Shopify payment gateways in the Philippines: Options, fees and setup

If your Shopify business is based in the Philippines, one of the first payment decisions you'll have to make is which third-party gateway to use. Shopify Payments, Shopify's built-in payment service, isn't currently available to businesses based here.¹ However there is an array of payment gateways that can be integrated with your Shopify store.

This guide walks through how these gateways work, which ones accept GCash and Maya, what they cost once you add up fees, and what Philippine sellers are most often surprised by on their statements.

What is a Shopify payment gateway?

A Shopify payment gateway is the layer that securely authorizes and processes credit card and digital wallet payments for your Shopify store. It verifies the payment, moves the money, and reports the result back to Shopify so the order can go through.²

For the customer, the process usually takes place behind a single checkout button. For the merchant, several separate systems may be involved. Without a supported payment provider, Shopify can't process online payments through the checkout.

How do Shopify payment gateways work?

The basic process is similar regardless of which provider you use:

1. The customer enters payment details and hits pay.
2. The gateway encrypts that information and sends it to the relevant card network or e-wallet provider.
3. The customer's bank or e-wallet approves or declines the request.
4. The gateway reports that result back to Shopify, which confirms or rejects the order.
5. Once approved, funds settle into the gateway's account before being paid out to your business bank account.

Everything usually takes two or three seconds. What changes by country isn't the process; it's which gateways are even allowed to plug into it. Shopify's own gateway can't, since Shopify Payments doesn't operate in the Philippines, so every store here runs on a third-party provider instead.

How long does it take to process payments?

Authorization normally happens within seconds. However, it is useful to separate authorization from settlement. Settlement is the longer process in which the approved funds are transferred through the payment provider and made available to the merchant.

Most Philippine gateways settle within a few business days by default, and several offer same-day or instant settlement for an extra percentage on top of the usual fee.³ E-wallet and card payments can have different settlement schedules, so merchants should check the terms for the specific methods they plan to accept.

Best Shopify payment gateways for Philippine businesses

There's no default here, so most Philippine stores end up running two gateways at once: one built for cards and another for GCash and Maya. Here's what's actually worth comparing.

PayMongo

PayMongo is Philippine-built and has an official Shopify plugin, which makes setup fairly quick.¹¹ Its published rates run 2.23% for GCash, 1.79% for Maya, 1.96% for GrabPay, and 3.125% + 13.39 PHP for domestic cards, rising to 4.02% + 13.39 PHP for international cards.

There's no setup fee and no monthly account cost, though a small wallet maintenance charge kicks in once your transaction volume passes certain thresholds, and each payout to your bank costs 10 PHP.³

Maya Business

Maya runs its own wallet and gateway, so accepting Maya payments and processing everything else through Maya Checkout comes from one company.

GCash costs 2% here (the lowest published rate among the mainstream options), Maya's own QR sits at 1%, and cards run 3.5% + 10 PHP. Maya doesn't list setup or monthly fees publicly and may offer volume discounts for merchants with high payment volume⁴

Xendit

Xendit is a regional gateway built with developers in mind. It operates in the Philippines through its own BSP-supervised local entities rather than a foreign partner.

Its listed Philippine rates are 3% + 11 PHP for GCash, 2% + 11 PHP for Maya and GrabPay, and 3.5% to 4.5% + 11 PHP for cards, with volume discounts above certain thresholds. It also supports over-the-counter payment networks like 7-Eleven and Cebuana Lhuillier, a channel PayMongo and Maya don't currently list.⁵

DragonPay

DragonPay built its reputation on over-the-counter and online banking payments when e-wallets barely existed, and it's still worth having if a real slice of your customers pays via bank transfer or the 7-Eleven counter instead of a card.

One thing worth knowing before setting it up as a standalone option: DragonPay's merchant onboarding, pricing, and integration now run through Xendit's platform rather than its own systems.⁶ It isn't fully independent anymore.

HitPay

HitPay is a Singapore-based gateway that added Philippine e-wallets—GCash and QR Ph among them—on top of its existing card support. There are no monthly and setup fees, so costs come down entirely to per-transaction rates.⁷ Its Shopify app lets you turn on GCash checkout without custom development, which matters if you don’t have a developer.¹²

PayPal

PayPal is less a Philippine gateway and more an international one that happens to work here too. It's useful if you expect buyers from outside the Philippines who already have a PayPal balance or would rather not enter card details.

PayPal's standard commercial transaction rate for the Philippines is 3.40% + 15 PHP. Cross-border payments carry a higher combined rate of 4.40% + 15 PHP. Currency conversion adds roughly 4% to the base exchange rate when PayPal converts the money. Chargebacks cost 500 PHP each, on top of the lost sale.⁸ For a mostly domestic Philippine audience, PayPal usually sits alongside a local gateway, not a replacement for one.

Shopify Payments

Shopify Payments is Shopify's integrated payment solution and normally the simplest option because it eliminates the need to connect a separate primary payment processor.

However, Shopify's list of supported countries does not include the Philippines and states that businesses in countries where Shopify Payments isn't supported need to use a third-party provider.¹

Shopify payment gateway fees in the Philippines

The payment-provider rate isn't necessarily the total cost of accepting a payment through Shopify. A merchant may encounter different charges.

• Shopify subscription: Your Shopify plan is a separate monthly expense and applies regardless of which payment provider you use.
• Shopify's third-party gateway fee: Because Shopify Payments isn't available here, every Philippine store pays this on top of whatever the gateway itself charges: 2% on the Basic plan, 1% on Shopify (Grow), 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus.⁹
• Payment-processing fee: The fee charged by the gateway or payment provider. Rates can vary by card, GCash, Maya, bank transfers, QR payments, and other methods.
• Fixed per-transaction fee: A flat peso charge on top of the percentage, typically between 10 PHP and 15 PHP depending on the gateway.
• Cross-border card fee: PayPal's cross-border rate for Philippine merchants runs about 4.40% + 15 PHP, roughly a point above its standard domestic rate. It applies when the buyer is based outside the Philippines.⁸
• Currency conversion: Separate from the cross-border fee, this applies whenever a payment or payout gets converted between currencies. PayPal, for one, adds about 4% above the base exchange rate for Philippine accounts.⁸
• Chargeback fee: A fixed charge when a customer disputes a card payment, on top of losing the sale itself.
• Refund cost: Most gateways don't return their processing fee when you refund an order, so a canceled sale can still cost you money.
• Payout or withdrawal fee: The cost of moving settled funds from your gateway account into your bank account, often a small flat fee each time.

Payment gateway requirements for Philippine businesses

You don't need to register with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas simply because you're a Shopify merchant using an online payment gateway. That kind of registration, as an Operator of Payment System, applies to the company running the payment infrastructure, not to a merchant who uses it.¹⁰

You will, however, need to complete the payment provider's merchant verification process before you can accept live payments. The exact requirements vary by provider and business structure, but commonly include:

• DTI registration if you're a sole proprietor, or SEC registration if you're a corporation or partnership
• A BIR Certificate of Registration, needed for issuing receipts and paying tax on what comes in
• A valid government ID for whoever signs as the account owner
• A business bank account, or in some cases an e-wallet, for the gateway to pay out into
• A quick check that your chosen gateway is itself BSP-registered, worth doing before you hand over customer payment data¹³

How to add a third-party payment gateway to Shopify?

The exact screens can change as Shopify updates its admin, but the process generally looks like this.¹⁴

1. Open Shopify admin, go to Settings, then Payments.
2. Review the providers Shopify lists for your store's country.
3. Choose a provider and start the sign-up process.
4. Complete that provider's merchant verification using the documents from the checklist above.
5. Enter or authorize your API credentials once approved.
6. Activate the payment method, then run a small real transaction before promoting it to customers.

Common Shopify payment gateway challenges

Using a third-party gateway isn't particularly complicated once it's configured, but a few operational issues are worth planning for.

Managing multiple providers
Most stores end up running two dashboards, two settlement schedules, and two support lines to cover both cards and e-wallets properly.

Verification delays
Some gateways approve an account within a day. Others take one to two weeks if documents need a second look, which can stall a launch.

Uneven settlement timing
Different gateways can use different settlement schedules, and the schedule may also change depending on the payment method. This matters particularly for businesses with tight inventory or cash flow requirements.

Chargebacks and fraud
A fraudulent or disputed transaction can involve the original transaction amount, a chargeback fee, and potentially the cost of goods that have already been shipped. Merchants should understand the provider's dispute and fraud-management processes before relying heavily on card payments.

Currency conversion
This is the one that surprises sellers most. Say a customer pays with a foreign-issued card for a 25,000 PHP order through PayPal. The cross-border fee (4.40% + 15 PHP) and the currency conversion markup (about 4% above the base exchange rate) add up to roughly 8.4% of that order, close to 2,100 PHP, before it reaches a Philippine bank account. That's on top of PayPal's standard 3.40% + 15 PHP processing fee on the sale itself.⁸

Get paid in your customers’ currency with Wise Business

For merchants receiving international payments, another consideration is where currency conversion happens.

This is where Wise Business changes the math. Instead of a foreign card payment getting converted automatically the moment it lands, often at the rate the gateway or card network sets, a business can receive customer payments in their original currency, like US dollars or Australian dollars, straight into a Wise Business account.

If you're a business in the Philippines trying to go global, you've probably hit a wall of confusing foreign exchange fees when collecting payments from international customers. Wise Business helps you cut through all that complexity—be it a local bank transfer or a wire transfer. By simplifying how you receive payments, you're free to pursue what matters—growing a local brand with global sights.

• Obtain account details to receive payments in USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, HKD and more for a one-time fee of 1,400 PHP.
• Simply share your account details with customers or add them to invoices.
• Zero fees when you get paid via ACH, FAST, InstaPay/PESONet, & other local transfers.
• Full fee transparency when clients pay you via Wire / SWIFT.
• Hold, send, and convert money at the mid-market rate in one account.
• Accept payments from customers and payment service providers (PSPs) like Stripe and Amazon.

➡️Get started with Wise Business today

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Wise Pilipinas Inc. is regulated by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. You may visit the BSP website for more information about its regulatory framework and consumer protection policies. To reach Wise, visit help center here.

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Frequently asked questions

1. Is Shopify Payments available in the Philippines?
No. Shopify Payments only operates in specific countries, and the Philippines isn't one of them as of 2026, so every Philippine Shopify store needs a third-party gateway instead.¹

2. Can Shopify accept GCash and Maya payments?
Yes. PayMongo, Maya Business, Xendit, and HitPay all support GCash and Maya at checkout, usually through an app installed from the Shopify App Store.

3. Does Shopify charge an extra fee for third-party gateways?
Yes. On top of the gateway charges, Shopify adds its fee for using anything other than Shopify Payments: 2% on Basic, 1% on Shopify (Grow), 0.6% on Advanced, and 0.2% on Plus.⁹

4. Can a Philippine Shopify store accept international payments?
Yes. Gateways like PayPal and Xendit process international cards, and pairing one with a Wise Business account lets a store receive that money in the customer's own currency instead of converting it automatically at checkout.

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Sources

1. Shopify: Supported Countries for Payments
2. Shopify: Payment Gateways and Provider Integrations
3. PayMongo: Pricing
4. Maya Business: Pricing
5. Xendit: Pricing
6. Dragonpay: Partners
7. HitPay Philippines: Pricing
8. PayPal Philippines: Business Fees
9. Shopify: Pricing
10. BSP: OPS Registration FAQs
11. PayMongo: Shopify Plugin
12. HitPay Philippines: Shopify
13. BSP: List of BSP-Registered OPS
14. Shopify: Configuring Third-Party Payment Providers