> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://developers.kotanipay.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Fees & Billing

> Who pays the transaction fee, and which amount it comes out of.

Every transaction has a fee. What differs between accounts is **who pays it** —
and that changes what the amounts in your API responses and webhooks mean.

Get this wrong and your books won't balance: you'll either think a recipient was
paid more than they were, or count a fee you were never charged.

## Who pays the fee

There are three arrangements. Yours is set per wallet when your account is
configured.

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Your customer pays it" icon="user">
    The fee comes out of the transaction itself.
  </Card>

  <Card title="You pay it from your wallet" icon="wallet">
    Your customer gets the full amount; the fee is taken from your wallet.
  </Card>

  <Card title="You're invoiced for it" icon="file-invoice">
    Your customer gets the full amount; we bill you for fees separately.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## What that looks like

A payout of **500 KES** with a **20 KES** fee:

|                                | Your recipient receives | Your wallet is debited |
| ------------------------------ | ----------------------- | ---------------------- |
| **Your customer pays the fee** | 480                     | 500                    |
| **You pay from your wallet**   | 500                     | 520                    |
| **You're invoiced**            | 500                     | 500, fee billed later  |

Same request, same fee, and **your recipient gets a different amount**. This is
the part worth checking before you go live.

<Warning>
  If your customer pays the fee and you tell your end user "you will receive 500",
  you are wrong by the fee every time. Quote them `transactionAmount`, not the
  amount you requested.
</Warning>

## Collections work the other way round

On a payout the fee comes **off** the amount. On a collection it goes **on top**,
because your customer has to cover both the payment and the fee.

So collecting 1,000 with a 25 fee reports `transaction_amount` of **1025**, not
975\. If you assume collections behave like payouts, your reconciliation will be
out by twice the fee.

## Reading the amounts

| Field                                      | What it means                                                                 |
| ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `amount`                                   | What you asked for in the API call                                            |
| `transactionAmount` / `transaction_amount` | The fee-adjusted amount. On payouts, **what your recipient is actually paid** |
| `transactionCost` / `transaction_cost`     | The fee. Always reported, whoever pays it                                     |
| `walletDebitAmount`                        | Offramp only. What actually left your wallet, fee included                    |

<Note>
  `transactionAmount` is **not** your wallet debit. It's the amount sent to your
  recipient. Don't assume a fixed relationship between these three fields — read all
  of them and your integration stays correct on any arrangement, including one you
  get moved to later.
</Note>

## Rounding

Some currencies are quoted in whole units, others to two decimal places, and we
round fees and amounts to match.

* **Whole units** — KES, UGX, TZS and similar. A fee of 19.6 becomes 20.
* **Two decimals** — USD, and other currencies normally quoted with cents.

Rounding happens on the fee first, then the amounts are derived from it, so the
numbers you receive always add up exactly. You won't see a one-unit discrepancy
between the fee and the amounts.

<Tip>
  Don't build your own rounding on top of ours. Use the values we return rather than
  recalculating from `amount` and a fee percentage — you'll drift by a unit.
</Tip>

## Finding your arrangement

You can see this in [the dashboard](https://backoffice.kotanipay.com) for each of
your wallets. It's set per wallet, and can differ between collections and payouts
on the same wallet — so check both if you do both.

The dashboard is also where you see which countries and currencies you're live in,
and where you request new ones.

If your reconciliation doesn't match one of the three patterns above, talk to
support before writing workarounds.

## Related

* [Webhooks](/v3/essentials/webhooks) — where these amounts arrive
* [Balances & Settlement](/v3/essentials/balances-and-settlement) — how your payout
  balance is drawn down