Short answer: At an average order of AED 250, Stripe's published UAE rate of 2.9% plus AED 1 costs about AED 660 a month on AED 20,000 of sales and about AED 3,300 on AED 100,000, before VAT. Telr's volume tiers work out at about AED 769 and about AED 2,450. Run any gateway other than Shopify Payments behind a Shopify Basic store and Shopify adds 2% of every order on top.
This guide is for UAE shop owners and founders comparing checkout costs before they sign. Every figure was read from the provider's own page on 12 October 2026, so treat it as a dated snapshot and ask for a written quote at your own volume. We name no winner: the cheapest option changes with volume, card mix and platform.
What do I need before any gateway will approve me?
A UAE trade licence, a UAE bank account, and identity documents for anyone owning a quarter of the business. The detail decides which providers you can even apply to.
Stripe requires a "valid (non-expired) trade license or freelancer permit" issued inside the UAE and accepts DED eTrader licences, covering sole establishments, free zone establishments, LLCs and their branches, but not "individuals without a license/permit or non-profit organizations". For an LLC, its activation list adds a memorandum of association naming the beneficial owners, a bank statement dated within six months, and verification of anyone owning 25% or more.
Shopify is stricter on entity type. Its UAE requirements page says "A CRN is required to be eligible for Shopify Payments in the UAE", accepts only sole establishments, free zone sole establishments, LLCs and free zone LLCs, and needs an AED checking account at a UAE bank.
Telr puts it in one line on its pricing page: "A valid trade license is mandatory." Its documents checklist adds the owner's passport and visa, a share certificate or memorandum, and three months of bank statements. Buy now pay later is lighter: Tabby asks only that the business be "legally registered in the country where you operate", with an active sales channel and a business bank account.
Gather the documents first: nobody can quote your real cost before they know your licence category, which is why website costs in Dubai and gateway costs belong in one planning week.
What does each option cost on AED 20,000 and on AED 100,000 of monthly sales?
The assumptions matter more than the rates: an average order of AED 250, so 80 orders at AED 20,000 and 400 at AED 100,000; every card issued in the UAE; no disputes or refunds; all figures before 5% VAT.
| Setup | On AED 20,000 | On AED 100,000 | Rate at AED 100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe, your own checkout | AED 660 | AED 3,300 | 3.30% |
| Telr, your own checkout | AED 769 (Entry plan) | AED 2,450 (Medium plan) | 2.45% |
| Shopify Basic plus Shopify Payments | AED 748 | AED 3,388 | 3.39% |
| Shopify Grow plus Shopify Payments | AED 893 | AED 3,453 | 3.45% |
| Shopify Basic plus Telr | AED 1,257 | AED 4,538 | 4.54% |
| Shopify Advanced plus Telr | AED 1,987 | AED 4,148 | 4.15% |
Three pages supply the rates. Stripe's UAE pricing page: 2.9% plus AED 1.00 on domestic cards, no monthly or setup fee. Telr's pricing page: the Entry plan (AED 10,000 to 24,999 a month) charges AED 199 monthly plus 2.45% plus AED 1, the Medium plan (AED 50,000 and above) no monthly fee and 2.25% plus AED 0.50. Shopify's UAE pricing page: card rates of 2.9% plus AED 1.00 on Basic, 2.8% on Grow, 2.7% on Advanced and 2.5% on Plus, with third party transaction fees of 2%, 1%, 0.6% and 0.2%. Shopify prices plans in US dollars, converted at the peg of 1 USD to AED 3.6725 that the UAE fact sheet gives, so on yearly billing Basic is AED 88 a month, Grow AED 253 and Advanced AED 1,098.
Three things fall out. At low volume the percentage is not the price: Telr's Startup plan charges a flat AED 249 a month below AED 10,000 of sales, which is 4.98% on AED 5,000 of orders. A bigger Shopify plan is not automatically cheaper: Grow saves 0.1% on cards but costs AED 165 more a month than Basic, so it only repays above roughly AED 165,000 of monthly card sales. And the third party fee is the largest avoidable line: on Shopify Basic at AED 100,000, any gateway except Shopify Payments costs AED 2,000 a month in Shopify fees alone.
Which costs are not in the headline rate?
The published percentage covers a clean domestic card payment nobody disputes. The rest is where two identical headline rates stop being comparable. From the same three pricing pages, plus Stripe's payouts documentation, Shopify's UAE payouts page and Telr's merchant terms:
- International cards. Stripe adds 1% on international cards and a further 1% where conversion is required, Telr adds 0.50%, and Shopify lists 3.9% plus AED 1.00 on Basic in the row it labels online international rates, the same figures it gives for Amex.
- Disputes. Stripe charges AED 60.00 for each dispute received and AED 60.00 for each one you answer manually, refunded only if you win.
- Payout delay. Stripe lists initial UAE settlement at 5 business days; Shopify sets a 5 business day minimum, a minimum payout of AED 20, and consolidates Friday, Saturday and Sunday into one payout.
- Monthly floors. Telr charges AED 249, AED 199 or AED 99 a month below AED 50,000 of volume, so a slow month costs a percentage you did not plan for.
- VAT on fees. Telr states its fees are "subject to 5% VAT", the UAE standard rate since 1 January 2018.
- Reserves. Telr's terms say that "in many cases, the Rolling Reserve amount will be the entire amount of Charges processed".
- Refunds. A refund returns the customer's money but usually not the percentage you already paid.
Three providers publish nothing usable: PayTabs shows Saudi figures only, Checkout.com names no country, and Amazon Payment Services shows UAE rates as images.
Should I offer Tabby or Tamara, and what will they charge me?
Offer them if your average order is large enough that instalments change a shopper's mind, and expect to pay more than on cards. Neither publishes a merchant rate, so do not plan around any range you read in a comparison article.
What is published is the plumbing. Tabby's payout cycles page offers a fixed cycle paying "every working Monday" whatever the balance, and a flexible cycle that holds funds until the net amount "after commission and VAT" reaches AED 2,500. A payout fee of AED 6 applies, and fixed cycle payouts below AED 2,500 attract AED 25. That phrase shows a commission with tax on top of it. It names no rate, and the page prices in dirhams and riyals together, so get the rate in writing rather than assuming 5%.
Tamara's merchant terms are blunter. Tamara pays "on Tuesday of the following applicable week", but only once the net amount reaches a Base Settlement Amount set in your Merchant Onboarding Form rather than in the terms. It may withhold your first three approved transactions for a month, and may "hold a portion of the Net Amount not exceeding 75%, during weekly settlement cycle".
So ask for the onboarding form before you integrate, and get five things in writing: the percentage and fixed fee per plan length, whether VAT is added, the settlement day and threshold, the payout fee, and the reserve percentage with its release terms. Both are regulated here: Tamara announced a restricted finance licence from the Central Bank of the UAE on 20 October 2025, and the Central Bank register, read on 12 October 2026, lists Tamara FZE as a Finance Company and Tabby Payments L.L.C. as a Stored Value Facility, both in Dubai.
Do I need Apple Pay, Jaywan or Aani?
Apple Pay yes, Jaywan ask your provider, Aani not yet for a normal online checkout.
Apple Pay is not a separate cost. Stripe's documentation says accounts worldwide can accept it with local currency settlement and that for physical goods "you pay only the Stripe processing fees". On Shopify it arrives switched on: the UAE payment methods page says "accelerated checkouts are automatically activated with Shopify Payments" and lists Apple Pay, Google Pay and Shop Pay among them, alongside Visa and Mastercard.
Jaywan, the UAE domestic card scheme run by Al Etihad Payments, is now a live question. The National reported on 20 July 2026 that banks, financial institutions and licensed exchange houses had begun issuing Jaywan cards to customers in stages, and that Network International's online merchants accept them "with no additional fees for merchants on Jaywan transactions". Telr enabled it on 27 April 2026 and Checkout.com on 28 September 2026. We found no Stripe documentation listing Jaywan. Your question is short: is Jaywan switched on for my account, and at what rate?
Aani, the Central Bank's instant payment platform, is large. Al Etihad Payments reported on 10 April 2026 over 12.5 million registered users, transfers in "no more than three seconds", and roughly 774,000 merchants adopting it as a primary payment method, with QR payments and Request to Pay among current features. It does not mention e commerce checkout, so ask your provider rather than planning around it.
Is cash on delivery still worth it?
Keep it while you measure it, and price it honestly rather than as free. Cards are clearly growing: Khaleej Times reported Visa research on 4 October 2026 putting the share of domestic payment volume made online and in apps at 55% in 2026, up from 35% in 2019.
We found no official UAE figure for how much e commerce is still paid in cash. The estimates that circulate come from vendor blogs, disagree by a factor of three, and are not your shop, so we leave the number out. Measure your own, then price cash on delivery as three costs: your courier's collection fee and remittance cycle, in writing exactly as you would a gateway rate; the orders refused at the door, which you paid to ship twice; and the delay, since cash reaches you later than a card payout. Shopify Payments in the UAE is also "only available for online selling", so cash on delivery sits outside it as a manual method you reconcile yourself.
One rule is not negotiable. Under Federal Decree by Law No. (14) of 2023 Concerning the Modern Technology-Based Trade, in force since 16 September 2023, Article 14(3) bars additional logistics fees on the consumer beyond those announced in the digital contract or terms, and Article 15(3) says the same for digital payment fees. A delivery charge or a card surcharge has to be declared before checkout. The wider set of obligations sits in our guide to the legal requirements for a UAE online store.
How do I check my provider is licensed, and what should the contract say?
Check the Central Bank's own register, and search by legal name rather than brand. The CBUAE licensing page carries a Search Financial Institutions tool over the CBUAE Register, filterable by licence type, including Retail Payment Services, Stored Value Facility, Finance Company and Bank. Read on 12 October 2026, it listed 39 entities under Retail Payment Services and 23 under Stored Value Facility.
The trap is the name. Searching for "Telr" returns nothing, because Telr's merchant terms state that your agreement is with "Innovate Technologies FZCO", which is the name in the register. Others appear under licensed legal names too: Network International L.L.C, Checkout MENA FZ L.L.C and Paymob Technologies L.L.C. We found no entity named Stripe in the register, and Stripe's launch announcement of 5 April 2021 says its UAE entry was "supported via a partnership with Network International", which is licensed. So ask every provider two questions: which licence category under which legal name, and which bank settles my funds.
Then read the contract. Telr publishes its merchant terms openly, which makes them a useful checklist whoever you sign with. They put the payout schedule in the dashboard rather than the contract, allow a holding period before the first settlement, let Telr set a rolling reserve in the onboarding form and hold reserve rights for "a minimum period of 7 months" after termination. They make you liable to reimburse disputed amounts "for a period of 36 months", allow suspension for chargebacks "excessive of 0.8%", and give you ninety calendar days after closure to claim a pending balance.
So get one sheet in writing: the rate per card type, the fixed fee, every monthly or volume floor, the setup fee, the dispute and refund fees, whether VAT is added, the settlement timetable, the reserve terms, the chargeback liability window, and who owns the merchant account. A disclosure: 4AI builds checkouts, including Shopify and custom stores through our web design work. The scepticism you would apply when choosing a marketing agency in Dubai belongs here too, and for a second opinion on competing quotes you can book a consultation. This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shopify Payments available in the UAE, and does it need a Plus or Advanced plan?
Shopify's own pages say yes and no, as of 12 October 2026. The supported countries page lists "Shopify Payments for the United Arab Emirates" with no early access note, the UAE requirements page restricts eligibility by entity type rather than plan, the UAE payouts page allows payouts in AED "on all subscription plans", and the UAE pricing page publishes a card rate for every plan including Basic. Vendor posts claiming Plus only or Advanced only are not Shopify pages and are undated. Check it in Settings then Payments in your own admin.
Can I use Stripe for a UAE business?
Yes, with a UAE issued trade licence or freelancer permit. Stripe supports sole establishments, free zone establishments, LLCs and their branches, and accepts DED eTrader licences, but not individuals without a licence or non-profit organisations. Its published UAE rate is 2.9% plus AED 1.00 on domestic cards with no setup or monthly fee, plus 1% on international cards and a further 1% where conversion is required.
Is Tabby or Tamara cheaper than card payments?
Neither publishes a merchant rate, so no honest comparison is possible from public pages. What is published points the other way: Tabby deducts "commission and VAT" before payout and charges AED 6 per payout, or AED 25 when a fixed cycle payout falls below AED 2,500, while Tamara defines its fee only in the Merchant Onboarding Form. Ask both for a written rate per plan length, then weigh it against the lift in average order value you measure.
Can I pass the gateway fee on to the customer?
Only if you declared it first. Article 15(3) of Federal Decree by Law No. (14) of 2023 bars additional digital payment fees on the consumer beyond those announced in the digital contract or terms, and Article 14(3) says the same for logistics fees. Article 15 is headed Digital Payment Portals, so take advice on whether it binds you or your provider. Most UAE shops price the fee into the product instead.
Do I pay VAT on payment gateway fees?
On UAE provider fees, yes: Telr states that its fees are "subject to 5% VAT", and the UAE standard rate has been 5% since 1 January 2018. Registration is mandatory above AED 375,000 of annual taxable supplies, and once registered you normally recover that VAT as input tax. Stripe's pricing page states no rate and says tax depends on your location and tax status, so ask for a tax invoice.