Extended authorizations
Extended authorizations allow you to capture a confirmed PaymentIntent up to 31 days later, depending on the card brand and whether your business is in an eligible category. This is helpful if you need more than 48 hours between authorization and payment capture. For example, a hotel authorizes a payment in full when a guest checks in, but captures the payment when the guest checks out.
You can contact support if you’re unsure about the eligibility of your merchant business category. If you’re a Connect user, set the merchant category code for your connected accounts to match their businesses.
Request extended authorization support
When you create a PaymentIntent
, you can request to extend the capture window of the payment. Set the request_extended_authorization field to true
and the capture_method to manual
.
In the response, the capture_before field indicates the time when the authorization expires. Failure to capture the payment by this time cancels the authorization and releases the funds. When this happens, the PaymentIntent
status transitions to canceled
.
Authorization validity
Every card network and card brand has a different rule for how long an authorization is valid. With Terminal, an authorization for in-person payments is valid for at least two days. Because authorization rules can change without prior notice, use the capture_before field to determine the validity window for an authorization.
The capture_before
field is located on the Charge, so it is only present after the PaymentIntent
is confirmed.
Card brand | Merchant business category | Country and Currency | Authorization validity window |
---|---|---|---|
Visa | Hotels, lodging, and vehicle rentals | All country and currency pairings except Japan/JPY | 31 days |
All business categories | Japan domestic transaction (Japan/JPY) | 30 days | |
All other business categories | All other country and currency pairings | Standard* | |
Mastercard (not including Maestro and Cirrus cards) | All business categories | All countries and currencies | 30 days |
Maestro and Cirrus cards | All business categories | All countries and currencies | Standard* |
Discover | Lodging, vehicle rental, transportation, taxicabs/limousines, bus charter/tour, boat rentals, eating/drinking places, trailer parks/campgrounds, equipment/furniture/appliance rental, amusement parks, circuses, fortune tellers, recreational services | All countries and currencies | 30 days |
All other business categories | Japan domestic transaction (Japan/JPY) | 30 days | |
All other business categories | All other country and currency pairings | Standard* | |
American Express | Lodging and vehicle rental | All country and currency pairings | 30 days |
All other business categories | All country and currency pairings | Standard* | |
JCB | All business categories | Japan domestic transaction (Japan/JPY) | 30 days |
All business categories | All other country and currency pairings | Standard* | |
Diners Club | All business categories | All country and currency pairings | 30 days |
UnionPay | All business categories | All country and currency pairings | 27 days |
* Seven days for online payments, two days for in-person Terminal payments.
Extended authorization only works with payment methods that support separate authorization and capture. Single-message payment methods like Interac don’t have separate authorization and capture steps, so extended authorizations aren’t supported.