Using Connect with Standard accounts

Integrating with Standard accounts is the fastest and easiest way to get started using Connect, since Stripe will handle the majority of the user experience and user communication.

A Standard Stripe account is a conventional Stripe account controlled directly by the account holder (i.e., your platform’s user). A user with a Standard account has a relationship with Stripe, is able to log in to the Dashboard, can process charges on their own, and can disconnect their account from your platform.

You can prompt your users to create Stripe accounts, or allow anyone with an existing Stripe account to connect to your platform.

Connect Onboarding is the recommended method for creating Standard accounts. If you’re an extension or an application that needs access to an existing account in order to provide services to your users, you can still use OAuth.

Stripe’s sample integration, Kavholm, shows you how to use Connect Onboarding for a seamless user onboarding experience.

Get started

If you’re new to Connect, start with a guide to use Standard accounts to enable other businesses to accept payments directly.

How to use Connect Onboarding for Standard accounts

Go to your Connect settings page to customize the visual appearance of the form with your brand’s name, color, and icon. This information is required for Connect Onboarding.
Use the /v1/accounts API to create a new account and get the account ID. You can prefill information on the account object for the user before you generate the account link. You must pass the following parameter:
- type = standard
Call the Account Links API with the following parameters. For more parameters, see the API ref.
- account
- refresh_url
- return_url
- type = account_onboarding
In the onboarding flow for your own platform, redirect your user to the url returned by Account Links.
Handle additional account states, redirecting your user to the Connect Onboarding flow if necessary.

Create a Standard account and prefill information

Use the /v1/accounts API to create a Standard account and set type to standard in the account creation request.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "type"="standard"

If you have previously collected information for your connected accounts, you can prefill that information on the account object for the user and it won’t be collected again in the Connect Onboarding flow. Connect Onboarding will only collect required information when you create or update an account.

Create an account link

You can create an account link by calling the Account Links API with the following parameters:

account
refresh_url
return_url
type = account_onboarding

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/account_links \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "account"="acct_1032D82eZvKYlo2C" \
  -d "refresh_url"="https://example.com/reauth" \
  -d "return_url"="https://example.com/return" \
  -d "type"="account_onboarding"

Redirect your user to the account link URL

The response to your Account Links request includes a value for the key url. Redirect to this link to send your user into the flow. URLs from the Account Links API are temporary and can be used only once because they grant access to the account holder’s personal information. Authenticate the user in your application before redirecting them to this URL. If you want to prefill information, you must do so before generating the account link. After you create the account link for a Standard account, you will not be able to read or write information for the account.

Do not email, text, or otherwise send account link URLs directly to your user. Instead, redirect the authenticated user to the account link URL from within your platform’s application.

Handle the user returning to your platform

Connect Onboarding requires you to pass both a return_url and refresh_url to handle all cases where the user will be redirected to your platform. It’s important that you implement these correctly to provide the best experience for your user.

You can use HTTP for your return_url and refresh_url while in test mode (e.g., to test with localhost), but in live mode only HTTPS will be accepted. Be sure to swap testing URLs for HTTPS URLs before going live.

return_url

Stripe issues a redirect to this URL when the user completes the Connect Onboarding flow. This does not mean that all information has been collected or that there are no outstanding requirements on the account. This only means the flow was entered and exited properly.

No state is passed through this URL. After a user is redirected to your return_url, check the state of the details_submitted parameter on their account by doing either of the following:

Listening to account.updated webhooks
Calling the Accounts API and inspecting the returned object

refresh_url

Your user will be redirected to the refresh_url in these cases:

The link is expired (a few minutes went by since the link was created)
The link was already visited (the user refreshed the page or clicked back or forward in the browser)
Your platform is no longer able to access the account
The account has been rejected

Your refresh_url should trigger a method on your server to call Account Links again with the same parameters, and redirect the user to the Connect Onboarding flow to create a seamless experience.

Handle users that have not completed onboarding

A user that is redirected to your return_url might not have completed the onboarding process. Use the /v1/accounts endpoint to retrieve the user’s account and check for charges_enabled. If the account is not fully onboarded, provide UI prompts to allow the user to continue onboarding later. The user can complete their account activation through a new account link (generated by your integration). You can check the state of the details_submitted parameter on their account to see if they’ve completed the onboarding process.