Transfer Limits

How Limits Work

Each transfer must fit three limits. The lowest limit applies.

• Customer type limit: depends on whether the customer is an individual or a business.
• Payment method limit: depends on the payment_method of the quote, such as DEBIT_CARD, ACH_PULL, RTP or DOMESTIC_WIRE for on-ramp, and ACH_PUSH, WIRE or SPEI for off-ramp.
• Level limit: depends on the customer's verification level. Businesses have no level.

Pick a customer type, a level and a payment method to see the lowest limit:

Limits by Customer Type

Each transfer has a maximum amount:

• Individual customers: up to USD 9,999 per transfer (9,998 USDC for off-ramp).
• Business customers: up to USD 300,000 per transfer.

Each transfer also has a minimum, which depends on the country and currency. To check the minimum and maximum:

• On-ramp: GET /api/v2/transfers/deposit_settings
• Off-ramp: GET /api/v2/transfers/withdrawal_settings

Harbor support can review a request for a higher maximum for a specific customer. Include the amount and the reason.

Limits by Payment Method

Some payment methods are riskier, for example card payments can be charged back, so they have lower limits. These limits don't change with the customer's level.

For on-ramp, individual customers:

For on-ramp, business customers:

For off-ramp, only ACH Push is limited, to USD 10,000 per transfer and USD 20,000 per day.

When you send on_behalf_of, each quote shows the payment method limits in customer_limits, with how much the customer has left. A 0 there means no limit. For off-ramp methods other than ACH Push, these limits are for information only. See Quotes.

Limits by Level

The more a customer is verified, the higher their limits. To raise them, upgrade the customer to a higher level.

• Level 1: the USD 2,999 is one allowance for the customer's whole time at Level 1. Each transfer is also capped at USD 2,999.
• Level 3: the amounts are defaults. Compliance can change them for each customer.
• Business customers: they have no level, so level limits don't apply.

For more about levels, see Customer Levels.

When Limits Are Checked

In the quote:

• The amount must be within the range for the customer's type.
• The quote only includes the payment methods that can handle the amount, and that the customer's level allows. A Level 1 customer only gets debit card.

When you create the transfer:

• The payment method limits are checked first, then the level limits.

So a successful quote doesn't mean the transfer will pass. For example, a quote can include debit card for USD 2,000, but the transfer is rejected because debit card allows up to USD 500 per transfer.

Transfers that are created but not completed yet count toward the level limits every day until they're completed, cancelled or expire. A completed transfer counts toward the day it completes, not the day it was created. An unpaid transfer expires after 3 days, or earlier if the payment deadline in its instructions is earlier.

Use Cases

Some common cases. The shortest bar is the most the customer can send in one transfer.

On-ramp: an individual at Level 1, paying by debit card

                  $50     $500            $2,999                $9,999
Individual limit  ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
Level 1           ███████████████████████████
Debit card        ███
                  └─┘ ✓ up to $500 per transfer

On-ramp: an individual at Level 2, paying by debit card

                  $50     $500                                  $9,999
Individual limit  ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
Level 2           ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
Debit card        ███
                  └─┘ ✓ up to $500 per transfer

On-ramp: an individual at Level 2, paying by ACH pull or RTP

                  $50                                           $9,999
Individual limit  ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
Level 2           ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
ACH pull          ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
                  └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ✓ up to $9,999 per transfer

On-ramp: a business paying by wire

                  $50                                         $300,000
Business limit    ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
Level             no level
Wire              no limit
                  └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ✓ up to $300,000 per transfer

Off-ramp: an individual at Level 2, paid out by bank transfer

                  30 USDC                                   9,998 USDC
Individual limit  ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
Level 2           ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
Bank transfer     no limit
                  └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ✓ up to 9,998 USDC per transfer

Off-ramp: a business, paid out by bank transfer

                  30 USDC                                 300,000 USDC
Business limit    ██████████████████████████████████████████████████
Level             no level
Bank transfer     no limit
                  └────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ✓ up to 300,000 USDC per transfer

The amounts are examples. The ranges depend on the country and currency.

Errors

For example, an on-ramp transfer of USD 501 paid by debit card:

{
    "message": "Per-transaction limit exceeded. Maximum: 500.00, Requested: 501.00000000",
    "code": 3029,
    "error_type": "transfer.payment_method_per_transaction_limit_exceeded"
}

A Level 2 customer who already created a USD 9,999 on-ramp transfer today, then tries to create another for USD 50:

{
    "message": "Daily quota exceeded for this verification level. Limit: 9999 USD, already used: 9999 USD (of which 9999 USD is held by transfers that are created but not yet paid), remaining: 0 USD, requested: 50 USD.",
    "code": 3054,
    "error_type": "transfer.tier_quota_daily_exceeded"
}

Notes

• Daily limits reset every day at 00:00 UTC, weekly limits every Monday at 00:00 UTC, and monthly limits on the 1st of each month at 00:00 UTC.
• Off-ramp, Graded (V2) individual at Level 1: the payment method is how the recipient is paid out, and Level 1 only allows DEBIT_CARD. The customer can only off-ramp to a US debit card. A quote for any other payout method returns 3061.
• On-ramp and off-ramp are counted separately. A customer who reached their on-ramp daily limit can still make an off-ramp transfer the same day.