How to open a German business bank account

Germany is the outlier in this set, in the direction you want. Where a Danish or Swedish company is negotiating for the right to be a customer at all, a German one is choosing between a crowded field that includes genuinely free options. The scarce thing here is not an account — it is a German IBAN, and whether you need one is the only decision that really matters.

This guide covers who is actually obliged to hold a Geschäftskonto (a GmbH or UG, yes; a freelancer or sole trader, usually not), how the share-capital account works when the company does not exist yet, and what a non-German IBAN does and does not cost you inside SEPA.

Updated 5 September 2026 Prices checked 5 September 2026

Opening the account, step by step

Establish whether you are legally required to have one
A GmbH or UG is a separate legal person and must hold its money in its own name. An Einzelunternehmer, a Freiberufler or a GbR is not obliged by law to open a business account — though the bank’s own terms usually are a separate matter.
If you are forming a GmbH or UG, arrange the capital account first
The notary certifies the founding, the company gets its account, the Stammkapital is paid in, and only then can the filing to the Handelsregister go through. Providers differ enormously in whether they will serve a Gesellschaft in Gründung at all, so ask before you pick one.
Time required: 1–3 weeks
Decide whether you need a German IBAN
For most companies, any SEPA IBAN works. Cash deposits, some direct-debit collection setups, and counterparties with unhelpfully rigid supplier systems are the cases where a DE-prefix account earns its price.
Apply and complete identification
Expect the Handelsregister extract, the shareholder list, ID for each beneficial owner, and a plain description of what the company sells. Identification is usually a video call or a photo-ID flow — even Postident itself now runs by video, eID or photo as well as over a post-office counter — but which route you get is the provider’s choice, so check before you plan a day around it.
Time required: Minutes to several days
Give the account to the Finanzamt
Register the IBAN with your tax office and, if you want the convenience, grant a SEPA direct-debit mandate for tax payments. Refunds and VAT credits are paid to the account the Finanzamt has on file, not the one you happen to be using.
Time required: A few days

German business accounts compared

Every figure below comes from the provider’s own pricing page rather than a comparison site, and is re-checked quarterly. Prices exclude VAT where the provider quotes them that way.

Read the local account number column alongside the fees. Only one of the three issues a German IBAN; the other two give you an IBAN from elsewhere in the euro area, which is fully valid for SEPA and occasionally still argued about.

Provider	Opening fee	Monthly fee	Local account number	Best for
Revolut Business	Free	€10 – €125/month	No	Multi-currency operations
Wise Business	€55one-off	Free	No	Cheapest currency conversion
Holvi	Free	Free – €69	Yes	Finnish and German solo businesses

Providers that accept German companies · Prices checked 5 September 2026.

The providers worth applying to

Three providers cover most realistic cases. They are not competing on the same axis: one sells a subscription with cards and controls, one sells cheap currency conversion, and one sells a German IBAN with the bookkeeping attached.

Revolut Business

Multi-currency operations

Open an account

The fastest route to a working account, with cards, spending controls and multi-currency balances in one app. German companies are issued a Lithuanian IBAN rather than a German one — fine for SEPA, occasionally a conversation with a conservative customer.

Opening fee: Free
Monthly fee: €10 – €125
Local account number: No

Basic 10, Grow 35, Scale 125 EUR per month; Enterprise is quoted individually. Germany is not on Revolut’s country-specific IBAN list, so accounts get an LT IBAN (valid for SEPA).

Regulatory status: EEA accounts are issued by Revolut Bank UAB, a Lithuanian bank licensed by the ECB and supervised by the Bank of Lithuania. UK accounts have been issued by Revolut Ltd, an FCA-authorised e-money institution (FRN 900562); since Revolut Bank UK Ltd exited mobilisation and received full PRA/FCA bank authorisation on 11 March 2026 (Financial Services Register No. 981170), Revolut has been migrating UK accounts — including Business accounts — onto it, with eligible deposits on migrated accounts protected by the FSCS up to £120,000. Which entity holds a given UK account depends on migration status.

Wise Business

Cheapest currency conversion

Open an account

A single one-off charge for account details in a long list of currencies, then no monthly fee at all. It is the cheapest way to invoice in dollars or pounds and convert without losing the margin to a bank’s spread. Wise states that it does not currently issue localised German IBANs — the euro details are Belgian.

Opening fee: €55
Monthly fee: Free
Local account number: No

One-off 55 EUR for account details in 22 currencies; no monthly or holding fee. Wise states it does not currently issue localised German IBANs — the EUR details use a Belgian BIC and IBAN, which must still be accepted for SEPA payments.

Regulatory status: Wise Payments Limited, an FCA-authorised electronic money institution (FRN 900507); balances are safeguarded rather than covered by a deposit-guarantee scheme

Holvi

Finnish and German solo businesses

The one here that gives you an actual German IBAN, aimed squarely at solo businesses and small GmbHs, with invoicing and bookkeeping preparation built into the account rather than bolted on. Note that customer money is held as segregated client funds by a payment institution, not as bank deposits.

Opening fee: Free
Monthly fee: Free – €69
Local account number: Yes

Flex €0, Lite €9, Pro €15, Business €69 per month plus VAT on monthly billing (Lite/Pro/Business are €4.50 / €9 / €59 on a one-year subscription; Flex is €0 either way). Flex has no monthly fee but charges €0.25 per SEPA transfer. German IBAN.

Regulatory status: Holvi Payment Services Oy, an authorised payment institution supervised by the Financial Supervisory Authority of Finland; customer money is held as segregated client funds, not as deposits

No partner agreement — listed for completeness

Who actually has to have a Geschäftskonto

A GmbH or UG (haftungsbeschränkt) must have one. The company is a legal person distinct from its shareholders, its capital has to be demonstrably paid into it, and running it through a private account destroys the separation that limited liability depends on.

A Freiberufler, Einzelunternehmer or GbR is under no such legal obligation. The money is legally yours either way, and no statute requires a separate account. What does apply is your bank’s terms: most German banks reserve private accounts for private use and are entitled to terminate the relationship when they notice a business running through one. Some tolerate low-volume freelance income; do not assume yours does without asking.

The practical argument is stronger than the legal one. Once a tax audit or a VAT review starts, a single account holding both the weekly shop and the client invoices turns a half-day of reconciliation into a week of it — and every euro you cannot cleanly attribute is a euro the Finanzamt gets to characterise for you.

The capital account exists before the company does

A GmbH is founded before the Handelsregister entry: the notary certifies the deed, the GmbH in Gründung opens an account in that name, the Stammkapital goes in, and only then is the registration filed. Note what is not in that chain. No bank certifies anything to the register, as one would in Sweden: the managing directors declare in the filing itself that the contributions have been made and are at their free disposal, and the court asks for evidence — deposit slips, typically — only where it has real doubts. GmbHG § 8 says that evidence may come from a bank or payment institution established anywhere in the EU, which is worth knowing if your provider is not German. Cash contributions also need not be complete before filing, subject to the statutory floor. What is worth asking before you pick a provider, rather than discovering it at the notary’s office, is whether it will open an account for a company still in formation at all — many will not. The statutory minimum for a GmbH is set in GmbHG § 5; the UG is the same company form at a lower capital, with the catch that its capital must be paid in full before filing and cannot be contributed in kind.

German IBAN or any SEPA IBAN?

Inside the euro area this is a smaller question than it feels. IBAN discrimination is unlawful: Article 9 of the SEPA Regulation says that neither a payer nor a payee may specify which member state the other side’s account is to be located in, as long as that account is reachable — so a customer or an insurer refusing your LT or BE IBAN is refusing something they are not entitled to refuse. That is a good argument and a poor use of a Tuesday afternoon.

Where a German IBAN genuinely earns its keep: collecting by SEPA direct debit through some German processors and utilities, dealing with landlords and public bodies whose forms have a hard-coded expectation, and paying cash into an account at all — which no foreign-IBAN provider can do for you.

Where it does not matter at all: receiving transfers from German customers, paying German suppliers, paying VAT and corporation tax, and being reimbursed by the Finanzamt. All of that runs over SEPA at the same speed regardless of the country prefix.

What “free” means in the German market

Free Geschäftskonten are real in Germany in a way they are not in Denmark or Sweden, but the word is doing work. What is free is the monthly account fee. Card issuance, cash deposits, foreign-currency payments, sub-accounts and anything resembling support are priced separately, and on a free tier they are priced generously — for the provider.

A free tier also comes with a shape: a cap on transactions, a single user, one card, no cash handling. That fits a freelancer or a company in its first year and stops fitting the moment there is a second employee or a supplier paid in dollars. Free tiers are designed on the assumption that companies which grow will move up, and the ones that do not are cheap to serve.

The right way to compare is to price your own year: the number of SEPA transfers you will actually make, the currency conversions, the cards you need, and the cash you will deposit. Two providers with identical monthly fees can differ by a factor of several once that is filled in.

Where a traditional German bank still wins

Cash. If your business takes notes and coins, the branch network is not nostalgia — it is the only way to bank the takings, and no app-based provider replaces it.

Credit. A Kontokorrentkredit, a leasing line or a loan comes out of a relationship with a bank that has watched your account for a few years. Starting that relationship late is more expensive than starting it early, and a Sparkasse or Volksbank that knows the local market will often lend where a national bank will not.

And German-language support with a name attached to it. That is worth little until something goes wrong with a payment, at which point it is worth a great deal. The honest position is that most young companies do not need any of the three, and can revisit the question when they do.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use my personal bank account for my German business?

A GmbH or UG cannot — the company’s money must sit in the company’s name. A Freiberufler or Einzelunternehmer legally can, but most German banks prohibit business use of a private account in their terms and can close it on that basis. Separating the two is also the difference between a manageable tax audit and a painful one.

Does a GmbH have to have a business bank account?

Yes, in practice and in effect. The Stammkapital has to be paid into the company before registration is filed — the managing directors declare that it has been, and the register can ask them to prove it — and thereafter the company transacts in its own name. There is no workable version of a GmbH run through a shareholder’s private account.

What are the disadvantages of a non-German bank account?

Fewer than people expect. Germany settles domestic euro payments over SEPA, so a Lithuanian or Belgian IBAN receives and sends money exactly like a German one. What you lose is cash deposits, some direct-debit collection arrangements, and the occasional argument with a counterparty whose forms assume a DE prefix — which the SEPA Regulation says they are not entitled to insist on.

Is a free Geschäftskonto genuinely free?

The monthly fee is genuinely zero at several providers. Everything around it is not: cards, cash, foreign-currency transfers and transaction volume above the cap are all charged. Price a realistic year of your own activity rather than comparing the headline figure — the table above gives the monthly fees, but your costs will be dominated by what you do with the account.

Why do business accounts cost money when private accounts are free?

Because a business customer carries obligations a private one does not: identifying beneficial owners, understanding the business model well enough to monitor it, and reporting on it. That is staff time with a fixed floor, and it does not scale down for a small company. Private accounts are subsidised by the rest of the relationship; a new company brings none.

How long does it take to open a German business account?

At an app-based provider, minutes to a couple of days once identification is done. At a branch bank, a fortnight or more, and a GmbH in formation should assume the account is on the critical path to registration rather than a formality afterwards.

Can a non-resident open a German business account?

It depends entirely on the provider, and it is the question to ask first rather than last. Some require a German address or a German-resident director; others onboard any EU-resident beneficial owner. A German company with a foreign management structure is a normal profile, but it is one that lengthens the compliance review.

Opening the account, step by step

Establish whether you are legally required to have one

If you are forming a GmbH or UG, arrange the capital account first

Decide whether you need a German IBAN

Apply and complete identification

Give the account to the Finanzamt