How much does it cost to send $200 abroad?

On average, 6.36% of the amount, or about $12.72 on a $200 transfer, according to World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide for Q3 2025. The exact cost depends heavily on the destination and the channel you use.

Which countries are cheapest to send money to?

Among major destinations tracked by the World Bank, Mexico (4.53%), Türkiye (4.88%) and Indonesia (5.13%) were among the cheaper corridors in Q3 2025. Sub-Saharan African destinations were generally the most expensive.

Why does the cost vary so much by country?

Cost depends on competition between providers, the channels available, internet and account access, regulation, and how much cost is hidden in the exchange rate. Less competitive corridors tend to cost more.

Is the headline fee the whole cost?

No. The total cost includes both the upfront fee and the foreign-exchange margin, which is the gap between the rate you get and the real market rate. World Bank figures combine both, which is why they are higher than advertised fees alone.

The True Cost of Sending $200 by Country

What it really costs to send $200

The advertised fee is rarely the full story. The true cost of a remittance combines two parts: the upfront fee and the foreign-exchange margin, which is the gap between the rate you are quoted and the real market rate. The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide (RPW) measures both together, which is why its figures are higher than the fees most providers print.

This page uses RPW data for sending $200, the benchmark amount used in global cost targets, to show what families actually lose by destination. The dollar cost in each table is the cost percentage applied to $200.

US one-dollar banknotes laid out

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

The global picture

In Q3 2025, the global average cost to send $200 was 6.36%. On a $200 transfer, that is $12.72 gone before the money arrives.

Measure	Cost %	Cost on $200	Source
Global average	6.36%	$12.72	World Bank RPW
Digital remittances	4.59%	$9.18	World Bank RPW
Non-digital remittances	7.30%	$14.60	World Bank RPW
SmaRT average (three cheapest qualifying services)	3.29%	$6.58	World Bank RPW
Banks (most expensive channel)	14.99%	$29.98	World Bank RPW

The spread is enormous. Sending through a bank costs more than four times what a careful sender pays through the cheapest qualifying digital services.

Cost by region

Where the money is going matters more than almost anything else. These are the regional averages for sending $200, with the dollar cost shown alongside.

Receiving region	Cost %	Cost on $200	Source
Middle East, N. Africa, Afghanistan & Pakistan	5.11%	$10.22	World Bank RPW
South Asia	5.30%	$10.60	World Bank RPW
Latin America & Caribbean	5.64%	$11.28	World Bank RPW
East Asia & Pacific	5.83%	$11.66	World Bank RPW
Europe & Central Asia (excl. Russia)	6.80%	$13.60	World Bank RPW
Sub-Saharan Africa	8.46%	$16.92	World Bank RPW

A family in Sub-Saharan Africa pays about $16.92 to receive $200, while a family in the MENAAP group pays about $10.22 for the same amount. That difference, repeated across millions of transfers, adds up to a large transfer of value away from the households that can least afford it.

Cost to send to selected countries

The RPW report also tracks the cost of sending money to specific G20 destinations. These are the Q3 2025 figures, with the dollar cost on $200.

Destination	Cost %	Cost on $200	Source
Mexico	4.53%	$9.06	World Bank RPW
Türkiye	4.88%	$9.76	World Bank RPW
Indonesia	5.13%	$10.26	World Bank RPW
India	5.30%	$10.60	World Bank RPW
Brazil	5.38%	$10.76	World Bank RPW
South Africa	5.96%	$11.92	World Bank RPW
China	7.31%	$14.62	World Bank RPW

Mexico was the cheapest receiving market in the G20 group, recorded at 4.53%, while China was the most expensive at 7.31%. The US to Mexico corridor in particular benefits from heavy competition, which keeps costs down.

Why corridor cost varies

The same $200 can cost wildly different amounts depending on where it goes. A few factors drive that.

Competition is the biggest one. Corridors with many providers, like US to Mexico or US to India, are cheaper because firms compete on price. Thin corridors with few providers stay expensive.

Channel access matters too. Where internet and account penetration are low, digital options are scarce, and cash channels cost more. The World Bank notes that corridors without competitive qualifying services tend to have low internet or account access.

And the exchange-rate margin hides cost. A provider can advertise a low fee, then take its real cut in the rate. Because RPW combines fee and margin, its numbers reflect what senders truly lose.

The digital and cash gap

One pattern holds across every region: digital is cheaper than cash. The global digital average was 4.59% in Q3 2025, against 7.30% for non-digital. On $200, that is the difference between losing about $9.18 and about $14.60.

That gap is why the shape of the remittance market is shifting toward phones and accounts, and away from cash counters.

A person using a calculator to work out costs

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

Where a dollar wallet changes the math

A digital dollar wallet sits at the cheap end of this spectrum, but it is honest to be precise about where the savings are. Arca-to-Arca dollar sends have no network fee, so moving dollar value between two Arca users does not carry the per-transfer cost shown in the tables above.

The cost does not vanish entirely. Converting local currency into dollars to fund a transfer, or converting dollars back into local currency at the other end, carries fees that vary by country and route. A wallet removes the middle layer and gives both sides more control over when they convert, which is where the exchange rate markup usually does its damage.

For country-level context behind these corridors, see the Mexico remittance map and the Philippines remittance engine. For the full set of official datasets, see official sources on dollar access.

How to cite this page

A suggested citation:

Arca Research, “The True Cost of Sending $200 by Country,” accessed 2026-06-12, https://arcawallet.app/research/true-cost-of-sending-200-by-country/. Cost figures from World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide, Issue 54, Q3 2025. Dollar costs are the reported cost percentage applied to a $200 transfer.