Instant Payouts for Connect marketplaces and platforms

With Instant Payouts, Connect platforms and marketplaces can allow their users to access their balances immediately following a successful charge. Instant Payouts are available at any day or time, including weekends and holidays, and funds typically settle in the associated bank account within 30 minutes.

You can use Instant Payouts to:

• Attract and retain new users
• Realize additional revenue by assessing a fee

Funds acquired from card payments are available for Instant Payouts as soon as the charge is complete. ACH or bank debits are only available for Instant Payouts after the payment has settled.

Eligible external accounts

To receive Instant Payouts, a user must have an eligible External account. Eligible accounts vary by country.

Confirm External Account eligibility

You can verify Instant Payout eligibility for your user by calling the External Accounts API with the Connected Account ID. The response returns the account’s 10 most recently active External Accounts, and those with instant in the available_payout_methods parameter are eligible for Instant Payouts. You can paginate through the results if you need to review more than the default display of 10.

{
  "object": "list",
  "data": [
    {
      "object": "bank_account",
      "available_payout_methods": [
        "standard",
        "instant"
      ],
      ...
    }
  ],
}

Invite users to add eligible accounts

If your user doesn’t have an External Account eligible for Instant Payouts, you can prompt them to add an eligible account.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts/
{{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}} \
  -u "
sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
:" \
  -d external_account=
{{BANK_ACCOUNT_TOKEN_ID}}

Initiate an Instant Payout

You can either initiate Instant Payouts manually on your users’ behalf or you can use the Stripe APIs to compose user interfaces to allow your users to initiate an Instant Payout. If you’re an Express platform interested in no-code or “low-code” embedded options, contact us.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/balance \
  -u "
sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Account: 
{{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}}
"

{
  "object": "balance",
  "available": [
    {
      "amount": 247,
      "currency": "usd",
      "source_types": {
        "card": 247
      }
    }
  ],
  "instant_available": [
    {
      "amount": 243,
      "currency": "usd",
      "source_types": {
        "card": 243
      }
    }
  ],
  "livemode": true,
  "pending": [
    {
      "amount": 0,
      "currency": "usd",
      "source_types": {
        "card": 0
      }
    }
  ]
}

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payouts \
  -u "
sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Account: 
{{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}}
" \
  -d amount=50 \
  -d currency=usd \
  -d method=instant

Monetization and fees

Some marketplaces and platforms choose to monetize Instant Payouts, offering the convenience for a fee. If you monetize Instant Payouts, Stripe supports two methods for you to collect fees from your users:

• Application Fees
• Account debits

Application Fees Beta

With Application Fees, Stripe collects the fee you determine and initiates the Instant Payout synchronously. Stripe recommends applying an application fee because it’s a single, seamless transaction:

• Fees are subtracted from the connected account’s instant available balance prior to payout
• Users can’t pay out more than their available balance
• Fees are paired to your Instant Payouts revenue with the Payout Object, helping with reporting and reconciliation
• Fees can be refunded through the API or the Dashboard

To use Application Fees, set your pricing settings using the Dashboard. Application Fee monetization is currently available as a private beta. It will be generally available soon.

Account Debits

You can directly debit your connected account’s Stripe balance and credit your platform account’s Stripe balance to collect fees. After the Instant Payout, call the Charge API, specifying the connected account ID as the value of the source parameter:

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/charges \
  -u "
sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
:" \
  -d amount=1500 \
  -d currency=usd \
  -d source=tok_amex

Consider the following limitations when using account debits to collect Instant Payout fees:

• You must get legally binding consent from your connected accounts.
• Account debits carry an additional cost.
• Debiting an account can’t make the connected account balance become negative unless you have reserves enabled (on by default for all new platforms created after January 31, 2017) and have a bank account in the same currency as the debit. If the connected account has already paid out their available balance in full, you might be delayed in collecting the fee.

Stripe recommends keeping an internal database that tracks each account debit associated with an Instant Payout to support reconciliation after you receive Connect Fee reporting on the 1st of each month. Account debit charges show as Payment balance types (py_XXX), which you can filter for in your Balance History.

Eligibility and daily volume limits

Your account has a maximum amount it can pay out instantly per day across all connected accounts. Your users can’t initiate Instant Payouts after you reach your daily limit. Daily limits reset at midnight US Central Time (CT).

Pricing

Irrespective of your monetization decisions, Stripe charges marketplaces and platforms a 1% fee for all Instant Payouts. Each Instant Payout transaction has a minimum and maximum amount dependent on the currency. These fees are assessed as part of your overall Connect fees.

Manage risk and eligibility

When platforms and marketplaces are liable for losses, you’re liable for uncovered negative balances due to refunds or disputes.

Stripe recommends setting risk parameters to protect your platform from unintended losses. We provide a number of best practices for managing fraud and risk, such as setting trust thresholds like:

• Minimum processing volume
• Days active
• Chargeback rate

Stripe has tools to help manage eligibility– if you’re interested, contact us.

Marketing

Your marketing of Instant Payouts to Connected Accounts must clearly and conspicuously disclose any fees you intend to apply for Instant Payouts.

Make sure your marketing is consistent with Stripe’s marketing of the product, which states that: “You can request Instant Payouts 24/7, including weekends and holidays, and funds typically appear in the associated bank account within 30 minutes”. Some Instant Payouts might not settle within 30 minutes, and instead might take longer to be credited to the relevant bank account.