Refunds

Learn about issuing refunds at Stripe.

Stripe supports the ability to refund charges made to your account, either in whole or in part. If the original charge underwent currency conversion, the refunded amount is converted back using the same process.

We submit refund requests to your customer’s bank immediately. Your customer sees the refund as a credit approximately 5-10 business days later, depending upon the bank. Once issued, a refund cannot be canceled.

We’ll also send an email to your customer notifying them of the refund, if all of these conditions apply:

The original charge was created on a Customer object in your Stripe account
The Customer object has a stored email address
You have Email customers for refunds enabled

Some refunds—those issued shortly after the original charge—appear in the form of a reversal instead of a refund. In the case of a reversal, the original charge drops off the customer’s statement, and a separate credit is not issued.

Issuing refunds

Refunds can be issued via the API or the Dashboard and are processed immediately. Once issued, a refund cannot be canceled.

A charge can be refunded more than once, but you cannot refund a total greater than the original charge amount.

Using the API

To refund a charge via the API, perform a create refund call, providing the ID of the charge to be refunded.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/refunds \
   -u sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2: \
   -d charge=ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv

# Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
Stripe.api_key = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2"

Stripe::Refund.create(
  :charge => "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
)

# Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
stripe.api_key = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2"

stripe.Refund.create(
  charge="ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
)

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
\Stripe\Stripe::setApiKey("sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2");

\Stripe\Refund::create(array(
  "charge" => "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
));

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
Stripe.apiKey = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2";

Map<String, Object> params = new HashMap<String, Object>();
params.put("charge", "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv");
Refund refund = Refund.create(params);

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
var stripe = require("stripe")("sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2");

stripe.refunds.create({
  charge: "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
}, function(err, refund) {
  // asynchronously called
});

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
stripe.Key = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2"

params := &stripe.RefundParams{
  Charge: "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
}
refund, err := refund.New(params)

To refund part of a charge, provide an amount parameter, as an integer in cents (or the charge currency’s smallest currency unit):

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/refunds \
   -u sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2: \
   -d charge=ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv \
   -d amount=1000

# Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
Stripe.api_key = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2"

Stripe::Refund.create(
  :charge => "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
  :amount => 1000,
)

# Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
stripe.api_key = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2"

stripe.Refund.create(
  charge="ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
  amount=1000,
)

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
\Stripe\Stripe::setApiKey("sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2");

\Stripe\Refund::create(array(
  "charge" => "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
  "amount" => 1000,
));

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
Stripe.apiKey = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2";

Map<String, Object> params = new HashMap<String, Object>();
params.put("charge", "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv");
params.put("amount", 1000);
Refund refund = Refund.create(params);

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
var stripe = require("stripe")("sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2");

stripe.refunds.create({
  charge: "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
  amount: 1000,
}, function(err, refund) {
  // asynchronously called
});

// Set your secret key: remember to change this to your live secret key in production
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/account/apikeys
stripe.Key = "sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2"

params := &stripe.RefundParams{
  Charge: "ch_ATbgYw7MpO4hlv",
  Amount: 1000,
}
refund, err := refund.New(params)

Using the Dashboard

To refund a charge via the Dashboard:

Find the charge to be refunded in the payments overview page.
Click the … icon to the right of the charge and select Refund payment from the menu that appears.
By default you will issue a full refund. For a partial refund, enter a different amount to be refunded.
Select a reason for the refund. If you select Other, you must provide an explanatory note that is attached to the refund.
Click Refund.

Alternatively you can go to the Dashboard page for the specific charge and click Refund there. (Again, you’ll be given the choice of a full or partial refund and prompted to pick a reason.)

Refund destinations

Refunds can only be sent back to the original payment method used in a charge. It’s not possible to send a refund to a different destination (e.g., another card or bank account).

Refunds to expired or canceled cards are handled by the customer’s bank and, in most cases, credited to the customer’s replacement card. If no replacement exists, the bank usually delivers the refund to the customer using an alternate method (e.g., check or bank account deposit). In rare cases, a refund back to a card may fail.

For additional payment methods (ACH, iDEAL, etc.), refund handling can vary from bank to bank. If a customer has closed their method of payment, the bank may return the refund to us—at which point it is marked as failed.

Handling failed refunds

A refund can fail if the customer’s bank has been unable to process it correctly (e.g., a closed bank account or a problem with the card). The bank returns the refunded amount to us and we add it back to your Stripe account balance as an adjustment.

The Refund object’s status transitions to failed and includes these attributes:

failure_reason, the reason why the refund failed
failure_transaction, the ID of the balance transaction representing the adjustment of your Stripe balance

In the rare instance that a refund fails, we notify you using the charge.refund.updated webhook event. You will then need to arrange an alternative way of providing your customer with a refund.