Guidelines and Limitations

Applies to: Checkout API

Learn about the guidelines and limitations for taking payments using the Checkout API.

The following guidelines apply to Checkout API:

• You cannot specify an existing order in a CreatePaymentLink request. You must include an order in the request body. After receiving the request, Square creates the order.
• The Checkout API only supports subscription plans with one paid phase (or one free phase and one paid phase).
• The Checkout API doesn't support app_fee_money as a checkout option when specifying the subscription plan ID for recurring payments.
• The Checkout API is available in all regions where Square accepts payments.
• Cash App Pay is only available for sellers based in the United States.
• Afterpay payments:
  • Afterpay is only available for sellers based in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In the UK, Afterpay is known as Clearpay.
  • Not all sellers are eligible for Afterpay. Certain business categories are prohibited from using Afterpay.
  • Afterpay can only be used for transactions in an eligible purchase range. The default ranges are based on the seller’s business type. They can consult their Afterpay account for more details.
• Cash App Pay and Afterpay aren't supported for subscription payments.
• Applications have the option to enable tipping on the checkout page. This option defaults to the Square-wide default tip settings for the country in which the seller is based. For example, this defaults to a 15% auto-tip in the United States and Canada.
• The payment buttons that appear on the checkout page depend on the buyers device. If the hosting device (for example, a browser on your computer or a mobile phone) supports Apple Pay or Google Pay, the checkout page shows the payment button that best suits that browser. For example, it shows the Apple Pay option when the buyer is using Safari.
• A payment link can only be used to accept payment from a single buyer.
• The Sandbox environment has the following limitations:
  • Afterpay, Cash App Pay, Google Pay, and Apple Pay payments aren't supported. You can only test with credit and debit card payments.
  • Creating a payment link with app_fee_money as a checkout option isn't supported.
• The CreatePaymentLink endpoint sometimes generates an INVALID_EMAIL_ADDRESS error with the following message: “This account's email is linked to a current Weebly Account.” This happens when a seller has Weebly and Square accounts that use the same email address. To resolve this issue, the seller needs to log in to Weebly and follow the prompt in the UI to link their Weebly account with their existing Square account. After the seller links their Weebly and Square accounts, retry the request.

• Checkout API