How does a Boleto payment work?
At checkout the shopper chooses boleto and gives their name and tax ID, the CPF for a person or the CNPJ for a company. The provider registers the boleto with the issuing bank. Registration on FEBRABAN’s platform became mandatory for all boletos in a phased rollout that began in 2017.
The shopper receives a typeable line, a barcode and a PDF voucher with a due date. Stripe’s vouchers expire after three days by default, and the merchant can set anything from 0 to 60 days. Stripe accepts amounts from BRL 5.00 to BRL 49,999.99.
The shopper pays at a bank branch, an ATM, an authorised agent or in any banking app. The paying bank reports the payment through interbank clearing, and the provider notifies the merchant. Stripe says confirmation typically arrives the next business day. EBANX says it may take up to three business days. If the shopper does not pay by the due date, the boleto is cancelled and the shopper needs a new one.
Since 15 March 2024, boletos paid before 13:30 can be settled to the creditor the same day, depending on the creditor’s contract with its bank. Later payments settle the next business day.
Since 3 February 2025, Central Bank rules allow a boleto to carry a Pix QR code next to the barcode. The shopper can scan it in their banking app and pay instantly. Issuers are not required to offer it.
Why does Boleto matter for merchants?
It reaches shoppers without a card. Boleto serves people who do not have a credit card or prefer not to use one online. It is also common for B2B invoices and higher-ticket orders that a business pays from its corporate account.
It is still widely used. Febraban counted 4.2 billion boleto transactions worth BRL 5.8 trillion in 2023. Pix led everyday payments that year with 42 billion transactions, so boleto now sits next to Pix and instalment cards rather than in front of them.
It suits billing. Because the payer is identified by CPF or CNPJ, the merchant gets a clean record of who paid, which helps with invoices and tax documents. Stripe supports recurring boleto, so a merchant can issue a new slip each cycle for customers who will not store a card.
What can go wrong?
Many boletos are never paid. Abandonment is the main loss, so conversion is lower than with Pix. Orders stay pending for days, which ties up stock and complicates fulfilment.
Late payments can fail. A boleto paid after the due date may be rejected or carry fines, depending on the registration terms.
Bad tax IDs stop registration. A wrong or missing CPF or CNPJ means the boleto cannot be issued.
There is no refund instruction. Stripe does not support boleto refunds, so returning money needs a separate bank transfer or Pix to the shopper.
The window is a trade-off. Short expiry reduces stale orders but gives the shopper less time to pay. The right window depends on the product and the ticket size.
How would Omno handle Boleto?
Omno would treat boleto as an asynchronous pay-in through a connected provider. The payment would be created as pending, and the voucher data would be returned through the API or shown in the hosted checkout. The final paid or expired status would reach the merchant by webhook, which is the source of truth for fulfilment. The merchant would set the expiry window per order. Merchant rules would decide which customer groups and order types see boleto, for example hiding it on orders that cannot wait days for payment. Routing rules would choose the provider, and in the hosted checkout, if it were unavailable or rejected the request, the payment would move to the next provider in the rule. Money owed back on a boleto order would be sent as a separate transfer to the shopper.