Payments

Payment gateways in Panama: the complete guide with real 2026 commissions

Choosing the wrong payment gateway can cost you several points of margin on every sale, and in Panama the difference between the cheapest local wallet and the most expensive aggregator is huge. This guide gathers the real, verified 2026 commissions —Yappy, CROEM, PágueloFácil, Pagadito, Tilopay and the international ones—, explains what suits each type of business and why the right combination matters more than chasing "the best" gateway.

June 2, 2026 · 20 min read · Verified 2026 commissions

1% + ITBMS Yappy Comercial the lowest, local buyer

3.5% + $0.50 CROEM local card +1% international

5–7% PágueloFácil SME negotiated by volume

+1 million Yappy users in Panama

The payment gateway is one of those decisions that look like a technical detail and actually affect your margin and your sales directly. Choosing badly can cost you several percentage points on every transaction, and in Panama the difference between the cheapest option and the most expensive is huge: from the 1% of the local wallet to the 7% of some card aggregators. In a store with tight margins, that difference decides profitability.

This guide gathers the real, verified 2026 commissions of the gateways that actually operate in Panama, without the vague figures that abound on other sites. But more important than any table is understanding an idea almost no one explains: the right question is not "which is the best gateway", but "which combination covers my customers at the lowest possible cost". We develop it below, with data and with the payment architecture we recommend by business type.

The real commissions, compared

These are the verified 2026 conditions of the main options in the Panamanian market. The Yappy and CROEM commissions come from official Banco General sources; the aggregators' are typical market ranges, because they are negotiated by volume and business type.

Gateway	Commission (2026)	Type	Key note
Yappy Comercial	1% + ITBMS (min. $0.02)	Local wallet (bank app)	The customer pays no commission. Single daily debit. +1 million users. Essential for the local buyer.
CROEM (Banco General)	3.5% + $0.50 local; +1% international	Cards + Yappy methods	Shows the merchant name on the cardholder statement (fewer chargebacks). Withdrawal $1.00. Good local support.
PágueloFácil	~5%–7% negotiated (SME)	Cards, Sistema Clave, Nequi, crypto	The best-known "local" gateway, +9 years. Variable commission by volume and business type.
Pagadito	~5%–7%	Cards (regional)	Central American aggregator. Useful if you sell in several countries of the region.
Tilopay	Per card + fee	Cards + integrates Yappy	Aggregator that lets you combine Yappy and cards in a single checkout.
PayPal	~4%–5% + fixed	International	For sales abroad. The Panamanian buyer rarely uses it as a first local option.

Sources: Banco General / Yappy (official) for Yappy and CROEM; market ranges for PágueloFácil, Pagadito, Tilopay and PayPal, which are negotiated by volume. Verified for 2026; always confirm the current condition with each provider before deciding.

Why Yappy is almost mandatory for the local customer

More than a million people have Yappy in Panama, and the method has become part of the everyday vocabulary: the customer no longer asks whether you accept Yappy, they take for granted that you do. For a store selling to the Panamanian public, not offering it is introducing friction right at the step where the sale closes. And its numbers make it hard to ignore: the 1% + ITBMS commission is one of the lowest in the market, the customer pays nothing, and the payment is confirmed from the bank app with no card to type, which eliminates one of the biggest causes of mobile abandonment.

The flip side is that Yappy only works with customers who have it, that is, banked Panamanians with the app. It does not work for an international buyer or for someone who wants to pay by credit card. That is why Yappy is an essential but not sufficient piece: it covers the bulk of the local customer at the lowest cost, and is complemented by a card gateway for everything else.

The card layer: CROEM, PágueloFácil and the aggregators

To accept cards —and therefore customers without Yappy and international buyers— you need a card gateway. Here the commissions rise and the differences between options matter. CROEM, from Banco General, is around 3.5% + 0.50 dollars on local cards (with an additional 1% on international) and has two concrete advantages: it shows your merchant name on the customer's statement —which reduces chargebacks from unrecognized charges— and does not penalize recurring payments, useful if you charge subscriptions.

PágueloFácil is the best-known "local" gateway, with more than nine years in the market and thousands of customers; it processes cards, Sistema Clave, Nequi and even crypto, but its commission for an SME is usually negotiated between 5% and 7%, higher than CROEM. Pagadito is a Central American aggregator useful if you sell in several countries of the region, in a similar range. And Tilopay is an aggregator with the advantage of integrating Yappy along with cards in a single checkout, which simplifies the architecture. For sales abroad, PayPal remains the known option, although the Panamanian buyer rarely chooses it as a first local option.

The recommended payment architecture, by business

With all the above, the practical recommendation stops being "choose a gateway" and becomes "assemble the right combination". For the store selling to the Panamanian public, the base is Yappy for the local customer (minimum commission, maximum convenience) plus a card gateway —CROEM is usually a solid option for its chargeback and recurrence advantages— for those who pay by card. That combination covers almost all buyers at the lowest average cost.

For the business selling abroad —agro-export, tourism, services to international clients—, the weight inverts: the international card gateway and PayPal move to the front, and Yappy stays as a convenience for the occasional local customer. For the subscription or recurring-payment business, it is best to prioritize a gateway that does not penalize recurrence and that tokenizes securely. And for whoever sells mostly through social media and WhatsApp, the Yappy Payment Link and the aggregators' charging links turn a conversation into a sale with no need for a complete store.

The common mistake is chasing "the best" gateway as if it were a single one, when what defines the cost and the conversion is the combination. That is why, when we build an online store, the gateway is not an add-on at the end but an architecture decision from the start, aligned with who your customer is and how they pay.

The link between gateway, commission and conversion

We close with the idea that connects this guide with the rest. The payment gateway is not just a matter of cost per transaction; it is one of the most underestimated conversion factors. The payment method is one of the points where the cart is most abandoned: if the customer does not find their usual way to pay, they leave. And the friction of the process —typing a card on a small mobile versus confirming in two taps from the app— decides how many complete the purchase. Choosing the gateway well, then, saves on commissions and at the same time recovers sales.

That is why this guide is the natural pair of two more pieces of this site: the practical comparison of payment gateways in Panama, with the updated detail of each option, and the guide on why your store converts half as much as a global one, where the payment method appears as one of the leaks that cost the most. If you want your store's payment architecture designed from the start to cost less and convert more, that is how we work conversion optimization and the online store.

Frequently asked questions about payment gateways in Panama

What is the cheapest payment gateway in Panama?

For the local buyer, Yappy Comercial is by far the cheapest: it charges 1% plus ITBMS per transaction, with a minimum of 0.02 dollars, and the customer pays none of that commission. Compared to card aggregators, which run between 3.5% and 7% depending on the case, the difference is several percentage points on every sale. That said, "the cheapest" is not automatically "the best for you": Yappy only works with customers who have the app, so if you sell to an audience that pays by card or from abroad, you also need a card option even if it is more expensive. The right question is not which is cheapest, but which combination covers your customers at the lowest possible cost.

How much does Yappy charge a merchant in 2026?

Yappy Comercial charges 1% of the transaction amount plus ITBMS, with a minimum commission of 0.02 dollars per payment. The commission is calculated per transaction and charged via a single daily debit to the business account, for the sum of all the day's commissions. An important detail for conversion: the customer does not pay that commission, the merchant absorbs it, so for the buyer paying with Yappy is free and instant. It is one of the lowest commissions in the Panamanian market and, combined with the fact that more than a million people already have Yappy, makes it almost mandatory for any store selling to the local public.

What is the difference between Yappy and a card gateway like CROEM or PágueloFácil?

They are different things worth combining, not substituting. Yappy is a local wallet: the customer pays by confirming from their bank app, with no card numbers to type, and the commission is very low (1% + ITBMS). But it only works for customers who have Yappy, that is, banked Panamanians. A card gateway like CROEM (from Banco General) or PágueloFácil processes Visa, Mastercard and others, which opens you to customers without Yappy and to international buyers, but charges more: CROEM is around 3.5% + 0.50 dollars on local cards, and PágueloFácil usually negotiates between 5% and 7% for an SME. The ideal architecture for a Panamanian store combines both: Yappy for the bulk of the local customer and a card gateway for the rest.

Why might CROEM suit you more than PágueloFácil despite being from the same bank as Yappy?

For two concrete advantages beyond the commission. The first is that CROEM shows your merchant name on the cardholder statement, instead of the gateway name; that reduces chargebacks from "I do not recognize this charge", which are a cost and a headache for the merchant. The second is that, unlike some competitors, it does not apply a higher rate for recurring payments, which matters if you charge subscriptions. Added to good local support and native integration of the Yappy methods, CROEM is usually a solid option for a Panamanian store that wants card and wallet well integrated. The final choice depends on your volume and the conditions you negotiate.

Do I need a business account to charge online?

For most serious options, yes. Yappy Comercial and the payment button or link require an account associated with your business; card gateways like CROEM ask for a business account for website processing. This is normal and advisable: separating business finances from personal ones is good accounting and tax practice, and gives you access to professional payment tools. There is a nuance with personal Yappy: if you receive many payments (the system categorizes as an informal business above a certain volume —on the order of more than 50 payments and more than 10,000 dollars a month for two months—), the commercial commission starts applying automatically. For a formal business, the right thing from the start is the business account and commercial methods.

What happened to the Yappy Payment Button?

Yappy is discontinuing the old Payment Button and migrating toward the Payment Link, a charging method via a link that takes the customer to Yappy's secure environment to complete the payment. For a merchant this means that, when integrating Yappy into a new store in 2026, it is best to use the current tools (Payment Link and the integrations in force via aggregators like Tilopay or modules for ecommerce platforms) instead of the old button. If your store was already using the Payment Button, it is worth reviewing the migration. In a store built from scratch, you simply integrate the current method, with no discontinued baggage.

How does the payment gateway affect my store's conversion?

Much more than it seems. The payment method is one of the points where the cart is most abandoned: if the customer reaches the end and does not find the way to pay they usually use —Yappy in Panama—, a part leaves without buying. Also, the friction of the process matters: typing 16 card digits on a small mobile abandons more than confirming a payment in two taps from the bank app. That is why the choice of gateway is not just a matter of commissions, but of conversion: offering the expected local method, with the minimum of steps, recovers sales that would otherwise be lost at the last moment. We develop it in the conversion optimization guide.