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Accept a payment with the Express Checkout Element

Use a single integration to accept payments through one-click payment buttons.

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The Express Checkout Element is an integration for accepting payments through one-click payment methods buttons. Supported payment methods include Link, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Klarna, and Amazon Pay.

Customers see different payment buttons depending on what their device and browser combination supports. Compatible devices automatically support Google Pay and Link. Supporting Apple Pay and PayPal requires additional steps.

OptionDescription
Merchant countrySet this using the publishable key that you use to initialize Stripe.js. To change the country, you must unmount the Express Checkout Element, update the publishable key, then re-mount the Express Checkout Element.
Background colorSet colors using the Elements Appearance API. Button themes are inherited from the Appearance API but you can also define them directly when you create the Element.
Desktop and mobile sizeUse the dropdown to set the max pixel width of the parent element that the Express Checkout Element is mounted to. You can set it to 750px (Desktop) or 320px (Mobile).
Max columns and max rowsSet these values using the layout parameter when you Create the Express Checkout Element.
Overflow menuSet this using the layout parameter when you Create the Express Checkout Element.
Collect shipping addressTo collect shipping information, you must pass options when creating the Express Checkout Element. Learn more about collecting customer details and displaying line items.

We recommend that you collect payment details before creating an Intent when using the Express Checkout Element. If you previously integrated with the Payment Element, you might need to update your integration to this preferred approach.

Before you begin

  • Add a payment method to your browser. For example, you can add a card to your Google Pay account or to your Wallet for Safari.
  • Serve your application over HTTPS. This is required in development and in production. You can use a service such as ngrok.
  • Register your domain in both a sandbox and live mode.
  • Create a PayPal Sandbox account to test your integration.

Set up Stripe
Server-side

First, create a Stripe account or sign in.

Use our official libraries to access the Stripe API from your application:

Command Line
# Available as a gem
sudo gem install stripe
Gemfile
# If you use bundler, you can add this line to your Gemfile
gem 'stripe'

Enable payment methods

By default, Stripe uses your payment methods settings to determine which payment methods are enabled in the Express Checkout Element.

To manually override which payment methods are enabled, list any that you want to enable using the payment_method_types attribute.

Supported payment methods

Apple Pay and Google Pay are automatically enabled when using card payment method type. When using Link, you must also pass the card payment method type.

Payment method namePayment method API parameters
Apple Paycard
Google Paycard
Linklink, card
PayPalpaypal
Amazon Payamazon_pay
Klarnaklarna

Set up Stripe Elements
Client-side

The Express Checkout Element is automatically available as a feature of Stripe.js. Include the Stripe.js script on your checkout page by adding it to the head of your HTML file. Always load Stripe.js directly from js.stripe.com to remain PCI compliant. Don’t include the script in a bundle or host a copy of it yourself.

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

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

checkout.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
const stripe = Stripe(
'pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx'
);

Then, create an instance of Elements with the mode (payment, setup, or subscription), amount, and currency. These values determine which payment methods to show to your customer. See the next step for more configurable Elements options.

checkout.js
const options = {
  mode: 'payment',
  amount: 1099,
  currency: 'usd',
  // Customizable by using the Appearance API.
  appearance: {/*...*/},
};

// Set up Stripe.js and Elements to use in checkout form.
const elements = stripe.elements(options);

Create and mount the Express Checkout Element
Client-side

The Express Checkout Element contains an iframe that securely sends the payment information to Stripe over an HTTPS connection. The checkout page address must also start with https://, rather than http://, for your integration to work.

The Express Checkout Element needs a place to live on your payment page. Create an empty DOM node (container) with a unique ID in your payment form.

checkout.html
<div id="express-checkout-element">
  <!-- Express Checkout Element will be inserted here -->
</div>
<div id="error-message">
  <!-- Display an error message to your customers here -->
</div>

When the form has loaded, create an instance of the Express Checkout Element and mount it to the container DOM node:

checkout.js
// Create and mount the Express Checkout Element
const expressCheckoutElement = elements.create('expressCheckout');
expressCheckoutElement.mount('#express-checkout-element');

Collect customer details and display line items
Client-side

Pass options when creating the Express Checkout Element.

Collect payer information

Set emailRequired: true to collect emails, and phoneNumberRequired: true to collect phone numbers. billingAddressRequired is true by default.

checkout.js
elements.create('expressCheckout', {
  emailRequired: true,
  phoneNumberRequired: true
});

When using PayPal with the Express Checkout Element, Stripe typically only receives and exposes the country from the billing address. Because of how PayPal shares information with third-party payment processors, the confirm event payload might show billingDetails[address] fields as empty strings, except for the country field.

Collect shipping information

Set shippingAddressRequired: true and pass an array of shippingRates.

checkout.js
elements.create('expressCheckout', {
  shippingAddressRequired: true,
  allowedShippingCountries: ['US'],
  shippingRates: [
    {
      id: 'free-shipping',
      displayName: 'Free shipping',
      amount: 0,
      deliveryEstimate: {
        maximum: {unit: 'day', value: 7},
        minimum: {unit: 'day', value: 5}
      }
    },
  ]
});

Listen to the shippingaddresschange event to detect when a customer selects a shipping address. You must call either resolve or reject if you choose to handle this event.

checkout.js
expressCheckoutElement.on('shippingaddresschange', async (event) => {
  const response = await fetch('/calculate-shipping', {
    data: JSON.stringify({
      shippingAddress: event.address
    })
  });
  const result = await response.json();
  event.resolve({
    lineItems: result.updatedLineItems,
  });
});

Listen to the shippingratechange event to detect when a customer selects a shipping rate. You must call either resolve or reject if you choose to handle this event.

checkout.js
expressCheckoutElement.on('shippingratechange', async (event) => {
  const response = await fetch('/calculate-and-update-amount', {
    data: JSON.stringify({
      shippingRate: event.shippingRate
    })
  });
  const result = await response.json();
  elements.update({amount: result.amount})
  event.resolve({
    lineItems: result.updatedLineItems,
  });
});

Listen to the cancel event to detect when a customer dismisses the payment interface. Reset the amount to the initial amount.

checkout.js
expressCheckoutElement.on('cancel', () => {
  elements.update({amount: 1099})
});

Display line items

Pass in an array of lineItems:

checkout.js
elements.create('expressCheckout', {
  lineItems: [
    {
      name: 'Sample item',
      amount: 1000
    },
    {
      name: 'Tax',
      amount: 100
    },
    {
      name: 'Shipping cost',
      amount: 1000
    }
  ]
});

Configure the Apple Pay interface

Learn how to configure the Apple Pay interface.

Merchant initiated transactions (MIT)

You can set up recurring payments, deferred payments, or automatic reload payments when a user checks out with Apple Pay by requesting the relevant merchant token type in the Express Checkout Element click event. We recommend implementing Apple Pay merchant tokens to align with Apple Pay’s latest guidelines and to future proof your integration.

Create a PaymentIntent
Server-side

Stripe uses a PaymentIntent object to represent your intent to collect payment from a customer, tracking charge attempts and payment state changes throughout the process.

Create a PaymentIntent on your server with an amount and currency. This must match what you set on the stripe.elements instance in step 3. Always decide how much to charge on the server-side, a trusted environment, as opposed to the client-side. This prevents malicious customers from choosing their own prices.

main.rb
require 'stripe'
Stripe.api_key = 
'sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2'


post '/create-intent' do
  intent = Stripe::PaymentIntent.create({
    # To allow saving and retrieving payment methods, provide the Customer ID.
    customer: customer.id,
    # In the latest version of the API, specifying the `automatic_payment_methods` parameter is optional because Stripe enables its functionality by default.
    automatic_payment_methods: {enabled: true},
    amount: 1099,
    currency: 'usd',
  })
  {client_secret: intent.client_secret}.to_json
end

The returned PaymentIntent includes a client secret, which the client-side uses to securely complete the payment process instead of passing the entire PaymentIntent object. You can use different approaches to pass the client secret to the client-side.

Submit the payment to Stripe
Client-side

Use stripe.confirmPayment to complete the payment using details from the Express Checkout Element.

Note

For Amazon Pay, Klarna, and PayPal, the amount you confirm in the PaymentIntent must match the amount the buyer pre-authorized. If the amounts don’t match, the payment is declined.

Provide a return_url to this function to indicate where Stripe should redirect the user after they complete the payment. Your user might be initially redirected to an intermediate site before being redirected to the return_url. Payments immediately redirect to the return_url when a payment is successful.

If you don’t want to redirect after payment completion, set redirect to if_required. This only redirects customers that check out with redirect-based payment methods.

checkout.js
const handleError = (error) => {
  const messageContainer = document.querySelector('#error-message');
  messageContainer.textContent = error.message;
}

expressCheckoutElement.on('confirm', async (event) => {
  const {error: submitError} = await elements.submit();
  if (submitError) {
    handleError(submitError);
    return;
  }

  // Create the PaymentIntent and obtain clientSecret
  const res = await fetch('/create-intent', {
    method: 'POST',
  });
  const {client_secret: clientSecret} = await res.json();

  const {error} = await stripe.confirmPayment({
    // `elements` instance used to create the Express Checkout Element
    elements,
    // `clientSecret` from the created PaymentIntent
    clientSecret,
    confirmParams: {
      return_url: 'https://example.com/order/123/complete',
    },
  });

  if (error) {
    // This point is only reached if there's an immediate error when
    // confirming the payment. Show the error to your customer (for example, payment details incomplete)
    handleError(error);
  } else {
    // The payment UI automatically closes with a success animation.
    // Your customer is redirected to your `return_url`.
  }
});

Test the integration

Before you go live, test each payment method integration. To determine a payment method’s browser compatibility, see supported browsers. If you use the Express Checkout Element within an iframe, the iframe must have the allow attribute set to payment *.

Caution

Don’t store real user data in sandbox Link accounts. Treat them as if they’re publicly available, because these test accounts are associated with your publishable key.

Currently, Link only works with credit cards, debit cards, and qualified US bank account purchases. Link requires domain registration.

You can create sandbox accounts for Link using any valid email address. The following table shows the fixed one-time passcode values that Stripe accepts for authenticating sandbox accounts:

ValueOutcome
Any other 6 digits not listed belowSuccess
000001Error, code invalid
000002Error, code expired
000003Error, max attempts exceeded

Disclose Stripe to your customers

Stripe collects information on customer interactions with Elements to provide services to you, prevent fraud, and improve its services. This includes using cookies and IP addresses to identify which Elements a customer saw during a single checkout session. You’re responsible for disclosing and obtaining all rights and consents necessary for Stripe to use data in these ways. For more information, visit our privacy center.

See also

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