Picnic Card Fees: IOF, Spread, ATM Withdrawals and Cashback

The Picnic card charges no annual fee and no IOF (Brazil's tax on financial operations), but that does not mean every operation has a total cost of zero. When you load the card via Pix, Brazil's instant payment system, Picnic's own margin is zero, and the quote includes a provider cost of between 0.3% and 0.5%. Once the card is loaded, purchases in US dollars carry no further fee; in other currencies, Visa handles the conversion for about 0.3%.

ATM withdrawals have their own rules. Up to five withdrawals or US$200 per month, whichever comes first, carry no Picnic fee. Beyond that allowance, Picnic charges 2% per withdrawal, plus any fee the ATM operator itself may charge. The card's former cashback program ended on January 31, 2026.

Card availability: new Picnic card orders have been temporarily paused since September 22, 2026 (notice in Portuguese), with no confirmed date for reopening. Existing cards keep working normally until December 20, 2026, at 23:59 UTC; after that, cardholders continue on Gnosis Pay's new infrastructure through an upgrade in the app, which starts with the virtual card (the physical card has no confirmed date yet). The fees below apply to people who already have the card.

These are the Picnic card fees as checked on November 8, 2026. The official and most up-to-date reference is always Picnic's complete fee table.

Picnic card fees at a glance

The table separates the fee Picnic charges from the costs of partners. That distinction matters because "zero Picnic fee" and "zero total cost" are not always the same thing.

Does the Picnic card charge IOF?

Currently, IOF does not apply to the Picnic card flow. The balance the card spends is in digital dollars, and loading it via Pix does not follow the same path as a traditional foreign exchange operation into a foreign-currency account.

On the regulatory side, Central Bank of Brazil Resolution No. 521/2025 classified certain operations with digital dollars as foreign exchange operations. Whether the 3.5% IOF will apply to card transactions of this kind still depends on complementary regulation; today, it does not apply.

This creates a meaningful difference compared with cards that go through traditional foreign exchange. Under Decree 12,499/2025, applied since July 2025 (after a brief suspension by Congress was overturned by Brazil's Supreme Court), IOF on international card purchases, prepaid cards and the purchase of foreign cash is 3.5%. On R$10,000 converted, IOF alone amounts to R$350 before any spread or other fees.

With Picnic, IOF is currently zero, but loading via Pix still includes the provider's cost. The exact amount appears in the quote before you confirm. To understand why different structures can be treated differently, see the guide on what IOF is (in Portuguese).

How much does it cost to load the Picnic card via Pix?

Loading via Pix has a 0% Picnic margin. The provider's current cost is between 0.3% and 0.5% compared with the market rate.

If you load the equivalent of R$10,000, the cost range is roughly:

• at 0.3%: R$30;
• at 0.5%: R$50.

The app shows how many digital dollars will land on the card before you confirm. Because the price of the asset moves during the day, the right comparison is between quotes shown at the same moment by each service, not between amounts seen at different times.

This is one of the cases where an apparent drawback helps explain the product. There is a partner cost at the entry point, but it is shown separately and does not come with the 3.5% IOF of traditional foreign exchange.

Promotional campaigns can temporarily lower this cost. Because they have their own deadlines and rules, they should not be used as a reference for the normal price. Check the offer shown in the app at the time you load.

How much does it cost to use the card in dollars?

Once the balance is loaded, a purchase in US dollars does not require another conversion. So:

• Picnic fee on the purchase: 0%;
• Visa conversion: does not apply;
• IOF on the purchase: 0% in the current flow.

This applies to purchases charged in USD, such as spending in the United States and online payments denominated in dollars. The cost of the initial load still exists; saying the purchase carries no further fee does not erase the cost that came before it.

The single dollar balance also makes tracking simpler. Instead of splitting your budget across several currencies, you load once and follow a single available amount. The guide on how the Picnic card's dollar balance works (in Portuguese) explains this flow in detail.

What about purchases in euros, pounds or other currencies?

The card still spends from the dollar balance. Visa automatically converts the amount charged by the merchant into USD, at an approximate cost of 0.3%.

This conversion removes the need to buy each trip currency in advance. You don't have to work out how much to keep in euros, pounds or yen, or come home with small balances scattered across different wallets.

The limitation is that you cannot lock in the rate of each currency ahead of time. The advantage is the convenience of using a single balance across several countries. Even adding the provider's cost on the load and Visa's conversion, the estimated range is about 0.6% to 0.8%, below the 3.5% IOF charged on its own in the traditional route.

This comparison assumes the standard flow and the conditions checked on the date of this article. Fees and rules can change, so the quote shown before you confirm should guide the final decision.

What are the ATM withdrawal fees?

Picnic offers a monthly allowance with no Picnic fee:

• up to five withdrawals per month; or
• up to US$200 withdrawn in the month;
• whichever limit is reached first.

After the allowance, the Picnic fee is 2% per withdrawal. In addition, the bank or ATM operator may charge a local fee from the very first withdrawal. That charge usually appears on the ATM screen and is not set by Picnic.

The current limits are US$250 per withdrawal and US$500 per day. Before withdrawing, check the official card limits page, because allowances and limits can change.

In practice, paying by card is usually cheaper than withdrawing cash. When you do need cash, taking out the amount in fewer withdrawals reduces your exposure to the operator's fixed fees. The guide to ATM withdrawals abroad (in Portuguese) shows how to avoid the conversion offered by the ATM itself.

Does the Picnic card still have cashback?

No. The Picnic card's former cashback program ended on January 31, 2026, as announced in the Picnic Help Center.

Content that still promises 1% to 5% cashback is out of date. Those percentages belonged to the old program and should not be part of a current card comparison.

The lack of cashback can look like a disadvantage, especially next to cards that give back a percentage of purchases. The other side is to look first at what you pay to get the benefit. Saving 1% in cashback does not make up for paying 3.5% in IOF plus a conversion fee.

The right calculation compares the net cost: everything you pay to load and use the card, minus any benefit that is actually active. Old cashback, or cashback tied to rules that don't apply to your profile, should not enter the math.

How to compare Picnic's cost with another card

Always use the same amount, the same currency and the same moment for the quote. Then note four items:

1. IOF charged to put the money on the card;
2. the fee or spread on the conversion;
3. the cost of spending in a currency other than the balance;
4. active benefits you would actually be able to use.

For a R$10,000 trip to a country that uses the euro, for example, the estimated cost of Picnic's current flow is between R$60 and R$80: R$30 to R$50 on the load, plus roughly R$30 for Visa's conversion across your purchases. The exact amount depends on the quotes shown. For a deeper look at how conversion margins work, see the guide to exchange rate spread (in Portuguese).

The same exercise has to be done in the competitor's app. A fee advertised as "from" a given rate can vary by currency and amount, and a multi-currency account may be worth it for people who need to receive, hold and pay in several currencies. For a specific comparison, read Picnic or Wise (in Portuguese).

What to check before loading the card

Before confirming a load or planning a trip:

• check the final amount of digital dollars that will land in the balance;
• see whether there is an active campaign and when it ends;
• consider which currencies you will spend in;
• review the limits if you plan to withdraw cash;
• disregard content that still presents cashback as a current benefit.

This takes less than a minute and avoids comparing slogans alone. The article on the disadvantages of the Picnic card also helps you weigh credit, deposits and holds, support and travel benefits.

Summary

The Picnic card's fees are simple once each step is separated. Loading via Pix has a zero Picnic margin, no IOF, and a provider cost of between 0.3% and 0.5%. Once the card is loaded, purchases in dollars carry no further fee; purchases in other currencies cost about 0.3% for Visa's conversion.

For ATM withdrawals, the allowance without a Picnic fee ends once you reach five withdrawals or US$200 in the month. After that, the charge is 2% per withdrawal, and the ATM operator may add its own fee. The old cashback ended in January 2026.

The key point is not to confuse a zero Picnic fee with a zero total cost. Picnic separates what it charges from what belongs to partners and shows the quote before you confirm. Compare the final amount that lands in the balance and the cost of the currency you plan to spend in.

If you already have the Picnic card, simulate the load in the app before your trip to see the exact quote. If you don't have it yet, check current card availability (notice in Portuguese) before planning around it.

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Picnic is a technology platform that lets users independently interact with USDC, a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle, on public blockchains. USDC is not legal tender in Brazil.

Displayed exchange rates vary with market conditions. The final applicable amount is the one shown on the transaction confirmation screen. Cryptoassets involve risks, including volatility and loss of peg.

Picnic does not custody user assets and is neither a financial institution nor a virtual asset service provider. Sending and receiving U.S. dollar payments through a U.S. account is offered in partnership with Noah Savings Inc. Terms and conditions apply.

Information verified in November 2026.