Pix: How Brazil's Instant Payments Work for Merchants
Pix is Brazil's instant payment system, run by the Central Bank of Brazil since November 2020. It moved 79.8 billion transactions in 2025 and has overtaken credit cards as the largest way Brazilians pay online by value. For a merchant, a Pix payment arrives in seconds, at any hour, and is final once paid. If you sell to Brazilian customers, Pix is the method you cannot leave out.
Last reviewed October 2026
How a Pix payment works
At checkout the customer sees a Pix QR code, or a code they can copy and paste into their banking app. They approve the payment in the app, and the money moves from their account to the merchant's account in seconds, every day of the year. Payments are identified by Pix keys, which can be a tax number, a phone number, an email address or a random key.
There is no card number to steal and no separate authorisation step, because the customer authenticates in their own bank's app. That is a large part of why Pix spread so fast: about 148 million people use it, some 86% of Brazilian adults, along with nearly 13 million companies.
Pix in numbers
- 79.8 billion transactions worth R$35.36 trillion in 2025, up from 63.5 billion in 2024.
- 42% of Brazilian e-commerce spending by value in 2025, ahead of credit cards at 40%.
- A daily record of 318 million transactions on 4 September 2026.
Pix Automático for subscriptions
Since 16 June 2025, Pix Automático lets a customer authorise a merchant once to collect recurring payments, with an optional maximum amount. It works like a direct debit on Pix rails and is free for the paying customer. For subscriptions, utilities and memberships it removes the need to ask customers to pay manually every month, which used to be Pix's main weakness against cards.
Refunds, fraud and why there are no chargebacks
A Pix payment is final once made. There is no card-style chargeback that lets a customer reverse a payment because they are unhappy with a purchase. If a customer asks for their money back, the merchant sends a refund as a Pix return.
For fraud and operational failures, the Central Bank runs the Special Return Mechanism, known as MED. A customer who was defrauded can ask their bank to recover the money, and the receiving account can be blocked while the claim is examined. Since 2 February 2026, MED 2.0 can follow the money through several onward transfers. For an honest merchant, MED claims are rare, but a business that attracts fraud complaints will see funds blocked.
Pix and instalments
Brazilians are used to splitting card purchases into instalments, and Pix pays the full amount at once. The Central Bank decided in December 2025 not to regulate a standard Pix instalment product and banned the name Pix Parcelado, although banks can offer their own credit products linked to Pix. For higher-value sales, offer card instalments next to Pix rather than instead of it.
How a foreign company accepts Pix
Pix is a domestic system, so a foreign merchant accepts it through a Brazilian payment institution. That partner generates the Pix codes, receives the reais and settles to you abroad, usually in US dollars or euros. You do not need a Brazilian company of your own.
From 1 October 2026, providers of these international payment services must be authorised by the Central Bank under Resolution BCB 561, and providers already operating must apply by 31 May 2027. Ask any provider you consider whether it is authorised, how long settlement abroad takes, what it charges for collection and currency conversion, and how it handles refunds and MED claims.
Pix for betting operators
Pix is one of the payment methods allowed for licensed betting in Brazil, together with bank transfers, debit and prepaid cards. Deposits must come from an account in the player's own name and winnings go back to the player's own pre-registered account. Only operators authorised by Brazil's Ministry of Finance may use it for bets, and payment institutions must refuse unlicensed operators.
What to confirm with a provider
- That it is authorised by the Central Bank of Brazil for the services it offers you.
- Whether it supports dynamic QR codes, copy-and-paste codes and Pix Automático.
- Settlement time and currency, and the fees for collection and conversion.
- How refunds are sent and how MED claims are handled and communicated.
- Whether it also offers local card acquiring with instalments, so Brazil runs through one provider.
How Ecompayer helps
Ecompayer is not a payment provider. You add your business, markets, volumes and the payment methods you need once, and your profile is matched with a payment provider that can offer Pix for your business type. Your account is then prepared with that provider so you can start taking payments from Brazil.
Sources
- Central Bank of Brazil, Pix Forum plenary, 4 December 2025.
- Central Bank of Brazil figures for 2025, as reported by Metrópoles; Pix management report 2026, as reported by Movimento Econômico; daily record of 4 September 2026, as reported by LetsMoney.
- Worldpay, Global Payments Report 2026, as reported by Poder360.
- Central Bank of Brazil, Resolution BCB 561/2026 on eFX services.
- Ministry of Finance, SPA/MF Ordinance 615/2024 on payment transactions in fixed-odds betting.
Related industries
iGaming
iGaming acceptance is decided almost entirely by licensing and player geography. A provider that boards a Curaçao-licensed casino is rarely the same one that boards a UKGC-licensed brand, so the first step is matching your licence and markets to an acquirer's gambling programme.
Ecommerce
For standard retail ecommerce the deciding factors are authorisation rate, the local payment methods your markets expect, and settlement terms, usually in that order.
Subscriptions
For recurring billing the provider decision is mostly about retry logic, card-lifecycle tooling and authentication. Those three drive more revenue than the headline processing rate.
Related payment methods
Card payments
Card acceptance is the default payment method for most online businesses, and it is also the method with the most moving parts: an authorisation, a later capture, a settlement cycle, and a dispute right the cardholder keeps for months after paying.
iDEAL
iDEAL is the way the Netherlands pays online: around 72% of Dutch e-commerce transactions, more than 1.5 billion a year, with almost every Dutch consumer able to use it. It works as an authenticated bank transfer: the customer approves the payment in their own banking app, and the payment is effectively final once approved. If you sell to Dutch customers without it, you lose sales.
SEPA Direct Debit
SEPA Direct Debit lets you collect euro payments directly from a customer's bank account under a mandate they have signed. It suits recurring billing well and costs less than cards, but consumers can get their money back for weeks afterwards, so it is a poor fit wherever you need certainty that a payment will stay.
Related guides
What is a PSP?
A payment service provider (PSP) is the company that lets your business accept payments: it connects your checkout to card schemes and local payment methods, sends each payment for authorisation and reports the result. Some PSPs also hold the acquiring licence and settle the money to you; others route your payments to a separate acquiring bank that does.
Chargeback ratio
Your chargeback ratio is the number of disputes in a month divided by a month of transactions, shown as a percentage. Mastercard flags merchants from 1.5% of chargebacks and Visa from 1.5% of fraud plus disputes in most regions, both with minimum counts, and most acquirers act before that. It is the number that decides whether you keep your account, so know exactly how your provider calculates it.
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