# Regarding failed subscription payments

**URL:** <https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/regarding-failed-subscription-payments/20855>\
**Category:** Questions\
**Tags:** sandbox, subscriptions-api\
**Created:** [January 29, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/regarding-failed-subscription-payments/20855 "2025-01-29T01:31:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Noriaki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/87869e/32.png) [@Noriaki](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/u/Noriaki)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 1:31am UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/regarding-failed-subscription-payments/20855/1 "2025-01-29T01:31:52Z")

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Dear administrator,

Thank you for your help!

Currently, we are using the Square API to build a subscription payment function in a sandbox environment, but we are contacting you to confirm the behavior when a payment fails.

Could you please tell us the following points?

If a subscription payment fails, will Square automatically retry?

If an automatic retry is performed, will the number of purchases for the plan be updated without being reset?

Is there a specification that notifies customers when a payment fails?

If the above settings can be customized, what are the specific steps to set them up?

I apologize for bothering you at the time, but I would appreciate your response.

Thank you in advance.

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**Author:** ![Square-Dev-AI](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/square/forums/user_avatar/developer.squareup.com/square-dev-ai/32/2513_2.png) [@Square-Dev-AI](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/u/Square-Dev-AI)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 1:32am UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/regarding-failed-subscription-payments/20855/2 "2025-01-29T01:32:08Z")

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👋 I’m Square Dev AI, here to help answer your question!  
Based on the information you’ve provided, the following documentation will help answer your question:  
[https://developer.squareup.com/docs/app-marketplace/requirements/subscriptions-api](https://developer.squareup.com/docs/app-marketplace/requirements/subscriptions-api)

> **[Guidelines and Limitations](https://developer.squareup.com/docs/checkout-api/guidelines-and-limitations)**
>
> Learn about Square Checkout API guidelines and limitations.

> **Additional Documentation**
>
> [Square Developer](https://developer.squareup.com/docs/app-marketplace/requirements/payments-api)  
> [Square Sandbox](https://developer.squareup.com/docs/devtools/sandbox/overview)  
> [Payment API: Process Online and In-Person Payments](https://developer.squareup.com/docs/payments)

If this documentation helped you find a solution, please check the box indicating that this reply solves the problem.  
Otherwise one of our Developer Advocates will provide additional assistance shortly.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Bryan-Square](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/square/forums/user_avatar/developer.squareup.com/bryan-square/32/38_2.png) [@Bryan-Square](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/u/Bryan-Square)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 4:37pm UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/regarding-failed-subscription-payments/20855/3 "2025-01-29T16:37:01Z")

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When a subscription payment fails, Square does not automatically retry the payment. It’s the responsibility of the partner application to handle failed payments.

If a payment fails, the number of purchases for the plan will not be updated automatically. You would need to manually adjust this in your application.

Square does send an invoice to the customer if a payment is missed or fails so the customer can pay through the invoice to stay current. It’s the responsibility of the partner application to handle communication with customers in the event of a failed payment.

As for customizing these settings, there isn’t a built-in way to do this through Square’s APIs. You would need to build these functionalities into your own application. For example, you could use the webhooks provided by the Invoices API to track failed invoice payments and then implement your own logic to retry payments, update the number of purchases, and notify customers as needed. 🙂

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Noriaki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/87869e/32.png) [@Noriaki](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/u/Noriaki)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2025, 12:43am UTC](https://developer.squareup.com/forums/t/regarding-failed-subscription-payments/20855/4 "2025-01-30T00:43:45Z")

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Thank you for your reply.

I understand the above.

I may have more questions, so thank you in advance.