Artificial intelligence is booming worldwide, but Brazil in particular stands out as one of the fastest-growing markets for AI technology. From content creation and design generation to automation and data analytics, Brazilian companies and consumers are eager to adopt technologies that bring efficiency and innovation to their daily operations. In fact, according to a recent study cited by Forbes, 93% of Brazilians have used AI-powered tools, and almost 50% use them every day.
For international AI companies built on subscription models, the opportunity is massive: The country’s SaaS market alone is projected to reach US$ 22 billion by 2027 (E-Commerce Brasil), fueled by the launch of a new recurring payments technology—Automatic Pix—and a tech-savvy, mobile-first population that makes 73% of its purchases from smartphones.
Yet despite the market’s size and appetite for AI, payments remain a critical barrier for cross-border AI providers entering the Brazilian market. Many artificial intelligence platforms rely on a single global checkout, often limited to international credit cards. In Brazil, that approach leaves money on the table:
- Limited card acceptance: A large share of Brazilian consumers either don’t own credit cards (CNN Brasil) or use domestic-only cards, which aren’t authorized for international purchases. Others prefer to pay with Pix—Brazil’s instant-payment method now used by almost 170 million people (Banco Central do Brasil)—or digital wallets like Apple Pay or Google Pay.
- Recurring revenue friction: Subscription-based AI services depend on seamless recurring payments, but traditional credit card billing faces high decline rates (Visa) and costly chargebacks in Brazil resulting from frequent fraud in the country.
- Clunky integrations and redirects: Many global payment flows send users to external pages or require multiple steps, which creates distrust and drives up cart abandonment. According to independent research firm Baymard Institute, nearly one fifth of abandoned carts result from lengthy or overly complicated checkout processes.
Even with strong demand, AI companies operating with a global checkout risk losing a significant percentage of potential customers—and recurring revenue—simply because they aren’t set up for the Brazilian payment landscape.
This article explores how to overcome those challenges. We’ll look at the scale of Brazil’s AI opportunity, identify the most common payment barriers for global providers, and show how working with a specialized partner enables cross-border companies to localize their checkout, automate recurring charges, and capture the full revenue potential of the Brazilian market.
Why Is Brazil a Strategic Market for AI Companies?
As one of the most dynamic technology markets in the world, Brazil is more than a promising destination for international AI companies. The numbers speak for themselves:
- Explosive SaaS growth: The SaaS market in Latin America grew by an estimated 23% in 2024 (E-Commerce Brasil), and as mentioned earlier, Brazil alone is projected to reach US$ 22 billion by 2027. Given the subscription-based nature of AI tools, this makes Brazilian consumers an appealing demographic for cross-border AI companies.
- Early and eager adoption of AI: Both consumers and companies in Brazil show a high level of enthusiasm toward AI. According to a 2024 report by Microsoft, Brazilians’ level of trust in the technology hit 84%, and 97% of senior executives surveyed intend to increase spending on AI. What’s more, 88% of Brazilians consider AI an integral part of dealing with challenges at work (Agência Brasil).
- Mobile-first, digital-native consumers: With the enormous popularity of Pix and mobile banking being responsible for 75% of online transactions (FEBRABAN), Brazilian users expect seamless, instant digital experiences—making AI solutions a natural fit.
There are also signals beyond the data that show a market ripe with opportunity. In 2024, the Brazilian government launched a US$ 4 billion plan for AI focusing on promoting infrastructure for AI development, professional qualification, improving public services, fostering business innovation, and enhancing regulatory and governance processes.
For AI companies offering products like transcription, automation, data analysis, or creative generation, this environment represents a perfect storm of demand: businesses seeking efficiency, consumers hungry for innovation, a government willing to invest in AI technology, and a payments ecosystem built for instant, online transactions.
Yet capturing this opportunity requires more than just entering the market with a translated website and a global gateway. Brazilian buyers expect local payment options and a frictionless purchase experience. Without adapting your payment strategy to meet these expectations, even the most advanced AI product can struggle to convert leads into paying subscribers.
What Payment Barriers Do Global AI Companies Face in Brazil?
Brazil’s appetite for AI solutions is undeniable, but that doesn’t mean that converting that demand into revenue is effortless. Many cross-border companies enter the market with a one-size-fits-all global checkout, only to discover that Brazil’s payment ecosystem operates under a very different set of rules.
Local consumers expect and often require payment options that most global platforms don’t support; while recurring billing comes with unique technical and regulatory complexities. Without adapting to these realities, even an AI product successful in other markets can struggle with high cart abandonment, failed subscription renewals, and lost revenue in Brazil.
Why Does a Global Checkout Limit Your Revenue in Brazil?
In Brazil, relying on a single global payment gateway that processes only international credit cards excludes a massive share of potential customers.
As mentioned earlier, a significant portion of Brazilian consumers either don’t have credit cards or use domestic-only credit cards. What’s more, even for consumers who do use international cards, they’re faced with hidden fees like exchange rates, high bank markups, and the IOF (Tax on Financial Operations) that can often erode trust and impact conversions for cross-border businesses.
On top of that, a huge share of users prefer alternative methods like Pix, which is now the chosen method of 62% of adults (Valor International), or digital wallets, which have been used by 84% of the population in the last year (PYMNTS).
The impact is immediate and measurable: without local payment methods, your AI platform can fail to convert a large percentage of potential customers. Even interested buyers are forced to abandon their purchase when their card is declined or when their preferred payment method isn’t available, creating lost sales and recurring revenue gaps that no amount of marketing can offset.
How Do Inflexible and Redirect-Based Integrations Affect Conversions?
Even with multiple payment options, the user experience of the checkout process can still make or break conversions. Many global payment flows rely on redirects to external pages or multi-step forms, which introduce friction and erode trust. For Brazilian consumers who are highly familiar with instant and seamless payment experiences, being sent to an unfamiliar page can trigger cart abandonment.
Additionally, rigid integrations limit the ability to customize the checkout flow for recurring payments. Without flexibility, AI platforms can’t optimize the payment experience for local users, resulting in higher decline rates and more failed renewals.
In short, even if your payment options are technically available, a clunky or inadequate integration can prevent customers from completing transactions, leaving potential revenue untapped.
How Does a Local Payment Partner Prepare Your AI Solution for Maximum Conversion in Brazil?
Successfully entering the Brazilian market demands a payment strategy designed for local preferences and behaviors. A local payment provider like PagBrasil helps global AI companies bridge that gap by providing a complete ecosystem of solutions tailored to Brazil’s unique payment landscape. From accepting domestic cards and Pix to automating recurring subscriptions and offering flexible integrations, working with a specialized partner ensures your payment flows are optimized for conversion, trust, and revenue growth.
Simplify the Payments Process with a Single Integration
For AI companies entering Brazil, managing multiple payment methods and navigating local regulations can be complex. PagBrasil’s intermediation model simplifies the entire payment process by managing the full payment chain, including contractual relationships with banks and acquirers, money collection, reconciliation and clearing.
Through this approach, you can:
- Process all relevant payment methods: Accept Pix (including its no-redirection flow, 1-Click Pix), domestic credit cards, digital wallets, and more without needing separate integrations for each.
- Automate compliance and settlement: PagBrasil not only handles local regulatory requirements, but it also ensures money is processed in BRL and remitted in USD or EUR, eliminating the need for a Brazilian entity.
- Streamline operations: From authorization to reconciliation, every step of the payment flow is managed centrally, reducing errors and operational overhead.
With this model, your AI platform can offer a seamless, trustworthy checkout experience while capturing the widest possible audience, without the complexity of managing multiple providers or local payment intricacies.
Automate Recurring Revenue with Automatic Pix and Subscription Management
For AI companies, recurring revenue is the backbone of growth. But high decline rates on international cards, customers without credit cards at all, and payment delays can quickly disrupt cash flow.
PagBrasil solves these challenges with a complete subscription management ecosystem that combines Automatic Pix with PagStream® in a single, seamless integration.
Automatic Pix—a technology created by Brazil’s Central Bank—makes it possible to charge subscriptions automatically through Pix, Brazil’s most popular instant-payment method. However, on its own, Automatic Pix is just the rails: to actually automate recurring billing, manage renewals, and handle payment failures, a developer would need to build a full subscription infrastructure through API integration.
That’s where PagStream® comes in. PagStream® provides a ready-to-use platform that integrates with Automatic Pix, giving you everything need to run a subscription business in Brazil without the technical lift. With PagStream®, you can set flexible billing cycles, create personalized rules, automate customer notifications, and rely on built-in tools to manage failed payments and reduce churn. The solution also includes a promotions engine for the creation of personalized offers and a subscriber area where your customers can manage their subscriptions. Plus, it supports other preferred Brazilian payment methods, allowing you to manage all subscriptions in one centralized system.
By implementing Automatic Pix through PagStream®, you offer Brazilian customers a seamless, card-free way to subscribe—while your team gains full visibility over renewals, churn, and lifetime value, without having to build subscription management tools from scratch. (For merchants that prefer to develop in-house, a direct API integration is also available.)
This powerful combination safeguards revenue, increases retention, and frees your team to focus on scaling your AI products instead of chasing payments.
Offer a Flexible Integration Your Tech Team will Appreciate
For many cross-border companies entering Brazil’s fast-growing AI market, a common hesitation is “Our tech team is already overloaded.”. The fear of lengthy development cycles, unfamiliar local regulations, and ongoing maintenance can stall expansion before it starts.
PagBrasil Checkout—the evolution of the payment link—removes that barrier with an integration designed to be both robust and quick to deploy. The platform comes preconfigured to meet the specific features of Brazil’s payment landscape so you can go live without building these capabilities from scratch. In addition, clear, developer-friendly technical documentation makes setup straightforward even for teams with no prior experience in Brazil.
Beyond its deployment speed, PagBrasil Checkout gives you the flexibility to match your growth strategy. Out of the box, you can offer all major Brazilian payment methods, including:
- Pix through PagBrasil Pix and its no-redirection flow 1-Click Pix
- Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Domestic credit cards with the option to pay in installments and pass on interest to the end customer
- Boleto Flash® (Brazilian payment slip)
- Domestic debit cards through Débito Flash®
Or, for companies that want more control over the checkout experience, PagBrasil.JS allows your team to create a fully customized front end without having to worry about the full scope of PCI compliance.
Whether you prefer a turnkey solution or a tailored implementation, PagBrasil adapts to your existing stack, helping you capture Brazil’s AI opportunity without adding months of extra work or ongoing operational headaches.
PagBrasil: Your Key to Unlocking Brazil’s AI Potential
Expanding into Brazil’s booming AI economy requires more than just a payment processor—it takes a partner who understands the country’s unique landscape and can guide your strategy from day one. PagBrasil combines innovative technology with deep local expertise to help cross-border businesses scale confidently.
From Automatic Pix and PagStream® for recurring revenue to flexible integrations like PagBrasil Checkout, our solutions are built to meet the demands of a dynamic, high-volume market. But technology is only part of the equation. With a dedicated customer success team that provides humanized support and specialized technical expertise, we help you navigate the Brazilian market and optimize performance—every step of the way.
Talk to one of our specialists today and start building the payment strategy that will accelerate your AI growth in Brazil.
