How to pay in Shanghai as a foreign visitor: Alipay, WeChat Pay, cards and cash

The short answer. Install Alipay (支付宝) before you fly, register with your home phone number, link a Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Discover or Diners Club card, and you can pay in most shops and restaurants in Shanghai by scanning a QR code. WeChat Pay (微信支付, shown as “Weixin Pay” in official English) works the same way. Carry a few hundred yuan in cash as a backup. Your physical foreign card will work at hotels, department stores and larger restaurants, but often not at the noodle shop or the fruit stall, and not in most taxis, where you pay by QR code or cash. On the metro you can tap a contactless Visa, Mastercard, Amex or JCB card at the gates.

Why QR codes and not cards

Shanghai runs on two phone apps. Shops show a printed QR code at the till, or scan the code on your phone. Since 2023 both apps accept international cards, and in March 2024 the People’s Bank of China told the platforms to raise the limits for overseas visitors to US$5,000 per transaction and US$50,000 per year. The Shanghai government’s own guide for visitors quotes the same limits. Both apps also accept an overseas mobile number at registration, so you do not need a Chinese SIM card to get started.

Setting up Alipay

1. Download Alipay from your app store. It has an English interface.
2. Register with your own mobile number, country code included. Do this at home, while you still have reliable SMS.
3. Add a card: the app walks you through “international card” linking. Whether a card links depends on the card network and your issuing bank; if one card fails, try another.
4. To pay, either tap Scan and point the camera at the shop’s QR code, then type the amount if asked, or open your payment code and let the cashier scan it.
5. Verify your passport in the app when prompted. Without identity verification your spending is capped at a low level; with it you get the full limits above.

WeChat Pay is the same idea inside the WeChat app: Me → Services → Wallet → Bank Cards. Tencent’s own notice says Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Discover and Diners Club cards can be linked and that an overseas number is fine. Alipay reports support for seven international card brands, with American Express added in February 2025.

Fees

Service fees apply to payments made with a linked international card, and the app shows the fee before you confirm. At the time of checking, the published rule for both apps was no fee on a payment of 200 yuan or less and a fee of 3% on a payment above 200 yuan. Your own bank may add a foreign-transaction charge on top. For most tourist spending, coffees, metro rides, museum tickets, lunch, you will stay under the threshold and pay nothing extra.

Where a physical foreign card works

Card terminals that display the Visa, Mastercard or UnionPay logo should take your card: hotels, the big malls, chain restaurants, the airport. Small businesses often have no card terminal at all: at the end of March 2026 the People’s Bank of China counted 67,000 merchants and 97,000 terminals in the whole city that accept foreign cards. Do not plan a day around card payments; plan it around the apps, and use the card where it happens to be accepted. When a terminal or ATM offers to charge you in your home currency, decline and pay in yuan. The guide to paying with a foreign card explains linked versus physical cards, this currency-conversion trap (DCC), hotel deposits and ATMs in detail.

UnionPay cards issued outside the Chinese mainland are accepted at any merchant terminal in the city.

Cash

The yuan is legal tender and refusing cash is prohibited under a 2018 People’s Bank of China announcement. The rule is enforced: Xinhua reported in May 2024 that the central bank had penalised eight businesses for refusing cash since a campaign began in October 2023. Even so, Shanghai is set up for phone payment first, so treat cash as your backup rather than your main way to pay. Small shops may struggle to give change for a 100-yuan note, so break large notes at a convenience store or supermarket.

• ATMs: every ATM in Shanghai takes UnionPay cards, and most bank ATMs take foreign Visa and Mastercard as well. A single withdrawal is usually capped at 3,000 yuan, and your home bank may set its own daily limit.
• Exchange: bank branches with a currency-exchange sign change cash at the posted rate. Bring your passport. There are exchange counters and self-service kiosks at both airports.

Transport

Since 28 June 2025 you can tap a contactless bank card at the gates across the whole Shanghai metro network; the Shanghai government lists UnionPay, Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB. The card must allow small payments without a PIN. Shanghai’s public-transport system (metro, buses, ferries) has also accepted foreign bank cards through apps since April 2024. The official announcement describes three ways to ride: a QR code in Alipay, WeChat or the Shanghai Public Transport app, on a ride-first, pay-later basis; an NFC mobile transport card that you top up in the Shanghai Public Transport app; and a physical transport card topped up at machines. The Shanghai Municipal Transport Commission confirms that the ride QR code, the NFC card and the physical card all accept foreign-currency cards: you link the foreign card to Alipay or WeChat, and the fare is charged in the card’s currency. Physical cards can be bought or topped up at the CVM machines in metro stations by scanning your payment code, or at the staffed transport-card counters. We have not tested the gates or the apps with a foreign card ourselves, so keep the ticket-machine fallback in mind.

The safe fallback is the single-journey ticket. Every metro station’s service centre has a card terminal that takes foreign bank cards, and the ticket machines take cash. Buy a ticket there if neither your card nor the app will let you through. Pudong airport also has a one-stop centre where you can buy or top up a “Shanghai Pass” transport card and get payment help. See the guide to getting around for fares and routes.

If it doesn’t work

Most payment problems on a first trip come from the bank or the phone number, not the app. Work through these in order.

• The verification SMS never arrives. The app sends the code to the number you registered. Register before you leave, with a number that can still receive texts abroad, and check roaming is switched on for the SMS. Tencent’s notice says an overseas number is accepted for WeChat, so a Chinese number should not be necessary to register. If you are stuck, try the other app. China’s 2026 guidelines on digital services for inbound visitors say payments should be separated from domestic phone numbers, which suggests this is a known obstacle, but do not assume it has gone. See phone and internet for what a local SIM changes.
• Your card is declined, or will not link. Official pages say whether a card links depends on the card network and your issuing bank. Call the number on the back of your card and ask them to allow online and international payments, and to approve the verification charge from a Chinese payment platform. Tell the bank you are travelling so it does not flag the payments as fraud.
• One app fails. Try the other. Alipay and WeChat Pay are separate systems with separate card links, so set up both before you fly if you can, and link a second card as well.
• Identity verification will not complete. Both Alipay and WeChat Pay ask you to verify with your passport for the higher limits quoted above. Tencent says its passport check can take only seconds. Enter your name exactly as printed in the passport and use a sharp photo of the photo page. If it still fails, ask the staff at an airport one-stop service counter: the Shanghai government says they help travellers set up payments and link foreign cards.
• “Tour Pass”, “TenPayGo” and other names. Older guides describe a prepaid “Tour Pass” inside Alipay that you top up in advance. You do not need it: the official pages above describe linking your own card directly to Alipay or WeChat Pay. TenPayGo is a separate app that Tencent’s Weixin Pay launched for overseas visitors on 24 September 2026; it pays through the WeChat Pay network with an overseas card, Apple Pay or some overseas e-wallets. It is an alternative if WeChat itself gives you trouble, not something you must install.
• Nothing works. Use cash for the day, and ask your hotel front desk for help. The airports’ one-stop service centres are in the arrival halls of Pudong Terminals 1 and 2 and Hongqiao Terminal 1.

Deposits, mini-programs and ordering by QR

A few everyday things sit outside the main payment flow, and the rules differ by operator, so treat this as a heads-up rather than a guide.

• Shared power banks and bike share may ask for a deposit before the first use. Read the screen before you confirm, and carry a power bank of your own if you cannot get one to work. China’s 2026 guidelines say platforms should expand “deposit-free” options, so this may ease over time.
• Mini-programs (small apps that run inside Alipay or WeChat) sometimes ask for a Chinese mobile number to sign in. If one will not take your number, look for another way to do the same thing, or ask the venue to help.
• Ordering by QR code at the table often opens a mini-program or asks you to log in. If it stalls, ask the staff to take your order or to pay at the counter instead.

For SIM cards and what a Chinese number unlocks, see phone and internet in Shanghai.

A simple plan

1. At home: install Alipay, register with your own number, link two different cards, verify your passport.
2. On arrival: withdraw 500 to 1,000 yuan at a bank ATM in the terminal.
3. In the city: pay by QR code by default; use the card at the hotel; keep cash for small vendors and emergencies. Taxis take the driver’s QR code or cash; only a few have a card terminal. On the metro, tap your contactless card at the gate, or buy a single-journey ticket at the service centre if it is refused.
4. Shopping: in a registered tax-free store, spend 200 yuan or more and ask for the refund form; see tax refunds in Shanghai.