Charge in any currency

In this guide you’ll price a product in a currency your account does not hold, send a customer to a checkout that shows that currency and offers a payment method for it, and receive the money in your own balance currency. By the end you’ll know which currency each part of a payment is in, and why they can differ. Two questions decide everything on this page, and they have different answers:

What can you price in? Any of the eleven supported currencies, whether or not you hold a balance in it.
What can you hold? USD and NGN. Every payment ends up in one of these.

Pricing a sale in GHS does not require a Ghanaian Cedi balance. The customer pays GHS, and Bachs converts to your balance currency when the payment settles.

Before you start

A sandbox API key (sk_sandbox_...). See Authentication.
A webhook endpoint to receive the result. See Set up webhooks.

Everything below uses the sandbox base URL, so you can run the whole flow without moving real money.

Currencies you can price in

Code	Currency	Code	Currency
USD	United States Dollar	TZS	Tanzanian Shilling
NGN	Nigerian Naira	UGX	Ugandan Shilling
GHS	Ghanaian Cedi	XAF	Central African CFA
KES	Kenyan Shilling	XOF	West African CFA
MWK	Malawian Kwacha	ZMW	Zambian Kwacha
RWF	Rwandan Franc

Any of these can be a product’s primary currency, a pricing.currency on a raw amount, or a currency_options entry. Crypto asset codes such as USDT_TRC20 are not currencies you price in; they are how a customer can choose to pay. See Local pricing for setting several prices on one product.

Steps

Price the product in the local currency

Set price.currency to the currency you want to sell in. Nothing about your account needs to change first.

curl https://sandbox-api.bachs.io/v1/products \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BACHS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Pro plan",
    "price": {
      "price_type": "fixed",
      "amount": "150.00",
      "currency": "GHS"
    }
  }'

{
  "price_type": "fixed",
  "amount": "150.00",
  "currency": "GHS",
  "currency_options": []
}

Create the checkout

Nothing extra is needed. The checkout takes its currency from the cart.

curl https://sandbox-api.bachs.io/v1/checkout-sessions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BACHS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "product_cart": [
      { "product_id": "prod_abc123", "quantity": 1 }
    ],
    "customer": { "email": "kwame@example.com", "name": "Kwame Mensah" }
  }'

{
  "checkout_id": "chk_2N3o4P5q6R7s8T9u",
  "checkout_url": "https://checkout.bachs.io/c/V8xQ2mZpLj9RfTa",
  "mode": "payment",
  "amount": "150.00",
  "currency": "GHS",
  "billing_currency": "GHS",
  "status": "open",
  "expires_at": "2026-04-27T13:00:00Z"
}

Send the customer to the checkout

The hosted page shows GH₵ 150.00 and offers the payment methods that can charge Cedi. It does not offer a currency chooser, because the sale is priced in a currency the customer already pays in.A checkout priced in USD behaves differently. See How the customer’s currency is chosen.

Receive the payment and the settlement

The collection.succeeded webhook reports the currency the customer paid in.

collection.succeeded

{
  "id": "evt_3ab4e0d5d2",
  "type": "collection.succeeded",
  "created_at": "2026-04-27T12:04:00Z",
  "organization_id": "acct_7KpQ2mNv4XbR9dLc",
  "data": {
    "charge_id": "ch_1a2b3c4d5e6f",
    "checkout_id": "chk_2N3o4P5q6R7s8T9u",
    "status": "SUCCEEDED",
    "amount": "150.00",
    "currency": "GHS"
  }
}

The amount that reaches your balance is in USD or NGN, not GHS. See What lands in your balance.

How the customer’s currency is chosen

The currency you price in decides whether the customer is offered a choice at all. There are two behaviours, and which one applies depends on the price currency.

Price currency	What the customer sees	Currency chooser
`USD`	The price converted into their local currency	Yes
Any other supported currency	The price exactly as you set it	No

USD is the only currency that converts at the page. Price in USD and a customer in Ghana is shown a Cedi amount, converted at the rate at that moment, and can switch currency. Price in GHS and every customer is charged GHS 150.00, wherever they are.

Adaptive pricing, the setting that turns on conversion at the page, only affects a USD-priced checkout. A checkout priced in any other currency is charged in that currency whether adaptive pricing is on or off.

This is why pricing in a local currency is the way to guarantee the amount. A USD price converts, so what the customer is charged moves with the exchange rate. A GHS price does not.

Pin the currency with `billing_currency`

Set billing_currency on the checkout to choose which price the customer is charged, instead of letting their location decide. It selects among the prices the checkout already carries; it does not create a new one.

curl https://sandbox-api.bachs.io/v1/checkout-sessions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $BACHS_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "product_cart": [{ "product_id": "prod_abc123", "quantity": 1 }],
    "customer": { "email": "kwame@example.com" },
    "billing_currency": "GHS"
  }'

Two conditions must both hold, and each has its own error:

The checkout must be priced in that currency, as its primary currency or as a currency_options entry. Otherwise the request fails with BILLING_CURRENCY_NOT_AVAILABLE, and the message lists the currencies that are priced.
A payment method on the checkout must be able to charge it. Otherwise the request fails with BILLING_CURRENCY_HAS_NO_PAYMENT_METHOD, and the message lists the currencies that can be charged.

The second condition is the one that catches people out on subscriptions. A monthly product can carry a GHS price, but subscriptions are card only and no card corridor charges Cedi, so billing_currency: "GHS" on a subscription checkout is refused. Requesting a currency nothing can collect fails at creation rather than producing a checkout the customer cannot complete.

What lands in your balance

Your balance is held in USD or NGN. A payment collected in any other currency is converted when it settles, and the converted amount is credited to your balance in your settlement currency.

Payment currency	What happens
A currency you hold	Credited as collected, with no conversion
Any other currency	Converted at settlement, then credited

Conversion happens when the payment settles, not when the customer pays, so the amount credited is not known at the moment of sale. Track the settled figure from your balances rather than deriving it from the charge amount.

A NGN payment on an account that holds NGN is credited without conversion. The same sale priced in GHS is converted. The price currency and the settlement currency are separate decisions, and only the second is restricted to what you hold.

NGN checkout settlement

NGN-initiated checkout payments settle to your NGN balance by default. You can still choose USD settlement for NGN-initiated checkout payments in your withdrawal settings. In the dashboard, use the Balance currencies section to control whether your organization holds NGN balances.

The Bachs dashboard withdrawal settings page showing Balance currencies with USD always enabled and an NGN balance toggle.

An NGN-initiated checkout is one whose locked checkout price is NGN. This is different from a checkout where the customer pays an NGN equivalent for a USD price.

Checkout setup	Customer pays	Default settlement
`pricing.currency` is `NGN`	NGN	NGN balance
Product primary price is `NGN`	NGN	NGN balance
Product primary price is `USD`, with an NGN currency option selected at checkout	NGN	NGN balance
`pricing.currency` is `USD`, and the customer pays the NGN equivalent	NGN	USD settlement behavior
Product primary price is `USD`, with no NGN currency option selected	USD or local equivalent	USD settlement behavior

The deciding factor is the checkout’s locked price currency. A USD checkout with an NGN local price becomes NGN-initiated when the checkout resolves to that NGN price. A USD checkout that only lets the customer pay an NGN equivalent is still USD-initiated. For processing fees and conversion charges, see Fees.

Recurring products

A subscription is priced the same way as a one-time checkout: in any supported currency, whether or not you hold it. Each renewal charges the saved card in that currency and the proceeds settle into your settlement currency (USD unless you hold the priced currency), the same conversion a one-time charge makes. The one thing that stays fixed is the price currency: a subscription bills in the currency it was created with for its whole life, since renewals run months later without the buyer present. The subscribe page only offers the methods that can bill the price currency off-session, so a USD plan shows the USD card and nothing that cannot renew it.

Today a recurring checkout priced in a currency you do not hold is still refused at creation with BASE_CURRENCY_NOT_HELD_BY_ORG, while the settle-to-USD path above is rolled out for renewals. Until then, hold the price currency (or price the plan in one you hold) to create the subscription. One-time checkouts are unaffected and already price in any currency.

See Subscriptions for how renewals work.

Errors

Code	Status	Cause and resolution
`BILLING_CURRENCY_NOT_AVAILABLE`	400	Nothing in the checkout is priced in the requested currency. Add a price in that currency, or request one that is listed in the message.
`BILLING_CURRENCY_HAS_NO_PAYMENT_METHOD`	400	The checkout is priced in that currency, but no payment method it offers can charge it. Request one of the currencies listed in the message.
`BASE_CURRENCY_NOT_HELD_BY_ORG`	422	A recurring checkout was priced in a currency you do not hold. A current limitation until renewals settle to USD like one-time charges: for now, price the recurring product in a currency you hold.
`BASE_CURRENCY_NOT_COLLECTIBLE`	422	Nothing can collect the currency the checkout is priced in. Crypto asset codes are refused here: an asset code names a rail, not a price.
`BASE_CURRENCY_NOT_ENABLED`	422	The currency is collectible, but not enabled for your organization. Enable it in your checkout settings.
`BASE_CURRENCY_NOT_CONVERTIBLE`	422	The currency can be collected, but there is no rate to settle it into your settlement currency. The checkout is refused rather than created with money that could not be paid out.
`CART_CURRENCY_MISMATCH`	400	Every product in one checkout must share the same primary currency. Split the cart, or give the products a common currency.

Next steps

Local pricing: set several prices on one product.
Accept a payment with Checkout: the full checkout flow.
Payment method support: which corridors your account can accept.
Get balances: what has settled and in which currency.

Get Started

Payouts

Virtual accounts

Products & pricing

Subscriptions

Customer portal

Payments

Dashboard

Developer Portal

CLI

For You and Your Customers

Charge in any currency

Before you start

Currencies you can price in

Steps

How the customer’s currency is chosen

Pin the currency with `billing_currency`

What lands in your balance

NGN checkout settlement

Recurring products

Errors

Next steps

​Before you start

​Currencies you can price in

​Steps

​How the customer’s currency is chosen

​Pin the currency with billing_currency

​What lands in your balance

​NGN checkout settlement

​Recurring products

​Errors

​Next steps

Before you start

Currencies you can price in

Steps

How the customer’s currency is chosen

Pin the currency with `billing_currency`

What lands in your balance

NGN checkout settlement

Recurring products

Errors

Next steps