You can configure splits globally via your Payfast account, or dynamically through each payment request.

⚠️
You’ll need Split Payments enabled on your Payfast account. Contact Support to set it up.

Setup Options

There are two ways to enable Split Payments:

Global Setup

Contact Payfast Support to configure a split that applies to every transaction.
You’ll provide the recipient Merchant ID and amount or percentage split.

Per-Request Setup (Dynamic)

You can enable Split Payments dynamically by including the setup parameter in your payment request. This method gives you full control over when and how to split payments.

Works with:

One-time payments
Recurring Billing (split data is retained for future charges)

Form Fields (JSON in `setup`)

<input type="hidden" name="setup" value='{
  "split_payment": {
    "merchant_id": 10000105,
    "percentage": 10,
    "min": 100,
    "max": 100000
  }
}'>

Field	Required	Description
`merchant_id`	✅	The third-party Payfast Merchant ID.
`percentage`	✅ if no `amount`	The percentage of the transaction to split.
`amount`	✅ if no `percentage`	The fixed amount (in cents) to split.
`min`	Optional	Minimum allowed split (in cents).
`max`	Optional	Maximum allowed split (in cents).

Additional Split Payment Form Fields

Field	Type	Required/Optional	Description
`setup`	string (JSON)	REQUIRED for split payments	JSON encoded payload for `split_payment`. Not included in the signature.
`merchant_id`	integer (8 char)	REQUIRED	The third-party merchant that the payment is being split with.
`amount`	integer	REQUIRED if not using `percentage`	Amount in cents (ZAR) to go to the third-party merchant.
`percentage`	integer (2 char)	REQUIRED if not using `amount`	Percentage allocated to the third-party merchant.
`min`	integer	OPTIONAL	Minimum amount to be split, in cents (ZAR).
`max`	integer	OPTIONAL	Maximum amount to be split, in cents (ZAR).

Split Payment Calculation Logic

Both amount & percentage set
→ First deduct percentage, then amount.
- Example (R400 = 40,000 cents):
  Split = (40000 - 10%) - 500 = 35500 cents

For example, consider R400 (40000 cents)

{
  "split_payment": {
    "merchant_id": 10000105,
    "percentage": 10,
    "amount": 500,
    "min": 100,
    "max": 100000
  }
}

Split < Min → The min value takes precedence.

Example (R60 = 6000 cents, split 5500 < min 1000): Split = 1000 cents

For example, consider R60 (6000 cents)

{
"split_payment": {
    "merchant_id": 10000105,
    "amount": 5500,
    "min": 1000,
    "max": 100000
}
}

Split > Max → The max value caps the split.

Example (R400 = 40000 cents, split 10% = 4000 > max 2000): Split = 2000 cents

For example, consider R400 (40000 cents)

{
"split_payment": {
    "merchant_id": 10000105,
    "percentage": 10,
    "min": 100,
    "max": 20000
}
}