Asynchronous Capture

Learn how to use Asynchronous Capture to enable faster PaymentIntent confirmations.

Asynchronous Capture reduces the latency of PaymentIntent confirmations by making the capture operation asynchronous. To use these faster PaymentIntent confirmations, set the capture_method=automatic_async parameter when confirming a PaymentIntent.

Opt in to Asynchronous Capture at confirmation time

Here’s an example of how to opt into Asynchronous Capture in a PaymentIntent Create and Confirm API call

Command Line

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d amount=2000 \
  -d currency=usd \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"=card \
  -d payment_method=pm_card_visa \
  -d capture_method=automatic_async \
  -d confirm=true

If you have an existing integration with Stripe, you might need to make additional changes when you opt into Asynchronous Capture because the API response and some webhooks have different behavior than they did before.

For all payments, the balance_transaction is null on the following objects. For Connect payments, the transfer and application_fee are also null on the following objects:

attached Charge object of the API response
charge.succeeded webhook
payment_intent.succeeded webhook

Modified Charge object on the charge.succeeded webhook

# Charge Object
{
    "id": "ch_123",
    "object": "charge",
    "amount_captured": 1000, # the capture has happened
    "application_fee_amount": 100,
    "captured": true,
-   "balance_transaction": "txn_123", # applicable to all charges.
-   "transfer": "tr_123",         # applicable to destination charge only.
-   "application_fee": "fee_123", # applicable to destination charge only.
+   "balance_transaction": null,  # object might not be created yet, might be shown as nil.
+   "transfer": null,             # object might not be created yet, might be shown as nil.
+   "application_fee": null,      # object might not be created yet, might be shown as nil.
    ...
  }

Modified API response and payment_intent.succeeded webhook (different based on API version)

# PaymentIntent Object
{
  "id": "pi_123",
  "object": "payment_intent",
  "capture_method": "automatic_async",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "latest_charge": "ch_**" # if expanded, this is the Modified Charge object above
}

Listen to webhooks to get notified when additional data is available

Our SLA for the charge.updated webhook is 1 hour after the successful PaymentIntent confirmation.

If you need access to the objects set to null by Asynchronous Capture, you can listen to webhooks.

To get the balance_transaction, subscribe to the charge.updated webhook event.
To get the application_fee, subscribe to the application_fee.created webhook event.
To get the transfer, subscribe to the transfer.created webhook events.

Webhooks for Asynchronous Capture

# Webhook:
POST '/my-webhook' do
  case event.type
  when 'charge.updated'
    # check ch.balance_transaction
    # execute relevant logic
  when 'transfer.created'
    # execute relevant logic
  when 'application_fee.created'
    # execute relevant logic
  else
    # other events
  end
  status 200
end

# Events:
# charge.updated
{
  "data": {
    "id": "ch_123",
    "object": "charge",
    "amount": 100,
    "balance_transaction": "txn_123", # applicable to all charges.
    "transfer": "tr_123",         # applicable to destination charge only.
    "application_fee": "fee_123", # applicable to destination charge only.
    ...
  },
  previous_attributes: {
   "balance_transaction": null, # applicable to all charges.
   "transfer": null,          # applicable to destination charge only.
   "application_fee": null,   # applicable to destination charge only.
  }
}

# transfer.created
{
  "data": {
    "id": "tr_123",
    "object": "transfer",
    "amount": 1000,
    ...
  }
}

# application_fee.created
{
  "data": {
    "id": "fee_123",
    "object": "application_fee",
    "amount": 100,
    ...
  }
}