Take Payments

The Payments API is the backend component of the Square Developer Platform payment solution. The API is responsible for creating and completing (or capturing) payments whose source is provided by a Square client SDK. These sources can include a credit card, gift card, digital wallet, or ACH bank transfer.

The Payments API lets you earn an application fee each time a seller accepts a payment with your application. An application fee is accrued in your Square account for each payment that Square processes through your application when using the Payments API. For more information about taking application fees, see Collect Application Fees.

The Payments API can process or retrieve the following types of payments:

• Card payments - Charge a card (a credit card, debit card, or Square gift card). For more information, see Card Payments.
• ACH bank transfer payments - For more information, see ACH Bank Transfer Payment.
• Afterpay payments - For more information, see Afterpay and Clearpay Payments.
• Cash App payments - For more information, see Cash App Payments.
• Cash payments - For more information, see Cash Payments.
• External payments - For more information, see External Payments.
• House accounts - For more information, see House Accounts.

Square processes these payments and deposits the funds in the seller's Square account. The seller has options to get the funds. They can set the Square account to pay the funds to their bank account. They can also get a Square debit card with access to funds in their Square account. For more information, see Square Checking.

The Payments API provides the CreatePayment endpoint to take a payment. When the CreatePayment request is successfully processed, the endpoint creates a Payment object and returns it in the response. The Payment has a status field that indicates the completion state of the payment.

The exception is the House Account payment. You cannot accept this kind of payment in your application. You can only retrieve house account payments that have been completed in the Square Point of Sale.

The Payment.status field value can be:

• APPROVED. The payment is authorized and awaiting completion or cancellation.
• COMPLETED. The payment is captured and funds are credited to the seller.
• CANCELED. The payment is canceled and the payment card funds are released.
• FAILED. The payment request is declined by the bank.

To learn how to use the CreatePayment endpoint, see Card Payments.

Every seller has a default location. The Payments API assumes the default location when you don't provide a location ID in a request. For example:

• In a CreatePayment request, if a location ID isn't provided, Square assumes the default location of the seller. In a third-party application scenario, it's the default location of the seller for whom the application is taking the payment.
• In a ListPayment request, if a location ID isn't provided, the endpoint returns a list of payments taken at the default location.

To find your default location name when taking a payment on behalf of yourself:

1. Go to the Developer Dashboard.
2. Choose your application.
3. In the left pane, choose Locations.
4. In the list, find the default location name.

The CreatePayments and ListPayments endpoints take optional location_id parameters. When those parameter values are omitted, Square uses the seller's default location ID.

The CreatePayment endpoint request has an optional location_id field that records the seller's location where a payment is taken. When the field is empty, Square assigns the payment to the seller's default location. If you want to record the payment at one of a seller's other locations, set the field value to that location ID.

If you don't set a location_id query limit, the ListPayments endpoint returns payments recorded for the seller's default location. Note that the ListPayments endpoint cannot return payments for all locations. Results are from only the default location or the location that you specify.

The minimum payment amount you can specify in CreatePayment and UpdatePayment requests varies depending on the payment source.

The following considerations apply when applications want to pay for an order created using the Orders API:

• Use the Payments API (CreatePayment endpoint) - To apply a single payment to an order, applications can use the CreatePayment endpoint. In the request, you can specify order_id to attach an order to the payment. The value of the payment (the amount_money field) must exactly match the value of the total_money field of the order. Therefore, this approach works when paying for an order using a single payment.

• Use the Orders API (PayOrder endpoint) - To apply multiple payments to an order, applications must use the PayOrder endpoint. These payments must be previously authorized (see Delayed Capture of a Card Payment).

Suppose you create an order for $20 and apply a $20 discount. You then need to make a $0 payment to set the order state to COMPLETED. You can make a $0 payment using the Payments API or the Orders API. When using the Payments API, call the CreatePayment endpoint to record a $0 CASH or EXTERNAL payment.

For more information, see Pay for Orders.

In production, payments completed using CreatePayment appear in the Seller Dashboard. If you test the Payments API in the Square Sandbox, they appear in the Sandbox Seller Dashboard. For more information, see Square Sandbox.

By default, any updates you apply to a Payment are applied in a last-write-wins manner, meaning newer updates overwrite older updates. For many applications, this behavior is sufficient. However, in a complex scenario (for example, you have multiple applications editing the same payment), Square supports optimistic concurrency for UpdatePayment and CompletePayment endpoints.

Each Payment includes a version_token field that uniquely identifies a specific version of the payment. You can include this version_token in payment operations such as UpdatePayment and CompletePayment. In this case, the request succeeds only if the payment hasn't been updated since that version_token was generated. If a failure occurs, the error response gives your application an opportunity to fetch the current version of the Payment object and retry the update.

The Payments API offer additional flexibility, including:

• Many payment source options. You can charge a payment token generated on a web client by the Web Payments SDK, a card on file, or a gift card on file.
• Delayed payments. Using the Payments API, you might only obtain payment authorization and then complete the payment later.
• Partial payments with a Square gift card. If a buyer provides a gift card as a payment source and the gift card doesn't have sufficient funds, you can take a partial amount and ask the buyer for additional payment with other cards.