Remittance corridor · World Bank RPW · 2025Q3
United States → Ethiopia
What it costs to send from United States to Ethiopia on World Bank RPW $200 sends (4.5% average), with the cheapest provider on record and the gap to the UN 3% target.
- 4.5%
- Average cost
- 1.3%
- Cheapest · Walmart2World
- 8
- Providers tracked
How the 4.5% average cost breaks down
World Bank RPW splits total remittance cost into the provider's transaction fee and the exchange-rate margin applied to the transfer. Same 2025Q3 figures as the detail table below.
Corridor-cost tercile vs fleet
United States → Ethiopia posts a mid-tercile 4.5% average cost (~4.3-6.6% fleet band), ranking #134 of 348. Cheapest tracked floor: 1.3%.
- #134 of 348
- cheapest-cost corpus rank
- 4.5%
- average cost of a $200 transfer
- -2.7pp
- vs the 7.3% average of 348 corridors
- +1.5pp
- gap to the UN 3% target
Compared against the 348 corridors in the 2025Q3 release, not a generic headline figure.
Based on average cost, delivery speed, FX margin, provider competition, and cost trend from World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide data, benchmarked against all 348 tracked corridors - not a quote or a prediction of what you will pay.
What changed
World Bank RPW release record: 2025Q1 to 2025Q3
- Average transfer cost changed from 5.61% to 4.52% (-1.09 percentage points).
- Lowest observed transfer cost changed from 3.00% to 1.28% (-1.72 percentage points).
Subscribe to this corridor's cost changes (RSS) — one item per World Bank RPW release, no account or email required.
Where this corridor sits by provider panel size
United States → Ethiopia has 8 World Bank RPW providers among 377 tracked corridors (inventory signal, not a cost-quality ranking). Orthogonal to the cost comparison below.
United States → Ethiopia vs all corridors by provider count
Where this corridor's RPW provider panel sits among every tracked route
8 173rd of 377 higher than 204 of 377 corridors
Corridors, banded by RPW provider inventory
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more corridors. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide · 2026-08-10
How United States → Ethiopia compares
Average cost of a $200 transfer, percent, lower is cheaper
4.52% average - 1.5pp above target
Cost trend: United States → Ethiopia
Average and cheapest cost of a $200 transfer over time, percent
Sending Country
Nearby Corridors from United States
United States is one of the most connected sending markets in our data, with 41 tracked outbound corridors. The 8 below span the widest cost range, from the cheapest to send anywhere from United States through to the most expensive.
World Bank RPW fee spread
Release 2025Q3 US→ET
4.5% avg · 1.3% floor · 3.24pp spread on $200
- AVG 4.5%
- CHEAP 1.3%
- SPREAD 3.24pp
- SDG +1.5pp
- RANK #134 of 348
- REL 2025Q3
- PANEL 8
Cross-sender cost peers
Fee spread manifest for United States → Ethiopia: entity-varying RPW stamps plus cross-sender ABS(avg_cost) peers from the current release. Compare corridors side-by-side →
Mid-band transfer cost on United States → Ethiopia
World Bank RPW tracks United States → Ethiopia at 4.52% average cost as of 2025Q3.
That cheapest figure comes from the World Bank's mystery-shopping survey: trained researchers pose as customers and obtain real quotes for a standardized $200 transfer, across the 8 banks, money transfer operators, post offices and mobile-money providers RPW tracks on this corridor. It is a snapshot from that survey quarter, not a live guarantee -- confirm the current rate directly with the provider before sending.
Costs here have eased 1.09 percentage points over the tracked period, a real if modest gain for senders as competition increased. It sits 1.5 pp above the UN SDG 10.c 3% target.
United States → Ethiopia Long-Track Cost Profile
This is a high-depth World Bank RPW corridor (53 quarterly average-cost readings) - enough history to measure how concentrated the cost path has been, not just the latest quarter. Peak average cost on record was 8.5% in 2014Q4; the trough was 3.7% in 2018Q3. That 4.81pp peak-to-trough span is the multi-year envelope thin-history corridors cannot show.
Across the full 53-quarter panel, 0 readings (0.0% share) landed at or under the UN SDG 3% target. Population standard deviation of the average-cost series is 0.878pp - a moderate swing band. From 2024Q2 to 2025Q3, the average cost rose 0.09pp (4.4% → 4.5%).
Among the 41 outbound corridors tracked from United States, 16 currently post a lower average cost than this route and 25 post a higher one (this corridor sits at 4.5%). That peer-rank read is only honest once the sender book is deep enough - sparse zero-history routes skip it because sibling counts alone do not make a long RPW track record.
About United States → Ethiopia data
PlainRemit compares international money-transfer costs across tracked corridors so you can see which routes and providers charge the least before you send money abroad. This corridor's figures are computed directly from the World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide (RPW) quarterly survey, a mystery-shopping panel of actual transfer quotes for a standardized $200 transfer.
Average 4.52%; cheapest observed 1.28% via Walmart2World; 8 providers tracked across 53 RPW quarters; vintage 2026-08-10.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to send money from United States to Ethiopia?
Average 4.52% of the transfer amount (World Bank RPW, 2025Q3). Cheapest observed: 1.28% via Walmart2World.
What is the cheapest way to send money from United States to Ethiopia?
Lowest RPW survey quote on this corridor: 1.28% (Walmart2World). 8 providers tracked.
Is the United States to Ethiopia corridor meeting the UN SDG cost target?
Not yet: 4.5% is 1.5pp above the UN SDG 10.c 3% target.
Where does United States → Ethiopia sit among tracked remittance corridors?
According to World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide average cost among 348 tracked corridors on PlainRemit, United States → Ethiopia ranks #134 of 348 (cheapest = #1). Ordinal uses latest_avg_cost ASC matching /rankings/cheapest. See /methodology#corpus-placement.
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.