PayFast
The long-established South African aggregator, now part of Network International. It accepts more payment methods than anything else on this list, which is its case: one integration reaches shoppers who will not use a card.
PayFast published fees
Read off the provider's own published pricing page.
Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026.
payfast.io/feesThe fees
What PayFast charges.
Every line carries the date we last checked it and where we read it. The lines our calculator models are generated from the same engine, so this table and the tool cannot disagree.
| Line | Rate | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| PayFast rate | 3.20% | Widest methods | PayFast rate: 3.20% Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| PayFast Instant EFT rate | 2.00% | Instant EFT · no chargebacks | PayFast Instant EFT rate: 2.00% Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Fixed fee per transaction, payfast | R2,00 | Added on top of the percentage | Fixed fee per transaction, payfast: R2,00 Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Fixed fee per transaction, payfast instant eft | None | Added on top of the percentage | Fixed fee per transaction, payfast instant eft: None Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Minimum per transaction, payfast | None | A floor on percentage plus fixed fee | Minimum per transaction, payfast: None Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Minimum per transaction, payfast instant eft | R2,00 | A floor on percentage plus fixed fee | Minimum per transaction, payfast instant eft: R2,00 Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Monthly / setup | R0 | On the plan we model | Monthly / setup: R0 Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Payout fee | R8,70 | Charged per payout run | Payout fee: R8,70 Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Refund fee | R2,00 | Charged to process a refund | Refund fee: R2,00 Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Processing fee on a refund | Kept by the provider | The hidden cost: a refunded sale usually still costs you the original fee | Processing fee on a refund: Kept by the provider Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Chargeback penalty, payfast | Not published | Not published by any provider. Our model provisions R120,00 per chargeback as an editorial assumption | Chargeback penalty, payfast: Not published Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Chargeback penalty, payfast instant eft | None on this rail | Not published by any provider. Our model provisions R120,00 per chargeback as an editorial assumption | Chargeback penalty, payfast instant eft: None on this rail Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Mobicred | 3.2% | No fixed fee on this method | Mobicred: 3.2% Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| MoreTyme | 5.5% + R2.00 | Buy now, pay later | MoreTyme: 5.5% + R2.00 Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Scan to Pay / SnapScan | 3.5% + R2.00 | This is the source of the widely quoted 3.5% figure. It is not the card rate | Scan to Pay / SnapScan: 3.5% + R2.00 Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| MukuruPay | 3.5% + R6.00 | Cash-based, for unbanked shoppers | MukuruPay: 3.5% + R6.00 Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Scode / Zapper | 4.5% + R5.00 | The most expensive method on the platform | Scode / Zapper: 4.5% + R5.00 Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Immediate payout | 0.8% | Minimum R14.00 ex VAT, instead of the standard R8.70 | Immediate payout: 0.8% Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
| Volume discount | R50,000+ | Custom rates above a R50,000 monthly average over three months | Volume discount: R50,000+ Read off the provider's own published pricing page. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026. payfast.io/fees |
Rates ex VAT. PayFast is 3.2% + R2.00 on cards, not the 3.3% or the 3.2-3.5% range often quoted. The 3.5% figure is real but belongs to Scan to Pay, SnapScan and MukuruPay. Note the payout fee: at R8.70 a run it is by far the highest here, so payout frequency matters more with PayFast than with anyone else. Funds also only become eligible for payout after a 48-hour withholding period, separate from bank clearing.
What it accepts
Payment methods.
Strengths
- The widest method coverage in South Africa, including cash and BNPL options no card gateway reaches.
- Instant EFT at 2.0% is one of the cheaper bank rails available, well below its own card rate.
- Mature plugin ecosystem, so most platforms integrate with no custom code.
- Volume discounts are published rather than hinted at, from a R50,000 monthly average.
Watch-outs
- The R8.70 payout fee is the highest on this site. Daily payouts cost roughly R190 a month before you process anything.
- Refunds cost R2.00, and PayFast states it keeps the original processing fee on methods beyond cards and Instant EFT. It says nothing either way for those two, so we conservatively assume the fee is kept there too.
- The card rate of 3.2% + R2.00 makes it the most expensive card rail here at small basket sizes.
- Method-by-method pricing means your blended rate depends heavily on which methods your shoppers choose.
For developers
Integration and API.
PayFast uses a hosted payment page plus Instant Transaction Notification (ITN), its webhook mechanism. The plugin coverage is the best in the local market, and for most stores the integration is configuration rather than code.
Two things catch people out. ITN must be validated server-side by posting the notification back to PayFast for confirmation, not merely by checking the signature, and the sandbox uses a different endpoint and credentials from production, so a working test integration is not proof of a working live one.
Because PayFast prices per method, your effective rate depends on the method mix your shoppers actually choose. If you enable Zapper at 4.5% + R5.00 alongside Instant EFT at 2.0%, the blended cost is whatever your customers pick, not whatever the headline says. The calculator models the card rate; run the numbers again against your own method mix.
Licence and status
PayFast publishes no licence status, PCI level or acquiring-sponsor detail on its own fee or company pages that we could verify. We have left this blank rather than infer it from its ownership by Network International.
PayFast licence and status We could not confirm this against a primary source. Checked this month, on 23 Jul 2026.
PayFast is not a sponsor of this site, and this profile is not a paid placement. Nothing on this page was seen by PayFast before it was published.
In context
How PayFast compares.
The whole field, ranked by what actually reaches your account, computed by the same engine that powers the calculator. Not a shortlist we picked.
| # | Provider | Rail | Headline | Chargebacks | Effective rate | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ozow pay-by-bank | Pay-by-bank · no chargebacks | 1.50% | None | 1.80% | R2 703 |
| 2 | Peach Pay by Bank | Pay by Bank · no chargebacks | 1.50% | None | 2.05% | R3 075 |
| 3 | Paystack EFT | EFT · no chargebacks | 2.00% | None | 2.37% | R3 553 |
| 4 | Stitch Capitec Pay | Capitec Pay · no chargebacks | 2.00% | None | 2.38% | R3 563 |
| 5 | iKhokha Instant EFT | Instant EFT · no chargebacks | 2.00% | None | 2.38% | R3 563 |
| 6 | PayFast Instant EFT This provider | Instant EFT · no chargebacks | 2.00% | None | 2.41% | R3 609 |
| 7 | Yoco | Cards · Core plan | 2.55% | Card risk | 3.04% | R4 563 |
| 8 | iKhokha | Cards · SME payments | 2.85% | Card risk | 3.40% | R5 106 |
| 9 | Ozow cards | Cards via partners | 2.85% | Card risk | 3.42% | R5 133 |
| 10 | Stitch Express | Cards · orchestration | 2.95% | Card risk | 3.52% | R5 282 |
| 11 | Paystack | Cards · best DX | 2.90% | Card risk | 3.64% | R5 458 |
| 12 | Peach Payments | Cards · subscriptions | 2.95% | Card risk | 3.79% | R5 683 |
| 13 | PayFast This provider | Widest methods | 3.20% | Card risk | 4.21% | R6 320 |
A R650,00 average basket, R150 000,00 a month, 3% refunded, 4 payout runs a month, incl 15% VAT. Quote-based providers are absent from this table because they publish no rate to compute, not because they were excluded. Card rails carry a chargeback provision of R120 per chargeback, which is an editorial assumption, not a sourced figure: no provider on this site publishes a chargeback penalty amount. Run your own numbers in the calculator.
See PayFast against your real numbers
Set your basket, volume and refund rate to find your effective rate, then compare it with every other gateway.
