Seller, marketplace and split payments

Every account is a Seller or a Marketplace. A seller sells its own things; a marketplace collects for its sellers, and split payments divide each charge between the seller and your commission.

Two business models

Your account has one business model. It decides who the money belongs to and what the portal walks you through. Split payments are not a third model: they are how a marketplace charges.

	Seller	Marketplace
Who you charge for	Yourself — you sell your own products or services	Your sellers — people or businesses that sell through your platform
Where the money lands	Your balance	Split: your commission in your balance, the seller’s net in the seller’s balance
Main tools	Portal payment links, product links, checkout sessions, payments API	Merchants (sellers), split payments on charges and checkout sessions, seller payouts
Example	An online store	A coaching platform where each trainer is a seller

The words we use

Term	Meaning	In the API
Platform	You, when you run a marketplace	Your account (API key)
Seller	Someone you collect for	`merchant` — `/v1/merchants`, ids `mrc_…`
Commission	The part of each sale you keep	`applicationFeePercent` (or `applicationFeeVes`)
Seller net	What the seller receives: the amount, minus the VEX Pay fee, minus your commission	The seller’s `pendingVes`, then `availableVes`
Split payment	A charge or link that names a seller, so the split happens on its own	`merchantId` on the charge or checkout session

How a split payment works

Register the seller
Create the seller with POST /v1/merchants and verify their Pago Móvil payout destination. Optionally set their commission (or a default commission in Portal → Merchants).
Charge with the seller
Send merchantId (and optionally applicationFeePercent) on a C2P, card or débito charge — or create a checkout session with them and send the buyer its url.
The payment completes
Your commission stays in your balance. The seller net moves to the seller’s pending balance.
Pay the seller
After the hold, pay out from the seller’s balance with POST /v1/payouts and fromMerchantBalance: true.

Example: Bs 2,000 Pago Móvil, 3% commission	Amount
Buyer pays	Bs 2,000.00
VEX Pay fee (Pago Móvil, from the seller net)	per your rates — see Pricing
Your commission (3%)	Bs 60.00 → your balance
Seller net	Bs 2,000.00 − VEX Pay fee − Bs 60.00 → seller’s pending balance

A split payment link

To send a buyer a link instead of building a payment screen, create a checkout session with the seller. This one accepts only Pago Móvil and keeps 3% for you:

curlbash

curl --request POST "${API_URL}/v1/checkout/sessions" \
  --header "content-type: application/json" \
  --header "x-api-key: ${VEXPAY_API_KEY}" \
  --data '{
    "amountUsd": 20.00,
    "methods": ["pago_movil"],
    "merchantId": "MERCHANT_ID",
    "applicationFeePercent": 3,
    "reference": "class-1042"
  }'

Split links offer bolívar methods only: pago_movil, c2p (Débito Inmediato) and vpos (card). Asking for USDT, USDC or COP with a seller answers 400.
Omit applicationFeePercent to use the seller’s commission, then your default commission.
The checkout page shows the seller’s public name, because the buyer is paying the seller.
Portal payment links are for Seller accounts; a marketplace creates its split links through the API (or the SDKs and MCP).