# STK Push vs Paybill vs Till: Which M-Pesa Option Fits Your Business? > A Till (Buy Goods) suits shops taking quick payments with no account number. A Paybill suits businesses that need an account number on every payment, such as invoices, fees or loans. STK Push is not a third account type: it is a prompt sent to the customer's phone that pays into your Paybill or Till, built through Safaricom's Daraja API. Source: https://chat.or.ke/blog/mpesa-stk-push-vs-paybill-vs-till Published: 2026-10-20 | Updated: 2026-10-20 | Publisher: chat.or.ke Most Kenyan businesses that sell on WhatsApp eventually ask the same question: should customers pay to a Till, a Paybill, or should we send them an M-Pesa prompt? The three options are often compared as if they were rivals, but they sit at different layers. This guide is for owners and managers choosing how to collect money, especially from customers who order by chat. You will see how each option works, where each one fits, and how to combine them. ## Key takeaways - A Till (Lipa na M-Pesa Buy Goods) is the simplest way to accept payment: the customer enters your till number and the amount. - A Paybill adds an account number to every payment, which makes it far easier to match payments to invoices, orders or members. - STK Push (M-Pesa Express) is a payment prompt that lands on the customer's phone. It still pays into a Paybill or Till, and it needs a developer or a payment provider to set up. - Safaricom's charges differ by product and change over time, so check Safaricom's current tariff before you decide. - Many shops start with a Till, move to a Paybill as orders grow, and add STK Push once a website or system can trigger it. ## What is the difference between STK Push, Paybill and Till? Paybill and Till are the two kinds of M-Pesa business number a customer pays into. STK Push is a way of starting the payment for the customer instead of asking them to type everything themselves. ### Till number (Buy Goods and Services) A Till is a short number a customer pays from the "Lipa na M-Pesa, Buy Goods and Services" menu. They enter the till number, the amount and their PIN. There is no account number field, so the payment carries only the customer's name, phone details as shown by M-Pesa, the amount and the time. That makes a Till fast at the counter and easy to explain on WhatsApp: "Pay KES 3,200 to our till number and send the confirmation here." ### Paybill number A Paybill is used from the "Pay Bill" menu. The customer enters the business number, an **account number** and the amount. You decide what the account number means: an order number, an invoice, a student admission number, a house number or a member ID. That one extra field changes reconciliation. When fifty payments arrive on a busy Saturday, a Paybill tells you which order each one belongs to. ### STK Push (M-Pesa Express) STK Push, which Safaricom calls M-Pesa Express, sends a pop-up to the customer's phone showing your business name and the amount. The customer only enters their PIN. Behind the scenes, your system calls Safaricom's API and the money lands in your Paybill or Till. Because a system has to trigger the prompt, STK Push needs integration work through [Safaricom Daraja](https://developer.safaricom.co.ke/) or a payment provider that has already done that work. ## How do they compare side by side? The table below compares the three options on the things that matter day to day. | | Till (Buy Goods) | Paybill | STK Push (M-Pesa Express) | |---|---|---|---| | What it is | A business number | A business number with account numbers | A payment prompt to the customer's phone | | Customer types | Till number, amount, PIN | Business number, account number, amount, PIN | PIN only | | Account reference | No | Yes, set by you | Yes, set by your system | | Matching payments to orders | Manual, by name, amount and time | Easier, by account number | Automatic if your system reads the callback | | Setup | Apply to Safaricom | Apply to Safaricom | Paybill or Till plus Daraja integration | | Typing errors | Possible | Possible, especially in the account number | Rare, details are pre-filled | | Best for | Shops, salons, food vendors, walk-in sales | Invoices, school fees, rent, SACCO repayments, online orders | Websites, apps and systems that can trigger a prompt | Charges are deliberately left out of the table. Safaricom publishes separate tariffs for each product and revises them, so read the current tariff on Safaricom's site before comparing costs. ## When is a Till the better choice? Choose a Till when payments are quick, small and easy to recognise. A mitumba stall in Gikomba or a salon in Kisumu rarely needs an account number; the cashier sees the confirmation message and hands over the goods. A Till also works well for WhatsApp sellers with modest volumes. If you receive ten orders a day, matching each M-Pesa message to a chat by name and amount is manageable. It becomes painful when two customers pay the same amount within a minute of each other. ## When is a Paybill the better choice? Choose a Paybill when you need to know exactly what each payment is for. Schools, landlords, SACCOs, insurance agents and any business sending invoices use Paybill account numbers to reconcile without guesswork. For a WhatsApp shop, a Paybill lets you say: "Pay to our Paybill, account number ORD-1045." When the confirmation arrives, the order number is right there. Keep account references short and easy to type, because customers mistype long codes. ## When is STK Push worth the integration work? STK Push is worth it when a system already knows the amount and the customer's phone number, for example a website checkout, a booking system or an app. The customer does not have to remember or type any number, which reduces abandoned payments and typing mistakes. The trade-off is effort. Your developer registers an app on the Daraja portal, gets credentials, sets up a callback URL to receive the result, and goes through Safaricom's go-live process. Safaricom's [Daraja documentation](https://developer.safaricom.co.ke/APIs) describes M-Pesa Express and the related C2B and transaction status APIs. STK Push also fails for ordinary reasons: the customer's phone is off, they cancel, or they enter the wrong PIN. Your system needs to handle a failed prompt and offer a fallback, usually the Paybill or Till details. ## How does each option work when you sell on WhatsApp? On WhatsApp, the order and the payment usually happen in the same conversation. The cleanest flow is: confirm the order, send the payment details or the prompt, then confirm receipt and update the order. With chat.or.ke, orders placed from your [WhatsApp catalog](https://chat.or.ke/features/catalog-orders) arrive in your dashboard linked to the customer and the chat. chat.or.ke does not collect payments on your behalf: customers pay the way you already accept money, such as your Till or Paybill, and your team updates the order status once the M-Pesa confirmation arrives. A saved reply with your payment details saves typing the same message all day. If you want STK Push inside your own checkout, that integration lives with your developer or payment provider. Our step-by-step guide on [how to accept M-Pesa payments on WhatsApp](https://chat.or.ke/blog/how-to-accept-mpesa-payments-on-whatsapp) covers the practical setup for each route. ## Which should you choose? Pick the option that matches how many payments you handle and how much you need to match them to orders. - **Small shop, mostly walk-in or a handful of WhatsApp orders a day:** a Till is enough. - **You issue invoices or need an order number on every payment:** get a Paybill. - **You have a website, app or booking system:** add STK Push on top of your Paybill or Till. - **You sell mainly by chat at growing volume:** a Paybill with the order number as the account reference, plus a team inbox so payments and chats stay together. Many businesses run two numbers: a Till at the counter and a Paybill for online orders. That is normal and often the clearest setup for staff. A Nairobi boutique selling through Instagram and WhatsApp, for example, could start with a Till, then switch to a Paybill once orders reach a few dozen a day and matching by name and amount starts to cost staff time. If the same boutique later launches a website, STK Push at checkout is the natural next step. ## What about Pochi la Biashara and personal numbers? Pochi la Biashara lets a sole trader receive business payments into a separate wallet on their personal line. It suits very small sellers starting out, but customers see a personal name rather than a business name, which can feel less trustworthy for larger orders. Asking customers to "send money" to a personal number mixes business and personal funds and makes record-keeping harder. Once you sell regularly, a Till or Paybill in the business's name is the more professional choice. For the wider selling picture, read [how to sell on WhatsApp in Kenya](https://chat.or.ke/blog/how-to-sell-on-whatsapp-kenya). ## Frequently asked questions ### Is STK Push the same as Lipa na M-Pesa? Not exactly. Lipa na M-Pesa covers Safaricom's merchant payment products, including Buy Goods (Till) and Pay Bill. STK Push, called M-Pesa Express, is a way to trigger a payment prompt on the customer's phone that pays into one of those business numbers. ### Can I use STK Push without a developer? You need either a developer to integrate Safaricom's Daraja API or a payment provider or software that has already built the integration. Safaricom does not offer STK Push as a menu option you can switch on by yourself. ### Which is cheaper for a business, a Till or a Paybill? It depends on Safaricom's current tariff for each product and on your transaction sizes. Charges are revised from time to time, so compare the latest published tariffs from Safaricom for Buy Goods and Pay Bill before choosing. ### Can one business have both a Paybill and a Till? Yes. Many businesses use a Till for counter sales and a Paybill for invoices or online orders. Keep the purpose of each clear in your staff instructions and in the payment message you send customers. ### How do I match M-Pesa payments to WhatsApp orders? Use a Paybill and ask customers to enter the order number as the account number, or use STK Push from a system that records the result automatically. With a Till, match by customer name, amount and time, and ask the customer to send the confirmation message in the chat. ### Do customers pay a fee to pay a Till? Under Safaricom's tariffs, customers paying a Buy Goods till have generally not been charged, with the merchant paying the fee, but tariffs change. Check Safaricom's current Lipa na M-Pesa tariff for the exact position today.