FedNow
Hacker ApprovedRanked 9 of 12 payment systems by recommenders
Instant bank-to-bank payments for a few cents per transaction, up to $10M each, running around the clock. Caveat: critics say adoption is still limited, mostly to big merchants.
Instant bank-to-bank payments for a few cents per transaction, up to $10M each, running around the clock. Caveat: critics say adoption is still limited, mostly to big merchants.
16 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 81%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 4.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Very low per-transaction cost
“You can move up to $10M in value in the US on FedNow instant payment rails for a few pennies, instantly”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What's your preferred digital payment method?” “These don't require external middle men (like credit card companies) and are therefore almost free.”
Comment from 27 Nov 2025 in “Don't Download Apps” “With FedNow, you can move money, up to $10M at a time, for less than a nickel.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Visa and Mastercard might have a deal to lower merchant fees” - Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Visa, Mastercard, major banks facing new litigation over 'anticompetitive' fees”
- Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Decathlon Germany adds Wero payment option to decathlon.de website”
- Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Monetization Gateway”
- Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks”
- Comment from 5 Jun 2026 in “Gov.uk goes Dutch on payments as it dumps Stripe”
- Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “JPMorgan, BofA and Others Explore Buying Card Network to Raise Debit-Card Fees”
Real-time transfers, running 24/7
“FedNow went live in 2024. In 2025 it already completed processing of $864 billion in transactions in real time.”
Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “India built the biggest digital payments miracle: Now comes the bill” “FedNow charges $0.045 per transaction and runs 24/7 and payments are instant”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Visa, Mastercard, major banks facing new litigation over 'anticompetitive' fees” “Instant payments for a few cents per transaction, up to $10M per transfer.”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Decathlon Germany adds Wero payment option to decathlon.de website” High transfer limit up to $10M
“You can move up to $10M in value in the US on FedNow instant payment rails for a few pennies, instantly”
Comment from 9 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What's your preferred digital payment method?” “With FedNow, you can move money, up to $10M at a time, for less than a nickel.”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Visa and Mastercard might have a deal to lower merchant fees” “Instant payments for a few cents per transaction, up to $10M per transfer.”
Comment from 27 Jul 2026 in “Decathlon Germany adds Wero payment option to decathlon.de website” - Comment from 9 Sep 2026 in “What do Visa and Mastercard do? An intro to card networks”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Limited availability, mostly big merchants
“I'm hoping that FedNow becomes more widely available but my suspicion is that only the big merchants”
Comment from 11 Nov 2025 in “Visa and Mastercard might have a deal to lower merchant fees” “Fed Now is a good start but it really is not enough.”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “What's Driving Rising Business Costs?” “still not widely deployed”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “Why payment fees matter more than you think”
Other payment systems people recommend
The four most recommended other payment systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pix | 65 | 14 | 82% | 11 | — | Approved |
| UPI (Unified Payments Interface) | 58 | 12 | 83% | 11 | — | Approved |
| GNU Taler | 37 | 26 | 59% | 12 | — | — |
| x402 | 35 | 8 | 81% | 9 | — | Approved |
| FedNowThis page | 13 | 3 | 81% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
22 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Which are faster, but still require some kind of connectivity and have fees.”
“FedNow charges $0.045 per transaction and runs 24/7 and payments are instant”
“The most important primitive already exists (FedNow rails).”
“FedNow is a payments rail, which is a long shot away from being a full retail payments scheme.”
“this SLA is much too high for many purposes”
“It costs a few pennies to move up to $10M per XML message.”
“FedNow went live in 2024. In 2025 it already completed processing of $864 billion in transactions in real time.”
“Instant payments for a few cents per transaction, up to $10M per transfer.”
“is a legitimate alternative to Zelle, Venmo, and other value transfer scenarios”
“everyone would be switching to RTP or FedNow which each charge 4.5¢ per transaction”
“on cheap FedNow instant payment rails”
“FedNow bank to bank transfers cost $0.045, regardless of size.”
“We need something like FedNow or CBDCs that are completely safe, made by banks”
“The US has FedNow to move instant payments for pennies”
“It is more secure than ACH since it only does pushes and requests.”
“Fed Now is a good start but it really is not enough.”
“seems to function just as a faster ACH, without any of the UX improvements”
“still not widely deployed”
“You can move up to $10M in value in the US on FedNow instant payment rails for a few pennies, instantly”
“These don't require external middle men (like credit card companies) and are therefore almost free.”
“I'm hoping that FedNow becomes more widely available but my suspicion is that only the big merchants”
“With FedNow, you can move money, up to $10M at a time, for less than a nickel.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.