Best way to send money from Canada to India (2026): apps vs banks

The best way to send money from Canada to India in 2026 is a money transfer app rather than your bank, and it isn’t close. On a $1,000 transfer we priced on October 17, 2026, the apps delivered about ₹2,000 more than RBC or TD, which is close to $30. Which app comes out on top changes from day to day, so this page tells you how each one charges and who it suits. The table above lines them up.

What does it cost to send $1,000 to India?

These are the quotes for sending $1,000 to a bank account in India on the afternoon of October 17, 2026. The mid-market rate, the one you see on Google, was ₹67.20 per dollar.

Every bank in that list advertises no transfer fee, and all three delivered less than the five apps at the top. OFX, which is built for much larger transfers, came last on this amount. What a transfer costs comes in two parts: the fee on the screen, and the gap between the rate you’re given and the mid-market rate. A bank that charges nothing up front and gives you a rate 3% worse has charged you $30 on $1,000. We explain the mid-market rate in our guide to how exchange rates affect Canadians.

At the other end, the top five apps were within ₹250 of each other, about $3.50. That’s small enough that the amount you send and the way you pay can reorder them. Wise’s fee in the table is the one its comparison tool quoted, and it’s Wise’s regular price for a bank transfer. Its own India page (opens in a new tab) showed $2.28 on $1,000, but that’s the price of a first transfer, because Wise waives the fee on the first $600 of a new customer’s first transfer to India, outside Quebec. At the same rate, that works out to about ₹67,047.

Who’s publishing this

Lodavo publishes this site. We don’t send money abroad, so we’re not one of the options and we’re not ranked here. Most quotes in the table came from Wise’s public comparison tool, which is run by one of the companies on this list, so we checked Remitly’s rate against Remitly’s own calculator, where it matched, and took Remitbee’s from its own India page. Each provider’s own page is linked below so you can check today’s price yourself.

Best for seeing the whole price first: Wise

Wise converts at the mid-market rate and shows its fee as a separate number before you pay, so there’s nothing hidden in the rate. That makes it the easiest service to compare against, and the one to check first if you want to know what a transfer should cost.

The catch is that the fee moves with how you pay. On $1,000, Wise’s regular fee was $7.77 by bank transfer and $13.46 by Interac e-Transfer when we checked again on October 22, and paying by card cost more than twice the bank-transfer fee. Pay by bank transfer and Wise is one of the five apps at the top of the table. Pay by card and it’s one of the dearest. Wise says 95% of its transfers arrive in less than a day.

Who should look elsewhere: someone who needs cash pickup in India, which Wise doesn’t offer.

Best for a first transfer: Remitly

Remitly (opens in a new tab) is built for exactly this trip, with delivery to a bank account, a UPI ID or a cash pickup point in India. It charged $1.99 on transfers under $500 and nothing above that, and its everyday rate sat about half a percent below mid-market.

Where it stands out is the first transfer. New customers paid no fee on their first three transfers, and the promotional rate on their first $2,000 was ₹68.45 per dollar on October 17, higher than the mid-market rate. On $1,000 that’s ₹68,450, about ₹1,500 more than anything in the table. ICICI Bank Canada’s Money2India runs a similar welcome offer, with a ₹2 bonus on the rate and no fee on a first transfer up to $1,000.

Who should look elsewhere: once the welcome rate runs out, Remitly is one good option among several, so compare it each time.

Best for cash pickup in India: Western Union

Western Union (opens in a new tab) had the best regular rate in our comparison and charges no fee on your first online transfer. It’s also the one to use when the person receiving the money doesn’t have a bank account, since it pays out cash at agent locations across India, and you can pay in cash at a counter in Canada too.

Western Union says it makes money from currency exchange, and its rate was 0.43% below mid-market, the smallest gap of any service that marks up its rate. Avoid paying with a credit card. Western Union warns your card issuer may charge a cash advance fee and interest.

Who should look elsewhere: if the money is going to a bank account anyway, check its quote against Remitly and Wise rather than assuming.

Best Canadian company for $500 or more: Remitbee

Remitbee is based in Mississauga, Ontario, and on its India page (opens in a new tab) it charged no fee on transfers of $500 or more paid by Interac e-Transfer, EFT or bill payment, with $2.99 below that. It says its exchange-rate margin runs from 0.3% to 0.8%, and on October 17 its rate landed beside Remitly’s. A transfer paid by Interac e-Transfer arrives within 15 minutes, according to the company.

Who should look elsewhere: someone sending small amounts by debit card, which costs $2.99 to $8.99 a transfer.

If you’d rather stay with your bank: Scotiabank or CIBC

Sending from the bank you already use means no new app, no new identity check, and no new account to fund. Two big banks make the case well. Scotiabank’s International Money Transfer (opens in a new tab) has its $1.99 fee waived for now and says many transfers arrive within an hour to less than a day. CIBC Global Money Transfer (opens in a new tab) charges no fee to India and says most transfers arrive within 24 hours.

Neither bank publishes how far its rate sits from mid-market, and neither was in the comparison above. The three banks that were (RBC, TD and BMO) gave rates 2.7% to 3.4% below it. So before you confirm a bank transfer, compare the rupee amount on the confirmation screen with an app’s quote for the same amount. If the bank is within a few hundred rupees, the convenience may be worth it.

Who should look elsewhere: anyone sending every month. At those rates, $500 a month through a bank can cost about $175 a year more than an app.

How to check that a transfer service is legit

Any company that sends money abroad from Canada has to be registered with FINTRAC as a money services business. Wise, Remitly, Western Union and Remitbee all are, and each is also on the Bank of Canada’s payment service provider registry with no violations listed. You can search any name on FINTRAC’s registry (opens in a new tab) in under a minute.

That’s the check to run on a better-sounding offer from a contact or a WhatsApp group. Someone moving money for others without registering is breaking Canadian law, and if the rupees never arrive, there’s nobody to complain to. If you’ve already lost money that way, our guide to getting money back after a scam covers what to do first.

Tax and paperwork on each side

Sending money to family isn’t taxed in Canada, which has no gift tax, and it isn’t deductible either. A transfer of $10,000 or more is reported to FINTRAC by the company that sends it, under its electronic funds transfer rules (opens in a new tab). That’s a standard report, not a tax and not a red flag.

On the Indian side, the Income-tax Act, 2025 (opens in a new tab) took effect on April 1, 2026, and it keeps the long-standing gift rule. Money a resident receives from a relative (a spouse, parent, child, sibling and others) isn’t taxed. Money from people who aren’t relatives becomes taxable once the year’s total passes ₹50,000, and then the whole amount counts, not just the part above it. Friends and cousins aren’t relatives under that rule.

One aside: the money that stays in Canada

Sending money home usually means splitting each paycheque between two places: what goes home, and what stays here for rent and emergencies. It’s easy to plan the transfer carefully and save whatever happens to be left.

Lodavo is a free app for that second part. It works with the Canadian bank account you already send from, and every $25 you keep saved in Canadian dollars earns a free ticket in a weekly cash draw. At least $100 goes to a winner every week, and you could win up to $10,000.

Which one should you pick?

For a first transfer, take Remitly’s welcome rate or ICICI Money2India’s. After that, check Wise paid by bank transfer, Remitly and Western Union on the day you send, and pick whichever delivers the most rupees. They trade places often, and checking two quotes takes about a minute. Our Remitly vs Wise comparison prices those two to 10 more countries. Use Western Union when someone needs cash in hand, and Remitbee if you’d rather deal with a Canadian company and send $500 or more at a time.

Stay with your bank only after you’ve compared its rupee amount, because the fee it waives is rarely where it makes its money. And whichever you use, pay by bank transfer or Interac e-Transfer rather than a credit card.

Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.