mada Fees for Online Stores: What You Really Pay in 2026

Good news first: mada is one of the cheapest ways to get paid online anywhere.

Saudi gateways that publish their prices charge about 1% for a mada payment. That's less than half what most credit cards cost.

And mada is where Saudi shoppers already are. In October 2025, they spent a record SAR 30.7 billion online with mada cards.

So the rate isn't the problem. The extras are: fixed fees, Apple Pay billing and platform fees. Here's what each one costs, with a worked example for a real-sized store.

How much does mada cost an online store?

Expect about 1% of the order at a Saudi gateway, before 15% VAT on the fee. On a SAR 250 order, you'd pay SAR 2.50 to the gateway.

Add VAT and it's still under SAR 3.

Mada is Saudi Arabia's national debit card network. Almost every Saudi bank account comes with a mada card, and most shoppers pay with one.

What you pay depends on how you take the payment:

• A gateway with published rates. Amazon Payment Services (APS), PayTabs Paymes and Telr all charge 1% on mada, with no fixed fee.
• A quote-based gateway. Tap, HyperPay, Moyasar and Geidea set your rate on application.
• Your platform's built-in payments. Salla and Zid bundle mada into their own payment services.
• Shopify plus a gateway. You pay the gateway's mada rate and Shopify's own fee on top.

The full rate cards for every method sit in our guide to payment gateway fees in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

What does SAMA allow gateways to charge?

SAMA, the Saudi Central Bank, caps the online mada fee at 1.75% of the order. The cap is a ceiling for negotiation, not a target.

There's no riyal cap on online mada. A SAR 10,000 order could, in theory, cost up to SAR 175.

The SAR 40 cap you may have read about is for in-store payment terminals. There, banks can charge up to 0.8% per mada payment, capped at SAR 40.

Of that 1.75%, the rules fix one slice. Your gateway's bank pays the shopper's bank 0.70% per online payment.

The rest is the gateway's margin and costs, which is why quotes vary. It's also why a store with steady volume can often negotiate below the published 1%.

So any mada quote above 1.75% is over SAMA's ceiling. Push back, or walk away.

mada rates by gateway and platform

Two things stand out. Zid's rate matches the gateways, but its SAR 1 fixed fee adds up on small orders.

Salla's rate is the outlier. Merchants report about 1.75% plus SAR 1, so check the rate in your own Salla contract. Our Salla vs Zid comparison sets both payment services side by side.

mada inside Apple Pay: the line that doubles your bill

Most Saudi shoppers on iPhone pay with mada through Apple Pay. Apple charges you nothing for that, so your gateway prices the card inside the wallet.

PayTabs Paymes and Telr bill mada inside Apple Pay at the mada rate.

APS doesn't. It bills every Apple Pay payment at its card rate of 2.8% plus SAR 1, even with a mada card inside.

So a SAR 250 order costs SAR 8.00 at APS. At a mada-rate gateway, it's SAR 2.50.

How Apple Pay shows up at checkout is covered in our Apple Pay in Saudi Arabia guide.

Fixed fees, VAT and refunds

Three smaller lines can change what mada really costs you.

Fixed fees hit small orders hardest. A SAR 1 fee is just 0.4% of a SAR 250 order. On a SAR 50 order, it's 2%.

Add the 1% rate, and that SAR 50 order costs you 3% to collect. Bigger baskets make the fixed fee fade.

VAT applies to the fee, not your sale. Gateways add 15% VAT to their own fee. If you're VAT-registered, keep the monthly tax invoice so you can reclaim it.

Refunds rarely return the fee. Most gateways keep the original processing fee when you refund. Zid, for example, charges nothing extra to refund but keeps the original fee.

The upside? Mada refunds reach the shopper fast, usually within 24 hours to 3 days, according to Moyasar. Credit card refunds take 7–14 days. That speed builds trust, so mention it on your returns page.

Worked example: 1,000 orders of SAR 250

Let's take a Riyadh store with 1,000 orders a month at SAR 250 each. That's SAR 250,000 in sales.

Every order is paid with mada, and 600 of them go through Apple Pay. Totals include gateway monthly fees and 15% VAT on gateway fees. Shopify, Salla and Zid plan subscriptions are left out.

The same shoppers, paying the same way, cost anywhere from about SAR 2,900 to SAR 7,900 a month.

Two lines do most of the damage. APS's Apple Pay billing adds about SAR 3,800 a month. Shopify Basic's 2% adds SAR 5,000, which is more than the whole mada bill.

Want to run your own mix? Enter your sales, orders and Apple Pay share:

The comparator covers gateways with published rates. For Salla and Zid, use the rates in the table above.

How to pay less for mada

You can't change the network's 0.70% slice. You can change almost everything around it.

1

Put mada first at checkout

List mada and Apple Pay above credit cards. A shopper who has both will usually tap the first one they see.

2

Get Apple Pay priced at the mada rate

Ask each gateway in writing how it bills mada inside Apple Pay. On a mobile-heavy store, this line matters most.

3

Collect two or three written quotes

Ask Tap, HyperPay, Moyasar or Geidea to beat the 1% published rates. Bring your monthly volume and average order value.

4

Lift your average order

Bundles and free-shipping thresholds shrink the SAR 1 fixed fee as a share of each order.

5

Renegotiate as volume builds

Once your mada volume is steady, ask your gateway for a rate closer to the 0.70% interchange. Bring three months of statements.

Want gateways to compete for your business? Tell us your setup once and we'll do the asking.

Notes for Shopify stores

• There's no Shopify Payments in Saudi Arabia, so every mada payment goes through a gateway app.
• Shopify's fee sits on top. It's 2% on Basic and 1% on Grow. Advanced pays 0.6%, Plus 0.2%, and cash on delivery is exempt.
• In the worked example, Grow saves SAR 2,500 a month in Shopify fees, far more than the plan costs over Basic.

Gateway apps and setup steps are in our guide to accepting mada on Shopify.

Notes for Salla and Zid stores

• No contract to sign. Mada comes built in, with no Shopify-style platform fee.
• Zid publishes its rates: 1% + SAR 1 on mada on the Growth plan, ex-VAT. See Zid pricing.
• Salla's mada rate is seller-reported. Confirm it in your dashboard before you set prices. See Salla pricing.

Notes for foreign companies

• Domestic mada needs a Saudi entity, a CR or freelance licence and a Saudi bank account.
• Without one, co-badged mada cards go through as Visa or Mastercard, at card rates and with more declines.

The routes in are covered in can a foreign company accept mada?. For every other way Saudis pay, see payment methods in Saudi Arabia or the payments hub.