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Collect payments with your paybill, without API keys

PAYBILL sends a real M-Pesa STK push to the payer, using the platform’s Daraja credentials rather than your own. You supply only your paybill number — no Daraja onboarding required. Available to ISPs in Kenya (KE).
This is not a “show the customer instructions” method. The payer receives an STK prompt and enters their M-Pesa PIN, exactly as with Safaricom M-Pesa. The difference is where the Daraja API keys come from: with SAFARICOM they are yours, here they are the platform’s, so you can start collecting before Daraja onboarding is finished.

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Before you start

  1. Have an active M-Pesa paybill registered to your business. It must be a Safaricom paybill — not a bank paybill. To collect into a bank account, use Bank instead.
  2. Link a MikroTik router and bring it online. This gateway will not send a payment prompt otherwise — see the warning below.
Paybill, Till, Bank, and Centipid Collections all require a linked MikroTik router that is currently online. If none is linked, checkout stops with “Link a MikroTik router and bring it online before sending payment prompts.” and no prompt is sent. See Routers.

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Configure the gateway

1

Open Settings → Payments → Paybill - Without API keys

Select the method from the payment marketplace.
2

Enter your paybill number

Paybill number (required) is digits only, at least 4 and at most 20 characters. It is shown to subscribers and is the account the money lands in.
3

Save and switch

The paybill is the only field that gates the switch. Switching gateways may require an OTP confirmation.
4

Run a controlled test payment

Pay a small amount from the captive portal, and confirm the prompt shows your paybill and that the money arrives in it.

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Credentials

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Callback URLs

None. The callback address is sent with every payment request, so there is nothing to register with Safaricom.

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What the payer must provide

A Safaricom phone number, which receives the STK prompt. The account reference is filled in for the payer.

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How a payment completes

1

Request

Centipid Billing raises the STK push against your paybill using the platform’s Daraja app, as a CustomerPayBillOnline transaction.
2

Authorization

The payer enters their M-Pesa PIN.
3

Confirmation

Safaricom posts the result to the platform callback, which records the payment and applies the subscriber’s package asynchronously.

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Payments typed in by hand

Not every payment on this method starts as an STK prompt. An invoice can offer pay-by-hand instructions, and a TV screen shows a number the customer types into M-Pesa themselves. On this method that number is the Centipid paybill, not yours — money paid that way is collected by the platform against the subscriber’s account reference and remitted to you. Prove where money lands, in both flows, with a controlled test payment before you move subscribers onto this method.

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Troubleshooting

To hold your own Daraja keys instead, see Safaricom M-Pesa. For every gateway’s fields in one place, see the credential reference.