If you're selling into Brazil and you don't accept PIX, you're leaving somewhere between 30% and 70% of your addressable revenue on the table — depending on price point, target demographic, and whether the buyer already has a Brazilian debit card comfortable with cross-border authorisation. This is the honest primer for non-Brazilian merchants that Velocity gives every prospect in the LATAM commerce funnel.

Why PIX won

PIX launched in November 2020 as Brazil's central-bank-run instant payment scheme. It is free for consumers, settles in under 10 seconds, works 24/7/365 including holidays, and every regulated Brazilian bank is a mandatory participant. By 2024 it had overtaken every card scheme combined in Brazilian transaction volume. It is the default payment method for anyone under 40 in Brazil — card usage is now a middle-aged habit.

For merchants, PIX transactions carry no chargeback risk (payments are irrevocable at the network level), no interchange (typical merchant fees are 0.5% to 1.5% depending on volume, vs 3-5% for card acquiring in Brazil), and zero authentication friction — the buyer authorises inside their bank app with biometrics.

The two integration patterns

PIX Copia e Cola (QR / copy-paste)

The merchant generates a payload string. The buyer either scans it as a QR code (in-person, mobile-to-mobile) or copy-pastes it into their bank app (desktop checkout). The bank app pre-fills the amount, merchant name and payment reference. The buyer approves with a PIN or biometric. Settlement completes in seconds; a webhook fires to the merchant.

Best for: one-off purchases, checkout flows, in-person retail, invoice payments.

PIX Automatico (recurring authorisation, launched mid-2025)

The Brazilian central bank rolled out PIX Automatico specifically to solve the "PIX can't do subscriptions" problem. The buyer authorises a recurring debit mandate in their bank app once; subsequent debits pull automatically on the merchant's schedule, subject to a per-mandate cap the buyer sets.

Best for: SaaS subscriptions, gym memberships, insurance premiums, streaming services — anywhere a merchant would previously have wanted a card-on-file recurring charge.

Reconciliation gotchas

  • End-to-end IDs: every PIX transaction has an End-to-End ID (E2EID). Persist it against your internal transaction — refunds and reconciliation queries reference this ID, not your order number.
  • Refund windows: PIX refunds work — but only within 90 days of the original transaction. After that, you're issuing a fresh outbound PIX from your own bank account.
  • Naming inconsistency: the buyer's PIX registered name (`chave PIX`) may not match their government-issued full name. If your fraud rules block on name mismatch, you'll false-positive PIX transactions relentlessly.
  • Weekend clearing: while PIX settles instantly at the network, some smaller acquirers batch merchant settlement to next business day. Ask your acquirer for real-time settlement if it matters to your cash-flow model.

What Velocity provides

Velocity ships PIX Copia e Cola, PIX Automatico, and outbound PIX Payout under a single API. Merchants get real-time settlement into either a BRL nostro account or a USD/EUR virtual IBAN account (we convert), or straight to USDT if you're already operating a stablecoin treasury. Talk to us if you're spinning up Brazil for the first time.