Express accounts enable your platform to manage payout schedules, customize the flow of funds, and control branding. Stripe will handle onboarding, account management, and identity verification for your platform.
Express demo
To see the complete Express onboarding flow in action, try the sample end-to-end Express integration before you start building your own. This demo includes an example of a user onboarding experience and account management for Rocket Rides, an on-demand marketplace.
You can find the demo’s complete source code on GitHub.
Before you begin
To create Express accounts, you must meet all of these requirements:
- Minimum API version: Express requires the API version 2017-05-25 or later. Capabilities in Express require the API version 2019-02-19 or later.
- Platform in a supported country: Platforms in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States can create Express accounts for most countries Stripe supports. For information about country-specific restrictions, or to request notification when Express accounts become available in your country, let us know.
- Countries that don’t support self-serve: Due to restrictions that apply when using Connect in the United Arab Emirates and Thailand, platform users in these countries can’t self-serve Express Connect accounts. To begin onboarding for Express Accounts in these countries, contact us.
- Platforms in the UAE: Platforms in the UAE can only use Express accounts based in the UAE with the following charge types: destination_charges and separate charges and transfers. Destination charges using the on_behalf_of attribute are not yet supported for UAE platforms.
- Vetting for fraud: Because your platform is responsible for losses incurred by Express accounts, you must closely examine all accounts that sign up through your platform for potential fraud. Refer to our risk management best practices guide for more information.
- Platform profile: You need to complete your platform’s profile.
Onboarding Express Accounts outside of your platform’s country
You can enable onboarding on a per-country basis in the Connect Settings section of your Dashboard.
The Express account onboarding flow is currently localized in English, French, Spanish, Bulgarian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, and Thai.
Keep the following in mind when onboarding accounts globally:
- International business: Your platform is responsible for understanding the implications of doing business internationally, such as tax and financial reporting.
- Charge flows: Be sure to review your options for creating charges based on the countries you intend to operate in.
- Service agreement type: Your platform can create connected accounts under the recipient service agreement to enable cross-border transfers. Such accounts have restricted access to capabilities.
Before onboarding your first account, go to the Connect settings page to customize the visual appearance of the form with your brand’s name, color, and icon. Connect Onboarding requires this information.
Use the Create Account API to create a connected account with type set to express. You can prefill any information, but at a minimum, you must specify the type. The country of the account defaults to the same country as your platform, and the account confirms the selection during onboarding.
Note
This example includes only some of the fields you can set when creating an account. For a full list of the fields you can set, such as address and website_url, see the Create Account API reference.
Command Line sk_test_26PHem9AhJZvU623DfE1x4sdcurl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts \ -u "
If you know the country and capabilities for your connected account, you can provide that information when you create the account. Connect Onboarding then collects the requirements for those capabilities. To reduce onboarding effort, request only the capabilities you need.
Command Line sk_test_26PHem9AhJZvU623DfE1x4sdcurl https://api.stripe.com/v1/accounts \ -u "
If you’ve already collected information for your connected accounts, you can prefill that information on the account object. You can prefill any account information, including personal and business information, external account information, and so on.
Connect Onboarding doesn’t ask for the prefilled information. However, it does ask the account holder to confirm the prefilled information before accepting the Connect service agreement.
When you onboard an account without its own website and your platform provides it with a personal URL, prefill its business_profile.url. If the account doesn’t have a URL, you can prefill its business_profile.product_description instead.
When testing your integration, prefill account information using test data.
If you omit capabilities, Connect Onboarding uses the settings in the Configuration settings section of the Stripe Dashboard to automatically request capabilities based on the account’s country.
Create an Account Link with the following parameters:
account- use the account ID returned by the API from the previous steprefresh_urlreturn_urltype=account_onboarding
Command Line sk_test_26PHem9AhJZvU623DfE1x4sd {{CONNECTED_ACCOUNT_ID}}curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/account_links \ -u "
An Account Link contains a url. Redirect the account to this link to send your account into the onboarding flow. Each Account Link URL can only be used once because it grants access to the account holder’s personal information. Authenticate the account in your application before redirecting them to this URL.
Before creating the first account link for an Express account, prefill any Know Your Customer (KYC) information. After you create an account link for an Express account, you can’t read or update its KYC information.
Security tip
Don’t email, text, or otherwise send account link URLs outside of your platform application. Instead, provide them to the authenticated account holder within your application.
Connect Onboarding requires you to pass both a return_url and refresh_url to handle all cases where the user is redirected to your platform. It’s important that you implement these correctly to provide the best experience for your user.
Note
You can use HTTP for your return_url and refresh_url while in test mode (for example, to test with localhost), but live mode only accepts HTTPS. Be sure to swap testing URLs for HTTPS URLs before going live.
return_url
Stripe issues a redirect to this URL when the user completes the Connect Onboarding flow. This doesn’t mean that all information has been collected or that there are no outstanding requirements on the account. This only means the flow was entered and exited properly.
No state is passed through this URL. After a user is redirected to your return_url, check the state of the details_submitted parameter on their account by doing either of the following:
- Listen to
account.updatedevents with a Connect webhook. - Retrieve the account with the API.
refresh_url
Your user is redirected to the refresh_url in these cases:
- The link is expired (a few minutes went by since the link was created).
- The user already visited the URL (the user refreshed the page or clicked back or forward in the browser).
- Your platform can no longer access the account.
- The account has been rejected.
Your refresh_url should trigger a method on your server to call Account Links again with the same parameters, and redirect the user to the Connect Onboarding flow to create a seamless experience.
A user that’s redirected to your return_url might not have completed the onboarding process. Retrieve the user’s account and check for charges_enabled. If the account isn’t fully onboarded, provide UI prompts to allow the user to continue onboarding later. The user can complete their account activation through a new account link (generated by your integration). You can check the state of the details_submitted parameter on their account to see if they’ve completed the onboarding process.
See also
- Express Dashboard
- Integrate the Express Dashboard
- Customize the Express Dashboard
