PayFast

South African payment gateway providing REST APIs for online payment processing, subscription billing, tokenized recurring card payments, onsite checkout, QR code payments, instant EFT bank transfers, and merchant refunds. Trusted by 80,000+ South African businesses and certified PCI-DSS Level 1.

PayFast publishes 13 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Subscriptions API, Tokenization API, Transaction History API, and 10 more. Tagged areas include Payments, Payment Gateway, South Africa, Subscriptions, and Recurring Billing.

The PayFast catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

PayFast’s developer surface includes authentication, documentation, pricing, engineering blog, support, sandbox, and 9 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

44.9/100 developing ▼ -5.3 Agent 34/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

AccessPaidSelf serve

13 APIs

PaymentsPayment GatewaySouth AfricaSubscriptionsRecurring BillingTokenizationInstant EFTQR Code PaymentsRefundsFintech

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6

Composite quality — 44.9/100 · developing

Contract Quality 16.5 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 6.5 / 20

Commercial Clarity 7.9 / 20

Operational Transparency 2.7 / 13

Governance 7.0 / 12

Discoverability 7.4 / 10

Agent readiness — 34/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 7 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/payfast: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 13

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Payfast Rate Limits

0 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

JSON Schema 3

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Examples 6

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Sandbox

Sandbox

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrg

GitHubOrg

Access & Security 3

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Authentication

Authentication

Authentication

Authentication

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

StatusPage

StatusPage

Support

Support

RateLimits

RateLimits

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Pricing

Pricing

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Source (apis.yml)

name: PayFast
description: South African payment gateway providing REST APIs for online payment processing, subscription billing, tokenized
  recurring card payments, onsite checkout, QR code payments, instant EFT bank transfers, and merchant refunds. Trusted by
  80,000+ South African businesses and certified PCI-DSS Level 1.
accessModel:
  pricing: paid
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Paid · Self-serve signup
  confidence: high
  source:
  - plans
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/payfast.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/payfast/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-06-13'
modified: '2026-06-13'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
aid: payfast
type: Index
tags:
- Payments
- Payment Gateway
- South Africa
- Subscriptions
- Recurring Billing
- Tokenization
- Instant EFT
- QR Code Payments
- Refunds
- Fintech
apis:
- name: PayFast Subscriptions API
  description: REST API for managing recurring billing subscriptions, including fetching subscription details, pausing, unpausing,
    cancelling, updating subscription parameters, and processing adhoc charges against existing recurring billing agreements.
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Subscriptions
  - Recurring Billing
  - Membership
  - Billing
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
- name: PayFast Tokenization API
  description: REST API for managing tokenized recurring card payment agreements, allowing merchants to charge customers at
    future dates and amounts without storing card details directly. Supports adhoc charges on stored payment tokens.
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Tokenization
  - Recurring Payments
  - Credit Card
  - Card Storage
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
- name: PayFast Transaction History API
  description: REST API for querying merchant transaction history with support for date range queries, daily summaries, weekly
    aggregations, and monthly aggregations, enabling merchants to reconcile payments programmatically.
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Transactions
  - History
  - Reporting
  - Reconciliation
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
- name: PayFast Credit Card Transactions API
  description: REST API for querying individual credit card transaction details by transaction ID, giving merchants programmatic
    access to card payment records.
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Credit Card
  - Transactions
  - Lookup
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
- name: PayFast Refunds API
  description: REST API for merchants to initiate and track refunds on completed transactions, specifying refund amount, reason,
    and account type for disbursement back to the customer.
  image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Refunds
  - Payments
  - Merchant Operations
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
- aid: payfast:payfast-credit-card-transactions-api
  name: PayFast Credit Card Transactions API
  description: Query individual credit card transaction details
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Credit Card Transactions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payfast-credit-card-transactions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  - type: Sandbox
    url: https://sandbox.payfast.co.za
- aid: payfast:payfast-notifications-api
  name: PayFast Notifications API
  description: Validate ITN (Instant Transaction Notification) webhooks
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Notifications
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payfast-notifications-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  - type: Sandbox
    url: https://sandbox.payfast.co.za
- aid: payfast:payfast-onsite-checkout-api
  name: PayFast Onsite Checkout API
  description: Generate payment identifiers for embedded (onsite) checkout flows
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Onsite Checkout
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payfast-onsite-checkout-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  - type: Sandbox
    url: https://sandbox.payfast.co.za
- aid: payfast:payfast-payment-form-api
  name: PayFast Payment Form API
  description: Standard redirect-based payment form integration
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Payment Form
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payfast-payment-form-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  - type: Sandbox
    url: https://sandbox.payfast.co.za
- aid: payfast:payfast-refunds-api
  name: PayFast Refunds API
  description: Initiate and track refunds on completed transactions
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Refunds
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payfast-refunds-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  - type: Sandbox
    url: https://sandbox.payfast.co.za
- aid: payfast:payfast-subscriptions-api
  name: PayFast Subscriptions API
  description: Manage recurring billing subscription agreements
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Subscriptions
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payfast-subscriptions-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  - type: Sandbox
    url: https://sandbox.payfast.co.za
- aid: payfast:payfast-tokenization-api
  name: PayFast Tokenization API
  description: Manage tokenized card payment agreements (adhoc charges)
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Tokenization
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payfast-tokenization-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  - type: Sandbox
    url: https://sandbox.payfast.co.za
- aid: payfast:payfast-transaction-history-api
  name: PayFast Transaction History API
  description: Query merchant transaction history with date range and aggregations
  humanURL: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  baseURL: https://api.payfast.co.za
  tags:
  - Transaction History
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/payfast-transaction-history-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
  - type: Sandbox
    url: https://sandbox.payfast.co.za
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/payfast-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/payfast-domain-security.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/payfast-authentication.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://payfast.io
- type: Documentation
  url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
- type: GitHubOrg
  url: https://github.com/Payfast
- type: Pricing
  url: https://payfast.io/fees
- type: StatusPage
  url: https://status.payfast.io
- type: Blog
  url: https://payfast.io/resources
- type: Support
  url: https://support.payfast.help
- type: Plans
  url: plans/payfast-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/payfast-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/payfast-finops.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: https://developers.payfast.co.za/documentation
- type: Sandbox
  url: https://sandbox.payfast.co.za
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com