Accept a Sofort payment

Learn how to accept Sofort, a common payment method in Europe.

Sofort is a single use, delayed notification payment method that requires customers to authenticate their payment. Customers pay with Sofort by redirecting from your website to their bank’s portal to authenticate the payment. It typically takes 2 to 14 days to receive notification of success or failure.

To accept Sofort, you must comply with the Sofort Terms of Service.

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 PaymentIntent
Server-side

A PaymentIntent represents your intent to collect payment from a customer and tracks the lifecycle of the payment process. Create a PaymentIntent on your server and specify the amount to collect and the eur currency (Sofort doesn’t support other currencies). If you have an existing Payment Intents integration, add sofort to the list of payment method types.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "amount"=1099 \
  -d "currency"="eur" \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"="sofort"

Changing the preferred language

By default, Stripe presents the Sofort authorization page in a language based on the specified country code. You can customize this to the language preferred by your customer by specifying it as part of the request and changing the value of the preferred_language property. The supported values are de, en, es, it, fr, nl, and pl.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "amount"=1099 \
  -d "currency"="eur" \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"="sofort" \
  -d "payment_method_options[sofort][preferred_language]"="de"

Instead of passing the entire PaymentIntent object to your app, return its client secret. The PaymentIntent’s client secret is a unique key that lets you confirm the payment and update payment details on the client, without allowing manipulation of sensitive information, like payment amount.

Submit the payment to Stripe
Client-side

To complete the payment on the client side, provide your client application with the client secret of the PaymentIntent.

When a customer clicks to pay with , use Stripe.js to submit the payment to Stripe. Stripe.js is the foundational JavaScript library for building payment flows. It automatically handles complexities like the redirect described below, and enables you to extend your integration to other payment methods. Include the Stripe.js script on your checkout page by adding it to the head of your HTML file.

checkout.html

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

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

client.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
var stripe = Stripe('pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx');

Use stripe.confirmSofortPayment to handle the redirect away from your page and to complete the payment. Add a return_url to this function to indicate where Stripe should redirect the user after they complete the payment on the Sofort website or mobile application.

client.js

// Redirects away from the client
stripe.confirmSofortPayment(
  '{{PAYMENT_INTENT_CLIENT_SECRET}}',
  {
    payment_method: {
      sofort: {
        country: "DE"
      }
    },
    return_url: 'https://example.com/checkout/complete',
  }
);

Handling the redirect

The following URL query parameters are provided when Stripe redirects the customer to the return_url.

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

You may also append your own query parameters when providing the return_url. They persist throughout the redirect process. The return_url should correspond to a page on your website that provides the status of the payment. You should verify the status of the PaymentIntent when rendering the return page. You can do so by using the retrievePaymentIntent function from Stripe.js and passing in the payment_intent_client_secret.

var url = new URL(window.location);
var clientSecret = url.searchParams.get('payment_intent_client_secret');

stripe.retrievePaymentIntent(clientSecret).then(function(response) {
  if (response.error) {
    // Handle error
  } else if (response.paymentIntent && response.paymentIntent.status === 'succeeded') {
    // Handle successful payment
  }
});

You can find details about the bank account the customer used to complete the payment under payment_method_details.

"payment_method_details": {
  "sofort": {
    "bank_code": "VAPE",
    "bank_name": "VAN DE PUT & CO",
    "bics": "VAPEBE22",
    "country": "DE",
    "iban_last4": "7061",
    "preferred_language": "en",
    "verified_name": "Jenny Rosen",
  },
  "type": "sofort"
}

Testing the redirect process

When creating a PaymentIntent object using your test API keys, you’ll be redirected to a Stripe page that displays information about the API request and you can either authorize or cancel the payment. Authorizing the payment redirects you to the URL specified in return_url.

Handle post-payment events

As Sofort is a delayed notification payment method, the PaymentIntent’s status remains in a payment_intent.processing state for up to 14 days from its creation (also known as the cutoff date). In test mode, the PaymentIntent’s status remains in the processing state for three minutes to simulate this.

Stripe recommends fulfilling purchases during the processing state. On average, you can expect approximately 0.2% of Sofort payment attempts to fail after entering the processing state. This only applies to Sofort payments due to its low payment failure rate and doesn’t apply to other delayed notification payment methods.
You may prefer to fulfill orders only after receiving the payment_intent.succeeded event. Stripe sends this event after the payment attempt is confirmed and the funds are guaranteed.
If a customer doesn’t pay, Stripe sends the payment_intent.failed event and the PaymentIntent returns to a status of requires_payment_method.

Use the Dashboard, a custom webhook, or a partner solution to receive these events and run actions, like sending an order confirmation email to your customer, logging the sale in a database, or starting a shipping workflow.

Manually

Use the Stripe Dashboard to view all your Stripe payments, send email receipts, handle payouts, or retry failed payments.

View your test payments in the Dashboard →

Custom code

Build a webhook handler to listen for events and build custom asynchronous payment flows. Test and debug your webhook integration locally with the Stripe CLI.

Build a custom webhook →

Prebuilt apps

Handle common business events, like shipping and inventory management, by integrating a partner application.

OptionalHandle the Sofort redirect manually

Disputed payments

The risk of fraud or unrecognized payments is low because the customer must authenticate the payment with their bank. As a result, you won’t have disputes that turn into chargebacks, with funds withdrawn from your Stripe account.

Failed attempts

If a payment attempt hasn’t been confirmed within the cutoff time, the PaymentIntent object’s status automatically transitions from processing to requires_payment_method. Additionally, if the funds are received after the cutoff date, the customer is automatically refunded.

On average, you can expect approximately 0.2% of Sofort payment attempts to fail. This may vary based on your industry or customer base. Depending on your average payment amount, the type of products or service you provide, and the risk associated with your business, you may prefer to fulfill orders only after receiving the payment_intent.succeeded event.

Refunds

Sofort only accepts refund requests within 180 days from the date of the original payment. After 180 days, it’s no longer possible to refund the payment.

You can submit a refund against pending charges that haven’t been confirmed yet. If you create a full or partial refund when a PaymentIntent’s status is processing, the refund occurs only after the PaymentIntent’s status is succeeded. If the PaymentIntent’s status is requires_payment_method after a payment attempt fails, full and partial refunds are marked as canceled as the money never left the customer’s bank account.

Accept a Sofort payment

Set up StripeServer-side

Create a PaymentIntentServer-side

Changing the preferred language

Submit the payment to StripeClient-side

Handling the redirect

Testing the redirect process

Handle post-payment events

Manually

Custom code

Prebuilt apps

OptionalHandle the Sofort redirect manually

Disputed payments

Failed attempts

Refunds

Set up Stripe
Server-side

Create a PaymentIntent
Server-side

Submit the payment to Stripe
Client-side