Accept a payment
Integrate Stripe’s prebuilt payment UI into the checkout of your iOS app with the PaymentSheet
class.
Clone a demo integration on GitHub.
Set up StripeServer-sideClient-side
First, you need a Stripe account. Register now.
Server-side
This integration requires endpoints on your server that talk to the Stripe API. Use our official libraries for access to the Stripe API from your server:
Client-side
The Stripe iOS SDK is open source, fully documented, and compatible with apps supporting iOS 13 or above.
For details on the latest SDK release and past versions, see the Releases page on GitHub. To receive notifications when a new release is published, watch releases for the repository.
Enable payment methods
View your payment methods settings and enable the payment methods you want to support. You need at least one payment method enabled to create a PaymentIntent.
By default, Stripe enables cards and other prevalent payment methods that can help you reach more customers, but we recommend turning on additional payment methods that are relevant for your business and customers. See Payment method integration options for product and payment method support, and our pricing page for fees.
Add an endpointServer-side
This integration uses three Stripe API objects:
A PaymentIntent. Stripe uses this to represent your intent to collect payment from a customer, tracking your charge attempts and payment state changes throughout the process.
A Customer (optional). To set up a payment method for future payments, it must be attached to a Customer. Create a Customer object when your customer creates an account with your business. If your customer is making a payment as a guest, you can create a Customer object before payment and associate it with your own internal representation of the customer’s account later.
A Customer Ephemeral Key (optional). Information on the Customer object is sensitive, and can’t be retrieved directly from an app. An Ephemeral Key grants the SDK temporary access to the Customer.
If you never save cards to a Customer and don’t allow returning Customers to reuse saved cards, you can omit the Customer and Customer Ephemeral Key objects from your integration.
For security reasons, your app can’t create these objects. Instead, add an endpoint on your server that:
- Retrieves the Customer, or creates a new one.
- Creates an Ephemeral Key for the Customer.
- Creates a PaymentIntent, with the amount, currency, customer, and
automatic_payment_methods
enabled. - Returns the Payment Intent’s client secret, the Ephemeral Key’s
secret
, the Customer’sid
, and your publishable key to your app.
We’re building an integration that lets you present the payment sheet before creating a PaymentIntent. If you’re interested in providing feedback and getting early access, please contact us.
The payment methods shown to customers during the checkout process are also included on the PaymentIntent. You can let Stripe pull payment methods from your Dashboard settings or you can list them manually. Regardless of the option you choose, know that the currency passed in the PaymentIntent filters the payment methods shown to the customer. For example, if you pass eur
on the PaymentIntent and have OXXO enabled in the Dashboard, OXXO won’t be shown to the customer because OXXO doesn’t support eur
payments.
Unless your integration requires a code-based option for offering payment methods, Stripe recommends the automated option. This is because Stripe evaluates the currency, payment method restrictions, and other parameters to determine the list of supported payment methods. Payment methods that increase conversion and that are most relevant to the currency and customer’s location are prioritized.
Collect payment detailsClient-side
Before displaying the mobile Payment Element, your checkout page should:
- Show the products being purchased and the total amount
- Collect any required shipping information using the Address Element
- Include a checkout button to present Stripe’s UI
If PaymentSheetResult
is .completed
, inform the user (for example, by displaying an order confirmation screen).
Setting allowsDelayedPaymentMethods
to true allows delayed payment methods like SEPA Debit and Sofort. For these payment methods, the final payment status isn’t known when the PaymentSheet
completes, and instead succeeds or fails later. If you allow this, inform the customer that you confirmed their order and only fulfill their order (for example, ship their product) when you receive payment.
Set up a return URLClient-side
The customer may go out of your app to authenticate, for example, in Safari or their banking app. To allow them to automatically return to your app after authenticating, configure a custom URL scheme or universal link and set up your app delegate to forward the URL to the SDK.
// This method handles opening custom URL schemes (for example, "your-app://stripe-redirect") func application(_ app: UIApplication, open url: URL, options: [UIApplication.OpenURLOptionsKey: Any] = [:]) -> Bool { let stripeHandled = StripeAPI.handleURLCallback(with: url) if (stripeHandled) { return true } else { // This was not a Stripe url – handle the URL normally as you would } return false } // This method handles opening universal link URLs (for example, "https://example.com/stripe_ios_callback") func application(_ application: UIApplication, continue userActivity: NSUserActivity, restorationHandler: @escaping ([UIUserActivityRestoring]?) -> Void) -> Bool { if userActivity.activityType == NSUserActivityTypeBrowsingWeb { if let url = userActivity.webpageURL { let stripeHandled = StripeAPI.handleURLCallback(with: url) if (stripeHandled) { return true } else { // This was not a Stripe url – handle the URL normally as you would } } } return false }
Additionally, set the returnURL
on your PaymentSheet.Configuration
object to the URL for your app.
var configuration = PaymentSheet.Configuration() configuration.returnURL = "your-app://stripe-redirect"
Handle post-payment eventsServer-side
Stripe sends a payment_intent.succeeded event when the payment completes. Use the Dashboard webhook tool or follow the webhook guide to receive these events and run actions, such as sending an order confirmation email to your customer, logging the sale in a database, or starting a shipping workflow.
Listen for these events rather than waiting on a callback from the client. On the client, the customer could close the browser window or quit the app before the callback executes, and malicious clients could manipulate the response. Setting up your integration to listen for asynchronous events is what enables you to accept different types of payment methods with a single integration.
In addition to handling the payment_intent.succeeded
event, we recommend handling two other events when collecting payments with the Payment Element:
Event | Description | Action |
---|---|---|
payment_intent.succeeded | Sent when a customer has successfully completed a payment. | Send the customer an order confirmation and fulfill their order. |
payment_intent.processing | Sent when a customer successfully initiated a payment, but the payment has yet to complete. This event is most commonly sent when a bank debit is initiated. It’s followed by either a payment_intent.succeeded or payment_intent.payment_failed event in the future. | Send the customer an order confirmation that indicates their payment is pending. For digital goods, you may want to fulfill the order before waiting for payment to complete. |
payment_intent.payment_failed | Sent when a customer attempted a payment, but the payment failed. | If a payment transitioned from processing to payment_failed , offer the customer another attempt to pay. |
Test the integration
Use test payment details and the test redirect page to verify your integration. Click the tabs below to view details for each payment method.
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