Which payment gateway is best in Kenya?

It depends on your business. Pesapal suits retail and POS, IntaSend is M-Pesa-first for developers, DPO Pay fits enterprise and travel, and Flutterwave and Paystack cover mainstream e-commerce. Boldrails fits high-risk and high-volume merchants who need crypto settlement and mass payouts.

Which payment methods can I accept in Kenya?

You can accept M-Pesa, Pesalink, Airtel Money, cards (Visa and Mastercard), bank transfer and crypto. All of them run through one Boldrails API, for both collections and payouts.

How do I accept M-Pesa payments in Kenya?

M-Pesa runs on Safaricom’s Daraja API with a Paybill or Till number. The Daraja API itself is free to access; you pay the transaction and merchant fees on the rail. Boldrails connects M-Pesa through one API alongside your other methods, so you do not integrate it separately.

Do I need a CBK licence to accept payments in Kenya?

Not as a merchant. Payment service providers need authorization from the Central Bank of Kenya under the National Payment System Act 2011. Boldrails holds the licences and provides the gateway as a principal, so you only need a registered business and KYB to start.

How fast is settlement and how much does it cost in Kenya?

We settle in KES, USD or crypto, and Boldrails pricing is quote-based through Get started. For context, Kenyan competitors publish about 1.5% to 3% on M-Pesa (Paystack 1.5%, Flutterwave about 2.9%, IntaSend 3%), and the underlying Safaricom Till charges up to 0.55% capped at KES 200.

Kenya

Payment gateway for Kenya

Boldrails is a licensed payment gateway provider that lets businesses accept payments in Kenya: M-Pesa, Pesalink, Airtel Money, cards and crypto, through one API, with KES and USD payouts and settlement in fiat or crypto. We serve high-risk and high-volume merchants, including forex, crypto and licensed betting, that local processors often decline.

M-Pesa, Pesalink, cards and crypto
KES, USD or crypto settlement
Collections and mass payouts
Built for high-risk verticals

Last updated: June 15, 2026

Five-step payment onboarding flow for Kenyan businesses: registration, KYB verification, API keys, sandbox testing, and go-live, on a dark fintech background with market-green accents

How to start

How to accept payments in Kenya

To accept payments in Kenya, you tell us about your business, complete KYB, then collect by M-Pesa, Pesalink, Airtel Money, card or crypto and settle in KES, USD or crypto. Boldrails provides this gateway directly as a licensed principal. We hold the licences and run the whole flow, so you deal with one provider, not a chain of them.

Here is how a business goes live with us:

1
Tell us about your business and apply through Boldrails.
2
Complete KYB so we can issue your live keys.
3
Get your API keys, or generate a no-code payment link.
4
Test the full flow in our sandbox.
5
Go live and settle in KES, USD or crypto.

A registered Kenyan business helps with local KES settlement, and we also onboard cross-border merchants who collect in KES and settle in USD or crypto. In Kenya, payment gateways operate under Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) payment-service-provider authorization, set by the National Payment System Act 2011 and the National Payment System Regulations 2014. Want to check any provider yourself? Look it up on the CBK National Payment System page.

Methods & pricing

Local payment methods in Kenya

Kenyan customers pay with the methods they already trust. We take all of them through one integration, then settle the funds to you.

Method	What it is	Settles as
M-Pesa (Safaricom Daraja)	Collections by C2B and STK push, plus B2C and B2B payouts	Fiat or crypto
Pesalink	Real-time interbank transfers on the IPSL rail, about 30 seconds	Fiat
Airtel Money	Wallet payments and payouts from Airtel mobile money	Fiat
Cards (Visa, Mastercard)	Local and international card payments	Fiat or crypto
Bank transfer	Kenyan bank transfers over Pesalink and RTGS	Fiat
Crypto	Stablecoin and crypto collections	Crypto or fiat

M-Pesa runs most Kenyan checkouts. Miss it and you lose the sale. Offer M-Pesa, cards and Pesalink together and more carts clear.

For context, here is public provider pricing in Kenya, by source:

Paystack: 1.5% on M-Pesa, 2.9% on local cards and 3.8% on international cards, settled T+2 (paystack.com/ke/pricing, June 2026).
Flutterwave: about 2.9% on M-Pesa (official rate), 3.2% on local cards and 4.8% on international, KES 100 per payout, T+1 local (flutterwave.com/ke/pricing, June 2026).
IntaSend: 3% on M-Pesa and KES 100 flat on M-Pesa payouts; card payments are not currently live per its own FAQ (intasend.com/pricing, June 2026).
The underlying Safaricom Till charges the merchant up to 0.55%, capped at KES 200, and is free under KES 200 (safaricom.co.ke, June 2026).

Check each rate on the provider’s own pricing page before you bank on it. Our pricing works differently. Because we underwrite high-risk verticals and settle in fiat or crypto, we price your rate by volume, market and vertical through Get started, so there is no published flat MDR. And every card transaction we handle runs on PCI DSS controls.

Settlement & payouts

Payouts and settlement in KES

We settle in KES and USD, and we disburse at scale. One engine handles both sides. Money comes in through collections; money goes out through mass payouts, to many recipients in a single call. Most Kenyan processors focus on collecting. For mass payouts at scale, options narrow fast: the providers that offer them at volume tend to price them separately or quote through sales.

Standard local gateways settle international card payments into KES at whatever rate applies at settlement. With no option to hold USD, you carry the shilling’s volatility. We settle in multiple currencies and in crypto, so you choose when and at what rate you convert.

Timing depends on the rail. For reference, Pesalink clears in about 30 seconds, Flutterwave settles T+1 and Paystack T+2. We confirm your schedule during onboarding.

One platform for collections and mass payouts.
KES, USD or crypto settlement.
Bulk disbursement to M-Pesa wallets and Kenyan bank accounts over Pesalink.

Mobile money API M-Pesa API

Bulk disbursement diagram showing collections flowing in from card, mobile money and bank transfer into a central settlement node, then fanning out to mobile wallets, bank accounts and crypto wallets

Who it’s for

Who Boldrails is for in Kenya

We are built for the businesses other gateways turn away. High-risk and high-volume merchants are our core, not an edge case we tolerate.

Forex and CFD brokers, licensed by the Capital Markets Authority
Crypto businesses and exchanges
E-commerce, SaaS and marketplaces
Licensed betting and gaming operators
High-volume platforms processing at scale

The high-risk lane in Kenya is usually served by third-party specialty providers. We compete there as a licensed principal: we provide collections, settlement and mass payouts directly, including for businesses that local processors decline. We accept verticals at a capability level and confirm the details for your market when you apply.

Compare

How Boldrails compares

Each Kenyan gateway has a strong suit:

Pesapal: a legacy Kenyan brand with POS and online checkout.
IntaSend: M-Pesa-first and developer-friendly, and openly serves betting and gaming, though it does not run cards.
DPO Pay: enterprise reach, multi-currency and travel.
Flutterwave: pan-African breadth.
Paystack: developer experience.

Boldrails is the choice when you need high-risk acceptance, crypto and fiat settlement, and mass payouts under one licence. We also bring rail breadth, M-Pesa, Pesalink, Airtel Money, cards and crypto, in a single integration. Been declined or frozen somewhere else? Talk to us.

Payments in Nigeria

Get started

Getting approved with Boldrails takes four steps. Apply, complete KYB, integrate the API or a no-code link, then go live with KES, USD or crypto settlement. We price your rate by volume, market and vertical.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Last updated: June 15, 2026