Moving money using OutboundTransfer objects

An OutboundTransfer object facilitates money movement out of a financial account. Use OutboundTransfer to send funds over ACH rails or through a domestic wire transfer to an external bank account that a connected account owns.

Outbound transfers typically arrive at the receiving bank between the same day and 2 business days, depending on whether you use a wire or ACH.

For more information, see the Money movement timelines guide.

OutboundTransfers support the us_bank_account type of payment method. Alternatively, you can use an existing BankAccount that belongs to the merchant as an ExternalAccount.

Create an OutboundTransfer

Use POST /v1/treasury/outbound_transfers to create an OutboundTransfer for the financial account with the associated ID. Among the request’s possible parameters, four are required:

• amount: Amount of transfer in cents.
• currency: Three-letter ISO currency code.
• financial_account: Source financial account ID to pull funds from.
• destination_payment_method: Destination PaymentMethod ID or BankAccount ID to receive funds.
• destination_payment_method_data: Financial account to receive funds.

{
  // The source financial account to pull funds from.
  "financial_account": "{{FINANCIAL_ACCOUNT_ID}}",
  // The amount to send. 10.00 USD in this case.
  "amount": 1000,
  "currency": "usd",
  // The destination PaymentMethod or BankAccount.
  // This should be nil if destination_payment_method is set.
  destination_payment_method_data: {
  type: "financial_account", // us_bank_account is not supported
  financial_account: "{{FINANCIAL_ACCOUNT_ID}}",
  },

  // This should be nil if destination_payment_method_data is set.
  "destination_payment_method": "{{PAYMENT_METHOD_ID}}"  | "{{BANK_ACCOUNT_ID}}",
  // Optionally, to explicitly specify a network, override the `network` value
  // This should be nil if destination_payment_method_data is set.
  "destination_payment_method_options": {
    "us_bank_account": {
      "network": "ach" | "us_domestic_wire"
    }
  },
  // A description visible on the external bank statement.
  "statement_descriptor": "Bank xfer",
  // An optional internal description to identify this OutboundTransfer
  "description": "Transfer to my external account",
  // Stripe doesn't support updating originated transfers after creation.
  // You can only set metadata at creation.
  "metadata": nil | Hash,
}

The following request creates an OutboundTransfer on an account-attached PaymentMethod with the source of funds coming from the identified financial account.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/treasury/outbound_transfers \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Account: 
{{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}}
" \
  -d financial_account=
"{{FINANCIAL_ACCOUNT_ID}}" \
  -d amount=1000 \
  -d currency=usd \
  -d destination_payment_method=
"{{PAYMENT_METHOD_ID}}" \
  -d statement_descriptor="Test xfer" \
  -d "destination_payment_method_options[us_bank_account][network]"=ach

If successful, the response returns the newly created OutboundTransfer object.

{
    "id": "{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}}",
    "object": "outbound_transfer",
    "amount": 1000,
    "cancelable": true,
    "created": 1648479987,
    "currency": "usd",
    "description": null,
    "destination_payment_method": "{{PAYMENT_METHOD_ID}}" | null,
    "destination_payment_method_details": {

Same-day ACH

Using same-day ACH enables sending funds that arrive the same business day if the OutboundTransfer call successfully completes before the cutoff time. To use same-day ACH, set the destination_payment_method_options.us_bank_account.network parameter to ach and the destination_payment_method_options.us_bank_account.ach.submission parameter to same_day.

Wire transfer: routing numbers

Some banks might use a separate wire transfer routing number that differs from ACH. Consequently, you might receive an error during wire creation if the routing number on the payment method doesn’t support wire transfers. If you receive this error, you need to add a new payment method with your bank’s wire routing number.

Wire transfer: recipient address

Wire transfers require ACH metadata plus recipient name and billing address. The address is the address of the account holder receiving the wire, not the address of their bank.

When entering the billing_details.address for a payment method, all address fields must be complete. Attempting to send a wire with incomplete fields on the billing_details.address results in an error.

Retrieve an OutboundTransfer

Use GET /v1/treasury/outbound_transfers/{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}} to retrieve details for the OutboundTransfer with the associated ID.

The following request retrieves the OutboundTransfer with the associated ID, expanding the details of the Transaction.

curl -G https://api.stripe.com/v1/treasury/outbound_transfers/{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}} \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Account: 
{{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}}
" \
  -d "expand[]"=transaction

If successful, the response returns the OutboundTransfer object with the associated ID. Some of the parameters in the response have additional details that are only returned when you add them as values to the expand[] parameter. The fields that you can expand have an “Expandable” comment in the following response example. See Expanding Responses to learn more about expanding object responses.

{
  "id": "{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}}",
  "object": "outbound_transfer",
  "livemode": Boolean,
  "created": Timestamp,
  "financial_account": "{{FINANCIAL_ACCOUNT_ID}}", // Expandable
  "amount": 1000,
  "currency": "usd",
  "destination_payment_method": "{{PAYMENT_METHOD_ID}}",
  "description": "Transfer to my external account",

Cancel an OutboundTransfer

Use POST /v1/treasury/outbound_transfers/{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}}/cancel to cancel the OutboundTransfer with the associated ID. The OutboundTransfer object includes a cancelable parameter with a Boolean value to indicate whether you can cancel the transfer. After an OutboundTransfer submits to the network, the cancelable value becomes false and you receive an error from this endpoint for that transfer.

curl -X POST https://api.stripe.com/v1/treasury/outbound_transfers/{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}}/cancel \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Account: 
{{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}}
"

If successful, the response returns the OutboundTransfer object with a status of canceled.

{
    "id": "{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}} ",
    "object": "outbound_transfer",
    "amount": 1000,
    "cancelable": false,
    "created": 1648487177,
    "currency": "usd",
    ...
    "status": "canceled",
    "status_transitions": {
        "canceled_at": 1648487198,
        "failed_at": null,
        "posted_at": null,
        "returned_at": null
    },
    "transaction": "{{TRANSACTION_ID}}"
}

List OutboundTransfers

Use GET /v1/treasury/outbound_transfers to list the OutboundTransfers sent from the financial account with the ID of the financial_account parameter. You can filter the list with the standard list parameters or by status.

{
  // Standard list parameters
  "limit", "starting_after", "ending_before",
  // Filter by status
  "status": "processing" | "posted" | "failed" | "returned" | "canceled",
  // Filter by FinancialAccount (Required)
  "financial_account": "{{FINANCIAL_ACCOUNT_ID}}",
}

The following request retrieves OutboundTransfers from the financial account identified. The included parameters limit the response to the first three transfers after the OutboundTransfer with the provided ID.

curl -G https://api.stripe.com/v1/treasury/outbound_transfers \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -H "Stripe-Account: 
{{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}}
" \
  -d financial_account=
"{{FINANCIAL_ACCOUNT_ID}}" \
  -d limit=3 \
  -d starting_after={{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}}

If successful, the response returns a list of OutboundTransfer objects that satisfy any filtering conditions.

OutboundTransfer states

The following table describes each status for OutboundTransfers and what the possible transition states are.

Test OutboundTransfers

In testing environments, you can specify the destination_payment_method as a test payment method. You can create your own test PaymentMethods or use our test IDs when testing your integration.

In all cases, the OutboundTransfer response is in the processing state. Stripe triggers webhooks for the relevant state transitions, and fetching the OutboundTransfer after creation returns the expected state.

OutboundTransfer test helper endpoints

Stripe provides endpoints to help you test OutboundTransfers in different states. After creating an OutboundTransfer, use these endpoints to move the OutboundTransfer directly to a new state of posted, failed, canceled, or returned.

• Use the test post endpoint to move the identified OutboundTransfer from processing to posted.

  POST /v1/test_helpers/treasury/outbound_transfers/{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}}/post

• Use the test fail endpoint to move the identified OutboundTransfer from processing to failed.

  POST /v1/test_helpers/treasury/outbound_transfers/{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}}/fail

• Use the test return endpoint to move the identified OutboundTransfer from posted to returned.

  POST /v1/test_helpers/treasury/outbound_transfers/{{OUTBOUND_TRANSFER_ID}}/return

These endpoints are particularly useful when testing error scenarios, such as returns, which would otherwise require outside action.

For the return endpoint, include the optional returned_details.code parameter in the body to indicate why the transfer was returned. If not provided, the transfer defaults to the declined return code.

{
  "returned_details": {
    "code": "account_closed" |
          "account_frozen" |
          "bank_account_restricted" |
          "bank_ownership_changed" |
          "could_not_process" |
          "invalid_account_number" |
          "incorrect_account_holder_name" |
          "invalid_currency" |
          "no_account" |
          "declined"
  }
}

We also provide a test update endpoint to simulate the posting of tracking details on a test Outbound Transfer. The tracking_details field can only be set for test objects.

In all cases, Stripe triggers webhooks for each relevant state transition, and fetching the OutboundTransfer after transition returns the expected state.

OutboundTransfer webhooks

Stripe emits the following OutboundTransfer events to your webhook endpoint:

• treasury.outbound_transfer.created on OutboundTransfer creation.
• treasury.outbound_transfer.{{new_status}} when an OutboundTransfer changes status. Available status value options include:
  • treasury.outbound_transfer.posted
  • treasury.outbound_transfer.failed
  • treasury.outbound_transfer.returned
  • treasury.outbound_transfer.canceled
• treasury.outbound_transfer.expected_arrival_date_updated when the expected_arrival_date of an OutboundTransfer changes.
• treasury.outbound_transfer.tracking_details_updated when the tracking details for an OutboundTransfer are updated.