Our Client libraries raise exceptions for many reasons, such as a failed charge, invalid parameters, authentication errors, and network unavailability. We recommend writing code that gracefully handles all possible API exceptions.
- Related guide: Error Handling
Many objects allow you to request additional information as an expanded response by using the expand request parameter. This parameter is available on all API requests, and applies to the response of that request only. You can expand responses in two ways.
In many cases, an object contains the ID of a related object in its response properties. For example, a Charge might have an associated Customer ID. You can expand these objects in line with the expand request parameter. The expandable label in this documentation indicates ID fields that you can expand into objects.
Some available fields aren’t included in the responses by default, such as the number and cvc fields for the Issuing Card object. You can request these fields as an expanded response by using the expand request parameter.
You can expand recursively by specifying nested fields after a dot (.). For example, requesting payment_ on a charge expands the payment_ property into a full PaymentIntent object, then expands the customer property on that payment intent into a full Customer object.
You can use the expand parameter on any endpoint that returns expandable fields, including list, create, and update endpoints.
Expansions on list requests start with the data property. For example, you can expand data. on a request to list charges and associated customers. Performing deep expansions on numerous list requests might result in slower processing times.
Expansions have a maximum depth of four levels (for example, the deepest expansion allowed when listing charges is data.).
You can expand multiple objects at the same time by identifying multiple items in the expand array.
- Related guide: Expanding responses
- Related video: Expand
{ "id": "ch_3LmzzQ2eZvKYlo2C0XjzUzJV", "object": "charge", "customer": { "id": "cu_14HOpH2eZvKYlo2CxXIM7Pb2", "object": "customer", // ... }, "payment_intent": { "id": "pi_3MtwBwLkdIwHu7ix28a3tqPa", "object": "payment_intent", "customer": { "id": "cus_NffrFeUfNV2Hib", "object": "customer", // ... }, // ... }, // ...}The API supports idempotency for safely retrying requests without accidentally performing the same operation twice. When creating or updating an object, use an idempotency key. Then, if a connection error occurs, you can safely repeat the request without risk of creating a second object or performing the update twice.
To perform an idempotent request, provide an additional IdempotencyKey element to the request options.
Stripe’s idempotency works by saving the resulting status code and body of the first request made for any given idempotency key, regardless of whether it succeeds or fails. Subsequent requests with the same key return the same result, including 500 errors.
A client generates an idempotency key, which is a unique key that the server uses to recognize subsequent retries of the same request. How you create unique keys is up to you, but we suggest using V4 UUIDs, or another random string with enough entropy to avoid collisions. Idempotency keys are up to 255 characters long.
You can remove keys from the system automatically after they’re at least 24 hours old. We generate a new request if a key is reused after the original is pruned. The idempotency layer compares incoming parameters to those of the original request and errors if they’re not the same to prevent accidental misuse.
We save results only after the execution of an endpoint begins. If incoming parameters fail validation, or the request conflicts with another request that’s executing concurrently, we don’t save the idempotent result because no API endpoint initiates the execution. You can retry these requests. Learn more about when you can retry idempotent requests.
All POST requests accept idempotency keys. Don’t send idempotency keys in GET and DELETE requests because it has no effect. These requests are idempotent by definition.
Some API v2 responses contain null values for certain properties by default, regardless of their actual values. That reduces the size of response payloads while maintaining the basic response structure. To retrieve the actual values for those properties, specify them in the include array request parameter.
To determine whether you need to use the include parameter in a given request, look at the request description. The include parameter’s enum values represent the response properties that depend on the include parameter.
Whether a response property defaults to null depends on the request endpoint, not the object that the endpoint references. If multiple endpoints return data from the same object, a particular property can depend on include in one endpoint and return its actual value by default for a different endpoint.
A hash property can depend on a single include value, or on multiple include values associated with its child properties. For example, when updating an Account, to return actual values for the entire identity hash, specify identity in the include parameter. Otherwise, the identity hash is null in the response. However, to return actual values for the configuration hash, you must specify individual configurations in the request. If you specify at least one configuration, but not all of them, specified configurations return actual values and unspecified configurations return null. If you don’t specify any configurations, the configuration hash is null in the response.
- Related guide: Include-dependent response values
The response includes actual values for the properties specified in the include parameter, and null for all other include-dependent properties.
{ "id": "acct_123", "object": "v2.core.account", "applied_configurations": [ "customer", "merchant" ], "configuration": { "customer": { "automatic_indirect_tax": { ... }, "billing": { ... }, "capabilities": { ... }, ... }, "merchant": null, "recipient": null }, "contact_email": "furever@example.com", "created": "2025-06-09T21:16:03.000Z", "dashboard": "full", "defaults": null, "display_name": "Furever", "identity": { "business_details": { "doing_business_as": "FurEver", "id_numbers": [ { "type": "us_ein" } ], "product_description": "Saas pet grooming platform at furever.dev using Connect embedded components", "structure": "sole_proprietorship", "url": "http://accessible.stripe.com" }, "country": "US" }, "livemode": true, "metadata": {}, "requirements": null}Updateable Stripe objects—including Account, Charge, Customer, PaymentIntent, Refund, Subscription, and Transfer have a metadata parameter. You can use this parameter to attach key-value data to these Stripe objects.
You can specify up to 50 keys, with key names up to 40 characters long and values up to 500 characters long. Keys and values are stored as strings and can contain any characters with one exception: you can’t use square brackets ([ and ]) in keys.
You can use metadata to store additional, structured information on an object. For example, you could store your user’s full name and corresponding unique identifier from your system on a Stripe Customer object. Stripe doesn’t use metadata—for example, we don’t use it to authorize or decline a charge and it won’t be seen by your users unless you choose to show it to them.
Some of the objects listed above also support a description parameter. You can use the description parameter to annotate a charge-for example, a human-readable description such as 2 shirts for test@example.. Unlike metadata, description is a single string, which your users might see (for example, in email receipts Stripe sends on your behalf).
Don’t store any sensitive information (bank account numbers, card details, and so on) as metadata or in the description parameter.
- Related guide: Metadata
Sample metadata use cases
- Link IDs: Attach your system’s unique IDs to a Stripe object to simplify lookups. For example, add your order number to a charge, your user ID to a customer or recipient, or a unique receipt number to a transfer.
- Refund papertrails: Store information about the reason for a refund and the individual responsible for its creation.
- Customer details: Annotate a customer by storing an internal ID for your future use.
{ "id": "cus_123456789", "object": "customer", "address": { "city": "city", "country": "US", "line1": "line 1", "line2": "line 2", "postal_code": "90210", "state": "CA" }, "balance": 0, "created": 1483565364, "currency": null, "default_source": null, "delinquent": false, "description": null, "discount": null, "email": null, "invoice_prefix": "C11F7E1", "invoice_settings": { "custom_fields": null, "default_payment_method": null, "footer": null, "rendering_options": null }, "livemode": false, "metadata": { "order_id": "6735" }, "name": null, "next_invoice_sequence": 1, "phone": null, "preferred_locales": [], "shipping": null, "tax_exempt": "none"}