How to get paid from Toptal in Nigeria

Toptal pays in US dollars, normally every two weeks, into its own Pay Portal. You move the money out to a bank account yourself, and what that step costs depends on where you send it: Grey charges 0.8% capped at $10 to receive dollars, Daya Borders charges 0%, and Raenest charges $4 flat from $500.

Toptal's Pay Portal is run by Hyperwallet, a PayPal group company. Payoneer isn't named anywhere on Toptal's own payment pages, which is worth knowing before you open a Payoneer account for this work. The route out of the Pay Portal, how long it takes and the currency you end up holding are the three things that decide what a Toptal payment is actually worth to you. This article goes through each route Toptal offers, then where the dollars are cheapest to receive. For the wider picture, see how to get paid by international clients in Nigeria.

How does Toptal pay you?

Toptal pays its talent in US dollars, normally every two weeks, and the amount is the rate you set. Toptal's talent FAQ says "You set your rate and that is the amount you will be paid" and that "Toptal's rates are expressed and paid in USD". Some clients pay twice a month or on another schedule, so the cycle is worth confirming with your own client rather than assuming a fortnight.

The money doesn't go straight to your bank. It lands in the Toptal Pay Portal, a balance you control, and you move it out from there. Toptal's Pay Portal FAQ names Hyperwallet, a PayPal group member, as the service provider behind it. So two separate things decide what you end up with: what Toptal pays, which is your full rate, and what the route out of the Pay Portal costs you.

What are your options for moving money out of the Toptal Pay Portal?

The Toptal Pay Portal offers four ways out: a bank transfer, an Auto Transfer that runs daily or monthly on its own, a load onto the Toptal Visa Prepaid Card, and a mobile wallet through Samsung Pay or Google Pay with an eligible card. For a Nigerian freelancer who wants naira in a Nigerian bank account, the bank transfer is the one that matters.

The prepaid card is the route to be careful with if you're in Nigeria. Toptal states that card delivery to the rest of the world takes up to six weeks as standard, or up to three weeks expedited, against up to 15 business days for the USA, Canada and Europe. The cards are issued by Pathward, N.A. or The Bancorp Bank, N.A., and the 3% conversion charge applies per transaction where a currency conversion happens. A bank transfer into a dollar account you already hold is the shorter path.

Does Toptal pay through Payoneer?

No. Toptal's Pay Portal names Hyperwallet, a PayPal group member, as its service provider, and Payoneer appears nowhere on Toptal's talent FAQ or on its Pay Portal FAQ. If you already hold a Payoneer account from Upwork or Fiverr work, it isn't the route Toptal uses, and opening one doesn't help you get paid by Toptal.

That has a practical consequence worth knowing. A platform that pays through Payoneer gives you two steps and two sets of charges, which withdrawing from Payoneer to a Nigerian account goes through in detail. On Toptal the Pay Portal sits directly before your bank, so there's one fee layer less to think about and one fewer account to keep verified.

Where should your Toptal dollars land?

Send them to an account that charges nothing to receive dollars and lets you hold them. On figures read from each company's own fee pages on 6 November 2026, Grey charges 0.8% with a $2 minimum and a $10 cap on an incoming ACH payment, Daya Borders charges 0% with no cap, and Raenest charges $2 under $500 and $4 from $500.

Grey's figures are in its own help centre article on ACH, FedNow and wire transfers, dated 9 August 2026. Raenest's are in its Nigeria fees article, dated 20 September 2026. Both also state a wire figure, $20 flat at Grey and $10 flat at Raenest, which only matters if your Toptal transfer arrives as a wire rather than as an ACH credit. For a six-provider version of this table, with the cap arithmetic worked out at three payment sizes, see best USD account apps in Nigeria, compared.

One thing to settle before you pick: whether the account takes an ACH credit, a wire, or both. Several Nigerian dollar apps take ACH only, and domiciliary account vs fintech USD account sets out which ones say so in their own words.

Where does Daya Borders fit?

Daya Borders is a dollar and euro receiving account for people in Nigeria, and it takes 0% from an incoming dollar payment, with no cap and no conditions attached. On a $2,000 Toptal payment that's $2,000.00 landing, against $1,990.00 at Grey's 0.8% capped at $10 and $1,996.00 at Raenest's $4 flat. It gives you US account and routing details in your own name, and the balance stays in the currency it arrived in, dollars or euros, until you convert.

There are no fees at all on Daya Borders today, on either side of the account. That's today's position rather than a permanent promise, so it's worth a look in the app before a large transfer.

Where Daya Borders isn't the pick: there's no card yet. If what you want is to spend your Toptal earnings directly rather than move them into naira, an account with a dollar card does that job and Daya Borders doesn't do it today. What Daya Borders does is the receiving and the holding. Nothing comes off the payment, and you choose the moment you convert.

Should you let the Pay Portal convert to naira, or convert it yourself?

Hold the dollars and convert when you choose, unless you need the naira immediately. Toptal's Pay Portal states that if a currency conversion is required to complete a transfer, the conversion details are displayed before you confirm. A conversion inside the portal is a decision made at that moment, at that moment's price. A dollar balance leaves the decision with you.

The arithmetic is worth doing once, because it changes what you should be comparing. A 1% difference in the rate on a $2,000 payment is $20, which is twice the biggest receiving fee in the table above. So the fee is the smaller number in this decision and the rate is the bigger one. Quote the same conversion in two apps on the same day, for the same amount, and compare the naira you'd actually receive rather than the fee lines.

Grey states 1% capped at $6 on a conversion between naira and dollars, which its help centre lists under its Group E pairs. Daya Borders has no fees today. On any app, the rest of the cost sits inside the rate you're shown, which is why the mid-market rate and the rate you actually get are two different numbers.

How long does a Toptal payment take to reach you?

Toptal states that a Pay Portal bank transfer takes 1 to 2 business days to a bank account in North America or Europe, and up to 3 business days for other destinations. Its own warning is about the details rather than the speed: incorrect banking information "may cause significant delays to your transfer", so check the account and routing numbers character by character before you save them.

Add the pay cycle to that. Payment is normally every two weeks, so the gap between finishing the work and holding naira is the cycle, plus the Pay Portal transfer, plus however long your own account takes to pay naira into your Nigerian bank. For what sets the timing on an inbound payment generally, see how long an international payment takes to reach Nigeria.

What should you check before your first Toptal payment?

Five things, and all of them are quicker to do before a payment is sitting in the Pay Portal than after:

1. Which account details you'll give the Pay Portal, and whether that account takes an ACH credit, a wire, or both.
2. Whether the name on the receiving account matches the name on your Toptal account. A name that doesn't match is a familiar reason for a transfer to come back.
3. What the receiving account charges to take a dollar payment, read off its own fee page on the day you set it up.
4. Whether you want the Pay Portal to convert to naira for you, or to hold dollars and convert later.
5. Whether to switch Auto Transfer on, and at what threshold, so you're not moving small amounts one at a time.

Set the destination account up before your first payment clears rather than after, so the money isn't sitting in the Pay Portal while you work out where to send it. If you're still deciding whether you need a US bank account at all, do you need a US bank account to get paid in dollars in Nigeria? answers that one directly.