Plaid vs Visa: Revenue, Profit and Business Model
Plaid reported $500M of revenue in FY2025 and — of net income. Visa reported $40B of revenue in FY2025 and $20.1B of net income.
Latest financial snapshot
Financial summary
Plaid
Plaid does not publish audited financials. Its CEO said annual recurring revenue topped $500 million at the end of 2025, growing about 40%, and that the company is profitable. Valuations have swung widely: $2.65 billion in 2018, a $5.3 billion Visa offer in 2020, $13.4 billion in a 2021 Series D, $6.1 billion in an April 2025 round of about $575 million led by Franklin Templeton, and $8 billion in a February 2026 employee share sale.
Visa
Visa's fiscal year ends September 30. Fiscal 2025 net revenue was USD 40.0 billion, up 11% from USD 35.9 billion in fiscal 2024, and GAAP net income was USD 20.1 billion. Growth continued in fiscal 2026: in the third quarter (April to June 2026) net revenue rose 14% to USD 11.6 billion, quarterly payments volume passed USD 4 trillion for the first time, and Visa returned USD 6.2 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends. Fiscal 2026 full-year results are due in late October 2026.
Revenue and profit by year
Plaid
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $500M | — | 0.0% | — | Source |
Visa
| Year | Revenue | Net income | Margin | Growth | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 | $40B | $20.1B | 50.1% | +11.3% | Source |
| FY2024 | $35.9B | $19.7B | 55.0% | +10.0% | Source |
| FY2023 | $32.7B | $17.3B | 52.9% | +11.4% | Source |
| FY2022 | $29.3B | $15B | 51.0% | +21.6% | Source |
| FY2021 | $24.1B | $12.3B | 51.1% | +10.3% | Source |
| FY2020 | $21.8B | $10.9B | 49.7% | -4.9% | Source |
| FY2019 | $23B | $12.1B | 52.6% | +11.5% | Source |
| FY2018 | $20.6B | $10.3B | 50.0% | +12.3% | Source |
| FY2017 | $18.4B | $6.7B | 36.5% | +21.7% | Source |
| FY2016 | $15.1B | $6B | 39.7% | — | Source |
Where the revenue comes from
Plaid
- Auth & Account Verification API Fees
Not disclosed
Per-call fees paid by apps to verify account numbers, routing codes, and instant account balances during user onboarding.
- Transactions & Enriched Data Subscription Fees
Not disclosed
Recurring monthly fees charged per active connected account to continuously fetch, categorize, and clean bank transaction feeds.
- Identity Verification (IDV) & Fraud Intelligence
Not disclosed
Per-check fees for KYC verification, automated ID scanning, and Beacon anti-fraud consortium risk scoring.
- Plaid Transfer & Payment Processing
Not disclosed
Transaction processing fees on direct account-to-account money transfers across ACH, RTP, and FedNow networks.
Visa
- Service revenue
- Data processing revenue
- International transaction revenue
- Value-added services
- Visa Direct
- Fraud and risk tools
Business model and strategy
Plaid
How it makes money
Plaid sells API access to businesses, not consumers. Apps pay usage-based or subscription fees when they verify an account (Auth), check a balance, pull transactions, verify income or identity, score fraud or ACH return risk (Signal, Beacon, Protect), or move money between bank accounts (Transfer and pay-by-bank). Larger customers sign platform contracts covering several products.
Growth strategy
Plaid is broadening from account linking into higher-value products: fraud and risk scoring (Beacon, Protect, Signal), cash-flow underwriting for lenders through Plaid Check, and pay-by-bank payments. It also sells multi-product platform deals to large fintechs and banks, and keeps expanding direct API connections with banks to replace older screen-scraping links.
Competitive advantage
Plaid's edge is network scale. It connects to more than 12,000 financial institutions and has years of transaction and account-link history, which feeds its fraud and risk models. Consumers recognize the Plaid Link screen, and products like Plaid Layer reuse a returning user's existing connections so onboarding takes fewer steps.
Visa
How it makes money
Visa earns fees from the banks and other clients that use its network, not interest from cardholders. Its reported revenue lines are service revenue (based on payments volume), data processing revenue (based on transactions authorized, cleared and settled over VisaNet), international transaction revenue (cross-border and currency conversion activity) and other revenue, including value-added services such as fraud and…
Growth strategy
Visa's growth strategy is to expand credentials, increase digital acceptance, grow cross-border and e-commerce volume, sell more value-added services, scale Visa Direct, support tap-to-pay and tokenized commerce, and embed Visa capabilities inside fintech and banking platforms.
Competitive advantage
Visa's moat is a three-sided network effect. Consumers use Visa because merchants accept it, merchants accept Visa because consumers carry it, and banks issue Visa credentials because both sides already participate. The company also has fraud data, global rules, brand trust, dispute standards, token infrastructure, and bank relationships built across decades. A competitor cannot simply copy the software;
Questions about Plaid vs Visa
Which company has higher revenue — Plaid Inc. or Visa Inc.?
Plaid Inc. reported $500.0M (FY2025), while Visa Inc. reported $40.0B (FY2025). By last reported revenue, Visa Inc. is the larger business, with Plaid Inc. reporting a smaller revenue base.
What is the market cap of Plaid Inc. vs Visa Inc.?
Visa Inc. has a market capitalisation of $676.0B. A public market cap figure for Plaid Inc. was not available (it may be privately held).
Which is more financially efficient — Plaid Inc. or Visa Inc.?
Plaid Inc. generates $385k / employee in revenue per employee, while Visa Inc. generates $1.17M / employee. Visa Inc. shows higher revenue efficiency per headcount, though this reflects business model differences — capital-light software companies routinely outperform labour-intensive manufacturers on this metric.
How do Plaid Inc. and Visa Inc. make money?
Plaid Inc. and Visa Inc. generate revenue in fundamentally different ways. Plaid Inc.: Plaid sells API access to businesses, not consumers. Visa Inc.: Visa earns fees from the banks and other clients that use its network, not interest from cardholders.
Is Plaid Inc. bigger than Visa Inc.?
By last reported revenue, Visa Inc. ($40.0B (FY2025)) is the larger company compared to Plaid Inc. ($500.0M (FY2025)). Revenue scale is one dimension of size — market capitalisation, employee count, and geographic reach are also relevant depending on the context.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Plaid vs Visa overview