Stripe Terminal Overview
Use Stripe Terminal to accept in-person payments, extending Stripe payments to your point of sale.
With Stripe Terminal, you can integrate Stripe payments into your existing in-person checkout flow or build in-person payments into your native mobile or web-based application.
Terminal comes with easy-to-use SDKs for modern development environments, pre-certified readers, and tools for ordering and managing readers from the Stripe Dashboard. It works seamlessly with other Stripe products, letting you build a SaaS platform or marketplace using Connect or initiate subscriptions in-store with Billing. Terminal reduces the burden of compliance, deployment, and logistics—so you can focus on building your ideal in-person payments experience.
Features
Terminal’s features are designed to take the complexity out of in-person payments:
- Online compatibility: Unify your online and in-person payments in a single system
- Flexible SDKs: Use Terminal’s JavaScript, iOS, or Android SDK to integrate your existing point of sale (POS), or build a modern POS tailored to your business
- Reader choices: Choose from different readers to achieve the checkout experience you want
- Easy ordering & fleet management: Order pre-certified readers and monitor your fleet of readers from the Stripe Dashboard
How Terminal works
A Stripe Terminal deployment consists of four main components:
- Your web-based or mobile application
- Your backend
- A Stripe Terminal reader
- The Stripe Terminal SDK
The SDK facilitates communication between your point of sale application logic, the firmware running on the reader, and the Stripe API so you can accept in-person payments as seamlessly as you accept online payments with Stripe. The SDK is available for JavaScript, iOS, and Android applications.
Stripe Terminal offers a selection of pre-certified readers that accept payment details (EMV, contactless, and swiped), encrypt sensitive card information, and return a token to your application (through the Stripe Terminal SDK) so you can confirm payment.
You can order readers and accessories from the Stripe Dashboard and get them shipped to a location of your choice. As a Connect platform, you can even enable your connected accounts to receive readers and accessories at their business location.
Use cases
Stripe Terminal is built with developers in mind. Its flexible design supports a wide range of use cases:
- Extend your online business to the physical world
- Enable in-person payments for your Connect platform, with readers for each connected account
- Collect payments in-person and use those card details for recurring online payments with Billing
- Build a new, customized point of sale application or integrate with your existing point of sale application, while taking advantage of the Stripe API for processing payments
Choose an SDK that works best for you and combine it with a reader that provides the user experience you want. This documentation provides all the information you need to design your in-person payments solution, order readers and accessories, integrate, and deploy.
Scope of integration
The full scope of an integration consists of four major steps.
- Use the example applications to get up and running with an integration in minutes.
- Design your integration to create your ideal in-person payments experience.
- Integrate the SDK in your Javascript, iOS, or Android application. Use the simulated reader to emulate reader behavior for all the Terminal flows while building your initial integration.
- Order a physical reader and test card.
From there, explore the docs to see all you can do with your Terminal integration. We recommend testing your integration and reviewing the checklist before going live.
Next steps
Read on to get started with Terminal!