Pix

Pix is a digital payment method created by the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB) to offer a fast, low cost, and widely accessible way for people in Brazil to make payments. Since its introduction in 2020, it has become Brazil's preferred way to pay and an expectation for Brazilian consumers when paying online.

You can accept Pix for one-time purchases and subscriptions, with payments processed in BRL.

You don't need to set up a bank account in Brazil or sign up for a Pix merchant account to add Pix as a payment option with Paddle.

How it works

Customer chooses Pix

Turn on Pix in a couple of clicks in your Paddle dashboard. Paddle automatically presents Pix as a payment method for customers paying in a supported country and currency.

Customer starts confirmation

If the customer is checking out on a desktop, they're prompted to scan a QR code with their phone. If they're on mobile, they're prompted to copy their Pix key and paste it into their banking app manually.

Customer confirms purchase

Customer confirms purchase on their phone using their banking app. The exact process varies depending on the banking app the customer uses, but typically they'll authenticate using on-device biometrics.

If the customer is setting up a subscription, they authorize a Pix Automático subscription mandate that lets Paddle process recurring payments.

Payment authorized

Payment is authorized, and Paddle Checkout shows a screen that confirms the checkout is completed, but the payment is pending capture.

Payment completed

After authorization, payment is captured. This typically happens immediately after authorization, but can take up to ten minutes.

The transaction is marked as completed in Paddle, and the customer receives a copy of their invoice by email.

Things to know

You can accept Pix for subscriptions using Pix Automático, a recurring version of Pix built by the Central Bank of Brazil.

Instead of authorizing a single payment, customers set up a subscription mandate at checkout that lets Paddle collect renewal payments automatically. Pix Automático mandates are set up and managed through the customer's bank.

There are some limitations on how you can use Pix for subscriptions.

Renewal payments can take up to 7 days

The initial subscription payment is made while the customer is present at checkout, so it's completed quickly. Subscription renewals work differently because the customer isn't present and require advance notice to the customer. The customer receives a predebit notification on the date of each renewal or at the end of a free trial, and the payment is collected 3 days after the notification.

If the initial payment attempt fails, 3 more collection attempts occur over the following 3 days. If all payment attempts fail, the subscription becomes past_due on day 7 from the renewal or free trial end date.

flowchart TD
    D0["Day 0<br/>Renewal date<br/>Subscription due to renew"]
    D3["Day 3<br/>First payment attempt<br/>Pix charge is attempted"]
    D4["Day 4<br/>Retry 1"]
    D5["Day 5<br/>Retry 2"]
    D6["Day 6<br/>Retry 3"]
    D7["Day 7<br/>Failed payment<br/>Subscription marked past_due"]
    OK(["Payment succeeds<br/>Subscription renews"])

    D0 -->|no activity| D3
    D3 -->|fails| D4
    D3 -.->|succeeds| OK
    D4 -->|fails| D5
    D4 -.->|succeeds| OK
    D5 -->|fails| D6
    D5 -.->|succeeds| OK
    D6 -->|final retry fails| D7
    D6 -.->|succeeds| OK

    style D7 stroke:#b3261e,stroke-width:3px
    style OK stroke:#047e31,stroke-width:3px

Mid-cycle changes to a subscription

A Pix Automático mandate authorizes a specific charge amount, which Paddle calculates from the non-discounted renewal amount. Once a mandate is in place, Paddle can't charge a different amount, and it can't make immediate, unscheduled charges against the mandate. This impacts how mid-cycle changes to a subscription work, including:

• Plan upgrades and downgrades
• Quantity changes
• Adding or removing a product
• Adding or removing a discount

When you make one of these changes, you should use a next billing period proration billing mode. For example, prorated_next_billing_period or full_next_billing_period. This applies the change at the next renewal instead of charging immediately.

The resulting changes to the subscription amount mean that the next renewal fails and the subscription becomes past_due because a new mandate authorizing the new amount is required. The customer can update their payment method to authorize a new mandate for the new amount. If you use Paddle Retain, payment recovery prompts the customer and recovers the payment for you.

One-off charges against a subscription aren't supported

Pix Automático mandates don't support one-off charges. This means billing a one-time charge against a subscription that's paid using Pix returns a payment_declined error.

To charge a customer a one-off amount, create a transaction for it and pass it to a checkout. This isn't linked to their existing subscription.

Daily billing schedules aren't supported

Pix Automático doesn't support subscriptions billed on a daily interval. If a subscription includes a price with a billing_cycle.interval of day, Paddle doesn't present Pix as a payment method at checkout.

Set the billing cycle to weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, or annual to keep Pix available as a payment method for the subscription. For example, set billing_cycle.interval to month and billing_cycle.frequency to 3 to collect payments quarterly.