Accept a payment

Before you create a Checkout Session, you can create Products and Prices upfront. Use products to represent different physical goods or levels of service, and Prices to represent each product’s pricing.

For example, you can create a T-shirt as a product with a price of 20 USD. This allows you to update and add prices without needing to change the details of your underlying products. You can either create products and prices with the Stripe Dashboard or API. Learn more about how products and prices work.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/products \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d name=T-shirt

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/prices \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d product=
"{{PRODUCT_ID}}" \
  -d unit_amount=2000 \
  -d currency=usd

Each price you create has an ID. When you create a Checkout Session, reference the price ID and quantity. If you’re selling in multiple currencies, make your Price multi-currency. Checkout automatically determines the customer’s local currency and presents that currency if the Price supports it.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/checkout/sessions \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d mode=payment \
  -d "line_items[0][price]"={{PRICE_ID}} \
  -d "line_items[0][quantity]"=1 \
  --data-urlencode success_url="https://example.com/success?session_id={CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}" \
  --data-urlencode cancel_url="https://example.com/cancel"

If you’ve already collected your customer’s email and want to prefill it in the Checkout Session for them, pass customer_email when creating a Checkout Session.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/checkout/sessions \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  --data-urlencode customer_email="customer@example.com" \
  -d "line_items[0][price]"=
"{{PRICE_ID}}" \
  -d "line_items[0][quantity]"=1 \
  -d mode=payment \
  --data-urlencode success_url="https://example.com/success" \
  --data-urlencode cancel_url="https://example.com/cancel"

By default, payment methods used to make a one-time payment with Checkout aren’t available for future use.

Save payment methods to charge them off-session

You can set Checkout to save payment methods used to make a one-time payment by passing the payment_intent_data.setup_future_usage argument. This is useful if you need to capture a payment method on-file to use for future fees, such as cancellation or no-show fees.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/checkout/sessions \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d customer_creation=always \
  -d "line_items[0][price_data][currency]"=usd \
  -d "line_items[0][price_data][product_data][name]"=T-shirt \
  -d "line_items[0][price_data][unit_amount]"=2000 \
  -d "line_items[0][quantity]"=1 \
  -d mode=payment \
  --data-urlencode success_url="https://example.com/success.html" \
  --data-urlencode cancel_url="https://example.com/cancel.html" \
  -d "payment_intent_data[setup_future_usage]"=off_session

If you use Checkout in subscription mode, Stripe automatically saves the payment method to charge it for subsequent payments. Card payment methods saved to customers using either setup_future_usage or subscription mode don’t appear for return purchases in Checkout (more on this below). We recommend using custom text to link out to any relevant terms regarding the usage of saved payment information.

Save payment methods to prefill them in Checkout

By default, Checkout uses Link to provide your customers with the option to securely save and reuse their payment information. If you prefer to manage payment methods yourself, use saved_payment_method_options.payment_method_save when creating a Checkout Session to let your customers save their payment methods for future purchases in Checkout.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/checkout/sessions \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d customer_creation=always \
  -d "line_items[0][price_data][currency]"=usd \
  -d "line_items[0][price_data][product_data][name]"=T-shirt \
  -d "line_items[0][price_data][unit_amount]"=2000 \
  -d "line_items[0][quantity]"=1 \
  -d mode=payment \
  --data-urlencode success_url="https://example.com/success.html" \
  --data-urlencode cancel_url="https://example.com/cancel.html" \
  -d "saved_payment_method_options[payment_method_save]"=enabled

Passing this parameter in either payment or subscription mode displays an optional checkbox to let customers explicitly save their payment method for future purchases. When customers check this checkbox, Checkout saves the payment method with allow_redisplay: always. Checkout uses this parameter to determine whether a payment method can be prefilled on future purchases. When using saved_payment_method_options.payment_method_save, you don’t need to pass in setup_future_usage to save the payment method.

Using saved_payment_method_options.payment_method_save requires a Customer. To save a new customer, set the Checkout Session’s customer_creation to always. Otherwise, the session doesn’t save the customer or the payment method.

If payment_method_save isn’t passed in or if the customer doesn’t agree to save the payment method, Checkout still saves payment methods created in subscription mode or using setup_future_usage. These payment methods have an allow_redisplay value of limited, which prevents them from being prefilled for returning purchases and allows you to comply with card network rules and data protection regulations. Learn how to change the default behavior enabled by these modes and how to change or override allow_redisplay behavior.

Let customers remove saved payment methods

To let your customers remove a saved payment method so it doesn’t resurface for future payments, use saved_payment_method_options.payment_method_remove when creating a Checkout Session.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/checkout/sessions \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d customer={{CUSTOMER_ID}} \
  -d "line_items[0][price_data][currency]"=usd \
  -d "line_items[0][price_data][product_data][name]"=T-shirt \
  -d "line_items[0][price_data][unit_amount]"=2000 \
  -d "line_items[0][quantity]"=1 \
  -d mode=payment \
  --data-urlencode success_url="https://example.com/success.html" \
  --data-urlencode cancel_url="https://example.com/cancel.html" \
  -d "saved_payment_method_options[payment_method_remove]"=enabled

The customer can’t remove a payment method if it’s tied to an active subscription and the customer doesn’t have a default payment method saved for invoice and subscription payments.

Stripe supports two-step card payments so you can first authorize a card, then capture funds later. When Stripe authorizes a payment, the card issuer guarantees the funds and places a hold for the payment amount on the customer’s card. You then have a certain amount of time to capture the funds, depending on the card). If you don’t capture the payment before the authorization expires, the payment is cancelled and the issuer releases the held funds.

Separating authorization and capture is useful if you need to take additional actions between confirming that a customer is able to pay and collecting their payment. For example, if you’re selling stock-limited items, you may need to confirm that an item purchased by your customer using Checkout is still available before capturing their payment and fulfilling the purchase. Accomplish this using the following workflow:

1. Confirm that Stripe authorized the customer’s payment method.
2. Consult your inventory management system to confirm that the item is still available.
3. Update your inventory management system to indicate that a customer has purchased the item.
4. Capture the customer’s payment.
5. Inform your customer whether their purchase was successful on your confirmation page.

To indicate that you want to separate authorization and capture, you must set the value of payment_intent_data.capture_method to manual when creating the Checkout Session. This instructs Stripe to only authorize the amount on the customer’s card.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/checkout/sessions \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d "line_items[0][price]"={{PRICE_ID}} \
  -d "line_items[0][quantity]"=1 \
  -d mode=payment \
  -d "payment_intent_data[capture_method]"=manual \
  --data-urlencode success_url="https://example.com/success.html" \
  --data-urlencode cancel_url="https://example.com/cancel.html"

To capture an uncaptured payment, you can use either the Dashboard or the capture endpoint. Programmatically capturing payments requires access to the PaymentIntent created during the Checkout Session, which you can get from the Session object.

Let your customers manage their own accounts by sharing a link to your customer portal. The customer portal lets customers log in with their email to manage subscriptions, update payment methods, and so on.