How Checkout works

Checkout is a low-code payment integration that creates a customizable form for collecting payments.

Checkout’s built-in features allow you to reduce your development time. It supports 40+ payment methods, including Link, which lets your customers save their payment method for faster checkout. You can accept payments by embedding Checkout directly into your website, redirecting customers to a Stripe-hosted payment page, or creating a customized checkout page with Stripe Elements. Checkout supports payments for both one-time purchases and subscriptions.

You can also customize Checkout and access additional functionality with Checkout Sessions and the Stripe Dashboard. For a complete list of features, see its built-in and customizable features.

Use Elements with Checkout Sessions API to build a customizable checkout page. Customers stay on your site and are shown a customized checkout page when they’re ready to complete their purchase. The customer enters their payment details and completes the transaction on the same page in your site so they don’t need to be redirected back to your site.

Checkout lifecycle

1. When a customer is ready to complete their purchase, your application creates a new Checkout Session.
2. You embed Elements on your website to show a payment form.
3. Customers enter their payment details and complete the transaction.
4. After the transaction, the checkout.session.completed webhook event triggers the order fulfillment process.