Skip to content
barcoder

Payments/SA/unified-qr

Unified QR

Saudi Arabia's unified QR (Saudi Payments) is the national QR payment system: one interoperable QR code, built by Saudi Payments (the SAMA subsidiary that runs mada), that any SAMA-licensed digital wallet can pay. A shop shows a static code, or a dynamic one with the amount, and you scan it in your wallet or bank app, check the request and approve or reject it. Saudi Payments started building it in 2019, and SAMA told every earlier QR service to comply by the end of 2021. SAMA calls it "Quick Response Code Technology (QR CODE)" [6], and Saudi Payments' partner HPS calls it "a unified QR code platform" [3]. "SAQR" was this corpus's old label, not an official name.
Country Saudi Arabia (SA)
What it is The national interoperable QR payment environment run by Saudi Payments, under the mada umbrella [4]
Banks or providers 9 banks and 3 fintechs signed the 2019 MoU [1]; open to all SAMA-licensed digital wallets [5]
Since Built from 2019–2020; compliance deadline end of 2021 [3] [6]
Cost Not published; set by your wallet provider
Typical limit Not published; set by your wallet or bank
Reaches Domestic; Alipay+ link for visitors announced for 2026 [8]
Code on paper? Yes: a static code can be printed for a shop and reused; a dynamic code shows each amount [3]

How the national QR came to Saudi Arabia

  • April 2019: mada (Saudi Payments) signed a memorandum of understanding with 12 entities, nine banks and three fintech companies, to build and operate payments through a unified QR code, announced at the Financial Sector Conference in Riyadh [1].
  • 2019: Saudi Payments listed "developing the interoperable payment environment through QR" among its first initiatives for an open payments environment [2].
  • 27 February 2020: Saudi Payments appointed HPS (Hightech Payment Systems) to provide a unified QR platform on which banks, wallet providers and fintechs interoperate [3].
  • 20–21 May 2020: Saudi Payments said it had unified the standards for QR payments from smart devices, so the service would be accepted by all digital wallets licensed by SAMA, and that it was receiving fintech applications to join. One POS supplier, Shore Global (شور العالمية), had certified its terminals to the unified QR standard under mada [4] [5].
  • 21 September 2021: SAMA told every entity that had already launched a QR payment service to meet the project's technical and commercial requirements and finish technical authorisation with the Saudi Payments Authorization Center before the end of 2021 [6].

Neither SAMA nor Saudi Payments has published QR payment volumes that we could find. SAMA's current mada page lists terminals, contactless, SoftPOS, e-commerce and phone wallets, but no QR service [7].

How to use it

From the system's design as HPS described it in 2020 [3]:

  1. The shop presents a code. It may be a printed static code used for many payments, or a dynamic code made for one payment.
  2. You scan it in a SAMA-licensed wallet or bank app that supports QR scanning [5].
  3. Check and decide. The code is a request for payment: you verify it, then pay or reject it.

Because the code is interoperable, the shop and you can use different providers: one code works "regardless of the service provider or scheme" [3]. Which apps scan it today, and the steps inside each app, aren't documented in the sources we fetched.

Limits and fees

No fetched source publishes limits or fees for national QR payments. They depend on the wallet or bank app you pay with and on the shop's agreement with its provider.

Limits change; check your bank's current terms.

Paying shops and businesses

Shops take QR payments through a provider certified by Saudi Payments. In May 2020 that meant POS terminals built to the unified standard under mada and authorised by Saudi Payments' certification centre [4]. Since the end of 2021, every provider of QR payments has had to pass the same authorisation [6]. The aim, Saudi Payments said in 2020, was a single code that any licensed wallet can pay, instead of a different code per provider [5].

Paying across borders

  • Visitors paying Saudi shops (announced for 2026): on 15 September 2025 SAMA and Ant International agreed to integrate Alipay+ with mada during 2026, so that Saudi merchants, including small businesses, can accept QR payments from users of Alipay+'s partner wallets. Alipay+ said it connected over 1.7 billion accounts across 36 partners [8]. No fetched source confirms that it has gone live.
  • Saudis paying abroad: on 30 April 2026 the Saudi app Barq announced QR payments at Alipay+ merchants outside the Kingdom, in over 220 markets, rolling out to its users gradually from May 2026. Barq called itself the first Alipay+ partner in the Middle East to offer outbound QR payments [9].

See the Alipay QR standard for the codes Alipay+ wallets use.

How the national QR code works

What is public about the code comes from its builder, HPS, in February 2020 [3]:

  • It is merchant-presented: the shop's code is "a request for payment" that the customer verifies and pays, or rejects.
  • It comes in static form (fixed details, many payments) and dynamic form (one payment).
  • The platform is open-loop and based on ISO 20022 messaging, linking merchants, customers and service providers whatever scheme each uses.

The payload layout itself (which fields, in what encoding) isn't public; SAMA's rulebook refers providers to Saudi Payments' technical requirements without publishing them [6]. So this page doesn't claim it follows EMVCo merchant-presented QR, though many national QR systems do. Our Saudi unified QR standard page holds the rest of what we know.

Which QR code is on a Saudi receipt? Most often it's not a payment code at all. Since 4 December 2021 every e-invoice must carry a ZATCA e-invoicing (FATOORA) QR code: Base64-encoded tag-length-value fields with the seller's name, the seller's VAT number, the invoice date and time, the total with VAT and the VAT amount. Since 1 January 2023 it also holds the invoice hash, an ECDSA signature and the public key [10]. Scan it to check that the invoice is genuine; you can't pay with it.

Safety: payment requests and fake callers

The national QR is built as a request you approve: nothing leaves your wallet until you confirm the payment shown on your screen [3]. SAMA's general warning covers the rest: fraudsters pose as banks, government bodies or SAMA by call, SMS or email, and ask for card details, PINs or the verification code sent to your phone; card data also leaks through unprotected devices and untrusted shopping sites [11].

  • Read the request before you approve it: the payee and the amount.
  • Never give out a verification code or card details; financial institutions never ask for them by phone [11].
  • Use only licensed providers: SAMA tells customers not to deal with unlicensed entities [11].

The national QR and the alternatives in Saudi Arabia

Way to pay Best for Notes
National unified QR Shops that show a QR code Pays from a licensed wallet or bank app
mada card Shops, ATMs, online Contactless to SAR 300 without PIN
Phone wallet (mada Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Wallet) Tapping a phone or watch NFC, your mada card as a token [7]
sarie instant transfer Paying people by mobile number Bank transfer; see the SARIE standard

Sources

  1. Argaam, "Mada inks QR Code agreements with 12 entities", 27 Apr 2019. https://www.argaam.com/en/article/articledetail/id/606597
  2. Al-Eqtisad, Saudi Payments' 2019 results (mada performance and new initiatives), 13 Feb 2020. https://www.aleqtsad.org/?p=131087
  3. HPS, "HPS introduces QR-based National Payment System", 27 Feb 2020. https://www.hps-worldwide.com/news-and-media/hps-introduces-qr-based-national-payment-system
  4. Al-Eqtisad, "«مدى» يُطلق منظومة الدفع عبر رمز الاستجابة السريعة «QR CODE»" (mada launches the QR code payment system), 20 May 2020. https://www.aleqtsad.org/?p=139596
  5. Al-Eqtisad, "«المدفوعات السعودية» تستكمل الاستعدادات لبدء الدفع عبر تقنية «QR Code»" (Saudi Payments completes preparations for QR code payments), 21 May 2020. https://www.aleqtsad.org/?p=139686
  6. SAMA Rulebook, "Quick Response Code Technology (QR CODE)", 21 Sep 2021. https://rulebook.sama.gov.sa/en/quick-response-code-technology-qr-code
  7. Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), "مدى" (mada: services and features), read 19 Oct 2026. https://www.sama.gov.sa/ar-sa/payment/Pages/mada.aspx
  8. The Fintech Times, "Alipay+ to Launch in Saudi Arabia in 2026 Following SAMA Collaboration", 19 Sep 2025. https://thefintechtimes.com/alipay-to-launch-in-saudi-arabia-in-2026-following-sama-collaboration/
  9. Okaz, "«برق» تطلق خدمة المدفوعات العالمية عبر رمز الاستجابة السريعة «QR» بالتعاون مع «Alipay+»" (Barq launches global QR payments with Alipay+), 30 Apr 2026. https://www.okaz.com.sa/economy/na/2246474
  10. ZATCA, "Guide to Developed FATOORA Compliant QR Code", 18 Nov 2021. https://zatca.gov.sa/ar/E-Invoicing/SystemsDevelopers/Documents/QRCodeCreation.pdf
  11. Ajel, "تجنب «الاحتيال المالي» يدفع البنك المركزي السعودي لتوجيه 6 نصائح" (SAMA's six tips against financial fraud), 3 Jun 2021. https://ajel.sa/economy/8jh3xp

Researched 19 October 2026. Limits and bank offerings change; the banks' own pages are authoritative.

source · content/payments/SA/unified-qr/index.md