How many virtual cards does your agency need? The honest answer is not a number from a benchmark but the result of a short count. Two agencies with the same number of clients can need 10 cards and 60 cards, because the figure depends on how many ad accounts you run, how often they are replaced and what else you pay for by card.
Below is a five-step counting method, a worked example for an agency with 12 clients, the monthly cost of that setup on each of our plans and the limits on how many cards one client can hold. The example uses round numbers; put your own into the same steps.
Contents
- Why There Is No Single Number
- How Many Virtual Cards Does Your Agency Need: The Counting Method
- Worked Example: An Agency With 12 Clients
- What 40 Cards Cost on Each Plan
- How Many Cards One Client Can Hold
- Quick Estimates by Agency Profile
- Common Counting Mistakes
- Summary
Why There Is No Single Number
Ad platforms attach a payment method to an ad account, not to a client or a campaign. So the base of the count is always the number of active ad accounts. Everything else is added on top: new accounts you plan to launch, accounts that get restricted and replaced, and services that are paid by card.
The second reason is structure. An agency that gives every ad account its own card needs several times more cards than one that gives a card to each media buyer. The per-account structure isolates risk, and we explain why in One Card per Campaign: How to Structure Payments for Ad Accounts. In this article we assume one card per ad account, because that is the structure most teams arrive at after their first shared card gets blocked.
How Many Virtual Cards Does Your Agency Need: The Counting Method
Step 1. Count Active Ad Accounts
List every ad account that spends money in a typical month, across all platforms: Facebook and Instagram, Google (including YouTube), TikTok and X. Count accounts, not campaigns and not clients. This is your base: one card each.
Step 2. Add Planned New Accounts
Look at the next month. How many new clients are you onboarding, and how many test accounts will buyers open? Each new account needs a card on the day it starts spending.
Step 3. Add Replacements
Accounts get restricted, especially in aggressive verticals. When an account is replaced, its card is closed and a new card is issued for the new account. Take the number of replacements from the last two or three months and use it as your monthly issuance estimate.
Step 4. Add Cards for Tools and Services
Trackers, proxies, antidetect browsers and spy tools are also paid by card. Keeping them on separate cards stops a tool subscription from mixing with ad spend. We cover this in Virtual Cards for Your Media Buying Stack: Paying for Browsers, Proxies, Spy Tools and Trackers.
Step 5. Decide What Reserve You Need
A card is issued in about 60 seconds, so there is no need to keep a stock of idle cards. The reserve belongs in your plan and your balance, not in pre-issued cards. Issue a card when the account is ready to spend.
Worked Example: An Agency With 12 Clients
The agency runs 36 active ad accounts for 12 clients: 20 on Meta, 8 on Google, 6 on TikTok and 2 on X. Four tools are paid by card. Over the last quarter about 5 accounts a month were restricted and replaced, and the client base is stable.
- active cards for ad accounts: 36;
- cards for tools: 4;
- active cards in total: 36 + 4 = 40;
- cards issued per month for replacements: 5 (and 5 closed, so the total stays at 40).
So the answer for this agency is 40 active cards plus about 5 new cards a month. If it adds three clients with three accounts each, the count grows by 9 cards that month.
What 40 Cards Cost on Each Plan
Our rates: top-up commission 3.5% on Base, 2.5% on Mid and 1.7% on VIP; issuance €1.5 on Base and Mid and €1.0 on VIP; maintenance €1.5 or €1.0 a month for each active card. Transactions and withdrawals cost 0%. Let’s assume the agency tops up €40,000 a month.
| Plan | Issuance, 5 cards | Maintenance, 40 cards | Commission on €40,000 | Total per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base | €7.5 | €60 | €1,400 | €1,467.5 |
| Mid | €7.5 | €60 | €1,000 | €1,067.5 |
| VIP | €5 | €40 | €680 | €725 |
In the first month you also pay for issuing all 40 cards: €60 on Base and Mid, €40 on VIP. The main takeaway is in the proportions. On Mid the cards themselves cost €67.5 a month, about 6% of the total; the rest is the commission on volume. Cutting the number of cards saves little, while sharing one card between accounts puts all of them at risk.
How Many Cards One Client Can Hold
One IBAN holds up to 100 cards, and a client can open up to 5 IBANs at the start, which gives up to 500 cards. The IBAN limit can be revised as turnover grows. Our plans are built around typical volumes: Base for 100–500 cards, Mid for 300–1,000 and VIP for 1,500–5,000. VIP adds an API for bulk issuance, balance and status checks and card management, which matters once cards are counted in thousands: VIP cards for agencies.
Quick Estimates by Agency Profile
If you need a first estimate before doing the full count, apply the same formula to rough inputs:
- solo buyer with 5 accounts and 2 tools: about 7 active cards plus replacements;
- small team with 3 buyers and 25 accounts: about 30 cards;
- agency with 15 clients and 60 accounts: about 65–70 cards;
- affiliate team with 200+ accounts: count by buyer and platform, and plan for API access.
These are arithmetic, not benchmarks. Your replacement rate can change the monthly issuance more than any other input.
Common Counting Mistakes
- Counting clients instead of ad accounts. One client often has accounts on two or three platforms.
- Forgetting replacements. In high-risk verticals they can exceed new accounts.
- Issuing reserve cards in advance. They add maintenance and give nothing that 60-second issuance does not.
- Leaving cards of dead accounts open. Close them in one click so they stop costing maintenance.
- Not keeping a register. Without a table of card → account → buyer, the count drifts within a month; see How Affiliate Teams Track Ad Spend Across 10, 50, or 100+ Campaigns.
Summary
To find how many virtual cards your agency needs, count active ad accounts, add planned launches, replacements and tool subscriptions, and skip the idle reserve. For the example agency that is 40 cards and 5 new ones a month, and the cards are about 6% of its payment costs. When the count starts growing quickly, the next step is the scaling plan in How to Scale Ad Spend Using Virtual Cards.