Samsung Pay (stylized as SΛMSUNG Pay) is a

mobile payment A mobile payment, also referred to as mobile money, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet, is any of various payment processing services operated under financial regulations and performed from or via a mobile device, as the cardinal class of ...

and

digital wallet A digital wallet, also known as an e-wallet, is an electronic device, online service, or software program that allows one party to make electronic transactions with another party bartering digital currency units for goods and services. This can ...

service by

Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, acc ...

that lets users make payments using compatible phones and other Samsung-produced devices. The service supports

contactless payment Contactless payment systems are credit cards and debit cards, key fobs, smart cards, or other devices, including smartphones and other mobile devices, that use radio-frequency identification (RFID) or near-field communication (NFC, e.g. Samsung ...

s using

near-field communications Near-field communication (NFC) is a set of communication protocols that enables communication between two electronic devices over a distance of 4 cm (1 in) or less. NFC offers a low-speed connection through a simple setup that can be ...

(NFC), but also supports magnetic strip-only

payment terminal A payment terminal, also known as a point of sale (POS) terminal, credit card terminal, EFTPOS terminal (or by the older term as PDQ terminal which stands for "Process Data Quickly"), is a device which interfaces with payment cards to make electro ...

s by incorporating

magnetic secure transmission Magnetic secure transmission (MST) is the name for mobile payment technology in which devices such as smartphone, smartphones emit a signal that mimics the Magnetic stripe card, magnetic stripe on a traditional payment card. Overview MST sends a m ...

(MST) in select devices. In India, it also supports bill payments. The service was launched in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

on August 20, 2015, and in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

on September 28 of the same year.

Service

Samsung Pay was developed from the intellectual property of LoopPay, a

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

startup company A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend ...

that Samsung acquired in February 2015 for an estimated $300m, one of the largest acquisitions made by the firm. The service supports both NFC-based mobile payment systems (which are prioritized when support is detected), as well as those that only support

magnetic stripe The term digital card can refer to a physical item, such as a memory card on a camera, or, increasingly since 2017, to the digital content hosted as a virtual card or cloud card, as a digital virtual representation of a physical card. They share ...

s. This is accomplished via a technology known as

(MST), which emulates the swipe of a permanent magnet strip past a reader by generating the near-field magnetic waveform directly. LoopPay's developers stated that because of this design, the technology would work with "nearly 90%" of all

point-of-sale The point of sale (POS) or point of purchase (POP) is the time and place at which a retail transaction is completed. At the point of sale, the merchant calculates the amount owed by the customer, indicates that amount, may prepare an invoice ...

units in the United States (which excludes terminals that require the card to be physically inserted into a slot in order to function). On phones, the Samsung Pay menu is launched by swiping from the bottom of the screen. Different

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

debit Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit e ...

and

loyalty card A loyalty program is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of a business associated with the program. Today, such programs cover most types of commerce, each having varying features and ...

s can be loaded into the app, and selected by swiping between them on-screen. In South Korea, Samsung Pay can be used for

online payment An e-commerce payment system (or an electronic payment system) facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for offline transfer, also known as a subcomponent of electronic data interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become incr ...

s and to withdraw money on selected banks' ATMs. In

Mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the China, People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming Island, Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territorie ...

, Samsung Pay supports In-app payments, QR code payments (

Alipay Alipay () is a third-party mobile and online payment platform, established in Hangzhou, China in February 2004 by Alibaba Group and its founder Jack Ma. In 2015, Alipay moved its headquarters to Pudong, Shanghai, although its parent compan ...

, and

WeChat Pay WeChat Pay () is a mobile payment and digital wallet service by WeChat based in China that allows users to make mobile payments and online transactions. As of March 2016, WeChat Pay had over 300 million users. WeChat Pay's main competitor in Ch ...

) and public transportation cards of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and other cities. In Hong Kong, Samsung Pay can be linked with Octopus cards, called Smart Octopus, to make electronic payments with stored value service for payments in online or offline systems. In India, Samsung Pay supports

Unified Payments Interface Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is an instant real-time payment system developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The interface facilitates inter-bank peer-to-peer (P2P) and person-to-merchant (P2M) transactions. It is used ...

(UPI) and BharatQR. It also supports bill payments via the

Bharat Bill Payment System Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an integrated bill payment system in India offering interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents of registered member as Agent Institutions (AI), enabling multip ...

(BBPS). In May 2020, Samsung Pay unveiled Samsung Money by SoFi, a mobile-first money management experience that makes available a cash management account and accompanying Mastercard debit card via the Samsung Pay app, in partnership with fintech company SoFi. In June 2022, Samsung Pay was renamed to Samsung Wallet in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Along with the renaming came new features such as the ability to store digital assets and digital keys within the Wallet app. These new features also came to the Samsung Pay app in South Korea, despite it not adopting the new "Samsung Wallet" name.

Security

Samsung Pay's security measures are based on

Samsung Knox Samsung Knox is a proprietary security and management framework pre-installed on most Samsung mobile devices. Its primary purpose is to provide organizations with a toolset for managing work devices, such as employee mobile phones or interactive ...

and

ARM TrustZone ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...

technologies; credit card information is stored in a secure

token Token may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Token, a game piece or counter, used in some games * The Tokens, a vocal music group * Tolkien Black, a recurring character on the animated television series ''South Park,'' formerly known a ...

. Payments must be authenticated using a fingerprint scan or passcode. In August 2016, security researcher Salvador Mendoza disclosed a potential flaw with Samsung Pay, arguing that its security tokens were not sufficiently randomized and could become predictable. He also designed a handheld device that could be used to skim magnetic secure transmission tokens, and another which could spoof magnetic stripes on actual card readers using the token. Samsung responded to the report, stating that "If at any time there is a potential vulnerability, we will act promptly to investigate and resolve the issue". Samsung Pay will not work with devices whose Knox warranty bit is tripped.

Availability

Supported countries

Samsung Pay in South Korea, for all intents and purposes, is the Samsung Wallet app. It just is not known as the same name that it is known by in other regions. In May 2016, it was reported that Samsung was developing a spin-off of the service known as Samsung Pay Mini. This service will be used for online payments only, and is also being targeted as a multi-platform service. In January 2017, Samsung has confirmed that Samsung Pay Mini will not only work on its Galaxy devices but on other Android phones as well, as long as they are running

Android Lollipop Android Lollipop ( codenamed Android L during development) is the fifth major version of the Android mobile operating system developed by Google and the 12th version of Android, spanning versions between 5.0 and 5.1.1. Unveiled on June 25, 2014 ...

or above and have a screen resolution of 1280 × 720 pixels or higher. In June 2017, Samsung launched Samsung Pay Mini and currently available on Galaxy J7 Max/On Max (in India) Availability is limited not just on the basis of where the payment card is issued, but also on the basis of the phone's region (CSC) code. Thus a phone made for an unsupported region can never use Samsung Pay even if it physically resides in a supported region and has a local SIM card. The rather unrelated error "Connection error. Unable to connect to Samsung Pay temporarily. Try again later." is how Samsung Pay reports this problem. In June 2020, Samsung announced a partnership between Samsung Pay,

Curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

and Mastercard for the launch of Samsung Pay Card in the UK and more EE countries where

has customers later in 2020. From September 2021, Samsung Pay Mini was made available for Galaxy A and Galaxy M series. Unlike other mobile wallet providers such as

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

, Samsung did not fully join the sanctions on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as Samsung Pay was still partly operating in the country.

Usage within
public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...
systems

Due to the open nature of the Android platform, some transit cards are only available through other Android-based mobile wallets or via their own apps (e.g.

SmarTrip SmarTrip is a contactless stored-value smart card payment system managed by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA). The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) uses a compatible payment system called CharmCard. A reciprocity ag ...

for Google Pay or

PASMO is a rechargeable contactless smart card electronic money system. It is primarily used for public transport in Tokyo, Japan, where it was introduced on 18 March 2007. Pasmo can also be used as a payment card for vending machines and stores. ...

for Android). In addition, Samsung Pay does not allow for users in one region to purchase cards for another. Galaxy devices must be purchased from the region their desired transit card hails. For

public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...

systems where transit cards can be used, passengers can ride with Samsung Pay if such transit or payment cards can be added to Samsung Pay. Here are the scenarios where Tap & Pay mode is available. In addition to the above scenarios, Samsung Pay can still be used with other non-Tap & Pay readers that accept contactless open loop payment cards, but they will have to be verified beforehand.

Compatible devices

Flagship smartphones

Galaxy S

Samsung Galaxy S6 The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Succeeding the Samsung Galaxy S5, the S6 was not released as a singular model, but instead in two variations unveiled and ...

(MST technology limited to some markets, NFC technology available on all models) * Samsung Galaxy S7 *

Samsung Galaxy S8 The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8+ are Android smartphones produced by Samsung Electronics as the eighth generation of the Samsung Galaxy S series. The S8 and S8+ were unveiled on 29 March 2017 and directly succeeded the Samsung G ...

Samsung Galaxy S9 The Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ are Android (operating system), Android-based smartphones unveiled, manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics as part of the Samsung Galaxy S series. The devices were revealed at the Mobile World Co ...

Samsung Galaxy S10 The Samsung Galaxy S10 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics as part of the Samsung Galaxy S series. The Galaxy S10 series is the tenth generation of the Samsung Galaxy S, its flagship ...

(NFC only for S10 Lite) *

Samsung Galaxy S20 The Samsung Galaxy S20 is a series of Android-based smartphones designed, developed, marketed, and manufactured by Samsung Electronics as part of its Galaxy S series. They collectively serve as the successor to the Galaxy S10 series. The first ...

* Samsung Galaxy S21 (NFC Only for all S21 models) *

Samsung Galaxy S22 The Samsung Galaxy S22 is a series of Android-based smartphones designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Samsung Electronics as part of its Galaxy S series. Unveiled at Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event on 9 February 2022. They collecti ...

(NFC Only for all S22 models)

Galaxy Note

* Samsung Galaxy Note5 * Samsung Galaxy Note7 * Samsung Galaxy Note FE * Samsung Galaxy Note8 * Samsung Galaxy Note9 *

Samsung Galaxy Note10 The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ' ...

(NFC only for Note 10 Lite) * Samsung Galaxy Note20

Galaxy Z

Samsung Galaxy Fold The Samsung Galaxy Fold is an Android-based foldable smartphone developed by Samsung Electronics. Unveiled on March 20, 2019, it was released on September 6, 2019 in South Korea. The device is capable of being folded open to expose a 7.3-inch ...

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip (sold as Samsung Galaxy Flip in certain territories) is an Android-based foldable smartphone developed by Samsung Electronics as part of the Samsung Galaxy Z series. Its existence was first revealed in an advertisement ...

* Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 * Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 *

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 (stylized as Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3, sold as Samsung Galaxy Flip 3 in certain territories) is a foldable smartphone that is part of the Samsung Galaxy Z series. It was revealed by Samsung Electronics on August 11, 20 ...

* Samsung Galaxy Z Fold4 * Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4

Mid-range smartphones

Galaxy A

Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) Samsung's Galaxy A5 (2016) or Samsung Galaxy A5 2016 Edition is an Android (operating system), Android smartphone developed by Samsung Electronics as part of the Samsung Galaxy A series. Hardware Samsung Galaxy A5 (2016) is powered by the Exyno ...

, A7 (2016), A8 (2016), A9 (2016) and A9 Pro (2016) *

Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) (or Samsung Galaxy A3 2017 Edition) is an Android smartphone produced by Samsung Electronics. It was announced on January 2, 2017, along with Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) and Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017). This move marks Sam ...

, A5 (2017) and A7 (2017) *

Samsung Galaxy A6 / A6+ The Samsung Galaxy A6 and Samsung Galaxy A6+ are mid range Android smartphones produced by Samsung Electronics. They were announced on 2 May 2018, first released in Europe, Asia, and Latin America the same month, then released in South Korea ...

(NFC only) *

Samsung Galaxy A8 (2018) The Samsung Galaxy A8 and Samsung Galaxy A8+ (2018) are upper-midrange Android (operating system), Android smartphones produced by Samsung Electronics. They were announced on 19 December 2017. The devices run Android Android Nougat, 7.1.1 "Nouga ...

(NFC only for A8 Star (2018) * Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) and A9 (2018) (NFC only) *

Samsung Galaxy A40 The Samsung Galaxy A40 is a mid-range Android smartphone developed and manufactured by Samsung Electronics. Running on the Samsung's Android 11-based One UI 3 software, the device was announced on March 19, 2019. It was released a month later i ...

, A50, A70 and A80 (NFC only) *

Samsung Galaxy A30s The Samsung Galaxy A30s is Samsung Electronics' smartphone announced by Samsung Electronics. The phone has a triple-camera setup with a 25 MP main camera, a 6.4 inches HD+ Infinity-V display, and a 4000 mAh Li-Po battery. It ships with An ...

, A40s, A50s and A70s (NFC only) *

Samsung Galaxy A90 5G The Samsung Galaxy A90 5G is an Android phablet manufactured by Samsung Electronics as part of its fifth-generation Galaxy A series lineup. It comes with Android 9 (Pie) with Samsung's One UI skin, 6/8GB RAM, 128 GB of internal storage, and a ...

(NFC only) * Samsung Galaxy A21, A31, A51 & A51 5G, A52 5G and A71 & A71 5G (NFC only)

Galaxy M

Samsung Galaxy M52 5G The Samsung Galaxy M52 5G is a mid-range Android smartphone developed by Samsung Electronics as a part of its Galaxy M series. The device was scheduled to be launched on 19 September 2021 in India but the launch event was postponed to 28 Septem ...

Samsung Galaxy M42 5G (also known as

Samsung Galaxy A42 5G The Samsung Galaxy A42 5G (also known as Samsung Galaxy M42 5G in some countries) is a mid-range Android (operating system), Android smartphone developed by Samsung Electronics as part of its Samsung Galaxy A series, A series line. The phone was ...

in other countries) Samsung Galaxy M31

Galaxy J

*Samsung Galaxy J5 & J7 (2016) *Samsung Galaxy J5 (2017)/J5 Pro *Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)/J7 Pro *Samsung Galaxy J7 Max (2017)

Galaxy C and others

Available to Samsung Pay users within

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. * Samsung Galaxy C5 and C5 Pro * Samsung Galaxy C7 and C7 Pro * Samsung Galaxy C9 and C9 Pro * Samsung Galaxy On5 (2016) (also known as Galaxy J5 Prime in other countries) * Samsung Galaxy On7 (2017) (also known as Galaxy J7 Prime in other countries) *Samsung Galaxy Quantum2 (NFC and MST) * Samsung W2017 (non-Galaxy smartphone) * Samsung W2018 (non-Galaxy smartphone)

Smartwatches

Samsung Gear S2 The Samsung Gear S2 is a smartwatch developed by Samsung Electronics running Samsung's Tizen operating system. It was unveiled at IFA IFA or Ifa may refer to: Organisations Economics * Independent financial adviser, a type of financial servic ...

(NFC only) *

Samsung Gear S3 The Samsung Gear S3 is a Tizen-based circular smartwatch developed by Samsung Electronics. It was released on 18 November 2016. There are two models of the Gear S3, Classic and Frontier. The Classic has a silver watch case and black leather ban ...

(NFC and MST) * Samsung Gear Sport (NFC only) *

Samsung Galaxy Watch The Samsung Galaxy Watch is a smartwatch developed by Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Y ...

(NFC only) *

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active is a smartwatch developed by Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered i ...

(NFC only) *

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 The Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 (stylized as Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2) is a smartwatch developed by Samsung Electronics, running the Tizen Tizen () is a Linux-based mobile operating system backed by the Linux Foundation, mainly develop ...

(NFC only) *

Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 The Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 (stylized as Samsung Galaxy Watch3) is a smartwatch developed by Samsung Electronics that was released on August 5, 2020 at Samsung's Unpacked Event alongside the flagships of the Galaxy Note series and Galaxy Z series, ...

(NFC only) * Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 (NFC only) * Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 (NFC only)

References

{{Mobile payments 2015 software Android (operating system) software Computer-related introductions in 2015 Mobile payments in South Korea Samsung software

Service

Security

Availability

Supported countries

Usage within public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ... systems

Compatible devices

Flagship smartphones

Galaxy S

Galaxy Note

Galaxy Z

Mid-range smartphones

Galaxy A

Galaxy M

Galaxy J

Galaxy C and others

Smartwatches

See also

References

Usage within
public transport Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typi ...
systems