TL;DR
Every cashless payment your restaurant takes carries a merchant fee, deducted before the money hits your account. As of June 2026, QR Ph is usually the cheapest way to collect — typically around 1.0% to 1.5%, with GCash for Business advertising QR Ph as low as 1.0% and Maya around 1.25% for offline QR. Paying GCash or Maya as a standalone e-wallet through a payment gateway tends to cost more (roughly 2.0%–2.5%), GrabPay and ShopeePay sit around 2.2%–2.5%, and cards are the most expensive at roughly 3%+ plus a fixed peso fee. On a thin restaurant margin those points matter, so steer customers toward QR Ph where you can. Rates change often — always confirm with the provider. OrderEase lets you display and accept GCash, Maya, QR Ph, GrabPay, ShopeePay and cards inside one QR-ordering flow, with plans from ₱2,580/month and a 30-day free trial.
Why Payment Fees Matter More in Food Than Almost Anywhere
Restaurants run on some of the thinnest margins in retail. After food cost, rent, labor, and utilities, a typical operator keeps a single-digit percentage of every peso in net profit. That is exactly why a merchant fee that looks trivial — one or two percent — is not trivial at all. If your net margin is 8% and you hand 2.5% of a sale to a payment provider, you have just given away a meaningful slice of the profit on that ticket. Choose the wrong payment mix and you can quietly erase a chunk of your monthly earnings without ever seeing it on a single receipt.
The fee that matters is the Merchant Discount Rate, or MDR — the percentage a payment provider deducts from each successful sale before settling the rest to your account. Cash has no MDR, which is part of why operators cling to it, but cash carries its own costs: counting, change, shrinkage, and bank-deposit trips. The smart move is not to refuse cashless; it is to understand what each cashless method costs and to nudge customers toward the cheapest one that still works for them. Our guide to accepting GCash, Maya, and QR Ph covers how to set each one up.
The Three Names You Need to Understand
Before comparing numbers, it helps to be precise about what GCash, Maya, and QR Ph actually are, because they are not the same kind of thing — and that distinction is exactly what drives the fee difference. They are also a key part of the cashless flow described in our QR code ordering guide.
- GCash — the largest e-wallet in the Philippines. Customers load money and pay by scanning your merchant QR. You can accept GCash either through a GCash for Business merchant account or through a third-party payment gateway, and the route you choose changes the fee.
- Maya — the other major e-wallet, and a licensed digital bank. Same idea as GCash from the diner's side; the merchant fee again depends on whether you take it via Maya Business directly or via a gateway.
- QR Ph — the national QR standard set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and settled through InstaPay. It is not a wallet; it is the shared rail that many banks and wallets — including GCash and Maya — can pay across. One QR Ph code accepts payments from any compliant app, and because it is the BSP standard, its merchant rates are typically the lowest of the bunch.
2026 Merchant Fee Comparison
The table below summarizes typical merchant fees as of June 2026. Treat these as representative ranges, not quotes: your exact MDR depends on the provider you sign with, whether you go direct or through a payment gateway, your processing volume, and any promotional rates in effect. Always confirm the current number with the provider before you commit — rates in this market change regularly.
| Payment Method | Typical Merchant Fee (MDR) | Monthly / Setup Fee | Settlement | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| QR Ph (national standard) | ~1.0%–1.5% | Usually none | Via InstaPay, often T+1 | Cheapest route; one code accepts many banks/wallets |
| GCash via QR Ph | as low as ~1.0% | Usually none | Often T+1 | GCash for Business advertises QR Ph from 1.0% |
| GCash as standalone wallet (via gateway) | ~2.0%–2.5% | Gateway-dependent | Gateway-dependent | Direct-wallet route via a payment aggregator tends to cost more than QR Ph |
| Maya via QR Ph (offline / static QR / terminal) | ~1.25% | Usually none | Often T+1 | Maya Business offline QR rate; online checkout is higher |
| Maya online checkout / payment links | ~1.6% | Gateway-dependent | Gateway-dependent | Higher than Maya offline QR |
| GrabPay | ~2.2% | Gateway-dependent | Gateway-dependent | Reaches Grab super-app users |
| ShopeePay | ~2.5% | Gateway-dependent | Gateway-dependent | Reaches Shopee shoppers |
| Credit & debit cards | ~3%+ plus a fixed peso fee | Gateway-dependent | Gateway-dependent | Most expensive; best reserved for higher-value tickets |
What These Fees Cost on a Real Ticket
Percentages are abstract; pesos are not. Here is what the same ₱500 dine-in ticket costs you in merchant fees depending on how the customer pays, using the middle of each range above.
| Method | Fee on a ₱500 Ticket | You Keep |
|---|---|---|
| QR Ph @ ~1.0% | ₱5.00 | ₱495.00 |
| Maya offline QR @ ~1.25% | ₱6.25 | ₱493.75 |
| GrabPay @ ~2.2% | ₱11.00 | ₱489.00 |
| GCash standalone @ ~2.5% | ₱12.50 | ₱487.50 |
| ShopeePay @ ~2.5% | ₱12.50 | ₱487.50 |
| Card @ ~3% + ₱15 | ₱30.00 | ₱470.00 |
The spread on a single ₱500 ticket is small in absolute terms — but multiply it across a busy month. A quick-service restaurant ringing ₱600,000 in monthly sales pays about ₱6,000 in fees at a 1.0% QR Ph blended rate, versus roughly ₱15,000 at a 2.5% standalone-wallet rate. That ₱9,000 monthly gap is real money — staff hours, a marketing budget, or simply margin you keep. Over a year it is more than ₱100,000.
Why QR Ph Is Usually the Cheapest Way to Collect
QR Ph was created by the BSP specifically to break payment fragmentation and bring down the cost of digital collection. Three things make it attractive to restaurants:
- Lower MDR: as the national standard settled through InstaPay, QR Ph merchant rates typically land in the 1.0%–1.5% band — below most standalone-wallet and card rates.
- One code for everyone: instead of taping five different wallet standees to your counter, a single QR Ph code accepts payment from many participating banks and e-wallets, including GCash and Maya. Less clutter, less customer confusion, fewer wrong-account payments to chase.
- Usually no monthly or setup fee: most QR Ph providers charge only the per-transaction MDR, so a low-volume stall is not paying a fixed monthly cost just to stay connected.
The trade-off to be aware of is settlement timing and reconciliation. Because QR Ph aggregates many sources, a busy restaurant should make sure its system can match each incoming payment to the right order automatically — otherwise the cost you save on MDR you lose again in staff time spent reconciling the books by hand.
How to Choose Your Payment Mix
For most Philippine restaurants the answer is not to pick one method and refuse the rest — refusing a customer's preferred app costs you the sale, which is far more expensive than any MDR. The answer is to lead with the cheapest method and accept the others as backup.
- Lead with QR Ph as your primary, most prominent option — it covers GCash, Maya, and many bank apps at the lowest rate.
- Keep cards enabled for higher-value tickets and guests who prefer plastic, accepting that the MDR is higher there.
- Enable GrabPay and ShopeePay if a meaningful share of your customers live in those ecosystems and chase their promos — the incremental sales usually outweigh the slightly higher fee.
- Watch for promotional and micro-merchant rates: providers periodically run reduced or waived MDR offers for small merchants, so it is worth asking what is currently available for your size.
- Reconcile automatically: choose a setup where each payment is matched to its order so you capture the fee savings without paying them back in manual bookkeeping.
Where OrderEase Fits
OrderEase does not set or take the merchant fees above — those are determined by GCash, Maya, your QR Ph provider, or your payment gateway. What OrderEase does is let you display and accept GCash, Maya, QR Ph, GrabPay, ShopeePay, and cards inside a single QR-ordering and POS flow, so the customer pays for the exact order amount and that payment is matched to the right ticket automatically. That means you can lead with QR Ph at checkout to keep your fees low, while still accepting every other method as a fallback — and your sales, payments, and reports stay consistent without manual matching.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q：Which is cheaper for my restaurant — GCash, Maya, or QR Ph?
A：As of June 2026, QR Ph is usually the cheapest, with merchant rates (MDR) typically around 1.0%–1.5%. When a customer pays your QR Ph code from inside GCash or Maya, you generally pay the lower QR Ph rate rather than the higher standalone-wallet rate. Paying GCash or Maya as a standalone wallet through a gateway tends to cost more — roughly 2.0%–2.5% for GCash, with Maya's offline QR around 1.25% and its online checkout near 1.6%. Always confirm current rates with the provider, as they change often.
Q：What is MDR and who pays it?
A：MDR stands for Merchant Discount Rate — the percentage a payment provider deducts from each successful sale before settling the rest to your account. The merchant pays it, not the customer (passing card or e-wallet surcharges to customers is restricted, so build the cost into your pricing instead). On a ₱500 ticket, a 1.0% MDR is ₱5; a 2.5% MDR is ₱12.50.
Q：Are there monthly or setup fees for accepting QR Ph?
A：Most QR Ph providers charge only the per-transaction MDR with no monthly or setup fee, which makes it accessible even for low-volume stalls. Some merchant contracts or gateway plans do include fixed fees, so confirm the full fee schedule — MDR, monthly, setup, and any settlement charges — before signing.
Q：How fast do e-wallet and QR Ph payments reach my bank account?
A：It depends on the provider and your settlement arrangement. QR Ph payments settle through InstaPay and commonly land on a next-business-day (T+1) basis, though some setups are faster or slower. Ask your provider for the exact settlement schedule, since cash-flow timing matters for a restaurant paying daily suppliers and staff.
Q：Should I just stay cash-only to avoid fees?
A：For most restaurants, no. A growing share of Filipino diners expect to pay by e-wallet, and refusing them costs you the entire sale — far more than a 1%–2.5% fee. Cash also carries hidden costs: counting, change, shrinkage, and bank trips. The better strategy is to accept cashless but lead with the cheapest method, QR Ph, so you keep fees low while never losing a customer over payment friction.
Conclusion
Cashless is now the cost of doing business in Philippine dining, but how you collect determines how much that costs you. QR Ph is usually the cheapest route, typically around 1.0%–1.5%, and because GCash and Maya users can pay the same QR Ph code, you can capture the low national-standard rate while still serving everyone. Lead with QR Ph, keep cards and other wallets as backup, watch for promotional rates, and make sure every payment reconciles to its order automatically. Get that mix right and you protect the thin restaurant margin that payment fees quietly chip away at.