Partial authorization

Use partial authorizations to request approval for a portion of the originally requested amount for a card transaction when the available balance is insufficient to cover the full amount. This allows your customers to use the available balance on their card (such as a debit card), then use an alternative payment method to pay the remaining balance.

Before you begin

First, decide how you want to handle the portion of the originally requested amount that isn’t covered by the partial authorization. You can create a separate PaymentIntent for another form of payment, cancel the entire PaymentIntent, or capture only up to the partially authorized amount. Make sure to clearly communicate with your customer about how you’re proceeding with the transaction and any potential impact on them.

Availability

Partial authorizations have the following restrictions:

• You can only use partial authorizations for online card payments.
• Only Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and Amex support partial authorizations.
• The issuer and card type determine whether they’re supported.
• Due to network restrictions, you can’t capture more than the authorized amount using overcapture if a transaction amount has been partially authorized.
• If you process charges on behalf of your Connect account using a transfer_amount, Stripe limits it to the partially authorized amount when the transfer_amount is greater than the partially authorized amount.
• Stripe enforces a minimum charge amount on partially authorized charges, declining any PaymentIntent that falls short.

Use manual capture to create and confirm PaymentIntents

To enable partial authorization for specific PaymentIntents, set if_available to the request_partial_authorization parameter.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d amount=10000 \
  -d currency=usd \
  -d payment_method=pm_card_debit_partialAuthorization \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"=card \
  -d "payment_method_options[card][request_partial_authorization]"=if_available \
  -d capture_method=manual \
  -d confirm=true \
  -d "expand[]"=latest_charge

Verify partial authorization status

Review the payment_method_details field on the latest_charge in the PaymentIntent confirmation response to determine whether the networks applied partial authorization for the payment:

• partial_authorization.status: Displays one of the following authorization statuses: partially_authorized, fully_authorized, declined, or not_requested.
• amount_requested: Confirms your originally specified request amount.
• amount_authorized: Determines the authorized amount.

The example response below shows that the transaction is partially authorized for 70 USD, which is less than the originally requested 100 USD.

{
  "id": "pi_foo",
  "amount": 7000,
  "amount_capturable": 7000,
  "amount_received": 0,
  "capture_method": "manual",
  ...
  // if latest_charge is expanded
  "latest_charge": {
    "id": "ch_foo",
    "object": "charge",
    "amount": 7000,
    "captured": false,
    "payment_method_details": {
      "card": {
        "amount_authorized": 7000,
        "amount_requested": 10000,
        "partial_authorization": {
          "status": "partially_authorized",
        }
      }
    }
  },
  ...
  "status": "requires_capture"
}

If the card issuer declines the authorization, this response returns a card_declined error.

Capture the partially authorized PaymentIntent

You can capture an authorized PaymentIntent up to the amount (or amount_capturable) that’s returned in the confirmation response.

curl -X POST https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents/pi_foo/capture \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:"

A successful capture returns the PaymentIntent object with updated fields:

{
  "id": "pi_foo",
  "amount": 7000,
  "amount_capturable": 0,
  "amount_received": 7000,
  "capture_method": "manual",
  "latest_charge": "ch_foo",
  ...
  "status": "succeeded",
}

Test your integration

To trigger a partial authorization while testing, use the partial authorization Stripe test card with any CVC, postal code, and future expiration date. Make sure to set request_partial_authorization to if_available to trigger partial authorization with the test card.