Use your custom domain

Learn how to bring your own custom domain to Stripe Checkout.

Custom domains is a paid Checkout feature, and costs 10 USD per month while active.

In this article you’ll learn how to connect your own custom domain to Stripe Checkout by:

Adding your domain to the Stripe Dashboard
Creating DNS records to point at Stripe
Verifying your DNS setup
Setting your domain as active

Add your custom domain to the Stripe Dashboard

First decide what subdomain to use with your Checkout Sessions.

If your domain is example.com we recommend you use checkout.example.com as your custom Checkout subdomain, but you can replace checkout with whatever you like as long as it’s a valid subdomain. Note that you can’t use a path (like example.com/checkout), you must specify a subdomain of your existing domain.

After you decide on a subdomain, visit the Custom domains settings page to start the domain connection process.

On the settings page, find the Checkout box, and click Add your own. You now see a form with an input to enter your desired subdomain:

What you'll see when you land on the settings page.

Enter your desired subdomain, and click Connect. You’ll see a Connecting indicator, and a popup with instructions for setting up your DNS records.

When will my domain be Connected?

When your domain is in the Connecting... state, we’re waiting to verify your DNS records that you’ll set up in the next step. After Stripe verifies the DNS records, we create TLS certificates for your subdomain, set up the correct CDN routing, and then your domain is ready to enable and use.

Identify your DNS Provider

To start, figure out what service is managing your DNS records, so you know exactly where to login and create the new records.

If you already know your DNS provider, you can move on to the next section.

Often, it’s the same place you registered your domain, but sometimes the DNS provider is different from your domain registrar.

If you’re not certain who your DNS provider is, try looking up your domain’s nameservers, replacing stripe.com with your own domain in this command:

Terminal

nslookup -querytype=NS stripe.com

You’ll see a list of nameservers for your domain in the output. Here’s some example output for stripe.com:

nslookup output

# Looks like AWS is providing our DNS here:
stripe.com	nameserver = ns-423.awsdns-52.com.
stripe.com	nameserver = ns-705.awsdns-24.net.
stripe.com	nameserver = ns-1087.awsdns-07.org.
stripe.com	nameserver = ns-1882.awsdns-43.co.uk.

If you’re more comfortable using a browser-based tool, go to MXLookup’s DNS Lookup tool and enter your domain. It might be able to tell you who your DNS provider is (but not always).

Create required DNS records

In this section, you’ll create the DNS records you need to connect your domain. As you go through each step, check each checkbox to keep track of where you are in the process.

Select the tab that matches your DNS provider from the tabs below—this gives you specific, guided instructions for creating the required DNS records. If your DNS provider isn’t an option, follow the Standard instructions:

These are standard instructions for creating your DNS records. If you have issues with any of the steps, please contact your DNS provider for more assistance.

To track your progress, go through each step and check it off when you’ve completed it.

Sign into your DNS provider
Most DNS providers have a control panel you can sign into to manage your DNS. Find your provider’s control panel page and sign in.
Find the page to manage the DNS for your domain
Now that you’re logged in, find where you can manage the DNS records for your domain in your provider’s control panel.
If you’re having issues finding the right page, you can:
- See if your DNS provider has a help article for adding new DNS records that can point you in the right direction.
- Contact your DNS provider for additional support.

Create your CNAME record

From your DNS control panel, add a new record that maps your desired subdomain to Checkout. Most DNS providers ask you for the record type, name, value, and TTL or expiration when creating a new record.

This record is what connects your subdomain to Stripe Checkout.

Enter these values and save the new DNS record:

Field	Instructions	Description
Type	Select `CNAME` from the dropdown	What kind of DNS record this is.
Name	If your custom subdomain is checkout.powdur.me, enter `checkout`	For CNAME records, this field is the first part of your subdomain (the part leading up to the first period).
Value	Enter	This is what the new subdomain record points to–in this case, Stripe. Some providers may expect a trailing period (`.`) after the CNAME value. Make sure to verify that your CNAME value matches the format your provider expects.
TTL/Expiry	Enter `300`	An expiration of 5 minutes (300 seconds) is OK. Your DNS provider might not allow you to change the TTL value. If this field is missing or you can’t change it, it’s safe to ignore this part of the configuration.

Create your TXT record

From your DNS control panel, add a new TXT record.

This TXT record lets us verify that you’re the owner of this domain. This is required to issue TLS certificates for your domain, so you can continue to accept payments securely.

Enter these values and save the new DNS record:

Field	Instructions	Description
Type	Select `TXT` from the dropdown	What kind of DNS record this is.
Name	If your custom domain is checkout.powdur.me, enter `_acme-challenge.checkout`	For TXT records, this field is the subdomain portion of your domain.
Value	Visit the Dashboard settings and click View instructions to copy the correct TXT value record.	This is a long, unique string used for domain verification.
TTL/Expiry	Enter `300`	An expiration of 5 minutes (300 seconds) is OK. Your DNS provider might not allow you to change the TTL value. If this field is missing or you can’t change it, it’s safe to ignore this part of the configuration.

Verify your CNAME record is setup
After you save your DNS record, verify that it has the correct values.
Wait up to 10 minutes for your DNS provider to update its nameservers.
Replace checkout.powdur.me with your custom domain in the following command and run it from your terminal:
Terminal
nslookup -querytype=CNAME checkout.powdur.me
You should see output like:
nslookup output
<your subdomain> canonical name = hosted-checkout.stripecdn.com.
When you see that output, move onto the next step.
Verify your TXT record
After you save your DNS record, verify that it has the correct values.
Wait up to 10 minutes for your DNS provider to update its nameservers.
Replace checkout.powdur.me with your custom domain in the following command and run it from your terminal:
Terminal
nslookup -querytype=TXT _acme-challenge.checkout.powdur.me
You should see output like this:
nslookup output
_acme-challenge.<your domain> text = "<your unique TXT record value>"
If you don’t see your unique TXT record value in the output, wait a bit longer and try running the command again.
When you finish this step, your DNS records are configured.

Now that you’ve created your DNS records and verified them, Stripe verifies the connection and provisions your domain on our end. We’ll send you an email and a Dashboard notification when the domain is ready for you to enable it. You can also visit the Dashboard settings at any time to see the current status of your custom domain connection.

Test your domain before switching

Ensure your CNAME has propagated around the world
Before going live, it’s good to check that your new CNAME is available around the world.
1. Open the DNSChecker.org propagation tool.
2. Enter your custom domain in the search box.
3. Click Search.
If your CNAME is available worldwide, you’ll see success checkmarks next to each DNS server, along with the correct record value (hosted-checkout.stripecdn.com):
A fully propagated DNS record looks like this example.
If your DNS record hasn’t propagated to every server yet, keep checking back every few hours until every DNS server has a success checkmark next to it.
Create a test mode Checkout Session
When you’ve been notified that your custom domain is ready, you can test out the domain if you have an existing Checkout integration:
1. Go back to the Dashboard settings.
2. Make sure the Dashboard is in test mode.
3. Click the radio button next to your custom domain name to enable it in test mode.
4. Create a Checkout Session in test mode.
5. Visit the url for the Checkout Session.
You’ll see your new custom domain in the address bar of your browser.

Switch to your custom domain

Before completing this section, read back through the documentation and make sure you’ve checked off every action item.

To enable your custom domain for your Checkout Sessions:

Go back to the Dashboard settings
Make sure the Dashboard is in live mode.
Click the radio button next to your custom domain name to enable it in live mode:

Screenshot of what the Dashboard looks like when your domain is ready to be selected

In this example, click the radio button next to checkout.powdur.me to activate the domain.

After clicking the radio button, your custom domain is now active. To see it live in action, create a Checkout Session in live mode using your existing integration and redirect to it. You’ll see your newly active custom domain in the address bar of your browser.

Use your custom domain

Add your custom domain to the Stripe Dashboard

Identify your DNS Provider

Create required DNS records

Test your domain before switching

Switch to your custom domain

OptionalDisabling your custom domain

OptionalRemoving your custom domain

OptionalTroubleshooting your integration

OptionalTroubleshooting CAA DNS records

OptionalTroubleshooting a blocked domain