Dynamic QRIS Payment Integration in Node.js: The Complete Guide

On a recent project I had to add QRIS to an Indonesian checkout, and the first thing that tripped up the team was assuming QRIS is one thing. It is not. There is a static flavor you print on a sticker and a dynamic flavor you generate on the fly from your backend. For anything resembling an app or an online store, you want dynamic QRIS, and this post walks through exactly how to build that in Node.js.

QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard) is Bank Indonesia's unified QR standard: one QR that any registered e-wallet or mobile banking app (GoPay, OVO, DANA, ShopeePay, bank apps) can scan and pay. As a developer you almost never talk to the QRIS network directly. You go through a licensed PSP, and your real work is generating the QR, rendering it, and reacting to a webhook when the money lands.

Static vs dynamic QRIS: which one do you need?

The difference matters for both UX and reconciliation. With a static QR the customer scans your one printed code and types the amount themselves — fine for a warung, painful for software because you cannot reliably tie a payment back to a specific order. A dynamic QR is minted per transaction with the amount locked in, and it carries an order reference your webhook can match. Here is how they compare.

Generating dynamic QRIS through a licensed PSP

You cannot legally mint a valid QRIS from scratch. Every QR must embed a real NMID and be signed into Bank Indonesia's national switching network, which only licensed acquirers and PJSPs can do. So the architecture is always the same: your backend calls a PSP, the PSP returns a QR, and the PSP settles funds to your account minus MDR. These are the licensed PSPs Indonesian developers usually reach for.

• Midtrans (Core API and Snap) — widest e-wallet coverage, strong Node.js SDK
• Xendit — clean API, popular with startups and fintech
• DOKU — long-established, strong on enterprise and biller use cases
• Direct bank APIs (BRI, BCA, Mandiri) — if you already bank with them and want lower fees at higher volume

NMID and merchant onboarding

Before a single QR works you have to be onboarded as a merchant. Your PSP collects your business documents (KTP and NIK for individuals, NPWP and deed of establishment for companies), verifies legality, and your acquirer issues an NMID — the National Merchant ID that is baked into every QR you present and links each payment to your business in the national merchant repository. Budget a few working days: NMID issuance is typically three to four working days and QRIS activation another one to two after documents clear. Nothing you build will transact until this finishes, so start onboarding early.

The MPM flow: generating a dynamic QR in Node.js

Dynamic QRIS uses MPM — Merchant Presented Mode — meaning the merchant presents the QR and the customer scans it (the opposite is CPM, where the customer shows their app's QR to a scanner). The MPM flow in code is three steps: charge, render, confirm. With Midtrans Core API and their Node.js SDK, generating the QR is a single charge call with payment_type set to qris.

// Generate a dynamic QRIS via Midtrans Core API
import midtransClient from "midtrans-client";

const core = new midtransClient.CoreApi({
  isProduction: false,
  serverKey: process.env.MIDTRANS_SERVER_KEY,
  clientKey: process.env.MIDTRANS_CLIENT_KEY,
});

const charge = await core.charge({
  payment_type: "qris",
  transaction_details: {
    order_id: `INV-${Date.now()}`,
    gross_amount: 275000, // IDR, integer only — no decimals
  },
  qris: { acquirer: "gopay" }, // or "airpay_shopee" for ShopeePay
});

// The QR to show the customer lives in the actions array (MPM)
const qr = charge.actions.find((a) => a.name === "generate-qr-code");
console.log(charge.transaction_id, qr.url, charge.expiry_time);

Handling the payment callback/webhook

This is where most integrations quietly break. The customer's app says paid, but your backend only truly knows when the PSP posts a webhook to your notification URL. Configure that URL in the PSP dashboard, expose a public HTTPS endpoint, and — critically — verify the signature before trusting anything. Midtrans signs each notification as an SHA-512 hash of order_id, status_code, gross_amount, and your server key. The identifier of the QR being paid arrives as merchant_cross_reference_id.

import crypto from "node:crypto";
import express from "express";

const app = express();
app.use(express.json());

app.post("/webhooks/midtrans", async (req, res) => {
  const { order_id, status_code, gross_amount, signature_key,
          transaction_status, fraud_status } = req.body;

  // gross_amount here is a string like "275000.00"
  const expected = crypto
    .createHash("sha512")
    .update(order_id + status_code + gross_amount + process.env.MIDTRANS_SERVER_KEY)
    .digest("hex");

  if (expected !== signature_key) {
    return res.status(403).json({ error: "invalid signature" });
  }

  if (transaction_status === "settlement" && fraud_status === "accept") {
    // Idempotent: order_id may arrive more than once
    // await orders.markPaidOnce(order_id);
  }

  // Respond 200 fast so the PSP stops retrying
  res.status(200).json({ received: true });
});

The MDR fee structure

Finally, the money. MDR (Merchant Discount Rate) is the fee your PSP deducts from each settlement — you receive the gross amount minus MDR. Bank Indonesia regulates the ceilings, and they changed on 15 March 2025. Verify the current numbers against Bank Indonesia before quoting them to a client, because these are policy-driven and shift. As of the 2025 schedule: