward funds, convert assets, run mass payouts, or use fiat conversion where available. |
| Qualification 1 | Multi-currency, fixed-rate and payer-pays processing are listed at 1.5%; custody conversion lists 1% per conversion. NOWPayments: Service rates and route-dependent custody and non-custody network-fee eventsNOWPayments: Custody balances, off-chain conversion at 1%, withdrawal without a service fee, mass payout, fiat off-ramp, a headline that reads "starting from 1%", and rates down to 0.3% through custom offers or a discount system |
| Qualification 2 | Mass payouts list no service fee but still incur the blockchain network fee. |
| Qualification 3 | Revenue can be withdrawn to a bank account in more than 20 fiat currencies through the off-ramp. |
When this provider can fit
- Merchants prioritizing a very broad asset catalogue.
- Businesses needing plugins, invoices, donations, POS, subscriptions, custody, or mass payouts.
- Flows where the payer sends the currency the merchant accepts, which is the only route still priced at 1%.
What changes the effective cost
A headline processing rate is only one layer. Model the invoice, payer network fee, acceptance or sweep cost, conversion, settlement, withdrawal, and refund as separate entries.
- 01Price this on one invoice: 50 USDT in Tron, from the moment the buyer sends to the moment the merchant can move the money. The 1% buys acceptance. Getting the accepted USDT off the invoice address is a separate Tron transfer, and at that size it costs about five times the percentage did: near 6% delivered.
- 02The 1% rate holds only for a payment with no exchange; multi-currency, fixed-rate and payer-pays payments are listed at 1.5%.
- 03On the non-custodial route NOWPayments states it incurs a network fee both when processing the payment and when paying out to your wallet; the custody route incurs one.
- 04Custody conversion is listed at 1% (an older help-centre article still says 0.5%) and settles off-chain, so it carries no network fee. Mass payouts carry no service fee but still one network fee per payout, so a payout run costs by the number of payouts rather than by their size.
- 05No fiat conversion rate is published, so it cannot be inferred from the crypto pricing.
Paymos
How Paymos differs
Unlike NOWPayments’ route-dependent custody, forwarding and exchange pricing, Paymos keeps a supported accepted asset as the balance asset without an exchange fee. Paymos adds no separate transfer or sweep commission to an accepted payment. The payer still pays the send-network cost, and a disclosed subsidized network fee can apply when the merchant withdraws.
What Paymos does not replace
Paymos does not replace NOWPayments when a merchant needs its broad asset catalogue, conversion, donation, subscription, or mass-payout products.
What to verify before signing
- Run the same low-value and normal-value invoice through the exact asset and network you plan to use.
- Record the payer debit, merchant credit, settlement credit, and withdrawal credit instead of comparing percentages alone.
- Confirm the contracted rate, high-risk adjustments, minimums, reserves, refund charges, and geographic eligibility in writing.
- Confirm whether your payment counts as no-exchange, multi-currency, fixed-rate or payer-pays, and whether it runs through custody or through forwarding.
Frequently asked questions
What fee does NOWPayments publish?+
1% for a payment processed without an exchange; 1.5% for multi-currency payments, fixed-rate payments and payments where the fee is charged to the payer. Neither figure covers moving the accepted asset off the invoice address, and on a 50 USDT Tron invoice that is what puts the delivered cost near 6%.
Which NOWPayments fee layers should I verify?+
Verify every publicly disclosed processing, network, conversion, settlement, withdrawal, and refund layer so you can reproduce the effective cost.
What should I verify about NOWPayments?+
Run the same low-value and normal-value invoice through the exact asset and network you plan to use. Record the payer debit, merchant credit, settlement credit, and withdrawal credit instead of comparing percentages alone. Confirm the contracted rate, high-risk adjustments, minimums, reserves, refund charges, and geographic eligibility in writing. Confirm whether your payment counts as no-exchange, multi-currency, fixed-rate or payer-pays, and whether it runs through custody or through forwarding.
Is Paymos an alternative to NOWPayments?+
Unlike NOWPayments’ route-dependent custody, forwarding and exchange pricing, Paymos keeps a supported accepted asset as the balance asset without an exchange fee. Paymos adds no separate transfer or sweep commission to an accepted payment. The payer still pays the send-network cost, and a disclosed subsidized network fee can apply when the merchant withdraws.
Can I rely on the headline rate alone?+
No. Test the exact invoice, network, asset, conversion choice, settlement route, and withdrawal path used by your business.
When were these facts checked?+
The linked first-party sources were checked on September 22, 2026. Confirm your contract and dashboard quote before launch.
Official sources
Provider facts are based on public first-party pages available on the review date. Contracts, dashboard quotes, geography, and fees can change.
Report an error or read the correction methodContinue comparing
Crypto payment gateways
There is no single best crypto payment gateway. The right choice is the provider whose supported asset and network, custody model, settlement route, and full effective cost match your real payment flow. Compare a complete test transaction, not the headline percentage.
BitPay
BitPay is a custodial crypto payment processor built for merchants that want broad crypto acceptance and optional fiat settlement. Its published acceptance price is 2% + $0.25 below $500,000 monthly volume, falling to 1% + $0.25 at $1 million or more; small invoices and settlement choices therefore matter. Tron is absent from its network list, so a USDT invoice on Tron is not something BitPay can raise. The benchmark this comparison prices elsewhere — 50 USDT in Tron, followed to the merchant’s wallet — therefore has no BitPay figure at all; price them on the chains they do carry.
CoinGate
CoinGate is a custodial gateway for accepting crypto and settling in crypto or supported fiat. Its Standard plan publishes a 1% processing fee with no monthly fee, while payouts, manual exchange, refunds in another currency, and SWIFT settlement have separate published conditions. USDT is no longer on the asset list: CoinGate discontinued it on 24 March 2025 and converted the remaining balances to USDC one for one. That closes off the invoice this comparison prices elsewhere: 50 USDT in Tron cannot be raised here on any chain, so the 1% applies to a different asset than the one being priced.
CoinPayments
CoinPayments is a custodial multi-asset gateway and wallet. On its current platform, where new merchants sign up, it charges 1% on tokens, USDT among them, and from 0.5% on coins; the 3% still quoted for its Legacy platform is not what a new account pays. The network fee sits with the buyer: an invoice completes only once the buyer has covered it on top of the amount. CoinPayments left the European Union on 1 July 2026, so a business there cannot open an account at all. Follow one 50 USDT invoice in Tron from the buyer’s transfer to the merchant’s wallet: CoinPayments keeps 0.50 USDT, the buyer pays about 2.50 USDT of Tron network fee on top, 52.50 USDT in all, and the deal costs 6%.
Cryptomus
Cryptomus is a custodial payment gateway, business wallet, and exchange. New users pay 2% per transaction, negotiated pricing can fall to 0.4%, and a merchant project passes moderation. Auto-conversion is advertised as free, while withdrawals remain subject to a mining fee. On a 50 USDT invoice in Tron the 2% is the whole price of the sale — nothing is added for crediting the balance — so the headline survives the trip. What costs money is the payout, charged per payout rather than per sale.
Stripe Crypto Payments
Stripe Stablecoin Payments lets an eligible business accept supported stablecoins from customers worldwide and receive the money in its Stripe balance in its own local currency. On-chain the accepted list is short: USDC on Tempo, Ethereum, Solana, Polygon and Base, plus USDP and USDG for US businesses only. USDT is not on it, and neither is Tron; a customer can also pay from a Crypto.com exchange account in that exchange’s tokens. Availability is general in the US and a private preview for the European Union, Hong Kong, Mexico and Switzerland. Stripe’s US pricing page lists the method at 1.5% of the USD amount, with conversion to fiat, AML screening and gas included; the EU version of that page has no stablecoin row.