Mercury vs. Navan

Last verified 32 days ago · 17 sources · Updated automatically

Mercury and Navan compared across Company facts, Pricing, Card & limits, Rewards & cash back, Spend management, Security & compliance and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.

Mercury

Business banking with the balance-funded IO card — the simplest card add-on if you already bank with Mercury.

Founded2017

HQ San Francisco, CA

Visit Mercury Full profile

Navan

Formerly TripActions — combined travel, expense, and corporate card, tying card spend to booked travel and policy.

Founded2015

HQ Palo Alto, CA

Visit Navan Full profile

Attribute

Mercury

Navan

Company facts

Headquarters

San Francisco, CA

Palo Alto, CA Global HQ; offices in 12+ countries

Employees

1k Mercury states 1,000+ employees

3k 3,000+ employees (2026, vendor-stated)

Pricing

Starting Monthly Price (USD)

$0 Free Mercury plan; IO card has no annual fee and no per-user software charge

$0 Navan Business is free (travel + first 5 expense users); card has no annual fee

Paid Tier Price (USD/user/mo)

$29.9 Mercury Plus, $29.90/mo (or $23.95/mo billed annually)

$15 $15/user/mo for expense users beyond the first 5 (Navan Business)

Card & limits

Card Type

charge card Cash-underwritten charge card; balance paid off each pay period

charge card Corporate-liability card (no personal credit impact); issued via Celtic Bank/Stripe/Adyen. Type not labeled 'charge card' on any first-party Navan card page.

Card Network

Mastercard

Visa Issued-card network not first-party confirmed (inferred)

No Personal Guarantee

No personal guarantee and no personal credit check

—

Limit Basis

account balance Cash-underwritten: IO balance cannot exceed cash held with Mercury (linked external balances may add headroom)

—

Virtual Cards

Issue physical or virtual cards to the team; start spending immediately with virtual cards

Unlimited on-demand virtual cards with customizable spend limits; auto-generated per booking

No Foreign Transaction Fees

3% currency conversion fee on non-USD IO transactions

No conversion fee on cross-currency card spend: a purchase card issued in one currency can be used in others, settling in the issuing currency (USD/GBP/EUR) with no conversion fee.

Rewards & cash back

Rewards Model

flat cash back Unlimited 1.5% cashback on all spend, auto-deposited

flat cash back Up to 1.5% back on every Navan card transaction; travel-centric rewards also via Navan Rewards

Flat Cash-Back Rate

1.5%

1.5% Up to 1.5% back on every Navan card transaction ('up to' is the ceiling rate)

Spend management

Receipt Capture & Matching

Upload/email receipts and Mercury auto-matches them to the right transaction

Mobile receipt photo upload, auto-matched to transactions; travel charges auto-coded to trip/GL

Approval Workflows & Policies

Company-wide spend policies plus multi-layered approval rules for bill pay

Configurable spend policies; out-of-policy transactions instantly flagged; unlimited policy/approval workflows

Employee Reimbursements

Out-of-pocket reimbursements; 5 active users/mo free, more on paid tiers

Out-of-pocket reimbursements via payroll or bank, across 45 countries / 25 currencies; included free for first 5 users

Bill Pay / AP

Free unlimited bill pay via ACH, domestic/international wire, or check

—

Security & compliance

SOC 2

SOC 2 Type II

AICPA SOC 2 Type 2 (also SOC 1 Type 2)

SSO (SAML)

—

SSO via SAML 2.0 (Okta, Azure) and OpenID Connect

SCIM Provisioning

—

SCIM provisioning (Okta SCIM); HRIS integrations also via SCIM

Platform & integrations

Accounting / ERP Sync

Native sync to QuickBooks, Xero, and NetSuite

Native sync to NetSuite, QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage (Intacct), Datev

Public API

Public REST API — balances, transactions, ACH transfers; plus Accounts Receivable/invoicing API

Public Booking API and Expense API for integrating booking/expense transaction data

The verdict

Mercury

Best for an all-in-one banking and AP stack

Mercury pairs the charge card with free unlimited bill pay (ACH, wire, check) and a public REST API for balances, transactions, and ACH transfers. The card limit is tied to your Mercury cash balance, and it earns a flat 1.5% cashback. Trade-off: a 3% conversion fee on non-USD spend, where Navan charges none.

Full profile

Navan

Best for global teams and travel spend

Navan charges no foreign-transaction fee on cross-currency card spend and runs reimbursements across 45 countries and 25 currencies, versus Mercury's 3% FX fee. Its paid expense tier is $15/user/mo against Mercury's $29.90, and it adds SAML SSO and SCIM provisioning for larger teams. Cashback is capped at 'up to' 1.5%.

Full profile

Sources · 17 verified references

en.wikipedia.org navan.com mercury.com support.mercury.com app.navan.com

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