Maya for Business: How It Works, How to Accept It and What to Expect

A business in the Philippines accepts Maya through Maya Business using cards, QR Ph and e-wallets, with fees set per method and a six-step route to go live, verified October 2026.

Key takeaways

• Maya Business is Maya’s merchant offer for cards, QR Ph and e-wallets, run by Maya Philippines, Inc. for payments and Maya Bank, Inc. for banking.
• Digital payments reached 64.7% of Philippine retail payment volume in 2025, so a checkout for this market needs local wallets and QR codes.
• A customer paying with Maya pays on Maya’s checkout page and is then sent to a status page with an email.
• Maya charges 1.25% for QR Ph on offline solutions and 1.6% on online solutions.
• Foreign-currency payments are converted and settled in PHP, and Maya’s pages do not publish refunds, chargebacks or settlement timing.
• To start, sign up for a Maya Business account, pick the solutions for store or online, and confirm fees and settlement in the contract.

What is Maya Business?

Maya Business is the merchant side of Maya in the Philippines, a set of payment solutions that lets a business accept cards, QR Ph codes and e-wallets, with banking services from Maya Bank, Inc. The Maya Business pricing page names Visa and Mastercard, Bancnet, JCB, Amex, Maya QR, QR Ph, GCash, WeChat Pay and ShopeePay as its payment methods.

Two companies stand behind the name. Maya Philippines Inc. runs the digital payments and Maya Bank, Inc. runs the digital banking services. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) regulates both, by Maya’s own account, and Maya Bank is a digital bank under BSP supervision.

QR Ph and the Maya apps

QR Ph is the payment rail underneath. The BSP launched QR Ph so that QR codes from BSP-supervised financial institutions work with one another. The business chooses the Maya solution that shows the code, and the customer pays with any app that reads QR Ph. Unlimit lists QR Ph as one of its supported methods, taken in PHP through its payment page or the gateway (Card methods integration guide).

The Maya wallet is the consumer app: a business accepts it as one payment method, not as its account. A merchant manages its own side in the new Maya Business app, while the Maya Negosyo app is the older merchant app.

Maya at a glance

Why Maya matters for businesses selling in the Philippines

Maya matters because most retail payments in the Philippines are now digital. Digital payments rose from 52.8% of the volume of retail transactions in 2023 to 57.4% in 2024, per BSP data reported by The Star. In value, monthly digital payments reached USD 136 billion in 2024, 59% of retail transaction value. In 2025, QR Ph transactions also exceeded debit and credit card transactions for the first time, in a Philippine News Agency report carried by SunStar.

More than one million registered businesses use Maya Business, by the count in Wise’s guide to Maya Business; Maya’s own pages give no count of Maya customers. By 2025, digital payments reached 64.7% of retail payment volume (SunStar), so a checkout without local wallets and QR Ph leaves out the methods most of them run on.

How Maya works

A Maya payment follows one path: the customer reaches Maya’s checkout page through a business’s checkout or a payment link, pays by card, by e-wallet or by scanning a QR Ph code, and Maya reports the result to the business by webhook while the customer sees a status page.

The customer flow, step by step

A customer paying through Maya’s online solutions, from a checkout to payment links, goes through five events:

• The customer opens the business’s checkout or a Maya payment link the business has shared.
• The customer is redirected to Maya’s checkout page, the hosted step in Maya’s Invoice API integration guide.
• The customer chooses a method: a debit or credit card, or an e-wallet such as Maya or QR Ph.
• For QR Ph, the customer scans the code with any participating bank or e-wallet app.
• On success, the customer lands on Maya’s status page and receives an email.

What happens on the merchant side

On the merchant side, Maya sends webhook notifications to the business’s application with the payment status (success, failure or cancellation) and response codes. The order system fulfils the order on that notification. When a webhook does not arrive, the business checks the status through Maya’s retrieval endpoints.

A business that takes Maya through Unlimit gets a real-time callback, payment links and dynamic QR codes, with conditions discussed with each business (payment link guide). Antom, one provider that offers Maya, returns the result of a Maya payment in real time, with a default timeout of 14 minutes (Antom Maya payment method).

In store, the Maya Terminal authorize and capture feature secures fund availability without charging the customer until the order is fulfilled.

A successful status and the arrival of funds are two separate events. Maya’s pages do not publish when funds reach the account, so settlement timing is a term to set in the provider contract. Reconciliation then matches each payment by its transaction reference and order ID.

Ways to accept Maya: online checkout, payment links, plugins and Maya Terminal

A business accepts Maya online through Maya Checkout, payment links or plugins, and in store through Maya Terminal or a QR code; where the customer pays decides the choice.

Online checkout, links and plugins

Online, Maya Checkout provides multiple payment options and secure digital payments for online orders, per the Maya Developer Hub guide to API products. A payment link shared through any messaging app leads customers to Maya’s payment page. Stores on Shopify, WooCommerce and Magento 2 can add Maya through plugins with no code, and the Shopify plugin adds QR Ph and the Maya, GCash, GrabPay and ShopeePay wallets to card payments (Maya’s article on remote payments).

Unlimit connects cards and 1,000+ local payment methods through one REST API, and stores on Magento, WooCommerce, OpenCart or PrestaShop can add its card checkout with a ready-made plugin (WooCommerce plugin guide).

For returning buyers, Maya Vault stores customers’ payment information for repeated and future payments. Antom offers Maya one-time payments through API-only, hosted checkout page, embedded checkout page, web element and mobile element integrations (Antom Maya payment method).

In store, Maya Terminal handles payment acceptance for bank transfers, EMV chip cards, NFC cards and QR payments, works as a virtual terminal for e-wallets and can integrate with existing electronic cash registers. A merchant’s QR Ph code can be scanned by all participating QR Ph banks and e-wallets, so one code serves customers of many apps.

Access to these modes runs through API keys. Each key is mapped to a set of Maya Business solutions such as Maya Checkout or Maya Vault, so the account needs access to those products before it can accept payments through them (Maya Developer Hub guide to trying the endpoints).

Benefits of accepting Maya

Accepting Maya gives a business three benefits, each with a limit:

• Several methods under one offer: cards, QR Ph and e-wallets sit under one set of Maya Business solutions, though fees differ by method.
• Reach through QR Ph: the rail handled 2.47 billion transactions in 2025 (Daily Tribune), as long as the customer’s app supports QR Ph.
• A deposit account: the Maya Business deposit account that comes with Maya Business has no maintaining balance, and it holds PHP only.

Limitations to plan for before you accept Maya

Three things shape how a business runs Maya: what Maya leaves unpublished about refunds and disputes, an account that holds PHP only, and the limits on the customer’s wallet.

Refunds, disputes and chargebacks

Maya’s pages do not publish who starts a refund or void, its timeline, the fee on a refunded transaction or a merchant chargeback process. A card chargeback through Unlimit blocks the payment amount and a separate dispute fee until it is resolved (Disputes guide).

For card payments, Maya Business names PCI-DSS certification, Mastercard 3D Secure, card security code verification and two-factor authentication among its security features. On the customer side, Basic Maya accounts include Buyer Protect insurance covering losses of up to PHP 8,000 per claim for non-delivery, wrong or incomplete delivery and physical damage (Maya’s account limits page). A business selling to Maya wallet users can expect such claims to reach it.

Refund terms with providers

Before payment acceptance starts, the refund route, its timeline, the refund fee and the dispute process are confirmed with the provider, and every refund keeps its order ID. Unlimit lists QR Ph as a separate PHP method, and its refund terms for Maya and for QR Ph are confirmed with each business (Card methods integration guide). Xendit, another provider that offers Maya, supports full, partial and multiple partial refunds on Maya payments, with a refund validity of 365 days (Xendit Maya payment channel).

Currency: a Maya Business account holds PHP only

A Maya Business account supports PHP only and cannot hold multiple currencies. Every foreign-currency payment accepted through Maya Business is converted and settled in PHP in the merchant’s account, per Wise’s guide.

A business that reports in another currency should plan its own FX step after settlement. Maya’s pages give no conversion rate, so the rate applied is a term to confirm with the provider. Unlimit supports 50+ currencies, and the settlement currency for Maya payments taken through Unlimit is discussed during onboarding (payment processing page).

Customer wallet limits

A customer’s Maya wallet tier decides how large an order the wallet can pay. The daily purchase limit is PHP 50,000 for Basic, PHP 100,000 for Upgraded, PHP 500,000 for Super Users and PHP 5 million for Ultimate Users accounts, and the monthly wallet balance limit follows the same tiers.

An order above the customer’s tier needs a second method at checkout, such as a card or QR Ph from a bank app. On the merchant side, Maya’s pages give no per-transaction limit. Antom accepts a one-time Maya payment from PHP 1 to PHP 100,000 (Antom Maya payment method).

What Maya costs a business

What Maya costs a business depends on the method and, for QR Ph, on the solution type.

Maya publishes its own merchant rates for Maya Business. Its QR Ph page sets QR Ph at 1.25% on offline solutions (Maya QR static, Maya Terminal, Maya Terminal Lite) and 1.6% on online solutions (Maya Checkout, Plugins, Invoice Payments, Payment Links). No fee applies to activate QR Ph acceptance: it switches on once a Maya QR or Maya Terminal solution is registered.

For a PHP 1,000 order paid by QR Ph, an online solution costs PHP 16 at 1.6%, and the same order through an offline solution costs PHP 12.50 at 1.25%.

Rates for other methods

Maya’s pricing page lists a starting rate for each method, checked October 2026: 3.5% MDR for Visa, Mastercard, JCB and Amex cards, plus PHP 10 per transaction on Checkout, Digital Invoice and Payment Links; 3.5% MDR for Bancnet on Maya Terminal; 1.0% MDR for Maya QR and QR Ph; 2% MDR for GCash; 1.75% MDR for WeChat Pay; and 1.85% MDR for ShopeePay. The rate for each method a business enables is set in its agreement with Maya.

Maya’s QR Ph page and pricing page differ for QR Ph: the pricing page starts it at 1.0% MDR, while the QR Ph page’s rates are the ones to plan on, because that page names both the method and the solution type.

Opening or maintaining a Maya Business account generally carries no fees, and most charges are transaction-based. Maya Terminal access costs PHP 949 a month for holders of that account. Businesses with high payment volume can get custom pricing packages from Maya.

BSP Circular No. 1238, issued on 17 June 2026, requires fees for electronic payment services to be fair, transparent and aligned with actual costs (Daily Tribune report). Digital fees must also stay below over-the-counter banking charges (GMA News). Digital payments made to micro-merchants earning under PHP 250,000 annually remain fee-free, per BitPinas on the BSP’s fair pricing rules.

Provider fees on top

A business that takes Maya through a payment provider also pays that provider’s fees. PayMongo is one example: it lists a rate of 1.79%, VAT-exclusive, to accept payments from Maya (PayMongo pricing). Other providers set their own rates. Maya fees through Unlimit are quoted per business (payment processing page).

Maya in store vs online

A business with both a shop and a website accepts Maya in both places; merchant locations taking digital payments rose 36.3% in 2025 (Daily Tribune). Unlimit is an online payments provider, so in-store acceptance stays with Maya’s own tools such as Maya Terminal (payment processing page).

How to accept Maya: a business checklist

A business can accept payments through Maya in six steps:

• Choose how to accept Maya: directly from Maya, or through a payment provider that offers it. Unlimit offers Maya alongside GCash, ShopeePay, Coins.ph and the Billease buy-now-pay-later option (Philippines coverage page).
• Sign up for a Maya Business account in the new Maya Business app, available on Android, iOS and web; from 4 September 2026, new users can no longer register in the Maya Negosyo app. Request the list of onboarding documents first, because Maya’s pages do not give it. Signing up generates a free payment link, per Maya’s Payment Links page.
• Name the company representative who will hold Maya Manager access, and choose the solutions for store, online or both.
• Request the API keys for the solutions in use, and connect webhook notifications to the order system.
• Confirm the fee lines, the settlement timing and the refund route in the contract.
• Test successful, failed and cancelled payments end to end, then start taking live payments.

How Unlimit supports Maya in the Philippines

Unlimit carries Maya, listed as the PayMaya wallet, among the digital wallets on its Philippines coverage page. The same page places Apple Pay and Google Pay among the card payment options for the Philippines. The page also lists online banking with BDO and BPI, and cash payments at 7-Eleven and Cebuana Lhuillier.

Pricing is quoted per business. A business based abroad can add Maya through one Unlimit API integration. Payments run through licensed local partners (payment processing page), and PHP payouts can go out via InstaPay or bank transfer (Payout methods).

FAQ

Explore the category

Payments in the Philippines

• Payment gateway in the Philippines
• Payment methods
• Payment coverage in the Philippines

Other payment method guides

• GCash for business
• QRIS for business