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Explainer
What is PIX?
Pix is the instant-payment arrangement created and overseen by Banco Central do Brasil. It moves funds between transactional accounts, including accounts at different institutions. It is not a cryptocurrency and not a card network. People, firms and government bodies can use it; features follow the participant and today’s Central Bank rules.
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Reviewed 14 October 2026
What is Pix?
The Central Bank’s Pix page describes it as an instant-payment arrangement for transfers between current, savings or prepaid payment accounts, including across institutions. The English page presents the same infrastructure. Resolução BCB nº 1 of 12 August 2020 instituted the arrangement; full operation began on 16 November 2020.
Central Bank material stresses availability every day of the year and near-immediate credit. This page does not repeat possibly dated speed statistics. What a participant charges its customers follows Central Bank rules and that institution’s own tariff. Figures not in the documents checked here stay unknown.
How does a Pix payment work?
The payer starts the payment in a participant’s app or internet banking. The payee can be addressed with a Pix key, a QR code or Pix Copia e Cola. Funds settle on the Central Bank instant-payment infrastructure and credit another transactional account. This site’s SWIFT tools do not send Pix and cannot show the status of a Pix transfer.
Pix is not a card network. A merchant may accept Pix, but that path is not card-scheme authorisation or 3D Secure. One Pix result says nothing about whether a given card will pay.
What is a Pix key?
The Central Bank DICT documentation lists five addressing keys: CPF, CNPJ, email, mobile number (international format) and a random key (EVP, a UUID generated by DICT). The payer usually supplies only the key; DICT lets the participant resolve the payee account.
DICT writes a CPF as 11 digits and a CNPJ as 14 characters, which may include letters after the 2026 alphanumeric CNPJ. Emails have a length limit and must be lower case. The random key is generated by DICT; it is not a password the user invents. Registration caps follow the current Central Bank manuals and are not invented here.
How does Pix differ from TED, cards or SPEI?
Pix is a domestic Brazilian instant-payment arrangement. TED is another Brazilian transfer product with different rules; this page does not compare unsourced arrival times. Cards travel on card-scheme rails. SPEI is Mexico’s interbank electronic payment system. It is not “Pix in Mexico” and a Pix key cannot collect funds in Mexico.
Do not assume Pix equals an international wire. Whether a payment can leave Brazil follows the Central Bank and your institution’s current product pages. This page promises no cross-border outcome.
Questions and answers
- Can I use Pix without a CPF?
- Personal key types include CPF. How a foreigner opens a participating transactional account follows the bank and Central Bank rules. This page does not guarantee onboarding.
- Does Pix have a fee?
- Fees follow Central Bank rules and each participant’s tariff. The pages checked here do not publish one price list for every user, so none is written here.
- Can paytools.dev send a Pix?
- No. This site only explains and looks up public records. It does not connect to banks or hold funds.
Official pages to verify
Sources and review
Facts follow Banco Central do Brasil’s Pix pages and the DICT description of key types. Reviewed 14 October 2026. Limits, fees and product scope follow today’s official text and your institution.