Choose which type of card to issue

Decide on physical or virtual cards for your cardholders.

Stripe offers several options for the types of cards that can be issued to cardholders. This page describes these options at a high level, including tradeoffs and use cases for each.

You can issue multiple card types simultaneously for your card programme and can also transition to different options as your business needs change. For example, if you wanted to create a custom card, you could issue an instant physical card while you’re working with the Stripe team to manufacture your custom design. The following options aren’t mutually exclusive.

	Virtual cards	Physical cards
Overview	Cards with no physical representation, but which include all the card information required for digital transactions. Read more about virtual cards.	Cards that can be physically personalised and shipped to cardholders. Read more about physical cards.
Best for	Virtual cards are best for use cases where card transactions are expected to be completely digitised, or if you plan to use your card to complete a back-end process, such as fulfilling a customer’s order with a third party. Examples of use cases that would benefit from virtual cards would be B2B payments (a business is paying a supplier for a good or service) or buy now, pay later payments (a business is paying a merchant).	Physical cards are best when you expect to support a high degree of in-person point-of-sale transactions and you don’t want to rely on digital wallets alone. Use cases such as fleet or contractor purchases or expense management often require virtual cards.
Customisation	Not applicable for virtual cards.	Physical cards have two customisation options: Standard cards-black or white templated cards that you can personalise with your business name or logo and instantly send to cardholders. These are best if you want to prioritise speed-to-market, if basic branding is sufficient for your cardholders, or if you need to issue only a few cards. Custom cards-you can fully customise cards to best feature your branding goals. These are best if your physical card is a core identifier of your business or if you want to build brand affinity with your cardholders. However, custom cards are subject to minimum orders of 2,500 cards and require significant planning and investment. For more on the types of physical cards available, see Physical cards.
Creating cards	Virtual cards can be created using the Dashboard or API. Once created, cards are immediately generated and available for use.	You can create physical cards using the Dashboard or API. After they’re created, cards are printed and shipped out within a few days. From there, time of delivery to the cardholder depends on the shipping speed you choose. See Shipping your cards for more details. Note: Custom cards must be manufactured, tested, and stocked in inventory before they can be printed out and shipped. Lead times and prices will vary depending on the level of customisation. See Stripe Support for more details.
Cost	Virtual cards are 0.10 USD each in the US, 0.10 GBP in the UK and 0.10 EUR in the EU.	Standard cards are 3.50 USD each in the US, 3.50 GBP in the UK, and 3,50 EUR in the EU. Shipping costs apply for each region. Custom card prices depend on the level of customisation of your card design. See Stripe Support for more details.
Digital Wallet support	Digital wallets support all of our card types. A cardholder can add a representation of your virtual or physical card to their digital wallet for Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay. Because of market variations, the lead times for digital wallets vary depending on region and might require partnering with Stripe. See Stripe Support for more details.