What Does a $100 Amazon Gift Card Really Cost in Monero?

Method

All five checkouts were run within the same two-minute window on 26 September 2026. Each one was for a $100 Amazon US card, paid in XMR. We recorded exactly what each checkout asked for.

To compare the amounts fairly, we converted every XMR figure to USD at one market rate: the rate shown in our wallet when paying, roughly $556.77/XMR. Prices, stock and exchange rates change constantly, so this is a snapshot, not a permanent price list.

The results

Store / Card price / XMR requested / Extra fee / All-in ≈ USD

CardsRelay / $103.61 / 0.186094 XMR / none / $103.61

XMR Cards / $104 / 0.19028850 XMR / none / $105.95

Stealths.net / $105 / 0.19367275 XMR / ~$2.78 network fee / $110.61

Coin Cards / — / full registration required

Zanox / checkout error

All rows also pay the standard Monero network fee from the buyer's own wallet, about $0.07. For the same card, bought in the same two minutes, the most expensive checkout cost $7 more than the cheapest.

CardsRelay: 0.186094 XMR, all in

CardsRelay showed a single figure to send: 0.186094 XMR. At the market rate, that is $103.61. It includes our margin, and it was converted to XMR at the real market rate.

We do not add a gateway fee or a "network fee", and we do not take a hidden spread on the conversion. The only other cost was the ordinary Monero fee the customers wallet charges to broadcast the payment: 0.00012305 XMR, about seven cents. That fee goes to the Monero network, not to us, and you would pay the same amount wherever you shop.

XMR Cards: 0.19028850 XMR

XMR Cards priced the card at $104 and asked for 0.19028850 XMR. At the market rate, that is $105.95.

That is more than the $104 list price because of the conversion rate. $104 at market would be about 0.1868 XMR, so the rate XMR Cards used added roughly 1.9% on top of its stated price. The total came to $2.34 more than CardsRelay.

Stealths.net: 0.19367275 XMR plus a $2.78 fee

Stealths.net priced the card at $105 and asked for 0.19367275 XMR. At the market rate, that is $107.83, meaning the conversion added about 2.7% on top of the $105 price.

Its payment gateway then added a network fee of about $2.78. Your wallet still pays its own normal Monero fee on top of that. For comparison, the actual Monero network fee on our payment was $0.07, so the gateway fee was about 40 times what the network charged. All in, that comes to about $110.61, or $7 more (6.8%) than CardsRelay for the same card.

Coin Cards and Zanox: no price at all

Two stores never got as far as showing us a comparable amount:

• Coin Cards required a full account registration, including personal details, before it would show a payment amount. We did not create an account just to see a price, so we stopped there. If privacy is why you use Monero, you should know about that before you start.
• Zanox listed the $100 Amazon US card, but checkout returned an error: "the card ID (product_id) you informed is not enabled right now." We could not complete the purchase.

Price is not the only thing that matters. A store needs to work when you want to buy, and it should not demand more than an email address for delivery.

Where the differences come from

In this test, the gap between stores came from three places:

• Card price. Every seller needs a margin, and that is expected. Prices ranged from $103.61 to $105.
• Conversion rate. This is the one most buyers miss. The two other stores we could price both converted at a rate 1.8 to 2.6% below the market. You never see that as a line item; you just send more XMR.
• Checkout fees. One store added a $2.78 "network fee" through its payment gateway, even though the real Monero network fee was seven cents.

How CardsRelay keeps the number down

We will not claim CardsRelay is always the cheapest place for every card. Wholesale prices vary by brand and region, and XMR moves every minute. What we can control is everything around the price:

• A real exchange rate. Our margin is in the price and shown up front. The dollars-to-XMR conversion uses the real market rate, with no hidden spread.
• No added fees. No gateway fee and no inflated "network fee". You pay only your wallet's ordinary Monero fee.
• Lean operations. Fulfilment is automated: pay, and your code appears on screen and in your inbox within seconds.
• Supplier routing. We source each card from the supplier with the best cost.
• No account. Just an email for delivery, so a Monero payment stays as private as you meant it to be.

The takeaway: compare the XMR

Next time you buy anything with Monero, from CardsRelay or anyone else, look past the dollar price and ask three questions:

• How much XMR am I being asked to send?
• What does that XMR amount work out to at today's market rate?
• Is the store adding any fee beyond my wallet's own network fee?

On 26 September, for a $100 Amazon US card, the answer at CardsRelay was 0.186094 XMR, all in.

Crypto in. Cards out