Online payments are a major part of Australia’s payments environment. For businesses that want to get set up online, understanding how to accept these payments is key. The total value of the Australian payments market is expected to increase from $501 billion in 2025 to almost $638 billion by 2031, and accessing this market means making it possible for customers to conduct easy and secure transactions worldwide—whether they’re in Perth or Paris.
Below, we’ll cover what you should know about payment gateways in Australia, including how they fit into Australia’s payment processing landscape and what to look for when choosing the best payment gateway for your business. With the right planning and due diligence, you can give your customers a smooth and easy checkout experience.
What's in this article?
- What are payment gateways?
- How payment gateways fit into Australia’s payment processing landscape
- How to choose a payment gateway in Australia
- How to integrate payment gateways for Australian businesses
- Stripe payment gateway in Australia
- How Stripe Payments can help
What are payment gateways?
A payment gateway facilitates the transfer of information between a payment portal, such as a website, and the front-end processor or acquiring bank. When a customer pays for a product or service online with a credit or debit card, the payment gateway platform performs several tasks to process the transaction, including authenticating the transaction, authorising the payment, and allowing the business and customer to complete the sale and purchase.
The payment gateway encrypts the card details, ensuring sensitive information is passed securely from the customer to the business and then between the business and the bank. In Australia, payment gateway settlement times can range from one to three business days.
Payment processors and payment gateways are key components of the online sales process, which also involves separate merchant accounts that temporarily hold funds before they’re deposited into a primary bank account.
How payment gateways fit into Australia's payment processing landscape
Australia’s payment ecosystem is characterised by its adherence to strict financial regulations and compliance with international security standards, such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). As in many other countries, including the United States, these regulations and standards ensure payment processors in Australia maintain a high level of data security. Payment gateways in Australia must comply with several systems and laws, including:
New Payments Platform (NPP): The NPP is a national infrastructure for fast, flexible, and data-rich payments. Payment gateways in Australia integrate with systems such as NPP to provide instant bank transfers, a payment method popular with customers and businesses.
Australian Consumer Law (ACL): Australian payment gateways must comply with the ACL by providing transparent fee structures and protecting customer rights during online transactions. They also must work within the guidelines set by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), which oversees financial institutions and financial system stability in Australia.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL): Many Australian payment gateways support BNPL services, which have surged in popularity in the Australian market. Often, payment gateways integrate services such as Afterpay and Zip, giving customers the option to defer payments or pay in instalments.
Australian Taxation Office (ATO): The ATO has regulations in place that affect payment gateways. Payment gateways must provide mechanisms for businesses to easily collect and remit the goods and services tax (GST) on online sales.
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA): The RBA plays a role in the payment system, especially in promoting competition and innovation in the payment services market. This includes overseeing the practices and fees associated with payment gateways.
Mobile payments: With the rise of mobile commerce, Australian payment gateways are offering more mobile-optimised payment solutions. This ensures payment gateways are mobile-friendly and integrate with digital wallets and payment systems such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, which are widely used in Australia.
How to choose a payment gateway in Australia
Choosing a payment gateway in Australia means making strategic choices that match your business objectives and operational needs. From preserving smooth financial transactions to following regulatory requirements, each decision will directly affect your sales process and customer satisfaction.
Below are a few considerations to help you select a payment gateway that fits your business model:
Assess currency-handling and mobile commerce capabilities: A payment gateway must handle the Australian dollar for local transactions and facilitate multicurrency payment processing for international transactions. Along with managing currency conversions for cross-border commerce, the gateway should be optimised for mobile checkouts and support digital wallet transactions.
Check integration with local payment systems: Look for providers that integrate directly with Australian banks and the NPP for real-time transfer support. To minimise technical overhead, choose a payment gateway that offers both subscription billing capabilities and online payment processing plugins for major ecommerce platforms in Australia, such as Shopify.
Verify regulatory compliance and high security measures: Ensure your provider is PCI DSS compliant and adheres to Australian regulatory standards set by APRA. These protocols safeguard customer data and ensure your business remains compliant with local law, and are especially important for businesses that may have high-risk merchant accounts.
Compare different providers’ fee structures: A gateway that offers a straightforward fee schedule for transactions and any monthly service fees provides businesses with predictable costs, helping with financial planning and budgeting. The right fee structure can be a decisive factor for businesses when balancing gateway services with operational costs.
Prioritise responsive customer support: Access to responsive customer support, specifically support that operates within Australian business hours, is indispensable. A gateway that provides prompt assistance—and the means with which to resolve payment issues swiftly—minimises downtime and helps maintain a business’s reputation for reliability.
How to integrate payment gateways for Australian businesses
Integrating a payment gateway for an Australian business requires the right balance of technical precision and compliance with local financial standards. Here’s a look at the process:
Select a compatible payment gateway: Evaluate gateways that have the capabilities to facilitate local transactions and those that use international currencies, through comprehensive transaction methods such as direct bank transfers enabled by the NPP.
Examine compliance requirements: Rigorously assess the gateway’s compliance with Australian financial governance, including APRA standards, AFSL requirements, and PCI DSS compliance for API integrations.
Plan for GST and reporting: Choose a system for managing the complexities of GST collection and providing nuanced reporting options that promote compliance with the ATO’s regulations.
Check for technical compatibility: Choose a gateway with a swift onboarding process, user-friendly technical documentation, and sandbox environment for testing, including software development kits (SDKs) for custom development and easy integration with your ecommerce infrastructure.
Test the payment process: Conduct thorough testing within the gateway’s sandbox environment to check the system’s reliability before it goes live. Payment gateways can take 1 to 3 business days to be integrated, so plan ahead.
Deploy and monitor: After deployment, monitor the gateway’s performance and assess its transaction handling and responsiveness to any issues. Make sure you have a dedicated support team to manage potential disruptions.
Adhering to this integration process ensures the payment gateway is attuned to the specifics of the Australian financial system and the operational demands of your business.
Stripe payment gateway in Australia
Stripe provides a suite of commerce solutions for Australian businesses, including the ability to accept various forms of payment online and in person. Stripe’s services cater to the needs of a diverse range of businesses, from small startups to large corporations, and support the country’s growing ecommerce environment.
These rates apply to payment processing and are part of Stripe’s pay-as-you-go pricing model for payment platform services. There are no setup fees, monthly fees, or hidden fees associated with these costs. For more details and to see whether there are any updates or changes to these costs, look at Stripe’s pricing specifics.
How Stripe Payments can help
Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business – from scaling startups to global enterprises – accept payments online, in person and around the world.
Stripe Payments can help you:
- Optimise your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs, access to 125+ payment methods and Link, a wallet built by Stripe.
- Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.
- Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalise interactions, reward loyalty and grow revenue.
- Improve payments performance: Increase revenue with a range of customisable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorisation rates.
- Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.
Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments or get started today.
The content in this article is for general information and education purposes only and should not be construed as legal or tax advice. Stripe does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, adequacy, or currency of the information in the article. You should seek the advice of a competent lawyer or accountant licensed to practise in your jurisdiction for advice on your particular situation.