Sell Event Photos in the UAE and GCC with AFS Gateway

Photo sales in the GCC need a local merchant account

A Dubai marathon, a Riyadh expo, a Doha school sports day, or a Bahrain race all have the same checkout problem. Participants find their photos, then the payment page asks them to pay a processor they have never used, often in a currency their bank treats as foreign.

Many organisers and studios in the UAE and the wider GCC already collect card payments through AFS Gateway. Until now, 9Pic Checkout could sell photos through Stripe, Xendit, or PayMongo. Those paths still matter in their regions. They are the wrong merchant stack when your finance team, settlement, and card acquiring already sit on AFS.

AFS Gateway support closes that gap. The gallery, selfie search, bib search, watermarks, and downloads stay in 9Pic AI. The money lands in the AFS merchant account you already operate.

What launched

Checkout can now create an AFS hosted payment for a photo package, confirm the paid state from AFS, then unlock the download. Buyers stay in the same event gallery flow they already use to find photos.

Where AFS Gateway fits

Use AFS Gateway when you sell event photos to buyers who expect a GCC card checkout, and when your organisation already has an AFS merchant profile.

• United Arab Emirates. Price in AED for races, school sports, conferences, and hospitality events in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah.
• Saudi Arabia. Price in SAR when the event, the studio, and the buyer bank all sit in the Kingdom.
• Qatar. Price in QAR for Doha races, school galleries, and corporate events.
• Bahrain. Price in BHD. Checkout stores BHD as a three-decimal currency so package totals stay exact.
• USD on AFS. Use USD when the AFS merchant account is set up for dollar settlement, including mixed-audience events that still need a GCC acquirer.

If you sell in the Philippines, start with PayMongo. If you sell across Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, or Vietnam, start with Xendit. If you sell in the US, UK, EU, or India on Stripe, stay on Stripe. The current gateway list lives on the 9Pic Checkout product page.

Connect AFS Gateway to an event

Checkout is an Enterprise feature. Only team admins can add gateway credentials. The steps match the dashboard Payment Config flow:

1. Open Payment Config in the 9Pic AI dashboard.
2. Add an AFS Gateway configuration. Paste the Merchant ID and the API password from your AFS merchant setup.
3. On the event, open Checkout configuration and assign that AFS configuration.
4. Build packages in AED, SAR, QAR, BHD, or USD. Those are the currencies AFS Checkout accepts.
5. Run a test purchase before the gallery goes live. A test Merchant ID uses the AFS simulator. Use the live Merchant ID only when you are ready to take real payments.

The setup walkthrough, including where to copy the API password, is in the AFS Gateway setup guide. Protect previews with 9Pic Stamp before you open paid downloads. For the rest of the sales workflow, see how to sell event photos online and pre-sale photo passes.

What buyers see

A participant finds their photos with FaceFind or BibTrack, adds a package to the cart, and pays on the AFS hosted checkout. After AFS reports a captured payment, 9Pic Checkout unlocks the high-resolution, watermark-free files. The organiser sees the order in the Checkout transactions list.

The browser return page is not enough on its own. Checkout confirms the paid state with AFS before it grants the download. That is the same rule used for Stripe, Xendit, and PayMongo.

AFS Gateway is available now

If you already collect cards with AFS Gateway, you can sell event photos through that same merchant account. Add the configuration, assign it to the event, and price in a supported GCC currency.

Need help choosing between AFS Gateway, Stripe, PayMongo, and Xendit for a specific country? Talk to the 9Pic AI team.