Visa interchange rates in Canada for 2026, card by card

Visa interchange rates in Canada are the percentages Visa sets on every credit card sale, paid by your acquirer to the bank that issued your customer's card. Visa Canada publishes them in its own schedule, separate from the US one. A Visa Classic, Gold or Platinum card used in store is 1.25%, a Visa Infinite card 1.57%, and a Visa Infinite Privilege card 2.08% (Visa Canada). Card-not-present sales cost more, recurring payments cost the same as in store or slightly less, and small merchants who qualify pay far less.

On October 24, 2026, Visa widens its small-merchant program and adds a new online incentive. This guide lays out the current rates by card and channel, explains what changes that day, and shows how to check the Visa lines on your own statement. Rates are as published in October 2026.

Where does Visa publish its Canadian interchange rates?

In three places on visa.ca. The Visa Canada Interchange Reimbursement Fees is the rate sheet. A separate notice, Visa Canada Upcoming Interchange Modifications, dated September 4, 2026, lists the changes coming on October 24. And Visa's page Understanding Visa Interchange Rates explains the system in plain terms.

Two points from those pages shape everything else. First, you don't pay interchange directly. Visa's rate sheet says merchants pay a "merchant discount fee" to their acquirer, and that fee bundles interchange with everything else. Second, Visa says it manages domestic consumer credit interchange to an average of 1.40% under a voluntary commitment with the Department of Finance, with independent validation every year. That 1.40% is an average across the whole market, not the rate any one sale carries.

What are Visa's consumer credit interchange rates in Canada?

They depend on the card product and how the sale was taken. Here are Visa's published rates for its three most common consumer credit tiers:

Sources: Visa's rate sheet and its notice of upcoming changes. Visa Infinite+ sits between Infinite and Infinite Privilege: 1.60% in store, 1.05% for small merchants in store, and 2.35% at the standard rate.

The standard rate is the one to watch. Visa describes it as the default that applies to sales that don't qualify for any other program, and says these are typically card not present. If a lot of your volume lands there, something about how your sales are being sent is costing you money.

Here's what the table means on a $120 sale on a Classic card:

The same customer and the same card can cost twice as much depending on whether you qualify as a small merchant and how the sale reaches Visa.

Does tokenization lower Visa interchange in Canada?

Yes, a little. On every tier in the table, the tokenized card-not-present and recurring rates are 0.05 percentage points below the plain ones. That's small on any one sale, so think of it as a bonus for a setup you probably want anyway, since tokens keep real card numbers out of your systems.

Say a fitness studio in Halifax bills $15,000 a month in recurring payments on Visa Infinite cards. At 1.53%, interchange is $229.50. Tokenized, at 1.48%, it's $222.00. That's $7.50 a month, or $90 a year. Not a reason to switch providers, but worth asking whether your gateway already sends tokens and whether the lower rate shows on your statement.

Who qualifies for Visa's small merchant rates?

Today, businesses with annual Visa volume under $300,000. From October 24, 2026, the threshold rises to $750,000, according to Visa's notice of upcoming changes, and the in-store rates drop at the same time.

The program grew out of a federal commitment. Finance Canada announced that from October 19, 2024, Visa and Mastercard would cut domestic consumer credit interchange for qualifying small businesses to an annual weighted average of 0.95% in store, and by 10 basis points online. Mastercard's threshold is separate and lower: annual Mastercard sales below $175,000.

Here's what the new threshold can be worth. A home and gift store in Kelowna takes $420,000 a year on Visa, all in store: $300,000 on Classic, Gold and Platinum cards and $120,000 on Visa Infinite. That's over the old line, so it pays regular rates today.

That's $2,466 a year less in interchange, as long as the store is flagged as eligible and its processor passes the cut on. Ask your processor how and when it applies the new threshold to your account, and get the answer in writing.

What changes on October 24, 2026?

Three things, all from Visa's September 4, 2026 notice:

1. The Small Merchant Interchange Program threshold rises from $300,000 to $750,000 in annual Visa volume.
2. Small-merchant in-store rates fall: Classic, Gold and Platinum from 0.77% to 0.70%, Infinite from 0.99% to 0.89%, and Infinite Privilege from 1.80% to 1.70%.
3. A new Digital Commerce Authentication Program (DCAP) offers lower interchange on qualifying consumer credit card-not-present sales when the merchant opts in and sends enhanced transaction data.

The DCAP rates for Classic, Gold and Platinum cards are 1.30%, or 1.25% when the card is also tokenized, against the regular 1.40% card-not-present rate. Small merchants get 1.10%, or 1.05% tokenized. Visa's notice lists DCAP rates for every card tier, and Visa sets the qualifying criteria, so confirm with your processor that its gateway supports DCAP before you count on it.

Here's a rough sense of scale. An online retailer in Winnipeg above the small-merchant line sells $600,000 a year on Visa Classic, Gold and Platinum cards. At the regular card-not-present rate, interchange is $8,400. At the DCAP tokenized rate of 1.25%, it would be $7,500, a $900 difference. Tokenization alone, at 1.35%, gets it to $8,100. Our guide to payment tokenization explains how tokens work, and our online payments cover hosted checkout and gateway integration.

How do Visa's Canadian rates compare with Mastercard and debit?

Close on premium cards, different in each channel, and far apart from debit. Mastercard publishes its own Canadian schedule, effective August 1, 2026:

So a Visa everyday card costs more than a Mastercard one at the counter, but less online and much less when a sale falls to the default rate. You don't pick which card your customer carries, so this is about understanding your statement, not steering customers.

Debit is a different world. Visa's rate sheet lists an "Electronic" rate of 3 cents per transaction for Visa Debit. Mastercard lists 0.25% plus 5 cents as the Electronic rate for Debit Mastercard. And Interac puts the all-in merchant cost of Interac Debit at around 10 cents a transaction. On a $120 sale, every one of those is a fraction of the $1.50 a Visa Classic card costs in store. Our guide to Visa Debit in Canada covers it in detail, and our guide to Interac fees covers Interac's flat per-transaction pricing.

What else do you pay on a Visa sale besides interchange?

Two more layers. Visa charges acquirers an Acquirer Service Fee of 0.09% of Visa volume acquired in Canada, which your processor passes on. And your processor adds its own markup and fees.

On a $120 in-store sale on a Classic card, with a made-up processor markup of 0.30% plus 6 cents:

Only the last line is negotiable. Our guide to how to calculate credit card processing fees walks through the same math for a full month.

The Code of Conduct for the Payment Card Industry in Canada gives you tools here. Your statement has to show your effective merchant discount rate for each card type at least monthly. Your processor must give you 30 to 60 calendar days' notice before a new or higher fee, and you can give notice to leave without penalty within 70 calendar days after the change. The FCAC's summary of merchant rights adds that processors must tell you if network fee reductions won't be passed on to you in full, which matters on October 24.

How do you check the Visa rates on your statement?

1. Find the Visa section. On interchange-plus pricing, each Visa program has its own line with the number of sales, the volume and the rate.
2. Match each line to the rate sheet: product (Classic, Infinite, Infinite+, Infinite Privilege) and program (in store, card not present, recurring, standard).
3. Recalculate: volume times the rate.
4. Flag any standard-rate volume, and any card-not-present lines if you only sell in person.
5. If your annual Visa volume is under $750,000, check that small-merchant rates appear on statements after October 24, 2026.
6. Compare the effective rate the Code requires on your statement with last year's.

If your statement shows one blended rate for all Visa cards, you can't do any of this. Our guide to credit card fees in Canada shows how to split interchange from markup, and our pricing page explains how interchange-plus works.

Common mistakes with Visa interchange in Canada

• Treating the 1.40% average as your rate. Your mix of cards and channels decides your number.
• Using the US schedule. Visa USA publishes different programs and rates; our guide to Visa interchange rates in the US covers that one.
• Assuming small-merchant rates apply on their own. Confirm with your processor that you're flagged.
• Ignoring the standard rate. Sales that don't qualify for anything better land there.
• Expecting a flat rate to fall when interchange does. On a blended plan, rate cuts reach you only if your processor lowers the rate.
• Planning a surcharge without checking the rules. Visa allows a credit card surcharge of up to the lesser of 2.4% or your cost of acceptance (Visa Canada), but merchants in Quebec may not charge a fee for paying by card. Our guide to the credit card surcharge in Canada has the rest, and our surcharging program handles setup where it's allowed.

Your next step

October 24 is a good moment to look at your statement, because Visa's cuts only help if they reach you. Send us your latest statement for a free statement review and we'll match your Visa lines to the rate sheet, check whether you qualify for the small-merchant rates, and show what the same month would cost on interchange-plus. Wherever you are in Canada, you can also book a consultation with a dedicated rep.