HTTP status codes

Learn how to handle HTTP responses.

After submitting an API call to Adyen, you receive a response back to inform you that your request was received and processed. Depending on the HTTP status code of the response, you should build some logic to handle any errors that a request or the system may return.

HTTP responses

HTTP status code	HTTP status message	Adyen status message	Notes
200	OK	Request processed normally	The request message has been successfully processed, and it has produced a response. The response message varies, depending on the request method and the requested data.
400	Bad Request	Problem reading or understanding request	The receiving server cannot understand the request because of malformed syntax. Do not repeat the request without first modifying it; check the request for errors, fix them and then retry the request.
401	Unauthorized	Authentication required	You need to input valid authentication credentials (username/password) to access the resource.
403	Forbidden	Insufficient permission to process request	You do not have the appropriate user rights to access the request. Do not repeat the request.
404	Not Found	File Not Found	It was not possible to retrieve the resource you requested at the specified location. It may or may not become available again in the future. Usually, this happens when the URL you pass with the request is incorrect. You may make subsequent calls.
413	Payload too large	Request Entity Too Large	The body of your request was too large. The maximum request size is 10MB. Send the request again with a size of less than 10MB.
422	Unprocessable Entity	Request validation error	The request is well-formed (syntactically correct), but semantically incorrect: the receiving server can read it, but it cannot understand it.
500	Internal Server Error	Server could not process request	The receiving server encountered an unexpected condition that prevents it from fulfilling the request. Our servers may return a 500 status code also when the request is incorrect, for example because of a missing or not filled in mandatory field.

Handle 200 responses

An HTTP 200/OK response status code means that the request was submitted correctly and Adyen processed it successfully. An HTTP 200 response does not automatically mean that the payment or the modification request was successfully executed.

When the payment response includes a resultCode with a value of Refused or Error, a refusalReason field is added. Check the refusal reason messages to learn more about the possible issues of the payment or the modification request.

For example:

You send a capture payment request.
The response to your capture request returns HTTP 200/OK. This means:
- We received your request.
- We will execute a payment capture.
- We still do not know if the capture operation will be successful or not.
- We'll let you know in the corresponding webhook event.
If the capture operation fails, for example, because the acquirer declines to accept the shopper's card, the payable amount for the transaction is not collected.
Based on your settings, you'll receive a webhook message that includes the information about this capture example:
- The pspReference in this notification is the same as the pspReference in the capture modification response.
- The success field value is false, and the reason field includes a short message to explain the cause of the failure.

Handle 4xx and 5xx responses

In the following scenarios, the Adyen payments platform does not accept or store submitted requests:

The request does not pass validation.
The request violates a security constraint.
The request violates a configuration constraint.
An internal error occurs on the Adyen payments platform.

In these cases, you receive an error message with an error code containing a description of the problem.
In general, you should handle it as an exception.

There is no charge for rejected payment requests accompanied by an error message.

Debugging APIs

While building your integration into the Adyen APIs, you may need to reach out to us for additional help.

If you contact our Support Team, provide the pspReference returned in the header of the API response. The pspReference is a unique ID for that specific API request, and can be used by our Support Team to identify specific API calls.

Error response fields

In case of an error, the response object contains the following fields:

Field	Type	Description
`status`	Integer	Returns the HTTP status code.
`errorCode`	String	Returns the Adyen code that is mapped to the error message.
`message`	String	Returns the message, a short explanation of the issue.
`errorType`	String	Returns the type of error that was encountered. Allowed error types: `internal` `validation` `security` `configuration`
`pspReference`	String	Returns the PSP reference associated with this error. If the `pspReference` is not present in the response body, check the HTTP headers of the response.

The following example shows a possible error response:

{
    "status" : 403,
    "errorCode" : "901",
    "message" : "Invalid Merchant Account",
    "errorType" : "security"
}

For the complete list of error codes and corresponding messages, see Error codes and messages.