For years, one of Airtel Money’s biggest selling points has been its cheaper transaction costs compared to M-PESA. Whether you’re sending a few hundred shillings or paying someone on another network, Airtel has consistently positioned itself as the more affordable option.
That appears to have changed, at least for customers sending money from Airtel Money to M-PESA.
Without any public PR, press releases, or SMS notifications to its customers, Airtel Money has increased the cost of sending money from its network to Safaricom’s M-PESA. And this fee increment isn’t just a random bump to cover operational costs; a closer look at the numbers reveals a very deliberate move. Airtel has perfectly matched M-PESA’s own Send Money charges.
On June 29 and again on July 5, I sent money from my Airtel Money account to M-PESA users. The transactions fell within the standard KES 101 – 500 bracket. As always, they cost me the usual KES 6. Like many of you, I’ve always appreciated Airtel for these slightly cheaper rates compared to the competition.
Fast forward to this week, and the landscape has completely shifted under our feet.
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Out of the blue, my transaction was slapped with a KES 7 fee instead of the usual KES 6. Curious, I decided to run a few more tests across different bands with the little money left in my wallet, and the results were undeniable. Airtel Money has hiked its rates.
Here is how the old rates stack up against my new findings:
- KES 101 – KES 500: Increased from KES 6 to KES 7 (Matches M-PESA)
- KES 501 – KES 1,000: Increased from KES 11 to KES 13 (Matches M-PESA)
- KES 1,001 – KES 1,500: Increased from KES 20 to KES 23 (Matches M-PESA)
- KES 1,501 – KES 2,500: Increased from KES 30 to KES 33 (Matches M-PESA)
As you can see from the tests (which I confirmed via transaction prompts on my device as seen in the screenshots below), the increments are precise. Every band I tested showed an exact match to Safaricom’s current person-to-person (P2P) transfer tariffs.
While I haven’t tested the upper limits, the increments likely mirror Safaricom’s bands all the way to the KES 250,000 limit. And checking around, I’m not the only one; several other Airtel Money users have also begun to notice the sudden deductions.
Why the silence from Airtel Money Kenya?
The biggest question isn’t necessarily why Airtel increased the prices—inflation, interconnect fees, and operational costs are standard business realities. The real issue is how they did it.
A quick check on Airtel Kenya’s official website shows that the official tariff guide has not even been updated to reflect these new charges. As of today, the site still boldly advertises the old rates. There have been no press releases, no social media announcements, and crucially, no SMS alerts to users notifying them of the changes before they hit the “Confirm” button.
It’s also worth noting the regulatory context. Earlier this year, the controversial Finance Bill 2026 proposed a 16% VAT on payment platform fees, but the National Assembly ultimately rejected the provision specifically targeting peer-to-peer mobile money transfers. Therefore, this price hike cannot be blamed on new government taxes. It appears to be a purely commercial decision by Airtel.
Airtel has historically positioned itself as the affordable alternative to Safaricom’s dominance. For years, Airtel Money’s lower transaction costs have been a major draw for Kenyans looking to escape M-PESA’s premium pricing. If you frequently send money across networks, those savings add up.
Now, with parity in all transaction tiers, the incentive to use Airtel Money for inter-network transfers is significantly diminished. While sending money from Airtel to Airtel remains free, the reality of the Kenyan market is that the vast majority of recipients are on M-PESA. By silently aligning their cross-network fees with Safaricom, Airtel is forcing its loyal users to pay the “Safaricom tax” anyway.
We’ve reached out to Airtel Kenya for a comment regarding this unannounced tariff hike and the discrepancy on their official website. We will update this article if they respond.
In the meantime, the next time you initiate an Airtel Money transfer to an M-PESA number, pay close attention to that confirmation screen, because it now costs more than it did last week.
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