Create and prefill the connected account

Use the Accounts v2 API to create a connected account by specifying the connected account Dashboard and responsibilities. As a marketplace, your platform:

• Is usually the merchant of record
• Uses indirect charges
• Manages disputes and refunds
• Earns revenue by taking a cut from each transaction through application fees

These features impact the parameters you set when you create your connected accounts.

Assign account configurations

Connected accounts interact with your platform and Stripe based on which configurations you assign. Most marketplaces assign their connected accounts the recipient configuration. Some marketplaces also assign the merchant configuration.

The recipient configuration includes the stripe_balance.stripe_transfers capability, which allows the Stripe balance for the Account to receive Transfers from the platform’s balance. You must assign the stripe_balance.stripe_transfers capability to use indirect charges.

You also need to assign the merchant configuration to your connected accounts in the following cases:

• You use direct charges. It’s rare for marketplaces to use this charge type.
• You use indirect charges with the on_behalf_of parameter to set a connected account as the merchant of record.

Code sample

curl -X POST https://api.stripe.com/v2/core/accounts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer 
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
" \
  -H "Stripe-Version: 2025-09-30.preview" \
  --json '{
    "contact_email": "testaccount@example.com",
    "display_name": "Test account",
    "defaults": {
        "responsibilities": {
            "fees_collector": "application",
            "losses_collector": "application"
        }
    },
    "dashboard": "express",
    "identity": {
        "country": "us"
    },
    "configuration": {
        "recipient": {
            "capabilities": {
                "stripe_balance": {
                    "stripe_transfers": {
                        "requested": true
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "include": [
        "configuration.recipient",
        "identity",
        "requirements"
    ]
  }'

The response includes the ID, which you use to reference the Account throughout your integration. After the request succeeds, the account exists in a pending state. Next, use the information you already have to prefill the onboarding form for the connected account.

If you’ve already collected information for your connected accounts, you can prefill that information on the Account object. You can prefill any account information, including personal and business information, external account information, and so on.

After creating an account, create a Person with relationship.representative set to true to represent the person responsible for opening the account and any account information you want to prefill (for example, their first and last name).

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts/
{{ACCOUNT_ID}}
/persons \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d first_name=Jenny \
  -d last_name=Rosen \
  -d "relationship[representative]"=true

Connect Onboarding doesn’t ask for the prefilled information. However, it does ask the account holder to confirm the prefilled information before accepting the Connect service agreement.

When testing your integration, prefill account information using test data.