Accept recurring payments with Pix Automático in Brazil

What's new?

Paddle now supports Pix Automático for subscription payments in Brazil. Customers set up a recurring mandate at checkout and use Pix to pay for recurring subscriptions through Pix Automático.

How it works

Pix is Brazil's preferred way to pay for online purchases. Previously, Pix was available for one-time payments in BRL. Today, we've updated the Paddle platform so you can now accept Pix for subscriptions using Pix Automático.

Pix Automático

Subscriptions use Pix Automático, a recurring version of Pix, which allows customers to set up a mandate that authorizes Paddle to collect recurring payments.

Pix Automático is a deferred capture type payment method: at each renewal or at the end of a free trial, the customer receives a pre-debit notification. The payment is collected 3 days after the notification. As a result, Pix Automático doesn't support subscriptions billed on a daily interval. Set the billing cycle to weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual instead.

Because Pix Automático mandates authorize a fixed recurring amount, there are some constraints on recurring payments. To make mid-cycle changes to a subscription, you should use a next billing period proration billing mode. This applies the change at the next renewal instead of charging immediately.

If you're making a change to the subscription that results in a different recurring amount, the next renewal will fail and the subscription will become past_due. The customer can update their payment method when prompted by Paddle Retain to authorize a new mandate for the new amount.

Payment limits

Pix has a maximum transaction total of 14,000 BRL. Paddle additionally limits subscription mandates to 1.5× the undiscounted renewal price to account for tax and price changes. This caps the renewal price at approximately 9,333 BRL.

Next steps

There are no changes to endpoints or fields in the Paddle API as a result of this change.

If you haven't turned on Pix before, you can start accepting Pix and Pix Automático by turning it on in Paddle > Checkout > Checkout settings.

If you turned on Pix previously, you don't need to do anything. Pix Automático is automatically available for transactions for recurring items priced in BRL for customers in Brazil, subject to the payment limits above.

We recommend reviewing your pricing to make sure per-renewal amounts stay within the payment limits. For testing instructions, see the Pix guide.

One-time Pix payments aren't affected by this change and continue to work as they do today.