Send Money from the USA to China

Measured on the full cost — the transfer fee plus the exchange-rate margin — Instarem is cheapest on this corridor at $1,000, across the 4 providers we hold checked figures for. The cheapest provider also changes with the amount you send, so compare the final sum that arrives in Chinese yuans rather than the headline fee.

At $1,000, Instarem is the cheapest of the 4 providers priced at that amount on this corridor: about $6.90 all in, or 0.69% of the amount sent. Remitly is next at about $11.39. That is the fee plus the exchange-rate margin that applied to a transfer of that size — priced at $1,000 specifically, not worked out from a measurement taken at some other amount. It covers a bank transfer; cash pickup and mobile wallet payouts are priced separately. The margins were measured by Wise's comparison service rather than published by the providers themselves, and other providers here may be cheaper and are not priced this way.

Yes. Up to $1,000, Instarem costs least on this corridor; from $2,500 upwards, Remitly does. The change happens somewhere between those two amounts — they are the amounts actually priced, so naming a precise crossing point would be a guess dressed as a figure. This happens because a transfer costs a flat fee plus a percentage of the amount, and those two scale in opposite directions: on a small transfer the fee dominates, on a large one the exchange-rate margin does. It is why a comparison taken at a single amount can point you at the wrong provider for yours.

Delivery ranges from minutes to a few business days depending on the provider and payout method. Panda Remit and Xoom can deliver within minutes when you pay by debit card. Bank-funded and economy transfers typically take one to three business days but usually cost less. Transfers sent outside banking hours or over a weekend may not settle until the next working day.

Across the providers we compare, the available payout methods are Alipay, WeChat Pay, bank deposit, card payout and cash pickup. The most widely used options in China are bank deposit and Alipay. China applies annual foreign-exchange limits per recipient, so large or frequent transfers may need extra documentation. Not every provider supports every method, so check the table above before you commit.

No. Western Union, Ria Money Transfer and Xe Money Transfer offer cash pickup in China, so your recipient can collect the funds with valid photo ID and the transfer reference number. That said, bank deposit and Alipay generally cost less than cash collection.

Providers rarely give you the mid-market rate — the reference rate you see on Google or Reuters. Instead they add a margin, typically between 0.4% and 4%, and keep the difference. That margin is often larger than the visible transfer fee, which is why a "no fee" service can still be more expensive overall. For USD to CNY, compare the quoted rate against the mid-market rate to see the real spread you are paying.

Yes, provided you use a licensed provider. Every service listed on this page is regulated in the USA under FinCEN and state money-transmitter licences, which requires safeguarding of customer funds and identity verification. Send only to people you know personally, keep your transfer reference private, and be sceptical of anyone pressuring you to send money urgently to someone you have not met.

Yes. Each provider sets its own transfer limits, which vary by how much identity verification you have completed and how you pay. Larger transfers may require additional documentation such as proof of source of funds. China also applies an annual foreign-exchange conversion limit per individual, which can restrict repeated large transfers to the same recipient. For transfers above roughly $10,000, a specialist foreign-exchange broker will often beat an app on rate.

China runs TWO separate USD 50,000 annual quotas per person, and the one that matters here is the settlement quota — converting foreign currency INTO renminbi. Receiving foreign currency into a Chinese foreign-currency account is not itself capped; converting it to renminbi draws on that settlement allowance, which is why a large or repeated transfer to the same recipient can eventually run into it. The other quota (purchase: renminbi into foreign currency, USD 50,000 a year) governs money leaving China and is not the one your recipient spends. Using one does not consume the other. Published summaries of this rule contradict each other freely, several of them claiming inbound conversion is uncapped — if your recipient is approaching USD 50,000 in a calendar year, have them confirm their remaining settlement quota with their own bank rather than relying on any summary, this one included. Transfers may be delayed if Chinese authorities request additional information about the purpose of the payment. A 1% US federal excise tax applies to remittance transfers funded with cash, a money order or a cashier's check, effective January 2026. Transfers funded from a bank account, debit card or credit card are not subject to it — so how you pay can change the total cost. Separately, China tightened its OUTBOUND foreign-exchange rules from 1 January 2026: banks must verify the remitter's details on any single transfer out of China above RMB 5,000 or USD 1,000, under a rule issued by the central bank and the banking and securities regulators in October 2025. It does not touch inbound transfers, and is noted here only because it is the kind of headline that gets misread as one that does.