Standards/pix-automatico

Pix Automatico

TypeRecurring payment

PrimaryBR

Completeness76%high

Overview

Pix Automático is a recurring-debit capability layer built on top of pix, Brazil's instant-payment system operated by the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) [1, 4]. It lets a payer give a one-time authorisation (a recurrence mandate) to a business, after which future charges are debited automatically and instantly from the payer's account without further manual action for each payment [1, 3]. It is the Pix-native answer to card-on-file recurring billing and to traditional bank direct debit (débito automático), explicitly aimed at extending recurring-payment access to the roughly 60 million Brazilians who do not hold a credit card [6].

Pix Automático is not a new wire format or QR symbology — it reuses the existing Pix rail and the pix BR Code where a QR is needed to start a mandate — but it adds a consent/mandate object, a scheduling layer, and retry rules that one-off Pix lacks [1, 7]. For the base instant-payment system, the BR Code payload, and the EMVCo-derived QR format, see the pix entry; this page documents only the recurring extension.

History

The BCB included recurring payments on its published Pix evolution roadmap, alongside Pix por Aproximação (contactless), Pix Internacional, and Open Finance integration [2]. Pix Automático was originally targeted for October 2024 but the launch was postponed — the central bank did not give a reason for the delay — and rescheduled to 16 June 2025 [6]. It went live on that date as a recurring-payment feature requiring a single up-front consent [6].

The base Pix system itself launched on 16 November 2020 (see pix) [[../countries/BR-brazil.md]]. Pix Automático is one of several post-launch additions the BCB has layered onto the rail, following Pix Saque / Pix Troco cash withdrawal (November 2022) [[../countries/BR-brazil.md]].

Technical specification

Pix Automático introduces a pre-authorised recurrence mandate rather than a per-payment confirmation [1].

Mandate / consent model. The receiving payment service provider (PSP), on behalf of the merchant, creates a recurrence record carrying payer and receiver information, the payment schedule, the start date, and a fixed debit amount where applicable [1]. This is transmitted to the payer's PSP and held as pending confirmation until the payer approves it through their banking app [1]. On approval, the payer's bank issues a Consent Token in accordance with Open Finance standards, after which the merchant can trigger automatic debits [1]. At consent time the payer can set rules such as the maximum amount allowed per debit, transaction limits, frequency, and optional use of a credit line if the account balance is insufficient [7, 3]. Either party — payer or receiver — can cancel the recurrence, which automatically prevents future payment instructions [1].

Fixed and variable amounts. A recurrence may carry a fixed amount (e.g. a subscription) or be variable within the consented ceiling (e.g. a utility bill that changes month to month), with the payer's per-debit maximum acting as the guardrail [1, 7].

Authorisation journeys. The BCB / PSPs support multiple ways to establish the mandate [5, 1]:

an in-app notification the payer confirms;
a QR code that authorises the recurrence;
a QR code that combines an immediate first payment with set-up of the recurrence;
a flow that offers a recurrence after an initial scheduled or one-off payment.

Retry rules. Unlike a one-off Pix (which simply fails if the balance is insufficient), Pix Automático defines a retry policy for failed debits: up to three retry attempts within a seven-day window, at most one per day, for the same amount [8, 7]. The bank's first attempt window is between 00:00 and 08:00 BRT; if it fails, the bank notifies the payer with the reason and suggested actions (top up the account, adjust limits), and intraday retry attempts are then initiated between 18:00 and 21:00 BRT [8].

How it differs from a one-off Pix / QR. A standard Pix or BR Code QR (see pix) initiates a single push transfer that the payer confirms at the moment of payment. Pix Automático instead establishes a standing mandate so the merchant can pull recurring debits after the initial consent, adds the retry window above, and ties the consent lifecycle to Open Finance tokens [1, 8].

Use cases

Pix Automático targets recurring, subscription-style billing that previously relied on cards, boleto, or bank direct debit [6, 3]:

Utility bills — the most-cited expected use case (~55 % in pre-launch survey data) [9].
Streaming and digital-content subscriptions (~34 %) [9].
Fitness / gym memberships (~24 %) [9].
Rent, school fees, and other monthly obligations [6, 3].
Cross-border / global merchants selling subscriptions into Brazil, attracted by lower fees than cards [6].

Implementations

At launch the recurrence flow is offered through payers' banking apps and through payment processors that integrate the BCB recurrence API on the merchant side; named processors documenting Pix Automático integrations include PagBrasil, EBANX, dLocal, FacilitaPay, and Beeteller [1, 8, 3]. Consent issuance follows Open Finance token standards, so participating banks reuse their existing Open Finance infrastructure [1]. Boku obtained a Brazilian payment-institution licence to launch Pix recurring payments by 2026, indicating continued onboarding of international players [10].

Comparison

vs. card recurring (card-on-file). Card recurring billing typically costs merchants ~2–4 % plus settlement delays of up to ~30 days, and suffers involuntary churn from expired or declined cards; Pix Automático settles instantly, has fees reported as up to ten times lower than cards, and removes failures tied to credit limits or card expiry [3, 6].

vs. traditional bank direct debit (débito automático). Brazilian bank direct debit has historically been hard for small businesses to offer. BCB officials said Pix Automático is expected to disrupt both the paper-based bill-paying method and existing bank automatic-debit services, while making it easier for small businesses to offer automatic debit [6].

vs. boleto bancário. Boleto costs roughly BRL 1–4 per slip issued and is not compatible with true automation; Pix Automático replaces it for recurring billing [3].

vs. other Pix variants. Pix Agendado (scheduled) is a single future-dated transfer with no automatic retry and no guarantee of execution; Pix Parcelado is a credit-based installment product. Pix Automático is the only Pix variant that establishes a standing recurrence mandate with retry handling [7].

Status

Live since 16 June 2025 [6]. EBANX projected Pix Automático would draw about USD 30 billion in e-commerce payments to Pix within two years [6], and separate EBANX analysis projected its transaction volume growing roughly 41 % per month into 2026 [9]. Pre-launch awareness was already at about 32 % of Brazilians [9]. It rides the broader Pix base of 180+ million users (~87–91 % of adults; see pix) [9, [../countries/BR-brazil.md]]. No deprecation is planned; the BCB continues to expand the Pix feature set [2].

Sources

Deployments

No country reports mention this standard by name.