Paybill vs Till number: when to use which (2026)

Paybill and Till are both Lipa na M-Pesa products, but they're structurally different — different number lengths, different fee mechanics, different account-format expectations, different use cases. Confusing them costs people time, and occasionally money. Here's the clean breakdown.

What a Paybill actually is

A Paybill is a 6-7 digit business number used for billing — utilities, banks, government, schools, betting, hospitals, lending. The customer pays the M-Pesa fee. The customer also provides an account number — a reference that tells the receiving system which bill to clear (your KPLC account, your KRA PRN, your school student number, your loan reference).

Paybills make sense when the receiving organisation needs to know which customer is paying — i.e., they have many customers and need to allocate the payment to a specific record. KPLC has millions of customers; it needs to know whose bill you just cleared. KRA has tens of millions of taxpayers; it needs to know whose tax obligation you just satisfied.

What a Till number actually is

A Till is a 5-7 digit number used for "Buy Goods and Services" — retail merchants, restaurants, supermarkets, salons, kiosks, fuel stations. The customer pays nothing. The merchant absorbs the M-Pesa fee as part of the transaction cost (typically 0.5-1.5% of the transaction amount).

Tills don't require an account number because the merchant doesn't need to allocate the payment to a specific customer record — the cashier sees the M-Pesa confirmation, matches it to the cart, and completes the sale. Simple, fast, optimised for retail flow.

Who actually pays the M-Pesa fee?

For Paybill: the customer pays the standard M-Pesa Paybill fee. Sending KES 1,000 to a Paybill costs KES 10 in 2026 (the fee is bracketed by amount).

For Till: the customer pays zero. The merchant pays approximately 0.5-1.5% of the transaction value to Safaricom as a Buy Goods fee, deducted from their settlement. The customer experience is “free.”

When to use Paybill

Paybill is the right tool whenever the receiving organisation needs to know what you're paying for or which of their accounts is being credited. Examples:

• Utility bills — KPLC, water companies. They need your account number.
• Banking transfers — sending to KCB, Equity, Co-op accounts. They need the recipient's account number.
• Government services — KRA, eCitizen, NSSF. They need the PRN or reference.
• School fees — they need the student number.
• Betting and lending — they need your phone number or account.
• Insurance premiums — they need the policy number.

When to use Till (Buy Goods)

Till is the right tool for retail point-of-sale transactions where the merchant just needs the money and doesn't care which customer paid. Examples:

• Supermarket checkout — Naivas, Carrefour, Quickmart. Use the till.
• Restaurants — pay the bill at the table.
• Fuel stations — pay at the pump.
• Salons, barber shops, beauty parlours.
• Kiosks, mama mboga, small shops.
• Boda boda rides — many boda riders have personal tills.

Where does Pochi la Biashara fit?

Pochi la Biashara is M-Pesa's personal till for individual sellers — the boda guy who wants payments to a specific number, the side hustler selling chapati from a kiosk, the Tukutane organiser collecting payments. Pochi numbers are tied to a personal phone number rather than a business registration.

Pochi shares the “customer pays nothing” mechanic with traditional Tills, but the receiving entity is a person, not a registered business. This makes Pochi appropriate for individual sellers who don't need a full Lipa na M-Pesa Buy Goods business account.

Five common mistakes

1. Sending to a Till expecting account-number prompt. Tills don't take account numbers. If the menu prompts for one, you've selected Paybill mode by mistake — back out and choose Buy Goods.
2. Sending to a Paybill without the account number. Money goes to the paybill but lands in suspense; the receiving organisation can't allocate it. Call them with your transaction code.
3. Confusing 5-digit Tills with 5-digit Paybills. Some short numbers exist on both rails. Always confirm the number type when adding to your records.
4. Using a Pochi as if it's a regular Till. Functionally fine for payment, but you're sending to an individual's phone, not a business — the receipt may not match what you expected for tax/expense purposes.
5. Assuming all Buy Goods are free. They're free for the customer almost always. There are rare merchant configurations that pass the fee on, but those are vanishingly rare in 2026.

For businesses choosing between Paybill and Till

If you're registering a business and choosing between Paybill and Till:

• Choose Paybill if you have many customers and need to identify each payment by reference (subscription business, B2B billing, lending, etc.).
• Choose Till if you're point-of-sale and customers won't tolerate paying an extra fee (most retail).
• Some businesses have both — a hotel might have a Paybill for room bookings (where they need to allocate to specific reservations) and a Till for the bar (where they're just collecting cash equivalent).

Search the directory by sector to see which businesses use which: utilities use Paybill, retail uses Till primarily.