Accept a payment

Securely accept payments online.

Build a custom payments integration by embedding UI components on your site, using Stripe Elements. See how this integration compares to Stripe’s other integration types.

The client-side and server-side code builds a checkout form that accepts various payment methods.

This demo only displays Google Pay or Apple Pay if you have an active card with either wallet. To see how Link works, type in any email address into the email input.

Integration effort

Some code

Integration type

Combine UI components into a custom payment flow

UI customization

CSS-level customization with the Appearance API

Interested in using Stripe Tax, Discounts, and/or Automatic Currency Conversion?

We’re developing a new Payment Element integration that manages tax, discounts, and international currencies. To request early access, click here.

Set up Stripe
Server-side

First, create a Stripe account or sign in.

Use our official libraries to access the Stripe API from your application:

Command Line

# Available as a gem
sudo gem install stripe

Gemfile

# If you use bundler, you can add this line to your Gemfile
gem 'stripe'

Create a PaymentIntent
Server-side

Note

If you want to render the Payment Element without first creating a PaymentIntent, see Collect payment details before creating an Intent.

The PaymentIntent object represents your intent to collect payment from a customer and tracks charge attempts and state changes throughout the payment process.

Create the PaymentIntent

Create a PaymentIntent on your server with an amount and currency. In the latest version of the API, specifying the automatic_payment_methods parameter is optional because Stripe enables its functionality by default. You can manage payment methods from the Dashboard. Stripe handles the return of eligible payment methods based on factors such as the transaction’s amount, currency, and payment flow.

Stripe uses your payment methods settings to display the payment methods you have enabled. To see how your payment methods appear to customers, enter a transaction ID or set an order amount and currency in the Dashboard. To override payment methods, manually list any that you want to enable using the payment_method_types attribute.

Command Line

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents \
  -u "sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
:" \
  -d amount=1099 \
  -d currency=usd \
  -d "automatic_payment_methods[enabled]"=true

In the latest version of the API, specifying the automatic_payment_methods parameter is optional because Stripe enables its functionality by default.

Note

Always decide how much to charge on the server side, a trusted environment, as opposed to the client. This prevents malicious customers from being able to choose their own prices.

Retrieve the client secret

The PaymentIntent includes a client secret that the client side uses to securely complete the payment process. You can use different approaches to pass the client secret to the client side.

Retrieve the client secret from an endpoint on your server, using the browser’s fetch function. This approach is best if your client side is a single-page application, particularly one built with a modern frontend framework like React. Create the server endpoint that serves the client secret:

main.rb

get '/secret' do
  intent = # ... Create or retrieve the PaymentIntent
  {client_secret: intent.client_secret}.to_json
end

And then fetch the client secret with JavaScript on the client side:

(async () => {
  const response = await fetch('/secret');
  const {client_secret: clientSecret} = await response.json();
  // Render the form using the clientSecret
})();

Collect payment details
Client-side

You’re ready to collect payment details on the client with the Payment Element. The Payment Element is a prebuilt UI component that simplifies collecting payment details for a variety of payment methods.

The Payment Element contains an iframe that securely sends payment information to Stripe over an HTTPS connection. Avoid placing the Payment Element within another iframe because some payment methods require redirecting to another page for payment confirmation. If you do choose to use an iframe and want to accept Apple Pay or Google Pay, the iframe must have the allow attribute set to equal "payment *".

The checkout page address must start with https:// rather than http:// for your integration to work. You can test your integration without using HTTPS, but remember to enable it when you’re ready to accept live payments.

Set up Stripe.js

The Payment Element is automatically available as a feature of Stripe.js. Include the Stripe.js script on your checkout page by adding it to the head of your HTML file. Always load Stripe.js directly from js.stripe.com to remain PCI compliant. Don’t include the script in a bundle or host a copy of it yourself.

checkout.html

<head>
  <title>Checkout</title>
  <script src="https://js.stripe.com/v3/"></script>
</head>

Create an instance of Stripe with the following JavaScript on your checkout page:

checkout.js

// Set your publishable key: remember to change this to your live publishable key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
const stripe = Stripe('pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx');

Add the Payment Element to your payment page

The Payment Element needs a place to live on your payment page. Create an empty DOM node (container) with a unique ID in your payment form:

checkout.html

<form id="payment-form">
  <div id="payment-element">
    <!-- Elements will create form elements here -->
  </div>
  <button id="submit">Submit</button>
  <div id="error-message">
    <!-- Display error message to your customers here -->
  </div>
</form>

When the previous form loads, create an instance of the Payment Element and mount it to the container DOM node. Pass the client secret from the previous step into options when you create the Elements instance:

Handle the client secret carefully because it can complete the charge. Don’t log it, embed it in URLs, or expose it to anyone but the customer.

checkout.js

const options = {
  clientSecret: '{{CLIENT_SECRET}}',
  // Fully customizable with appearance API.
  appearance: {/*...*/},
};

// Set up Stripe.js and Elements to use in checkout form, passing the client secret obtained in a previous step
const elements = stripe.elements(options);

// Create and mount the Payment Element
const paymentElement = elements.create('payment');
paymentElement.mount('#payment-element');

The Payment Element renders a dynamic form that allows your customer to pick a payment method. For each payment method, the form automatically asks the customer to fill in all necessary payment details.

Customize appearance

Customize the Payment Element to match the design of your site by passing the appearance object into options when creating the Elements provider.

Collect addresses

By default, the Payment Element only collects the necessary billing address details. To collect a customer’s full billing address (to calculate the tax for digital goods and services, for example) or shipping address, use the Address Element.

OptionalLink in your checkout page
Client-side

OptionalFetch updates from the server
Client-side

Submit the payment to Stripe
Client-side

Use stripe.confirmPayment to complete the payment using details from the Payment Element. Provide a return_url to this function to indicate where Stripe should redirect the user after they complete the payment. Your user may be first redirected to an intermediate site, like a bank authorization page, before being redirected to the return_url. Card payments immediately redirect to the return_url when a payment is successful.

If you don’t want to redirect for card payments after payment completion, you can set redirect to if_required. This only redirects customers that check out with redirect-based payment methods.

checkout.js

const form = document.getElementById('payment-form');

form.addEventListener('submit', async (event) => {
  event.preventDefault();

  const {error} = await stripe.confirmPayment({
    //`Elements` instance that was used to create the Payment Element
    elements,
    confirmParams: {
      return_url: 'https://example.com/order/123/complete',
    },
  });

  if (error) {
    // This point will only be reached if there is an immediate error when
    // confirming the payment. Show error to your customer (for example, payment
    // details incomplete)
    const messageContainer = document.querySelector('#error-message');
    messageContainer.textContent = error.message;
  } else {
    // Your customer will be redirected to your `return_url`. For some payment
    // methods like iDEAL, your customer will be redirected to an intermediate
    // site first to authorize the payment, then redirected to the `return_url`.
  }
});

Make sure the return_url corresponds to a page on your website that provides the status of the payment. When Stripe redirects the customer to the return_url, we provide the following URL query parameters:

Parameter	Description
`payment_intent`	The unique identifier for the `PaymentIntent`.
`payment_intent_client_secret`	The client secret of the `PaymentIntent` object.

Caution

If you have tooling that tracks the customer’s browser session, you might need to add the stripe.com domain to the referrer exclude list. Redirects cause some tools to create new sessions, which prevents you from tracking the complete session.

Use one of the query parameters to retrieve the PaymentIntent. Inspect the status of the PaymentIntent to decide what to show your customers. You can also append your own query parameters when providing the return_url, which persist through the redirect process.

status.js

// Initialize Stripe.js using your publishable key
const stripe = Stripe('pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx');

// Retrieve the "payment_intent_client_secret" query parameter appended to
// your return_url by Stripe.js
const clientSecret = new URLSearchParams(window.location.search).get(
  'payment_intent_client_secret'
);

// Retrieve the PaymentIntent
stripe.retrievePaymentIntent(clientSecret).then(({paymentIntent}) => {
  const message = document.querySelector('#message')

  // Inspect the PaymentIntent `status` to indicate the status of the payment
  // to your customer.
  //
  // Some payment methods will [immediately succeed or fail][0] upon
  // confirmation, while others will first enter a `processing` state.
  //
  // [0]: https://stripe.com/docs/payments/payment-methods#payment-notification
  switch (paymentIntent.status) {
    case 'succeeded':
      message.innerText = 'Success! Payment received.';
      break;

    case 'processing':
      message.innerText = "Payment processing. We'll update you when payment is received.";
      break;

    case 'requires_payment_method':
      message.innerText = 'Payment failed. Please try another payment method.';
      // Redirect your user back to your payment page to attempt collecting
      // payment again
      break;

    default:
      message.innerText = 'Something went wrong.';
      break;
  }
});

Handle post-payment events
Server-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 these other events when collecting payments with the Payment Element:

Event	Description	Action
payment_intent.succeeded	Sent when a customer successfully completes a payment.	Send the customer an order confirmation and fulfill their order.
payment_intent.processing	Sent when a customer successfully initiates a payment, but the payment has yet to complete. This event is most commonly sent when the customer initiates a bank debit. 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 might want to fulfill the order before waiting for payment to complete.
payment_intent.payment_failed	Sent when a customer attempts a payment, but the payment fails.	If a payment transitions 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. The following table contains some basic test scenarios. For detailed information about testing payments, see Testing.

Payment method	Scenario	How to test
Credit card	The card payment succeeds and doesn’t require authentication.	Fill out the credit card form using the credit card number `4242 4242 4242 4242` with any expiration, CVC, and postal code.
Credit card	The card payment requires authentication.	Fill out the credit card form using the credit card number `4000 0025 0000 3155` with any expiration, CVC, and postal code.
Credit card	The card is declined with a decline code like `insufficient_funds`.	Fill out the credit card form using the credit card number `4000 0000 0000 9995` with any expiration, CVC, and postal code.
Credit card	The UnionPay card has a variable length of 13-19 digits.	Fill out the credit card form using the credit card number `6205 500 0000 0000 0004` with any expiration, CVC, and postal code.

Accept a payment

Integration effort

Integration type

UI customization

Interested in using Stripe Tax, Discounts, and/or Automatic Currency Conversion?

Set up Stripe
Server-side

Create a PaymentIntent
Server-side

Note

Create the PaymentIntent

Note

Retrieve the client secret

Collect payment details
Client-side

Set up Stripe.js

Add the Payment Element to your payment page

Customize appearance

Collect addresses

OptionalLink in your checkout page
Client-side

OptionalFetch updates from the server
Client-side

Submit the payment to Stripe
Client-side

Caution

Handle post-payment events
Server-side

Test the integration

OptionalAdd more payment methods

See also

Accept a payment

Integration effort

Integration type

UI customization

Interested in using Stripe Tax, Discounts, and/or Automatic Currency Conversion?

Set up StripeServer-side

Create a PaymentIntentServer-side

Note

Create the PaymentIntent

Note

Retrieve the client secret

Collect payment detailsClient-side

Set up Stripe.js

Add the Payment Element to your payment page

Customize appearance

Collect addresses

OptionalLink in your checkout pageClient-side

OptionalFetch updates from the serverClient-side

Submit the payment to StripeClient-side

Caution

Handle post-payment eventsServer-side

Test the integration

OptionalAdd more payment methods

See also

Set up Stripe
Server-side

Create a PaymentIntent
Server-side

Collect payment details
Client-side

OptionalLink in your checkout page
Client-side

OptionalFetch updates from the server
Client-side

Submit the payment to Stripe
Client-side

Handle post-payment events
Server-side