M-Pesa Daraja Integration Cost in Kenya: What to Expect
What shapes the cost of integrating M-Pesa into a website, app or POS: payment flows, callbacks, reconciliation, Safaricom approvals, testing and the fees that are not development costs.
Accepting an M-Pesa payment is only the visible part. The cost sits in making payments reliable: handling callbacks, matching money to orders and giving your team a way to check what happened.
Which Payment Flows You Need
The scope starts with the flow. STK Push prompts a customer to pay from their phone, C2B handles payments to a paybill or till, and B2C sends money out to customers or staff. Each flow has its own setup, testing and edge cases, so a project with several flows costs more than one with a single STK Push.
Connecting the payment to an order, invoice or account is part of the work, because a payment that cannot be matched to a purchase creates support problems later.
Reliability Is The Real Work
Safaricom confirms payments through callbacks, and callbacks can arrive late, fail or arrive twice. A careful integration validates each callback, protects against duplicate records and stores clear payment states. It also gives admins a reconciliation view so finance can verify transactions without guessing.
Testing in the sandbox and then with live credentials is essential. Going live also needs a paybill or till number and Safaricom's approval, so allow time for that step in your plan.
Costs That Are Not Development
Transaction charges on your paybill or till are set by Safaricom and are separate from the cost of building the integration. Ask whoever quotes you to separate development fees, one-off setup, and any running costs so you can compare quotes fairly.
Finally, confirm who holds the credentials and the accounts. They should be in your business name, with the keys stored securely and not shared in emails or chats.