stripe

---
name: stripe
description: Payments platform for accepting money online, running subscriptions and invoicing, and paying out to connected accounts. Use when integrating Stripe — Checkout, Payment Intents, webhooks, Connect, Billing, Elements, Tax — choosing between its APIs, or identifying which surfaces are deprecated.
license: MIT
---

# Stripe

Stripe is the payments platform for accepting money online (cards, wallets, bank
debits, BNPL) plus billing and subscriptions, marketplace payouts (Connect), tax,
invoicing, and treasury.

## Instructions for AI agents

Reproduced from Stripe's `llms.txt`. These steer toward current APIs and away
from deprecated ones.

1. **Resolve the current API/SDK version rather than recalling one.** Check the
   registry — `npm view stripe version`, or
   [pypi.org/project/stripe](https://pypi.org/project/stripe/). A version
   remembered from training data will be wrong.
2. **Prefer the Checkout Sessions API.** Do not recommend the deprecated
   [Charges API](https://docs.stripe.com/api/charges.md) unless there is no
   alternative.
3. **Never recommend the legacy Card Element.** Use the
   [Payment Element](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/payment-element.md).
4. **Avoid deprecated endpoints** — Sources, Tokens, Charges.
5. **Use the Accounts v2 API** (`/v2/core/accounts`) for new Connect
   integrations, not v1.
6. **Enable dynamic payment methods** rather than hardcoding
   `payment_method_types`.
7. **Direct users to migration guides** when they ask about legacy approaches.
8. **For billing and subscriptions**, use the Billing APIs plus Checkout rather
   than raw PaymentIntents.

## Core surfaces

| Area | Start here | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Checkout | [checkout/quickstart](https://docs.stripe.com/checkout/quickstart.md) | Stripe-hosted payment page; preferred starting point |
| Payments | [payments/quickstart](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/quickstart.md) | Payment Intents API, custom flows |
| Webhooks | [webhooks](https://docs.stripe.com/webhooks.md) | Event delivery and signature verification |
| Connect | [connect](https://docs.stripe.com/connect.md) | Marketplaces and platforms; use Accounts v2 |
| Billing | [billing/quickstart](https://docs.stripe.com/billing/quickstart.md) | Subscriptions, invoicing, pricing |
| Elements | [payments/payment-element](https://docs.stripe.com/payments/payment-element.md) | Prebuilt UI for custom checkout |
| Testing | [testing](https://docs.stripe.com/testing.md) | Sandbox behaviour and test cards |
| Versioning | [upgrades](https://docs.stripe.com/upgrades.md) | Date-pinned releases and breaking changes |

## Versioning

The API is versioned by a date pin (`Stripe-Version` header, or the account
default). Breaking changes ship only in major releases. SDK versions move
independently of the API version — resolve the current SDK from the package
registry before pinning, rather than asserting a number.

## References

- [Stripe API reference](https://docs.stripe.com/api.md)
- [Testing guide](https://docs.stripe.com/testing.md)
- [Webhooks](https://docs.stripe.com/webhooks.md)
- [Stripe Connect](https://docs.stripe.com/connect.md)
- [Security guide](https://docs.stripe.com/security/guide.md)
- [npm: stripe](https://www.npmjs.com/package/stripe) · [PyPI: stripe](https://pypi.org/project/stripe/)