QR Ph Explained: How to Pay by Scanning in the Philippines

How to use QR Ph: scan-to-pay in four steps

Open your bank or wallet app, tap Scan QR, point at the merchant's code, check the merchant name and amount on the confirmation screen, and enter your MPIN. That is the whole flow, and it usually settles within seconds.

• Find the entry point. GCash and Maya put the scanner front and centre on the home screen. Bank apps normally bury it inside the transfer menu, labelled Scan to Pay or QR Ph. Different placement, identical function.
• Know which kind of code you are looking at. A dynamic code is generated by the cashier for that specific sale, with the amount already embedded — you scan and the figure appears. A static code is the laminated sticker taped to the counter; you type the amount yourself. That typing step is where nearly all errors happen, so read the digits twice.
• Check the payee name. The confirmation screen shows the name the system pulled back from the receiving institution. This is the step most people skip out of politeness. If the name does not match the shop, stop and ask.
• Save the reference number. Screenshot it or leave it in the app history. Without a reference number, nobody can trace anything later.

Expect the cashier to ask to see your success screen, or to wait for the audible confirmation their own app plays. That is standard practice here, not suspicion. Plenty of tricycle drivers and street food stalls now display codes too; asking the price before you scan is normal.

What is QR Ph, and how is it different from a GCash QR code?

QR Ph is the country's single QR code standard, established by the central bank under its national retail payment framework and built on the international EMVCo QR specification. The defining difference from a closed wallet code is interoperability: any participating bank or wallet can read the same code.

Side by side, the contrast is stark:

• Proprietary codes are closed. Only users of the same app can scan them. In the old arrangement a GCash code was useless to a Maya user, so merchants papered their counters with a row of competing stickers and customers squinted to find theirs.
• QR Ph is shared. The code belongs to no single institution. It encodes account details in a common format, your app parses it, and the funds move through InstaPay from your institution to theirs. One code serves every customer.

Ending that sticker wall was precisely the point of the standard, and participating institutions have been consolidating onto the common format. So most merchant codes you see today are already QR Ph underneath, even when the sticker carries GCash or Maya branding. To tell: look for the QR Ph mark, usually printed alongside the code. If in doubt, just scan — if your app resolves a merchant name, the code is interoperable.

Keep the two use cases straight. A P2P code is your personal receiving code, labelled Receive Money or My QR, meant for friends, rent and second-hand sales. A P2M code sits inside a merchant relationship with settlement and reconciliation behind it. Running a real business on a personal code causes accounting pain later, as the merchant section below explains.

Which apps support QR Ph, and why a code sometimes will not scan

The two dominant wallets, GCash and Maya, plus the mobile apps of major banks including BDO, BPI, Metrobank, UnionBank, RCBC and Landbank, all participate in QR Ph. Any one of them covers the overwhelming majority of everyday situations. The participant list keeps growing, so check the central bank's and your provider's latest announcements for the current roster.

When a scan fails, it is almost always one of three things:

• The code is not QR Ph at all. Small shops sometimes still display legacy closed-loop codes, or codes meant for something else entirely such as adding a social account or claiming a promo. Ask for a QR Ph code.
• Your institution or account tier cannot do it. Some smaller banks are not on the rail, and wallet accounts that have not completed identity verification are restricted. Finish the verification flow inside the app first.
• You tapped confirm on a static code without entering an amount. The app throws an error or flags an invalid figure. Go back and type the number.

One more case is not a fault at all: the amount exceeds the limit. QR Ph settles over InstaPay, so it inherits that rail's per-transaction ceiling, and banks layer their own daily caps on top. Buying an appliance or a piece of furniture can therefore bounce. Switch to a PESONet transfer or a card instead — the two rails are compared in InstaPay versus PESONet, limits and fees.

An account stuck on an unverified tier is exactly the kind of paperwork snag that trips up foreigners in their first months here. Get help getting your local accounts set up →

Is QR Ph free? Who actually pays the fee

Two different answers. Paying a merchant by QR usually costs the payer nothing in most apps. Sending money to another person by QR follows your wallet's or bank's ordinary interbank transfer pricing — often free up to a certain number of transactions or a monthly amount, then charged per transfer. Rates and free allowances vary by institution and get revised, so treat your app's fee schedule and official announcements as authoritative. The confirmation screen always states the exact deduction before you approve.

Here is where the money actually goes:

• On the payer's side, merchant payments are typically absorbed by the merchant, which is why you see no charge. Person-to-person transfers may carry a small flat fee, or become chargeable once a free allowance is exhausted.
• On the merchant's side, the business pays a merchant discount rate to its acquiring institution. QR pricing sits meaningfully below card acceptance costs, which is why many small shops would rather you scan than swipe. Cards sometimes attract an added surcharge at small merchants; QR generally does not.

Three practical notes. Do not split one large payment into several small transfers to dodge a fee — you pay more in aggregate and risk tripping fraud controls. Cashing wallet balance out to a bank account is a separate charge and a separate topic, covered in GCash cash-in, cash-out and transfer costs. And if a merchant adds a surcharge for QR payment, that is their own pricing decision rather than a system fee; you are free to question it or pay cash.

How merchants get a QR Ph code, including market stalls

Apply to any acquiring institution on the network — the merchant arm of a major wallet or any participating bank — submit your business registration, the owner's ID and a settlement account, and you receive your own merchant code, typically within one to two weeks. The barrier is lower than most people assume, and there are products aimed squarely at micro-businesses.

The usual document set, with minor variation by provider:

• Proof of the business entity: a DTI business name registration for a sole proprietor, SEC papers for a corporation. See registering a sole proprietorship with DTI.
• Local business permit and BIR registration. Some providers relax this for very small merchants. See renewing a business permit.
• Owner ID, a settlement bank or wallet account, and photos of the premises.

There is also a dedicated route for micro-merchants. Paleng-QR Ph is a central bank initiative run jointly with local government units to bring QR acceptance to public market vendors and tricycle drivers. It began as a pilot in Baguio City and has since been rolled out across additional local government units, with the LGU coordinating a bank or wallet partner to onboard vendors in batches. If you run a stall or a small shop, ask your city hall whether it has joined — going through the programme is far simpler than negotiating alone.

A closing caution: do not run a business on a personal receiving code. Personal codes have no merchant reconciliation, so business income and private transfers pile into one ledger, which becomes awkward at bookkeeping, tax filing, loan applications and audits. See GCash business accounts and how they differ from personal ones.

Money left your account but never arrived: what to check

Check the transaction status first — successful, pending or failed — then find the reference number, then contact your own bank or wallet. The sending institution is the one that can raise a trace; calling the recipient's provider gets you nowhere.

• Pending: wait. InstaPay normally clears in seconds, but payday peaks and the run-up to long weekends can delay it. Most pending items resolve within the day, either crediting or reversing.
• Failed but debited: this is a hold that has not yet been reversed. Funds usually return automatically, anywhere from a few hours to several banking days. If it exceeds the window your provider states, escalate with the reference number and get a case number.
• Successful but the recipient says nothing arrived: have them refresh and check their transaction list rather than the home-screen balance, and re-check that you paid the right party. If both check out, file a formal dispute through your provider.

The evidence you need is always the same: reference number, timestamp, amount, sending and receiving account details, and a screenshot of the success screen. QR payments are irrevocable, exactly like any other interbank transfer, so paying the wrong person leaves you dependent on their goodwill or a legal remedy. That is why the confirmation screen deserves the extra two seconds. If your account itself gets restricted mid-dispute, see what to do when a GCash account is frozen.

QR scams: sticker overlays, fake merchant codes and strangers asking you to scan

The most common and most effective scam is also the simplest: the fraudster prints their own receiving code as a sticker and pastes it over the merchant's. Customers scan as usual, the money lands in the wrong account, and neither the shop nor the customer notices for a while. There is exactly one reliable defence — if the payee name on the confirmation screen does not match the shop, stop.

Learn to spot the rest:

• Scan this code to receive money. Scanning always sends. Receiving requires the other party to scan your code or to send to your account. Anyone telling you to scan in order to claim a refund, a prize or a payment is running a scam.
• Being asked to enter an OTP or MPIN on a web page after scanning. Legitimate payments only ever ask for your MPIN inside your own app, never on a browser page.
• Marketplace buyers who send a screenshot instead of money. Forged success screens are trivially produced. Trust only the credit entry in your own app.
• Helpful strangers offering to operate your phone, whether for changing money, topping up or paying a driver. Do it yourself.

If you are hit, do three things immediately: report the transaction inside the app, contact your bank or wallet to lock down further activity, and file a police report so there is a record. Related money scams are covered in short-change tricks at money changers and handling unauthorised card charges.

Practical limits for foreigners using scan-to-pay

To use QR Ph at all you first need a local wallet or bank account. Scanning is an action inside the domestic clearing network, so a foreign-issued credit card, Alipay or WeChat Pay cannot scan a Philippine QR Ph code directly. Short-term visitors find this the least intuitive part of the system.

Three real barriers:

• A local mobile number and SIM registration. Wallets bind to a Philippine number, and SIM registration requires valid identification. See SIM registration for foreigners.
• Acceptable identification. A passport with the visa page usually works to open an account; upgrading to higher tiers with larger limits may require additional local documents. See which IDs foreigners can actually use.
• Account tier drives your limits. An unverified wallet handles small everyday spending, but merchant payments and larger transfers will be restricted.

What visitors can do instead: malls, chain restaurants and hotels widely accept international cards. Some merchants in districts with heavy Chinese footfall accept Alipay or WeChat Pay through cross-border acquiring, though coverage is patchy — see how far Alipay and WeChat Pay actually work in the Philippines. Small shops, market stalls and tricycles remain cash or local QR territory, so carrying small notes stays necessary; see the peso cash guide.

If you are relocating or setting up a company here, sorting a local wallet, a local bank account and a merchant code together removes most day-to-day payment friction. For hands-on help, see our settling-in services.