Payment Gateway in the UAE: How to Compare Fees and Payouts

A payment gateway in the UAE is the service that lets your website take card and wallet payments and pay the money into your UAE bank account. To choose one, compare five things side by side: the full fee for local and international cards, how fast money settles, which payment methods it supports (Apple Pay, Google Pay, buy now pay later), what documents it needs from you, and whether the provider is properly licensed. This guide walks through each, using figures from the providers' own pages, checked on 22 October 2026.

Which payment gateways operate in the UAE?

Several international and regional providers accept UAE businesses. The ones below each publish UAE-specific information on their own sites. This is not a complete list or a ranking.

• Stripe publishes UAE pricing in AED and a UAE document checklist (Stripe UAE pricing).
• PayPal has a UAE merchant fees page (PayPal UAE fees).
• Network International (N-Genius Online) describes N-Genius Online as a gateway for online, mobile and call-centre payments across the Middle East and Africa, with plugins for Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, PrestaShop and OpenCart (N-Genius docs).
• Telr publishes tiered UAE and KSA pricing (Telr pricing).
• Tap Payments says it supports Apple Pay, Google Pay, Jaywan, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, PayPal and Tabby where available (Tap UAE).
• PayTabs publishes its UAE KYC list (PayTabs KYC).
• Checkout.com and Amazon Payment Services quote pricing per business rather than publishing a rate card (Checkout.com pricing).

If you run a Shopify store, Shopify Payments is also an option: Shopify lists the United Arab Emirates as a supported country (Shopify Payments countries).

Payment gateway UAE fees: what the published rates say

Fees are the first thing most people compare, and the hardest to compare fairly. Some providers publish a rate card, others quote per business, and the headline rate rarely tells the whole story. Here is what the providers that publish UAE rates show, as checked on 22 October 2026:

Sources: Stripe, PayPal, Telr. Rates change, and large or established businesses can often negotiate. Treat the table as a starting point, then ask each provider for a written quote.

When you get quotes, ask for every line, not just the percentage:

• Setup or onboarding fee
• Monthly or annual fee, and any minimum monthly charge
• Rate for UAE-issued cards vs. international cards
• Fixed fee per transaction
• Currency conversion charge
• Refund fee, and whether the original fee is returned on a refund
• Chargeback (dispute) fee
• Payout or bank transfer fee
• Whether VAT is included

The fixed per-transaction fee matters more than it looks. Say a Dubai shop sells items averaging AED 40. A fixed AED 1 is 2.5% of each sale on top of the percentage, so a "cheaper" percentage with a higher fixed fee can cost more. Work out the cost on your real average order value, not a round number.

How long does settlement take?

Settlement is how long it takes for a customer's payment to reach your bank account. It affects cash flow far more than a few basis points of fees, especially for a new business buying stock.

Settlement terms are usually set per account and can change as your history builds up. Examples from official pages:

• Stripe lists an initial settlement timing of 5 business days for UAE accounts, and a minimum payout of AED 2 (Stripe payouts).
• Tap says businesses connected to a UAE bank account can receive payouts "instantly" (Tap UAE). Ask how that applies to your account and volume.
• Tamara (BNPL) settles weekly, with a flexible Saturday payout when the settlement value is AED 2,500 or more, and deducts AED 25 from weekly settlements under AED 2,500 (Tamara Shopify).

Ask each provider three questions in writing: how many days from payment to bank for a new account, whether they hold a rolling reserve (a share of your takings kept back for a period), and what triggers a payout hold.

What documents does a UAE gateway ask for?

Every licensed provider has to check who you are before it lets you take live payments. Lists differ, but they overlap heavily. Stripe asks UAE companies for a trade licence or freelancer permit issued in the UAE; for LLCs it also asks for the memorandum of association and a bank statement from the last six months. For each owner with 25% or more, it asks for a passport and Emirates ID, plus a residence visa for some non-GCC residents (Stripe UAE requirements). PayTabs lists a trade licence that matches the website's line of business, a bank certificate showing the account title and IBAN, owner IDs, an MOA for multi-owner firms, a tax document if available, and a merchant application form (PayTabs KYC).

Prepare this pack before you apply:

1. A valid UAE trade licence (or freelancer permit) whose activity matches what you sell online.
2. Memorandum of association, if the company has more than one owner.
3. Passport and Emirates ID for each owner and the authorised signatory.
4. A bank letter or recent statement showing the business name and IBAN.
5. Your TRN certificate, if you are VAT registered.
6. A live website with clear prices, delivery policy, refund policy, terms and contact details.

The last item is where many applications stall. Gateways review your website, and a site with no refund policy or with products that do not match the licence is likely to draw questions. If you need a site that is ready for that review, see what a website costs in Dubai.

Apple Pay, Google Pay and BNPL in the UAE

Card fields are only the start. Check which methods each gateway can switch on, and what you need to do on your side.

Apple Pay and Google Pay. Most gateways listed above support wallets, but the setup varies. On Stripe, Apple Pay works with hosted checkout and payment links without extra configuration, but if you embed the payment form on your own site, you must register every domain that shows the Apple Pay button (Stripe Apple Pay). N-Genius says Apple Pay on its hosted payment page is enabled through your relationship manager (N-Genius docs).

Buy now, pay later. Tabby and Tamara are two buy now, pay later providers with UAE merchant offers. Tabby says merchants receive the full amount in days (Tabby business). Tamara says it settles merchants in full regardless of whether the customer has paid (Tamara Shopify). Neither page publishes the merchant fee, so ask for it. Some gateways offer BNPL inside their own checkout: Telr mentions BNPL in partnership with Tabby, and Tap lists Tabby among its methods.

Cash on delivery. A gateway does not replace COD, which many UAE shoppers still choose. If you keep COD alongside card payments, read our guide to reducing COD returns.

Security: 3-D Secure and PCI DSS

3-D Secure (3DS) asks the cardholder to confirm a payment with their bank, usually by one-time code or app approval. Stripe describes it as a layer that helps reduce fraud and can protect the business from liability for fraudulent card payments (Stripe 3DS). Ask each gateway whether 3DS is on by default, and who carries the loss on a fraud chargeback when it is used and when it is not.

PCI DSS is the card industry's security standard for anyone who handles card data, including merchants (PCI SSC). The PCI Security Standards Council notes that whether you must validate compliance is decided by the payment brands and your acquirer. In practice, the simplest way to keep your own obligations small is to use the gateway's hosted payment page or its embedded fields, so card numbers never touch your server. Ask the gateway which self-assessment form applies to your setup.

Is the provider licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE?

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) introduced a licensing regime for retail payment services through its Retail Payment Services and Card Schemes Regulation, published in the Official Gazette on 15 June 2021. It covers nine services, including merchant acquiring and payment aggregation, and gave existing providers a one-year transition to obtain a licence (CBUAE announcement).

For you as a merchant, that means one simple check: ask each provider which entity will contract with you, and which CBUAE licence or partner bank covers the service. Some providers are licensed directly; others work through a licensed acquiring bank. Either can be fine, but you should know who holds your money between payment and payout.

A simple way to choose

To pick a payment gateway for a UAE website, bring the comparison down to your own numbers:

1. Write down your expected monthly sales, average order value and the share of buyers paying with foreign cards.
2. Get written quotes from three providers, with every fee line listed above.
3. Calculate the total monthly cost for each, including VAT and fixed fees.
4. Compare settlement days and any reserve, and check your cash flow can carry them.
5. Confirm the methods you need: Apple Pay, Google Pay, BNPL, and whether your platform has a ready plugin.
6. Confirm who is licensed, and read the contract's termination and reserve terms.

The gateway also has to sit on a website that customers trust and that passes the provider's review. Quickship's business website plan is AED 49 a month with your own hosting and domain, or AED 99 a month with both included. If you need a custom checkout inside a mobile or web app, our app development service builds apps connected to your existing software, payments and data, with a written quote before work starts.