Set up future payments

Learn how to save card details and charge your customers later.

Collecting payment details using Checkout’s setup mode is useful for setting up a payment method on file for future payments. Setup mode uses the Setup Intents API to create Payment Methods.

Set up Stripe
Server-side

First, you need a Stripe account. Register now.

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

Terminal

# 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 Checkout Session
Client-side
Server-side

Add a checkout button to your website that calls a server-side endpoint to create a Checkout Session.

index.html

<html>
  <head>
    <title>Checkout</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <form action="/create-checkout-session" method="POST">
      <button type="submit">Checkout</button>
    </form>
  </body>
</html>

To create a setup mode Session, use the mode parameter with a value of setup when creating the Session. You can optionally specify the customer parameter to automatically attach the created payment method to an existing customer. See the Checkout Session API reference for a complete list of parameters that you can use for Session creation.

Append the {CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID} template variable to the success_url to get access to the Session ID after your customer successfully completes a Checkout Session. After creating the Checkout Session, redirect your customer to the URL returned in the response.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/checkout/sessions \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"="card" \
  -d "mode"="setup" \
  -d "customer"="{{CUSTOMER_ID}}" \
  -d "success_url"="https://example.com/success?session_id={CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}" \
  -d "cancel_url"="https://example.com/cancel"

Retrieve the Checkout Session
Server-side

After a customer successfully completes their Checkout Session, you need to retrieve the Session object. There are two ways to do this:

Asynchronously: Handle checkout.session.completed webhooks, which contain a Session object. Learn more about setting up webhooks.
Synchronously: Obtain the sessionId from the URL when a user redirects back to your site (appended to the success_url) and retrieve the Session object.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/checkout/sessions/cs_test_MlZAaTXUMHjWZ7DcXjusJnDU4MxPalbtL5eYrmS2GKxqscDtpJq8QM0k \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc:

The right choice depends on your tolerance for dropoff, as customers may not always reach the success_url after a successful payment. It’s possible for them close their browser tab before the redirect occurs. Handling webhooks prevents your integration from being susceptible to this form of dropoff.

After you have retrieved the Session object, get the value of the setup_intent key, which is the ID for the SetupIntent created during the Checkout Session. A SetupIntent is an object used to set up the customer’s bank account information for future payments.

Example checkout.session.completed payload:

{
  "id": "evt_1Ep24XHssDVaQm2PpwS19Yt0",
  "object": "event",
  "api_version": "2019-03-14",
  "created": 1561420781,
  "data": {
    "object": {
      "id": "cs_test_MlZAaTXUMHjWZ7DcXjusJnDU4MxPalbtL5eYrmS2GKxqscDtpJq8QM0k",
      "object": "checkout.session",
      "billing_address_collection": null,
      "cancel_url": "https://example.com/cancel",
      "client_reference_id": null,
      "customer": "",
      "customer_email": null,
      "display_items": [],
      "mode": "setup",
      "setup_intent": "seti_1EzVO3HssDVaQm2PJjXHmLlM",
      "submit_type": null,
      "subscription": null,
      "success_url": "https://example.com/success"
    }
  },
  "livemode": false,
  "pending_webhooks": 1,
  "request": {
    "id": null,
    "idempotency_key": null
  },
  "type": "checkout.session.completed"
}

Note the setup_intent ID for the next step.

Retrieve the SetupIntent
Server-side

Using the setup_intent ID, retrieve the SetupIntent object.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/setup_intents/seti_1EzVO3HssDVaQm2PJjXHmLlM \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc:

Note the payment_method ID returned for the next step.

If you’re requesting this information synchronously from the Stripe API (as opposed to handling webhooks), you can combine the previous step with this step by expanding the SetupIntent object in the request to the /v1/checkout/session endpoint. Doing this prevents you from having to make two network requests to access the newly created PaymentMethod ID.

Use the payment method
Server-side

If you didn’t create the Checkout Session with an existing customer, attach the PaymentMethod to a Customer. After it has been attached to a Customer, you can charge the PaymentMethod using a PaymentIntent.

Set up future payments

Set up StripeServer-side

Create a Checkout SessionClient-sideServer-side

Retrieve the Checkout SessionServer-side

Retrieve the SetupIntentServer-side

Use the payment methodServer-side

Set up Stripe
Server-side

Create a Checkout Session
Client-side
Server-side

Retrieve the Checkout Session
Server-side

Retrieve the SetupIntent
Server-side

Use the payment method
Server-side