TWINT

TWINT is Switzerland’s leading mobile payment app, jointly developed and owned by the major Swiss banks and operated by TWINT AG. With over 6 million active users in a country of 8.7 million, it covers virtually the entire smartphone-owning adult population. It is the most widely used mobile payment method in Switzerland and is accepted at approximately 77% of stationary points of sale across the country, making it one of the most deeply penetrated national mobile wallets anywhere in Europe.

At checkout, customers open the TWINT app, scan a QR code or use an app-to-app redirect, and confirm the payment. The transaction is processed in real time and the merchant receives instant confirmation. Payments are exclusively in Swiss francs (CHF), with FX conversion handled at the PSP level for non-Swiss merchants settling in other currencies.

For any merchant targeting Swiss consumers, TWINT is a baseline checkout requirement alongside cards. A significant development occurred in June 2025 when Shopify Payments added native TWINT support for Swiss merchants, eliminating the need for separate third-party PSP integrations for Shopify-based stores. This materially lowers the barrier to TWINT acceptance for a large segment of Swiss e-commerce merchants.

On cost, TWINT is notably cheaper than card processing in Switzerland, a fact confirmed by an independent University of St. Gallen study in 2024. The standard QR code sticker fee is 1.3% of transaction value, with no minimum fee, no monthly costs, and no setup fee. Through PSPs, fees typically run at 1.3% to 1.6% depending on the provider, which remains significantly below standard credit card acceptance costs in Switzerland. Switzerland falls outside EU interchange regulation, meaning Swiss card processing costs are higher than in the EEA, making TWINT’s cost advantage relative to cards more pronounced than in European markets.

Switzerland operates in CHF outside the Eurozone and outside the EEA, which means all payments settle in Swiss francs, the EU IFR does not apply, and card acceptance costs follow Swiss market rates. These are material considerations for any European merchant building a Swiss payment setup.

PSP access is broad. Worldline, SIX Payments, Payrexx, Datatrans, Adyen, Mollie, and Stripe all support TWINT. Direct registration is also available through the TWINT merchant portal for simpler setups.

Relevant markets: Switzerland