Answer

What is an RTP payment? The Real-Time Payments network explained

Updated October 2026. Evergreen page — refreshed in place as facts change.

Operator

TCH

The Clearing House, bank-owned

Launched

Nov 2017

First new US core rail in decades

Hours

24/7/365

Weekends and holidays included

Limit

$10M

Per payment, since Feb 9, 2025

2024 value

$246B

343 million payments

2025 value

$1.3T+

January through November

Record day

1.81M

Payments on Oct 3, 2025

Direction

Push only

Plus request for payment

RTP — short for Real-Time Payments — is the instant payment network most large US banks have run on since 2017, years before FedNow. If your payroll provider pays you instantly, an insurer pays a claim on a Sunday, or a supplier is paid the minute an invoice is approved, there is a good chance it moved on RTP. This page explains what an RTP payment is, how it settles, its limits and costs, request for payment, how it compares with ACH and wires, and how businesses use it.

What is the RTP network?

The RTP network is an instant payment system operated by The Clearing House (TCH), a company owned by many of the largest US banks that also runs CHIPS and an ACH operator. Launched in November 2017, it was the first new core payment infrastructure in the US in more than four decades. Banks and credit unions connect to it directly or through processors, and their customers send and receive RTP payments through ordinary online banking, treasury platforms and payment apps.

Growth accelerated sharply once the limit rose: RTP processed $246 billion in 2024 across 343 million payments, then more than $1.3 trillion in 2025 through November — a more than fivefold increase driven by business payments after the $10 million limit took effect in February 2025. The Clearing House reported a single-day record of 1.81 million payments worth $5.2 billion on October 3, 2025.

How does an RTP payment work?

RTP settles differently from FedNow. Participating banks prefund a joint account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and each RTP payment moves value between the banks' positions in that account instantly; banks top up their positions with Fedwire transfers as needed. The messages themselves are ISO 20022, carrying rich remittance detail with every payment.

How much can you send by RTP?

The RTP network's per-payment limit is $10 million, effective February 9, 2025. It started at $25,000 in 2017, rose to $100,000 in 2020 and to $1 million in 2022, and the jump to $10 million brought most business-to-business payments within reach — the network's value grew more than fivefold in 2025 as large payments moved onto it. Banks set their own limits within the network maximum, and consumer limits are usually much lower.

What is an RTP request for payment?

Request for Payment (RfP) lets a business send a payment request through the RTP network to a customer's bank. The customer sees the amount, the biller and the due date in their banking app and approves it, and the RTP payment arrives instantly with the invoice reference attached. For billers it replaces chasing payments and pulling ACH debits that can be returned; for payers it means no card numbers or account numbers handed out. RTP carries confirmations and remittance data both ways, so the invoice is marked paid the moment money lands.

What messages does the RTP network carry besides payments?

RTP was designed as a messaging network as much as a payment network, which is a large part of its appeal for business. Alongside the credit transfer itself, participating banks can exchange messages that travel with or about a payment, all in ISO 20022 and all available at any hour:

• Request for Payment — a payee asks a payer's bank to push a payment, with the amount, due date and invoice details pre-filled.
• Remittance advice — invoice numbers, line items and other detail sent with or after a payment, so accounts receivable can match it automatically.
• Payment acknowledgment — confirmation from the receiving bank that the payment was accepted and credited.
• Request for information — a question from one bank to the other about a payment, for example to confirm a beneficiary.
• Request for return of funds — the sending bank's request to have a mistaken payment sent back, which the receiver can accept or decline.

What happens when an RTP payment fails?

Because the receiving bank must accept an RTP payment before it settles, a payment that cannot be delivered fails within seconds with a reason — the account is closed, the bank is not on the network, the amount is above its limit — and the money never leaves the sender's account. That is a different experience from ACH, where a bad account number can surface as a return two banking days later, and from a wire, where a rejected payment comes back as a separate return wire. In practice a failed RTP payment is a prompt to try another rail: FedNow if the recipient's bank is on it, Same Day ACH, or a wire.

Is an RTP payment safe?

RTP is credit-push only — no one can pull money from your account over it — and each payment is authenticated by the sending bank and final on settlement. That finality protects the person being paid and leaves no chargeback for a payer who is deceived; a sending bank can ask for a mistaken payment back, but returning it is up to the receiver. RTP includes fraud tools for participating banks, and banks layer their own limits and monitoring on top.

From our own review desk: the single best protection is to verify who you are paying before you press send, on a phone number you already have, especially when the instructions are new or arrived by email.

RTP vs ACH vs wire: which should you use?

RTP combines the speed of a wire with availability neither ACH nor Fedwire has, at a network cost closer to ACH. Its limits are reach and size: both banks must be on RTP, and payments above $10 million still go by wire.

How do businesses use RTP payments?

The use cases that drove RTP's growth after 2025 are mostly business ones:

• Supplier payments the moment an invoice is approved, with the invoice number in the remittance data so the supplier's books close automatically.
• Payroll and earned-wage access, including off-cycle and weekend payments that ACH and wires cannot make.
• Insurance claims and refunds paid the same hour they are approved.
• Gig and creator payouts at the end of a shift or a sale rather than days later.
• Treasury moves between a company's own accounts at different banks, outside wire hours.
• Account-to-account bill payment with request for payment instead of cards or ACH debits.

Can RTP pay a bank that is only on FedNow?

No. RTP and FedNow are separate networks that are not directly connected, so an RTP payment can reach only RTP participants and a FedNow payment only FedNow participants. Many large banks belong to both; smaller banks and credit unions more often joined FedNow. If you need to reach the widest set of banks instantly, use an account and provider that can send on both. Our RTP vs FedNow guide compares them in full.

How do you send and receive RTP payments on Anytime Capital?

Anytime Capital business accounts receive RTP and FedNow payments into US account and routing numbers in your business's own name, and send them to any US bank account that receives instant payments; the dashboard shows 'usually within seconds' before you confirm. The same account sends wires and ACH, pays suppliers abroad over their local rails, and holds your card sales and stablecoins, so an RTP payment is one choice among every rail rather than a separate product. Processing is subject to compliance review.