Omise Review

Omise is an online payment company founded in Bangkok in 2013 that takes card, QR, bank and e-wallet payments for merchants in Thailand, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. Its parent rebranded as Opn in May 2022 and switched back to the Omise brand in March 2025; the holding company is still OPN Holdings Co., Ltd. in Tokyo, and opn.ooo now redirects to omise.co. Each country has its own published, pay-per-transaction price list with no setup or monthly fee. As of October 2026, cards cost 3.65% plus 7% VAT in Thailand, 3.30% + SGD 0.30 in Singapore and 2.50% (domestic) or 3.80% (international) in Malaysia. In Japan, card rates start at 2.95% and rise to 4.55% if you want your money sooner. Local methods are often cheaper: PromptPay is 1.65% in Thailand, PayNow 1.00% + SGD 0.15 in Singapore and DuitNow QR 1.50% in Malaysia. Omise signs the merchant agreement itself, collects the money on your behalf, keeps it on hold for a set period (7 days in Thailand, 1 in Singapore, 3 in Malaysia, 21 by default in Japan) and then lets you withdraw it for a small transfer fee. It is licensed by the Bank of Thailand and holds a Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Public merchant reviews are scarce, so its reputation rests mostly on its licences, its long history and its backers rather than on user ratings.

Estimated annual cost at three realistic processing volumes, using Omise’s published online rate plus monthly fees. Real costs vary with average transaction size, chargeback rate, and any negotiated terms.

What Omise is

Omise is an online payment company that lets businesses in Thailand, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia accept cards, QR codes, bank transfers and e-wallets on their websites and apps. Merchants integrate through its API, its Omise.js payment form, payment links or e-commerce plug-ins, and manage payments in a web dashboard. It also sells payment-facilitation and orchestration services to platforms and banks, and an engineering consultancy called Omise Pro. Omise's about page says the company began in 2013 and launched in Thailand in 2015, and lists offices in Bangkok, Tokyo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Atlanta. The group's US business is MerchantE, a processor it bought in 2022. This review covers the Omise payment service in its four Asian markets.

Corporate history: Omise, SYNQA, Opn and back again

The brand has changed more than once, so it is worth setting out. Jun Hasegawa and Ezra Don Harinsut co-founded Omise in 2013. Hasegawa remains Founder and Group CEO; Harinsut stepped down and left the company in May 2025. In 2017 Omise bought the payment gateway and e-wallet business of Paysbuy, an early Thai gateway, from mobile operator dtac. The parent company, Omise Holdings, was renamed SYNQA in April 2020, and that June it raised an $80 million Series C round led by SCB 10X, with Toyota Financial Services among the investors. In May 2022 SYNQA, then the parent of Omise Payment Holdings, announced a rebrand to Opn alongside a $120 million Series C+ round led by JIC Venture Growth Investments, MUFG Bank and Mars Growth Capital; it said it had nearly 500 staff and more than 7,000 merchants in six countries. The payment service was renamed Opn Payments. In November 2022 Opn bought MerchantE, a US payment processor based in Alpharetta, Georgia, from private equity firm Integrum, and the company said the combined group processed more than $19 billion for over 20,000 businesses that year. In January 2023 SYNQA changed its registered name to OPN Holdings Co., Ltd. In March 2025 OPN Holdings, based in Tokyo, announced it was returning to the original Omise brand. The holding company keeps the OPN name, opn.ooo now redirects to omise.co, and some legal documents still say Opn Payments. OPN Holdings names Toyota Financial Services and SCBX, the parent of Siam Commercial Bank, among its major shareholders. These are investors; the company has not published who controls it. We found no sale of Omise or of the group in 2024 to 2026 news. Fortis bought MerchantE's NetSuite payments division in July 2024. MerchantE's own website still describes it as part of the Omise / Opn Group in 2026, and we found no report of MerchantE itself being sold.

Why we list Omise as a payment facilitator

Omise is not just a gateway that passes transactions to your own bank merchant account. In each country you sign a merchant agreement with an Omise company (Omise Co., Ltd. in Thailand, Omise Japan K.K. in Japan, Omise Payment SG Pte. Ltd. in Singapore). Omise collects the money on your behalf, deducts its fee, holds the balance and pays it out to you, and it sets the price, the holding period and any reserve. Its about page says it takes "full responsibility for managing relationships with processors and acquirers". It is licensed for this: the Bank of Thailand lists Omise Co., Ltd. for card-acceptance support and payment-collection services since September 2018, services to card-accepting merchants since December 2021, and e-money and electronic fund transfer since August 2022, and Singapore's central bank licenses its Singapore company for merchant acquisition. Omise's own plain-English summary of its agreement describes it as "only a gateway to enable the payment", and under its Singapore terms (revised April 2025) it acts only as a gateway for American Express, where the merchant deals with Amex directly, although the Singapore price list shows Amex at the standard card rate. But for nearly everything else the facilitator model fits. It is not a merchant of record: the sale is between you and your customer.

What it costs in each country

Omise charges per successful transaction, with no setup fee, monthly fee or monthly minimum, and publishes a separate price list for each country. These are the standard rates as of October 2026.

• Thailand (plus 7% VAT): credit and debit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express and UnionPay, 3.65%. PromptPay QR 1.65%. Mobile banking (K PLUS, SCB Easy, Krungthai NEXT, Bualuang, Krungsri) and direct debit THB 10 a payment. WeChat Pay 1.65%, ShopeePay and TrueMoney 2.65%, Alipay+, Google Pay and LINE Pay 3.65%, SPayLater 5%, Atome 6%.
• Singapore: cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay 3.30% + SGD 0.30. PayNow and OCBC Digital 1.00% + SGD 0.15. GrabPay and ShopeePay 2.80% + SGD 0.15, Alipay+ 2.90% + SGD 0.15, WeChat Pay 2.20% + SGD 0.15, Atome 5.50% + SGD 0.15. Accepting more than one currency costs SGD 35 per currency per month.
• Malaysia: Visa, Mastercard and American Express 2.50% domestic and 3.80% international, plus MYR 0.50 on card payments under MYR 40. DuitNow QR, Touch 'n Go, Boost, GrabPay, ShopeePay and Maybank QR 1.50%. FPX online banking MYR 1.50 a payment. Grab PayLater 7% (post-paid) or 8% (instalments), Atome 6.00% + MYR 1.20. The Malaysian terms (November 2024) add 0.35% on all methods for Shopify merchants.
• Japan (rates depend on how long Omise holds your money): cards from 2.95% with the default 21-day hold, rising to 3.20% (14 days), 3.60% (7 days), 3.95% (5 days), 4.25% (3 days) and 4.55% (1 day). Konbini (FamilyMart, Lawson, MiniStop, Seicomart) and Pay-easy from 0.50% + JPY 150 at 21 days to 2.10% + JPY 150 at 1 day. PayPay from 3.40%. Prices other than card fees are subject to 10% consumption tax, and the page notes that rates can vary by business type and review results, and that Omise may hold some or all of a merchant's money for longer than 21 days depending on its review.

VAT matters in Thailand. On a THB 1,000 card sale you pay THB 36.50 plus THB 2.56 VAT, about THB 39.06 or 3.91% all in. The same sale through PromptPay costs THB 16.50 plus VAT, about THB 17.66, which is why Thai merchants push customers toward QR payment. Omise's help centre says Thai merchants above set volume thresholds can apply for a lower card rate, starting at more than THB 3 million a month in card sales with an average sale of THB 5,000 or more. The Thai merchant agreement lets Omise change its fees on 30 days' notice, but says increases "will be limited to a maximum increase of 1% of the current rate within any 12-month period". The wording does not make clear whether that is one percentage point or one per cent of the rate. The cap is also weaker than it looks: the separate Thai terms (September 2025), which carry the fee schedule, say Omise can amend them by posting changes and emailing the merchant, and that they take precedence over the merchant agreement where the two conflict. Those terms' fee schedule also differs from the price list on some wallets (ShopeePay e-wallet 2.00% against 2.65%).

Holding periods, transfers and fees

Omise does not pay out automatically on a short cycle like many US processors. Each payment sits in an on-hold balance first: 7 days in Thailand, 1 day for cards and PayNow in Singapore (5 days for Alipay+ and Atome), 3 days in Malaysia, and 21 days by default in Japan, where you can pay a higher rate for a hold of 14, 7, 5, 3 or 1 days. JCB, American Express and Diners payments in Japan are paid twice a month, eight business days after the 15th and the last day of the month. Once money is transferable you withdraw it from the dashboard or the API, or set up a transfer schedule. Transfers are batched once a day on business days and reach your bank the next business day in Thailand and Japan, in 2 to 3 business days in Singapore and in 3 business days in Malaysia. Each transfer costs THB 20 in Thailand (THB 150 over THB 2 million), JPY 260 in Japan (free to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation accounts), MYR 1 in Malaysia for amounts under MYR 300, and nothing in Singapore. Omise can also hold an extra reserve to cover future disputes, and it pays no interest on held funds.

Refunds and disputes carry costs too. Omise's help centre says it charges nothing to make a refund, but only gives back the original fee on full card refunds made before settlement. The current Thai terms add that Omise does not support refunds for PromptPay, mobile banking, direct debit or bill payment, so you must refund those customers yourself. An older, undated Thai terms page still on Omise's site reserves the right to charge 3.65% on refunds, so get the refund policy confirmed in writing. There is no fixed chargeback fee on the price lists. When a dispute arrives, the disputed amount and its fees can be taken from your balance straight away, you pay any card-network filing or arbitration fees if you fight it further, and under the Thai, Singapore and Malaysian terms you have 3 to 7 days to respond before the dispute is treated as lost.

Contract terms

The Thai merchant service agreement, in a version dated 10 October 2025, has no fixed term and no early-termination fee. Either side can end it on 14 days' written notice. Omise can suspend or block an account immediately and without notice if it sees suspicious transactions or too many disputes, if the balance goes negative, or if a regulator or card network asks it to investigate. After the agreement ends, Omise can block withdrawals and keep the remaining balance for up to 12 months from the last transaction to cover refunds, disputes and other costs, and you must pay any shortfall within 3 business days. Accounts with no transactions for 6 months can be blocked. The agreement is governed by Thai law, with disputes going to the Thai courts. Omise's documents do not all agree. An older, undated Thai terms page still published at docs.omise.co/terms (the same text was online in 2019) gives notice periods of 60 days for the merchant and 30 days for Omise, and says the account must stay open for at least 6 months after termination. On transfers, the price list and help centre say THB 20, but the fee schedules in the October 2025 agreement, the September 2025 Thai terms and the older page all say THB 30. The plain-English summary of the agreement says Omise can keep funds for up to 12 months after termination, while the agreement itself counts the 12 months from the last transaction. The Thai terms say they take precedence over the merchant agreement where the two conflict, and the Singapore and Malaysian terms say the same unless the agreement states otherwise. Read the documents you are actually asked to sign, and ask Omise to confirm the notice period and fees in writing.

Licences and regulation

In Thailand, the Bank of Thailand's list of regulated payment businesses includes Omise Co., Ltd. for card-acceptance support and payment-collection services from 28 September 2018, services to card-accepting merchants from 8 December 2021, and e-money and electronic fund transfer services from 4 August 2022. In Singapore, the Monetary Authority of Singapore lists Omise Payment SG Pte. Ltd. as a Major Payment Institution licensed for merchant acquisition, domestic money transfer and cross-border money transfer. Omise announced that licence in September 2024. Its Japanese business runs through Omise Japan K.K. We found no lawsuit, fine or regulatory enforcement action naming Omise or Opn in searches of English, Thai and Japanese sources.

Reputation and complaints

There is little independent merchant feedback on Omise. As of October 2026 it has no Trustpilot profile under omise.co or opn.ooo, and G2 blocked our requests. Its WordPress plug-in has 4.6 stars from five ratings and more than 2,000 active installations, which is too few ratings to judge from. The evidence of standing is institutional rather than user-generated. Omise is licensed in Thailand and Singapore, and it has well-known customers, including McDonald's Thailand, which it features on its site. Its investors include Toyota Financial Services, SCBX and MUFG Bank. On the other side, a Thai Pantip forum thread from September 2018 describes an account suspended after two flagged transactions, with funds frozen and support slow to respond. That is a single old case, but it matches what the terms allow Omise to do. The repeated brand changes, from Omise to SYNQA to Opn and back, have also left documents and help pages that still use the old names.

Who Omise suits

Omise fits an online business registered in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia or Japan that sells to local customers and wants their preferred payment methods (PromptPay and bank apps in Thailand, PayNow in Singapore, DuitNow and FPX in Malaysia, konbini and Pay-easy in Japan) from one regulated provider, at a published price with no monthly fee. It suits merchants who can steer customers toward cheaper local methods better than those who rely on cards, where 3.65% plus VAT in Thailand and 3.30% + SGD 0.30 in Singapore are not cheap. It is a poor fit if you need card terminals in a shop, if cash flow cannot absorb a 7-day hold in Thailand or a 21-day default hold in Japan, or if you sell from a country outside its four markets. High-volume Thai merchants should apply for the volume discount before signing, and every merchant should get the notice period, refund policy and any reserve confirmed in writing.