The lowest-cost way to move money between US bank accounts at volume. One to three business days, no per-transfer network limit, and a fee that stays at seventy-five cents whether the entry is $85 or $850,000.
Standard ACH is the ordinary, non-expedited ACH transfer: entries are batched and settle in one to three business days. It is the cheapest rail for moving money between US bank accounts and carries no NACHA per-transfer size limit, which makes it the default for recurring collections, bulk disbursement, and very large transfers.
The case for standard ACH is not that it is a little cheaper. It is that the fee stops scaling with your revenue entirely — which changes what your unit economics look like at 10x.
versus $69,900 on a 2.9% + 30¢ card rate
versus $27,650 on a 2.9% + 30¢ card rate
versus $7,500 at a $30 wire fee
Every ACH entry carries a Standard Entry Class code describing the authorization behind it. It sets the return windows and the compliance obligations — and picking it by hand is a classic source of quiet violations. Paystack derives it from the transaction category you pass.
Consumer entries authorized in writing or by a signed agreement. Payroll deposits and recurring consumer debits such as rent, tuition, gym memberships, and utility bills.
Business-to-business entries. Vendor payments, intercompany transfers, and B2B collections. Corporate return windows are much shorter than consumer ones — typically two business days.
Consumer debits authorized online or through an app. Carries an additional NACHA obligation to validate the account before the first debit, which is what instant bank validation satisfies.
Consumer debits authorized verbally over the phone. Requires either a recording of the authorization or written confirmation sent to the customer.
ACH has no interchange, so the running cost of the rail is almost entirely return handling. Four practices keep it there.
Instant bank validation at $2.00 per attempt confirms the account exists and is open before you originate. Paying $2.00 once beats paying $25.00 for an R03 return plus a failed collection cycle.
NACHA permits up to two re-presentments of a failed debit. R01 (insufficient funds) is worth retrying on a schedule; R02 (account closed) and R07 (authorization revoked) are not, and re-presenting an R07 is a compliance violation. Paystack blocks it.
NACHA monitors originators against thresholds — 15% administrative returns, 0.5% unauthorized. Sustained breaches put your origination privileges at risk. Return rates are surfaced per workspace so the number is visible before your bank raises it.
You must be able to produce proof of authorization on request. It is stored against the payment method and returned with the dispute event, rather than living in whatever system captured the signup.
$0.75 flat per transaction at Paystack, in either direction, regardless of amount. There is no percentage component and no cap to work around: a $500,000 standard ACH transfer costs $0.75.
One to three business days. Most entries settle on the next business day, but the formal guarantee is up to three, and the receiving institution controls when funds are made available. Weekends and Federal Reserve holidays do not count toward the timeline.
Speed and price. Standard settles in 1–3 business days at $0.75 flat; same-day settles the same business day at $1.50 flat and is capped by NACHA at $1,000,000 per transfer. Standard ACH has no per-transfer network ceiling, which makes it the better rail for very large transfers as well as for cost.
A Standard Entry Class code tells the network what kind of authorization backs an entry — PPD for consumer agreements, CCD for business-to-business, WEB for online authorization, TEL for telephone. The code determines the applicable return windows and compliance obligations. Paystack assigns it from the transaction category you supply, so you do not hand-pick a code and get it wrong.
NACHA permits up to two re-presentments of an entry returned for insufficient or uncollected funds. Returns for closed accounts, invalid accounts, or revoked authorization must not be re-presented at all. Paystack enforces this distinction rather than leaving it to your retry loop.
It is the cheapest sensible option for it. A flat $0.75 per pull means a $200/month subscription costs 0.4% to collect, against roughly 3% on cards — and ACH has no card expiry, so involuntary churn from a reissued card disappears. The tradeoff is settlement latency and return handling, both of which arrive as typed webhook events.
Transaction count, average ticket, and current return rate is enough for us to tell you the annual delta and where the return exposure sits.