Mastercard Authorization Optimizer Service Fee

Effective February 19, 2026, Mastercard Authorization Optimizer service fees will be included in the existing MEXS line item on merchant invoices. These fees reflect detailed retry guidance delivered via the Merchant Advice Code by Mastercard’s AI-powered Authorization Optimizer, which helps improve approval rates by advising when to retry certain declined transactions.

Service Overview

Mastercard Authorization Optimizer returns Merchant Advice Codes (MAC) 24–30 in the authorization response when a transaction is declined due to insufficient funds. These codes indicate the optimal timeframe to retry the transaction, based on Mastercard’s network-wide data and machine learning models.

Transaction Eligibility Criteria

Type: Card-Not-Present (CNP) recurring or Merchant-Initiated Transactions
Decline Reason: Insufficient Funds (Issuer Reason Code 51)
Card History: At least one approved transaction on the same card within the past 90 days
Network: Transaction processed on the Mastercard network
Region: Merchants located in the United States or Canada
MAC = 24-30 (inclusive)

Billing Details

Billing Event Description: MEXS
Billing Frequency: Monthly
Fee Basis: Per eligible transaction where retry guidance is provided
Rate: USD $0.02 per transaction
Region: United States and Canada

Program Benefits

By leveraging Mastercard’s network-wide visibility, the Authorization Optimizer service identifies when a cardholder is most likely to have sufficient funds based on successful approvals elsewhere on the network for an equal or greater amount. This replaces traditional generic declines with actionable guidance, helping merchants improve authorization success for recurring and subsequent payment attempts.

Merchant Advice Code (MAC) Details and Descriptions

MAC 24: Retry after 1 hour
MAC 25: Retry after 24 hours
MAC 26: Retry after 2 days
MAC 27: Retry after 4 days
MAC 28: Retry after 6 days
MAC 29: Retry after 8 days
MAC 30: Retry after 10 days

The MAC value is included in the authorization response under additional.codeMAC. For example, a value of "24" corresponds to the Mastercard Authorization Optimizer Service and indicates that merchants should retry that transaction after 1 hour. Merchant Advice Codes can also be found in the MAC field in TabaPay’s daily transaction detail reports.

Please see the Create Transaction API documentation (https://developers.tabapay.com/reference/transactioncreate) and Transactions Reports specifications (https://developers.tabapay.com/docs/transactions) for details.

Support

Should you have questions regarding this announcement, please contact [email protected].