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Coupons and promotion codes

Add discounts to subscriptions and subscription items using coupons and promotion codes.

Create and manage coupons and promotion codes to apply discounts to a customer’s subscriptions, subscription items, or invoices using either the Dashboard or Stripe APIs. Use coupons to:

  • Apply discounts to a subscription, subscription item, or invoice
  • Set a coupon to apply once, for a set number of months, or indefinitely
  • Reduce invoice amounts by a percentage or a flat amount

Coupons versus promotion codes

These are the differences between a coupon and a promotion code:

  • Coupons: You decide who and when a customer gets the discount. These are backend-driven discounts (your system decides who gets the discount).
  • Promotion codes: Your customer decides when to apply a discount. This is a customer-facing code that wraps around a coupon, adding a distribution and control layer on top of coupons. Many promotion codes can reference one coupon. Promotion codes inherit the product restrictions of their parent coupon. For example, if a coupon only applies to certain products, any promotion code created from it has the same restrictions.

On this page, “discount” has two meanings. In everyday language, a discount is any price reduction. In the Stripe API, a Discount is a specific object that represents the application of a coupon to a customer, subscription, or invoice. When a customer redeems a coupon, Stripe creates a Discount object to track that redemption.

You can apply up to 20 discounts to a subscription, subscription item, or invoice. This limit is shared between coupons and promotion codes.

To use discounts for one-time payments, see Add discounts for one-time payments instead.

Coupons

To reduce a customer’s charges, redeem a coupon to create a Discount object on a subscription or customer. Learn how to create and manage coupons in the following sections.

Create a coupon

Create coupons in the Dashboard or with the Create a Coupon method:

  1. In the Dashboard, open the Products page.
  2. Click Coupons.
  3. Click +New.
  4. In the Create a coupon dialog, enter the coupon’s parameters.
  5. Click Create coupon.

The following are all the settings for coupons. The name is the only setting you can edit after you create the coupon.

Set eligible products

To set the products that are eligible for discounts, add the relevant product in the Apply to specific product field. Any promotion codes that are associated with the coupon are also restricted to this list of eligible products.

If you configure a coupon to apply to specific products and a subscription doesn’t have any applicable products, no discount is applied when you add the coupon to the subscription.

When you make changes to a subscription, Stripe calculates the proration and applies any existing discounts. You can’t discount proration line items further on the invoice that’s generated.

Apply coupons to subscriptions

After you’ve created coupons, create a discount by applying them to a subscription. You can apply the coupon when you create the subscription or by updating a customer’s existing subscription.

  1. In the Dashboard, open the Subscriptions page.
  2. Click the relevant subscription.
  3. Click Actions.
  4. Click Update subscription.
  5. Click Add coupon.
  6. Select one or more coupons from the dropdown menus and click Submit.

You can still create a subscription when a customer doesn’t have a stored payment method if no immediate payment is required after you apply coupons to it.

Apply coupons to Checkout

Apply coupons to subscriptions in a Checkout Session by setting the discounts parameter when you Create a Checkout Session. To create a session with an applied discount, pass the coupon ID in the coupon parameter of the discounts array.

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curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/checkout/sessions \
  -u sk_test_...: \
  -d "line_items[][price]"=
"{{PRICE_ID}}"
 \
  -d "line_items[][quantity]"=1 \
  -d mode=subscription \
  -d "discounts[][coupon]"="{{COUPON_ID}}" \
  -d success_url="https://example.com/success"

Delete coupons

You can delete coupons with the Dashboard or the Delete a Coupon method.

Deleting a coupon prevents it from being applied to future subscriptions or invoices, but it doesn’t remove the discount from any subscription or invoice that already has it.

  1. In the Dashboard, open the Products page.
  2. Click Coupons
  3. Click the relevant coupon.
  4. Click the overflow menu ().
  5. Click Delete coupon.

Coupon duration

A coupon’s duration indicates how long the redeemed discount is valid for. Duration defaults to once, which applies only to the first invoice. Set duration=repeating with duration_in_months to apply a discount for multiple months, or duration=forever to apply it to all invoices indefinitely.

For example, a coupon for 50% off with duration_in_months=4 applies to all invoices in the 4-month period starting when the coupon is first applied. In a monthly subscription, the coupon applies to the first 4 invoices. In a yearly subscription, the 50% discount applies to the entire year if the subscription renews within the 4-month window. In a weekly subscription, it applies to every invoice in the first 4 months.

When a subscription uses a coupon with duration=once, the coupon is considered used after the invoice finalizes and is removed from the subscription’s discounts array:

  • Before the coupon is applied to any invoice, the subscription’s discounts includes the discount object.
  • After the invoice finalizes, the subscription’s discounts no longer includes that discount.
  • The invoice that consumed the coupon still shows the applied discount on the invoice resource and line items.

This means a subscription may appear to have no discount even though a coupon was applied.

Caution

If you apply a coupon to a backdated subscription, the coupon’s duration starts counting from the backdated start date, not from when you make the API call. For repeating coupons, this means the backdated period consumes part of the coupon’s duration. The coupon’s duration_in_months must be longer than the backdated period if you want the discount to apply to invoices after the backdated period. See Backdating and discounts for more details.

Redemption limits

Applying a coupon means attaching it directly to a subscription, customer, or invoice using the API or Dashboard. Redeeming a promotion code means a customer enters a code at checkout to activate the underlying coupon. Both actions count toward the same max_redemptions limit on the coupon.

Redemption limits cap how many times a coupon can be applied across all customers. For example, setting max_redemptions=50 means the coupon can only be applied 50 times total: once each to 50 different customers, 50 times to the same customer, or any combination until the limit is reached. When using promotion codes, a customer’s redemption of the code counts toward this limit.

If you set a coupon to last forever when a customer uses it, but the coupon has an expiration date, any customer given that coupon has this coupon’s discount forever. New customers can’t apply the coupon after the expiration date.

Promotion codes

Promotion codes are customer-facing codes that you create for coupons. For example, FALLPROMO and SPRINGPROMO can both point to a single 25% off coupon. You can share promotion codes directly with your customers to use during payment.

If you’ve implemented the customer portal and turned on promotion codes, customers can apply a discount when upgrading or downgrading their existing subscriptions in the portal.

Note

Subscriptions apply promotion code and price updates separately, which might cause unexpected updates. For example, a payment failure can cause a price upgrade to fail, but the promotion code included with the price upgrade succeeds.

The customer portal displays promotion codes that have been applied to a subscription. If you don’t want to allow customers to apply the promotion code themselves or potentially share it with others, you should either set limits on the promotion code or apply a coupon directly.

Customize controls and limits on promotion codes by specifying eligible customers, first time orders, minimum order values, expiration dates, and redemption limits.

Restrictions

There are some restrictions to promotion codes.

Create promotion codes

You can create a promotion code in the Dashboard when you create a coupon.

The Code is case-insensitive and unique across active promotion codes for any customer. For example:

  • You can create multiple customer-restricted promotion codes with the same Code, but you can’t reuse that Code for a promotion code that any customer can redeem.
  • If you create a promotion code that is redeemable by any customer, you can’t create another active promotion code with the same code.
  • You can create a promotion code with one Code, inactivate it, and then create a new promotion code with the same Code.
  1. In the Dashboard on the Create a coupon page, click the Use customer-facing promotion codes button.
  2. Enter a code. This is the code that a customer enters during payment to redeem the discount. If you don’t set a code, Stripe generates one for you.
  3. Select requirements for the promotion code. For example, you can restrict the coupon to only being valid on first-time orders.

When you create a promotion code, it inherits the configuration of the associated coupon.

Promotion code configurations

By configuring the promotion code settings, you can customize the following:

  • Which customers are eligible to use a promotion code
  • How many times a customer can redeem a promotion code
  • When a promotion code expires
  • Set a minimum amount a promotion code can apply to

Limit by customer

To limit a promotion code to a particular customer, complete these steps:

  1. On the Create a coupon page, select Limit to a specific customer.
  2. Select the relevant customer. If you don’t specify a customer, any customer can redeem the promotion code.

Limit by first time order

Restricts the coupon to customers who have no prior transaction history on your platform. This setting prevents customers from using the coupon if they:

  • Initiated a PaymentIntent, even if the payment never completed.
  • Subscribed to a trial period, even if it subsequently canceled.

To limit a promotion code to first-time customers, on the Create a coupon page, select Eligible for first-time order only.

Set a minimum amount

To set an minimum amount that is eligible for a promotion code, on the Create a coupon page, select Require minimum order value and enter the minimum value.

Because promotion code restrictions are checked at redemption time, the minimum transaction amount only applies to the initial payment for a subscription.

If the coupon supports multiple currencies, the minimum amount can be different per-currency.

Customize expirations

To set an expiration date for a promotion code, on the Create a coupon page, select Add an expiration date and the date and time at which the promotion code expires.

If the underlying coupon already has an expiration date set, then the promotion code’s expiration date can’t be later than the coupon’s.

For example, you might have plans to support a coupon for a year, but you only want it to be redeemable for one week after a customer receives it. To do this, set the coupon’s expiration date to one year from now, and set each the promotion code’s expiration date to one week after it’s created.

Limit redemptions

To set the total number of times the promotion code can be redeemed by your customers, select Limit the number of times this code can be redeemed on the Create a coupon page and enter the number. See Redemption limits for details.

If the underlying coupon already has a maximum number of times set, then the promotion code’s maximum redemptions can’t be greater than the coupon’s.

Deactivate promotion codes

To deactivate a promotion code, doing the following steps:

  1. In the Dashboard, open the Products page.
  2. Click Coupons.
  3. Click the coupon whose promotion code you want to deactivate.
  4. In the relevant promotion code row, click the overflow menu ().
  5. Click Archive promotion code.

However, if the underlying coupon for a promotion code becomes invalid, all of its promotion codes become permanently inactive. Similarly, if a promotion code reaches its maximum redemption limit or its expiration date, it becomes permanently inactive. These promotion codes can’t be reactivated.

Apply promotion codes to subscriptions

After you create a promotion code, redeem a discount by applying the promotion code to a subscription. You can apply promotion codes two ways:

  1. In the Dashboard, go to Billing > Subscriptions.
  2. Click the relevant subscription.
  3. Click Actions > Update subscription > Add coupon.
  4. Click a promotion code from the dropdown menu and click Submit.

Add promotion codes to Checkout

Enable promotion codes with the API by setting the allow_promotion_codes parameter in Checkout Sessions. When allow_promotion_codes is enabled on a Checkout Session, Checkout includes a promotion code redemption box for your customers to use.

Promotion code field in Checkout

Promotion code field in Checkout

Stackable coupons and promotion codes

You can add multiple coupons, promotion codes, or redeemed discounts to a customer’s list of charges. You can do this when creating a subscription or by updating a customer’s existing subscription.

We support multiple discounts on both subscriptions and subscription items.

When you create a subscription with stackable discounts, each discount applies to all items on the subscription. The order of the discounts is important if you use both amount_off and percent_off. For example, the following stacked discounts apply differently:

  • 20% off then 5 USD off
  • 5 USD off then 20% off
  1. In the Dashboard, go to Billing > Subscriptions.
  2. Click the relevant subscription.
  3. Click Actions > Update subscription > Add coupon.
  4. Click coupons from the dropdown menus and click Submit.
  5. Click the relevant product.
  6. Click Add coupons.
  7. Click coupons from the dropdown menus and click Submit.

Restrictions

There are some restrictions to using multiple discounts.

  • You can set up to 20 entries in the discounts parameter.
  • Each entry in discounts has to be unique.
  • You can’t pass in a coupon and a promotion code created from the same coupon.
  • You can’t pass in a coupon and a discount that is generated from the same coupon.
  • Redeemed discounts must already be attached to the customer or subscription that you’re updating.

Update a subscription

You don’t need to set discounts if you don’t intend to make changes to existing discounts.

When updating discounts, you need to pass in any previously set coupon, promotion_code or discount you want to keep on the subscription.

Pass discounts = "" to clear all discounts from the subscription. When a subscription has no discounts, the customer-level discount, if any, applies to invoices.

If you’ve already set more than one discount on a subscription with the new discounts parameter, you can’t update the subscription with the deprecated coupon or promotion_code parameter. Similarly, you can’t update a schedule’s phases with the deprecated coupon or promotion_code parameter if you’ve set more than one discount on a prior phase.

Updating discounts doesn’t incur prorations or generate an invoice on its own. The new discounts are applied the next time the subscription creates an invoice.

Note

Updating subscription-level promotion codes, coupons, or discounts by themselves doesn’t create proration invoice items. Only changes that affect billable amounts for the current billing cycle create prorations—for example, changing a subscription item’s price or quantity, adding or removing subscription items, or changing billing cycle anchors.

However, when you combine a discount change with a proration-triggering update (such as changing an item quantity and modifying a discount in the same API call), Stripe computes proration amounts using the subscription’s updated pricing and discounting state. The proration debit or credit reflects the modified discounts.

Alternative discount methods

Although coupons are the most common way to discount a subscription, you can also do the following:

Of these methods, negative invoice items provide more detailed information as to what discount was created, when, and why.

See also

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