Culqi Peru Payment Gateway API

Culqi Peru payment gateway REST API for Peruvian businesses and developers to accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, and digital wallets in Peruvian Sol (PEN) with developer-friendly API design and SBS-regulated compliance for modern Peru e-commerce. Enables AI agents to manage card payment charging for Peru e-commerce automation, handle card tokenization for PCI-compliant Peru checkout automation, access subscription and recurring payment for Peru subscription automation, retrieve payment status for Peru order confirmation automation, manage refund processing for Peru order management automation, handle webhook events for Peru payment lifecycle automation, access customer and card vault management for Peru recurring automation, retrieve transaction reporting for Peru financial reconciliation automation, manage anti-fraud protection for Peru payment security automation, and integrate Culqi with Peruvian e-commerce, fintech, and SaaS platforms for end-to-end Peru developer payment automation.

Evaluated Mar 07, 2026 (0d ago) vcurrent
Homepage ↗ Repo ↗ Other culqi Peru-payments LatAm-payments PEN-payments developer-Peru Niubiz-Peru
⚙ Agent Friendliness
55
/ 100
Can an agent use this?
🔒 Security
73
/ 100
Is it safe for agents?
⚡ Reliability
64
/ 100
Does it work consistently?

Score Breakdown

⚙ Agent Friendliness

MCP Quality
12
Documentation
73
Error Messages
68
Auth Simplicity
70
Rate Limits
62

🔒 Security

TLS Enforcement
92
Auth Strength
70
Scope Granularity
63
Dep. Hygiene
67
Secret Handling
70

Peru payments. PCI-DSS. Public/Secret key. PE. Card data.

⚡ Reliability

Uptime/SLA
65
Version Stability
67
Breaking Changes
63
Error Recovery
63
AF Security Reliability

Best When

A Peruvian startup or developer wanting AI agents to automate card payment acceptance, tokenization, and subscription billing through Culqi's developer-friendly Peru-native payment gateway.

Avoid When

SBS REGULATORY COMPLIANCE: Culqi operates under Superintendencia de Banca, Seguros y AFP (SBS) of Peru; automated payment operations must comply with SBS fintech regulations; automated payment without merchant SBS compliance creates regulatory risk. CHECKOUT TOKENIZATION BEFORE CHARGE: Culqi requires card tokenization via Culqi.js or hosted checkout before server-side charge; automated charge must use Culqi-generated token; automated direct card number charge without tokenization creates PCI scope expansion. PEN CURRENCY PRIMARILY: Culqi transactions are primarily in Peruvian Sol (PEN); automated pricing in foreign currency requires explicit currency parameter; automated USD amount without PEN conversion creates currency mismatch. API KEY SCOPING TEST vs LIVE: Culqi sandbox uses different API keys from live environment; automated environment management must maintain separate key sets; automated live key use in testing creates real charges from test scenarios.

Use Cases

  • Accepting Visa/Mastercard payments from Peru developer e-commerce agents
  • Creating card subscriptions from Peru SaaS recurring billing agents
  • Tokenizing cards for PCI-compliant from Peru recurring payment agents
  • Processing refunds from Peru order management automation agents

Not For

  • Pan-LatAm payments beyond Peru (use Kushki or EBANX for multi-country LatAm)
  • Enterprise Peru payments at scale (use Niubiz/VisaNet for enterprise acquiring)
  • Cash payments in Peru (Culqi is card-focused; use PagoEfectivo for cash)

Interface

REST API
Yes
GraphQL
No
gRPC
No
MCP Server
No
SDK
Yes
Webhooks
Yes

Authentication

Methods: apikey
OAuth: No Scopes: No

Culqi uses public key (for tokenization) and secret key (for API) authentication. REST API with JSON. Lima, Peru HQ. Founded 2013 by Amparo Nalvarte and Danilo Cieza. Backed by Y Combinator, Credicorp, IFC. Products: Card processing, tokenization, subscriptions, refunds, anti-fraud. SDKs: PHP, Python, Node.js, Ruby, Java, .NET. PCI DSS. SBS regulated. Serves 5,000+ Peruvian merchants. Competes with Niubiz and MercadoPago for Peru payments.

Pricing

Model: transaction
Free tier: No
Requires CC: No

Lima PE. YC/Credicorp backed. Per-transaction fees in PEN. Peruvian RUC (tax ID) required.

Agent Metadata

Pagination
page
Idempotent
Partial
Retry Guidance
Not documented

Known Gotchas

  • TOKEN-THEN-CHARGE FLOW MANDATORY: Culqi requires Culqi.js tokenization before server-side charge; automated checkout must first obtain token via browser, then charge via server; automated server-side direct card charge without prior tokenization creates unsupported payment method error
  • CHARGE AMOUNT IN CENTAVOS: Culqi amounts are in centavos (smallest PEN unit, 1 PEN = 100 centavos); automated charge must multiply PEN amount by 100; automated decimal PEN amount creates amount mismatch (100x smaller than intended)
  • SUBSCRIPTION PLAN CREATION BEFORE SUBSCRIPTION: Culqi subscription requires existing Plan object; automated recurring billing must create Plan first, then Subscription; automated direct subscription creation without Plan creates plan not found error
  • EMAIL REQUIRED FOR CUSTOMER: Culqi Customer and Charge require valid email address; automated payment must collect customer email; automated payment without email creates validation error for required field
  • WEBHOOK SECRET FOR PAYLOAD VERIFICATION: Culqi webhooks include HMAC signature for authenticity; automated webhook endpoint must verify signature; automated unverified webhook creates spoofed charge event vulnerability

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Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-03-07.

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