The word paisa is from the Sanskrit term pad???a, meaning 'quarter part', from pada "foot or quarter" and a??a "part". Another explanation is that the word derives from Portuguese ´pesa´ from which peso and diminutive peseta are derived. The pesa was also in use in colonial Kenya. The colloquial term for money in Burmese, paiksan (???????), derives from the Hindi term paisa.

Until the 1950s in India and Pakistan (and before 1947 in British India), the paisa was equivalent to 3 pies, ?¹?₄ of an anna, or ?¹?₆₄ of a rupee. After the transition from a non-decimal currency to a decimal currency, the paisa equaled ?¹?₁₀₀ of a rupee and was known as a naya paisa ("new paisa") for a few years to distinguish it from the old paisa that was ?¹?₆₄ of a rupee.

In Hindi, Afghan Persian, and other languages, the word paisa often means money or cash. Medieval trade routes that spanned the Arabian Sea between India, the Arab regions and East Africa spread the usage of Indian subcontinent and Arabic currency terms across these areas.^[4] The word pesa as a reference to money in East African languages such as Swahili dates from that period.^[4] An example of this usage is the older day Kenyan mobile-phone-based money transfer service M-Pesa (which stands for "mobile pesa" or "mobile money").

• Poisha = ?¹?₁₀₀ of a Bangladeshi taka
• Paisa = ?¹?₁₀₀ of an Indian rupee
• Paisa = ?¹?₁₀₀ of a Nepalese rupee
• Baisa = ?¹?₁₀₀₀ of an Omani rial
• Paisa = ?¹?₁₀₀ of a Pakistani rupee

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  100 Omani Baisa note (reverse).

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  100 Omani baisa note (1990).

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  5 Pakistani Paisa (1989).

• Indian paisa