Flat pricing, no per-payment fees
AP Automation With No Transaction Fees or Per-User Fees
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Most bill pay tools add a fee to every ACH, check and rushed payment, and many charge for every seat on top. AutoPayables is one flat monthly price: $49 for 200 invoices or $149 for unlimited, with no per-payment fees and no per-user pricing, because your payments keep moving through your own bank. This page lays out what the other vendors publish per transaction, so you can see what the fees add up to at your volume.
None
Per-payment fee we add to your ACH or checks
$0.59
BILL's published fee per standard ACH payment
$1.99
BILL's published fee per mailed check
2.9%
Card funding fee published by both BILL and Melio
Accounting sync
What flat-price AP automation includes
The whole invoice-to-approval workflow for one monthly price.
AI invoice capture
Upload a PDF or forward it to your intake address. Header fields and every line item are read into a draft bill with a confidence score, ready to review.
Line-level GL coding
Each line on a bill carries its own GL account, so a mixed supplier invoice codes correctly the first time instead of landing in one catch-all account.
Approval threshold
Set a dollar amount. Bills above it wait for approval, and every approve or reject is written to an audit log you can show your auditor.
One price, however many hands
The plan is priced on invoice volume, not headcount. Adding the manager who approves or the controller who reviews does not change the bill.
Keep your own bank
Pay approved bills from the account you already use and record the payment against the bill. No new payment network for your vendors to join.
API on Scale
Scale includes REST API access, so captured and approved bills can flow into the systems your team already reports from.
How to cut AP transaction fees in four steps
An afternoon of work that shows up on next month's statement.
Pull last quarter's fee lines
Export your current bill pay invoices and total the per-payment, check, faster payment and card funding charges. Divide by three for a monthly figure.
Check your bank's ACH pricing
Most US business checking accounts include ACH origination or charge a few cents per item. Ask your banker for the exact rate and any monthly cap.
Run your real invoices through capture
Upload twenty genuine vendor bills, including the long multi-line ones. Look at the line-level coding before you decide anything.
Move capture and approval, keep payments at the bank
Let AutoPayables handle intake, coding and approval, then release approved payments from your bank. The per-payment fee line simply stops.
Per-transaction bill pay versus flat-price AP automation
Where the money goes as your vendor count grows.
Per-transaction bill pay
- Fee on every ACH, check and rushed payment
- Price per user, so adding an approver costs more
- Cost rises with every new vendor you pay
- Card funding adds 2.9% to the payment
- Total annual cost is hard to forecast
Flat-price AP automation
- No per-payment fee from the software vendor
- One price per account regardless of team size
- Cost stays flat inside the plan's invoice volume
- You pay from your own bank account
- $588 or $1,788 a year at the monthly rate, known in advance
Who switches to flat-price AP automation
Teams whose fee lines grew faster than their invoice count.
Controllers paying hundreds of vendors a month
At 300 payments a month, a $0.59 ACH fee is over $2,000 a year on its own. A flat plan turns that into a fixed software line.
Multi-person AP teams on per-seat plans
When capture, coding, approval and review sit with four different people, per-user pricing charges you four times for one process.
Bookkeeping and outsourced accounting firms
A predictable monthly price per client is easier to build into a fixed-fee engagement than a bill that moves with every payment.
Companies with a bank they already trust
If ACH through your bank is cheap and your positive pay is set up, there is no reason to route payments through a second provider.
Is there AP automation with no transaction fees?
Yes. AutoPayables charges one flat monthly price and nothing per payment, per invoice inside your plan, or per user: $49 a month for 200 invoices or $149 a month for unlimited invoices. The reason is structural. We capture, code and approve bills and record the payment, while the money itself moves through your own bank, so there is no payment rail for us to put a fee on.
Most bill pay tools work the other way round. Their subscription is the smaller part of the bill, and the per-payment charges (ACH, checks, faster payments, card funding, international wires) scale with every vendor you pay. For a team paying a few hundred bills a month, those line items can quietly exceed the software price.
What do AP automation tools charge per transaction?
These are the per-payment fees each vendor publishes on its own pricing page. We read every page directly rather than relying on directory estimates, and we quote the vendors' own wording where it matters.
| Vendor | Subscription | Standard ACH | Check | Faster or instant payment | Per-user pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AutoPayables | $49 or $149 per month | None from us (you pay through your bank) | None from us | None from us | No, one price per account |
| BILL | $49, $65 or $89 per user per month | $0.59 per payment | $1.99 per mailed check | Pay Faster ACH $11.99; instant payment 1.0% ($9.99 min, $100 max) | Yes |
| Melio | Core $25, Boost $55, Unlimited $80 per month (Go is $0) | $0.50 per payment beyond the plan's free allowance (5, 20, 50 or unlimited a month) | $1.50 standard, $20 fast, $50 overnight | Instant transfer 1% ($75 max) | Extra users on some tiers |
| Tipalti | From $99 per month (AP) | Not published | Not published | Not published | No, "does not charge per-user or per-approver fees" |
| Ramp | Free $0; Plus $15 per user per month plus a platform fee | $0.59 per payment since June 1, 2026, waived from a Ramp Checking Account | $1.99, waived from a Ramp Checking Account | Same-day ACH and wires free from Ramp Checking | Yes on Plus |
| AvidXchange | Not published | Supplier-paid fees under AvidPay Direct, set in each supplier agreement | Not published | Not published | Not published |
Two things in that table deserve a closer look. BILL charges per user and per payment, so both your headcount and your vendor count raise the cost. Tipalti says plainly that it "uses a subscription-based pricing model with transaction-based pricing layered on top", which means the from-$99 figure is a floor rather than a quote. Paying by card through BILL or Melio adds 2.9% on top of the payment amount.
How much do transaction fees add up to in a year?
For a US company paying 300 vendor bills a month, a $0.59 ACH fee alone comes to $2,124 a year before any subscription, any mailed checks or any rushed payments. If 40 of those bills still go out as mailed checks at $1.99, add another $955. Three BILL Team seats at $65 add $2,340. That is roughly $5,400 a year, and it grows every time you add a vendor or a colleague.
The same 300 bills on AutoPayables Scale cost $149 a month, or $1,788 a year, with no per-payment line at all. Your bank's own ACH pricing still applies to the transfers you send, and for most US business checking accounts that is either bundled into the account fee or a few cents per item. The point is that you are no longer paying twice for the same payment.
Why do bill pay tools charge per transaction?
Because they are payment processors as well as software. When a tool debits your account and credits your vendor, it carries bank costs, fraud risk and float, and it recovers those per payment. That is a fair model if you want the vendor to run your payments. It is an expensive one if what you actually needed was faster invoice capture, correct GL coding and an approval step before money leaves.
Some platforms also earn from the other side. Virtual card programs pay the software vendor interchange, and supplier-funded networks charge the vendor who receives the money. AvidXchange's AvidPay Direct, for example, charges suppliers a per-transaction fee set in each individual supplier agreement. Your suppliers notice that even when your invoice does not show it.
What you get for a flat monthly price
Every paid plan includes the whole AP workflow up to the point where you release payment:
- AI capture of vendor, invoice number, PO number, dates, subtotal, tax, discount, shipping, total and every line item, from an upload or a forwarded email.
- Line-level GL coding, so a single supplier bill can split across several accounts the way your chart of accounts needs it.
- An approval threshold: bills above the dollar amount you set wait for approval, and every approval is logged.
- Vendor records with tax ID, 1099 flag, payment terms, default GL account and remittance details.
- Purchase orders, AP aging and payment recording, so you know what is open, what is approved and what has been paid.
- REST API access on Scale for teams that want bills flowing into their own systems.
What we do not do is move the money. You pay approved bills from your bank as you do today, then record the payment against the bill. If your priority is a hosted payment network with virtual cards and supplier onboarding, a bill pay platform is the better fit and the fees are the price of that service.
Is per-user pricing or flat pricing cheaper for AP?
Flat pricing is cheaper as soon as more than one or two people touch invoices. Per-user plans look inexpensive for a solo bookkeeper, but AP is a team process: someone captures, someone codes, a manager approves and a controller reviews. At BILL's $65 Team rate, four people cost $260 a month before a single payment fee. A flat plan does not change when you add the approver.
Are there hidden fees in AP automation software?
The fees buyers most often miss are per-payment charges, mailed check fees, faster payment premiums, card funding surcharges, international wire fees, per-entity charges and implementation fees. Ask each vendor for all seven in writing. Our answer is short: no setup fee, no per-payment fee, no per-user fee, and a published monthly price you can cancel from inside your account. If you also want to compare commitment terms, see our page on AP automation with no long-term contract.
Who flat-priced AP automation fits best
It suits US companies that already have a bank relationship they are happy with and a payment process that works, but lose hours to keying invoices, chasing approvals and fixing miscoded lines. Typical buyers are controllers at companies with 100 to 2,000 bills a month, multi-person AP teams tired of seat-based invoices, and bookkeeping firms that want a predictable cost per client. It suits them less if they want the software vendor to run payments end to end.
For the full vendor-by-vendor cost picture, including quote-only platforms, read our AP automation pricing comparison, or check individual pages for BILL pricing, Melio pricing and Tipalti pricing.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. AutoPayables charges a flat $49 or $149 a month with no per-payment fee, because payments go out through your own bank rather than through us. Ramp waives its $0.59 ACH and $1.99 check fees only when you pay from a Ramp Checking Account, and most other bill pay tools publish a fee per ACH, check or faster payment.
No per-invoice fee applies inside your plan. Growth includes 200 invoices a month for $49 and Scale includes unlimited invoices for $149. The first 20 invoices run as a one-time trial before you choose a plan.
No. Both plans are priced per account on invoice volume, not per seat, so adding an approver or a reviewer does not change the monthly price.
Your bank's own pricing still applies to the transfers you send, as it does today. For many US business checking accounts ACH origination is bundled or costs a few cents per item, which is well below the per-payment fees bill pay platforms publish.
BILL's pricing page lists $0.59 per standard ACH payment, $1.99 per mailed check, $11.99 for Pay Faster ACH and 1.0% for instant payment ($9.99 minimum, $100 maximum), on top of $49 to $89 per user per month.
Tipalti does not publish per-transaction figures. Its pricing page says it uses a subscription model starting from $99 a month for AP with transaction-based pricing layered on top, and that it does not charge per-user or per-approver fees.
See what your AP costs without the fee lines
Run your first 20 invoices through capture and line-level coding, then pick $49 or $149 a month. No per-payment fees, no per-user seats, cancel from inside your account.