bunq business account: costs, features and limits

Many people arrive at the bunq business account through the private app. It is already on the phone, the account is applied for in five minutes, and taking the business side along feels obvious. Before you do, one number is worth checking: how many payments a month run through the account. At bunq it is not the monthly price that decides how expensive the account gets, it is the counter behind it, and that counter is not on the plan page. It is in the fee information sheet.

This article is about the business account from bunq, not the private account most reviews describe. Every figure was read in August 2026 from two sources: the official plan pages and the fee information sheet for private and business customers dated 03.08.2026. That matters more than it sounds. Some of the pages ranking for this topic still describe the retired plan line-up called Easy Bank, Easy Bank Pro Business and Easy Bank Pro XL.

What is the bunq business account?

Who can open a bunq business account

bunq answers the legal-form question in its own Help Centre with a list. For Germany the bank accepts Eingetragener Kaufmann, Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Freiberufler, Gewerbetreibender, Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts, Einzelunternehmen and teilrechtsfähiger Verband. A GmbH can therefore run a bunq business account, and so can a GbR. AG, KG and OHG are not on that list.

The remaining conditions are shorter, but one of them surprises people. You need a verified private account with bunq first, for every business plan, because the bank has to know who stands behind the payments. On top of that: a director of full age, a business registered in Germany, permanent residence in the European Economic Area, and one business account per legal entity. Applications with beneficial owners outside the EEA are declined. So if you want to open a bunq business account, the path starts at the private account.

A free business account does exist at bunq, but the plan is narrower than its name suggests. bunq writes in its own FAQ that the Free Business plan is available “nur für Freelancer”, so for freelancers only, and points every other legal form to Core, Pro or Elite. The second half of that restriction sits in the fee information sheet: on the free plan only one director is possible. The paid plans include the first three, and each further one costs €5.99 a month. For a bunq business account with two shareholders, the free plan is out.

Who is behind bunq

Behind the app sits bunq B.V., registered at Basisweg 32 in Amsterdam, entered with the Kamer van Koophandel under 54992060 and in Germany with the Oberlandesgericht München under HRB 293822. Whether bunq is trustworthy can therefore be checked against registers rather than ratings. The bank is supervised by the Dutch central bank De Nederlandsche Bank and by BaFin, it holds its own banking licence, and deposits fall under the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme up to €100,000 per account holder. That is the frame, not the selling point.

The IBAN matters more in practice. The Help Centre puts it plainly: open the account in Germany and you get a DE IBAN. The question of a German IBAN at bunq is settled, and it was not always, because bunq used to issue Dutch account numbers. Local IBANs are now available for the Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, Italy and Ireland. Clients in Germany therefore pay into a German account, with no follow-up questions from their bookkeeping.

What the bunq business account costs

The four plans compared

The costs of the bunq business account come in two parts: the account maintenance fee and the payment traffic. In German the same product runs as bunq Geschäftskonto. The monthly price buys two things: accounts and allowances. Free Business comes with three accounts, Core Business with five, Pro and Elite Business with 25 each, and every one of those accounts has its own IBAN. They are created in seconds, directly in the app, and you can run them as euro accounts or as foreign-currency accounts. Anyone who needs more pays €21 a month per 25 additional accounts.

Every plan can be tried for 30 days at no cost and cancelled at any time. On an account whose price logic depends on your own payment behaviour, that is more than a marketing line: one month is enough to count your own bookings.

This table shows the subscription, not the bill. Two lines move it more than the monthly price on a business account, and neither of them is on the plan page: every payment beyond the allowance, and every direct debit.

What the monthly price does not cover

The plan pages say “100 kostenlose Echtzeit-Transaktionen”, 100 free real-time transactions, on Core, “250” on Pro and “500” on Elite. A period is missing at that spot. The fee information sheet for private and business customers dated 03.08.2026 has it: “100 Transaktionen gebührenfrei pro Jahr, danach 0,13 € pro Transaktion”. Per year, not per month. Pro Business gets 250 a year, Elite Business 500, and Free Business gets no allowance at all, so the first payment there already costs €0.13.

Work it through once and the number carries. Every real-time transfer counts against the allowance, so the costs of the bunq business account hang on your invoicing rhythm. A hundred transactions a year is roughly eight a month, and the row does not only count what you send: it covers real-time payments sent and received plus payment requests. Anyone invoicing weekly and getting paid weekly is through it by spring. The comparison inside the same document is telling: on every private bunq plan the same row reads “kostenlos”. The per-item price is a property of the business plans, not of the bank.

Alongside transfers, the fee information sheet lists a series of further items that come up in day-to-day business and cost nothing on a private account:

For a freelancer with five invoices a month, none of this is noticeable. It looks different as soon as a business invoices weekly, pays rent and leasing by direct debit and attaches a receipt to every booking. Then cent amounts add up to a line item that appears nowhere in a plan comparison.

Features of the bunq business account

Accounts and IBANs

At bunq the accounts are the budgeting tool. You create them in seconds, give each one a purpose, and each gets its own IBAN: a reserve for VAT, salaries, a project, a foreign-currency balance. Free Business allows three of them, Core Business five, Pro and Elite Business 25 each. The mix is free, and euro accounts and foreign-currency accounts count against the same limit.

This is exactly where the two cheaper plans stop. Anyone separating tax, project and salary fills three accounts quickly, and the fourth costs a plan upgrade. Only on the Pro plan does the number stretch far enough to go unnoticed day to day.

Cards and company cards

bunq issues Mastercards, physical and virtual. On the free plan it is one virtual card, and there is no physical one. Core Business includes one physical card plus a digital one, according to bunq a Mastercard debit card or credit card, and Pro and Elite Business a combination of up to three cards each, along with up to 25 virtual cards. Apple Pay and Google Pay are free on every plan, and a Metal Card costs €99. Company cards come on top for the team: up to three on Pro Business, up to ten on Elite Business, each further company card for a team member costs €3.49 a month, plus €9.99 once if a physical card is ordered beyond the allowance.

One detail is worth stating, because bunq lists the cards as credit cards. Its own FAQ says the company cards are prepaid and carry no credit line, which is why no credit check is needed. You load funds and spend what is there. Anyone equating bunq cards with a classic corporate credit card and its payment term expects something other than what the product delivers. And one more line from the fee information sheet belongs here: spending limits for accounts and cards are marked N/A on Free and Core and only appear on the Pro plan.

Cash withdrawals and deposits

bunq has no branches of its own, so cash runs through partners. You can deposit at partner shops in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria via via cash, Barzahlen or Paysafe Cash. The price for it: 2.5% of the amount deposited, with the first €100 a month free of charge. On the free plan this function is not provided.

Withdrawing cash at an ATM is tiered by plan at bunq. Pro and Elite Business have the first six withdrawals a month free, the next five cost €0.99 each, and every further one €2.99. Core Business pays €0.99 for the first five and €2.99 after that, Free Business €2.99 per withdrawal. The daily ATM limit for business accounts is €1,000 per card. For a business that puts notes in the safe every evening, that is arithmetic with a sign in front of it.

Foreign currencies and international payments

Foreign-currency accounts in over 20 currencies belong to the account, and opening one costs nothing on any plan. You can send payments in more than 40 currencies, and you see the fee before you confirm. Opening a foreign-currency account costs nothing on any plan. Conversion runs at The Currency Cloud rate plus a 0.5% exchange-rate risk charge; card payments in a foreign currency get a real exchange rate from Mastercard on the same basis.

The free plan has a limit here too. The real rate applies to €1,000 a year, after which a surcharge is added to every foreign-currency payment. How high it is we leave open: the website and the fee information sheet give different percentages at this point, and a figure that contradicts itself across two of the provider’s own sources does not belong in a comparison. Incoming SWIFT payments cost €5 per payment on every plan.

Bookkeeping, DATEV and interfaces

For bookkeeping, bunq brings a DATEV integration that is set up over the HBCI route with finAPI, plus more than 50 further integrations from Lexware and ADDISON through BuchhaltungsButler and easybill to Sage and Oracle NetSuite. Statements and transaction exports are free on every plan. The automatic statement to the accountant, receipt digitisation, the invoice scan, Zapier and the API arrive from Pro Business.

One function is missing from both sources, and it matters for subscription businesses. The fee information sheet and the Help Centre describe direct debits only from the payer’s side: you accept or decline a mandate, including B2B mandates. Collecting direct debits yourself, to charge recurring invoices to your own customers, is not documented there. Anyone building a business on that should clarify it with the provider before opening the account.

Business savings account and interest

You can put reserves into a business savings account at bunq. The rate is 0.75% a year variable on euro balances and 2.30% a year on USD and GBP, paid out weekly. Interest applies to the first €100,000 per currency. You can withdraw up to three times a month, twice in the first year. One line from bunq’s own page belongs next to it: savings accounts in a foreign currency are not covered by the deposit guarantee scheme and are subject to value fluctuation.

Investing is where the business account stops. The row for investing in shares, “Investiere dein Geld mühelos in Aktien”, is marked N/A on all four business plans in the fee information sheet, while it carries a percentage on the private plans. Shares, ETFs and crypto are private-account features at bunq. You do not buy them out of the bunq business account.

Limits of the bunq business account

Reviews and experiences of the bunq business account mostly discuss the app. The per-item prices rarely come up there. None of this is a flaw, these are the edges of a product built for people who work cashless, sort their money in the app and need no branch network for it. Hold your own requirements against them and you see quickly whether they fit. Six points are worth a look before you open the account:

Translated, that means bunq suits a digital business with a manageable payment volume that values app-first banking. One question from the search results stays open, and honestly so: bunq says nothing about a Schufa check on its own pages. So plan with the requirements the bank actually names, not with the ones comparison portals assume.

Opening a bunq business account

Opening the account via the app starts in the app store, not on a form. You download the bunq app, create a private account and verify it, and only then add the business account from the same login. For the application itself bunq names five minutes. Those five minutes are the data entry, not the approval: your documents are reviewed afterwards, and bunq does not publish how long that takes.

Have the documents ready that belong to your legal form. A GmbH needs the articles of association, proof of authorised representation, the commercial register extract, the shareholder list and the IDs of the directors and beneficial owners. For freelancers the income tax return or the trade registration is enough. Two conditions lead to a rejection if they are not met, and both are in the Help Centre: one business account per legal entity, and beneficial owners must reside in the European Economic Area.

Alternatives to the bunq business account

When comparing business accounts, four questions help more than a long feature list. What does the account cost, and who is the €0 plan actually open to? Is the IBAN German? Can the money work inside the account, or does it just sit there? And how many accounts with their own IBAN are included? The table puts bunq and Vivid side by side on exactly those axes.

The line that actually turns a decision is not the price. It is the bracket behind it: who the €0 plan is open to. At bunq those are freelancers and sole traders, and a GmbH starts at €7.99 a month.

Vivid as an alternative to bunq

What Vivid Business offers

At Vivid the Free Start plan costs €0 a month and is open to all legal forms, GmbH and UG included, and SEPA transfers run on it with no per-transfer price. No annual counter, no €0.13 from the hundred-and-first payment. Anyone looking for a business account that does not count payment traffic finds the biggest difference here.

The second field is investing. Out of the same business account you buy stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto, with model portfolios and an integrated interest account alongside. Team members are unlimited and carry no per-person price, spread across four roles from account owner to team member, with card limits and approvals. Guaranteed cashback with no monthly cap on all purchases comes on top, at higher rates in selected categories.

The Vivid plans at a glance

Three plans cover day-to-day work, and they differ mainly in currencies, card rules and the cashback rate. The prices €6.90 and €18.90 apply with annual billing; paid monthly it is €8.90 on Basic and €24.90 on Pro.

Above Pro sit two Enterprise plans. They raise limits, interest and cashback rates and are not a feature tier.

What the €0 plan includes

Free Start costs €0 a month and is the answer to the annual counter. It includes SEPA transfers with no per-transfer price, unlimited sub-accounts with their own IBAN, unlimited team members, Visa Business cards physical and virtual, and guaranteed cashback with no monthly cap on all purchases. The IBAN is German, and a Luxembourg one comes along for international transfers.

This is the point where the two logics differ. On an account with an annual allowance you plan your payments; here you do not count them. For a business that invoices weekly and pays by direct debit, a variable line disappears from the calculation.

Basic and Pro: what comes on top

From Basic, accounts in 22 currencies and international transfers come on top of everything Free Start already includes. From Pro, advanced card limits with rules for category, merchant and country are added, along with company cards and approval flows for the team. The cashback rate on all purchases rises with the plan, and so does the rate on the interest account.

What stays the same on every plan is the base: euro payment traffic, the number of accounts, the number of team members and the DATEV interface. What other providers charge per booking or unlock only on a higher plan is here from day one.

Investing and interest from the account

At Vivid the company securities account sits inside the business account, not next to it. You buy and sell stocks, ETFs, iBonds, money market funds and crypto from the same login, and model portfolios handle the allocation if you would rather not do it yourself. The interest account runs in parallel, and its rate rises with the plan.

For a company with reserves, that is more than a tick on a list. Liquidity sitting between two projects does not have to move to an account at a second provider, and the bookkeeping sees both in one place. Investment and interest products are provided by Vivid Money B.V.; investments carry risks.

Opening an account with Vivid

Opening happens online. You fill in the application, complete the identity check with a selfie alongside your ID document, and receive a German IBAN. No branch appointment, no stack of paper. Standing orders and direct debits move across gradually if you are coming from another account.

Which business account suits whom?

If everything is to sit in one account and the €0 plan is to be open to a GmbH as well, the route leads to Vivid: Free Start for €0 a month, SEPA transfers with no per-transfer price, unlimited accounts each with its own German IBAN, investing and an interest account in the same login, and cashback from the first purchase. Anyone already using the bunq app privately, with a handful of business payments a month, can stay with the bunq business account, but should hold the annual allowance against their own bookings. And anyone depositing notes at a counter every day usually combines a digital account with a branch bank.

Conclusion on the bunq business account

bunq turns the account into an app feature, and that part works: up to 25 accounts with their own IBAN in seconds, a German IBAN, foreign currencies in more than 20 variants, Tap to Pay without a terminal, a business savings account with weekly interest payout, and 30 days to try it.

One number is worth checking before you sign up, and it is your own: how many payments a month run through the account. Above eight, the Core plan’s allowance is used up over the course of the year, and from then on bunq charges €0.13 for every movement. Direct debits run on the per-item price from the first one.

Anyone who wants the same app-first handling without a counter in the background finds the matching bunq business counterpart at Vivid: €0 a month, all legal forms, unlimited SEPA transfers, unlimited accounts with their own IBAN, investing from the account and cashback on top.

Ready for a business account?

Open a Vivid business account with a German IBAN: Free Start for €0 a month, unlimited SEPA transfers and unlimited accounts each with its own IBAN.

Open a business account

As of August 2026. The information on bunq was compiled to the best of our knowledge from the official plan and product pages, the Help Centre and the fee information sheet for private and business customers dated 03.08.2026, and can change at any time, in particular prices and terms. No claim is made to completeness or accuracy. Please check the current terms directly with the provider. bunq is a trademark of bunq B.V.; there is no business relationship between Vivid and bunq. Vivid Money S.A. is an e-money institution supervised by the CSSF and not a bank; customer funds are held separately. Investment and interest products are provided by Vivid Money B.V. Investments carry risks; the value of an investment can rise or fall, and past performance is not an indicator of future returns. Crypto assets are unregulated and highly volatile; a total loss is possible. This article is not legal or tax advice.