Payment links through the Customer Area

Learn how to create payment links through the Customer Area.

Release notes

Learn about the latest updates to Pay by Link.

Creating payment links through the Customer Area requires no development work and allows you to accept most payment methods, except for buy now, pay later payment methods. You can view the status of payment links in your Customer Area and get payment webhook events sent to your email.

Using payment links to accept payments works as follows:

Create a payment link.
Send the payment link to your shopper.
Get updates about the payment.

On this page, you'll also learn how to implement additional use cases such as:

Customize the payment methods, style, and language shown on the payment page.
Force the expiry of a payment link.

Requirements

Before you begin to integrate, make sure you have followed the Get started with Adyen guide to:

Get an overview of the steps needed to accept live payments.
Create your test account.

After you have created your test account:

Add your terms and conditions to the Pay by Link payment page.
Check that you have the required permissions for creating payment links. This includes API permissions, and your Customer Area user permissions.
Add payment methods to your account.

To configure how payment links can be created, configure Pay by Link creation settings.

Check your API permissions

Check that you have the API permissions to create payment links:

Log in to your Customer Area.
Go to Developers > API credentials, and select the API credential ws@Company.[YourCompanyAccount].

Check your Customer Area user permissions

Check that you have the user permissions to create payment links:

Log in to your Customer Area.
Go to Settings > Users.
Select the user who will be creating payment links.
This opens a page with the details for this user.
In the Roles and Associated Accounts pane, check that the user has the following user role:
- Pay by Link Interface

If the user does not have this role, contact your admin user.

Add payment methods to your account

If you haven't done so already, add payment methods to your merchant account. To see which payment methods are supported when you create payment links through the Customer Area, refer to Supported payment methods.

Log in to your Customer Area.
Switch to your merchant account.
Go to Settings > Payment methods.
Select Add payment methods.
Start entering the name of the payment method, then select it from the drop-down list.
Select Submit.

Step 1: Create a payment link

To create a payment link:

Log in to your Customer Area.
Switch to your merchant account.
Go to Pay by Link > Payment links
Select Create payment link. The fields and options on the form depend on the creation settings that you configured.

Fill out the form with the payment information, specifying the following next to Transaction details:

Field name	Required	Description
Merchant reference		Your order number. You can use this to identify and reconcile the payment in your own system.
Amount		Payment currency and value.
Description	Depends on creation setting.	Describe what the shopper is paying for. This description will be visible on the payment page.
Shopper country/region		We use this to tailor the list of payment methods available to your shopper.
Shopper reference		Your reference to uniquely identify this shopper. Do not include personally identifiable information (PII), such as name or email address. Minimum length: three characters.
Language		Select the language of the payment page. By default, this is the language of the shopper's browser locale.
Link type		Select Single use if you want the link to be non-reusable or Open (for multiple payments) for a reusable payment link. Single use is selected by default.
Link validity		Select the validity period of the payment link. This can be a maximum of 70 days from the time you create the link. 24 hours is selected by default.

If you have enabled the email service, next to Payment link email:
1. Select checkboxes to indicate the email service flow you want to enable:
  - Send the payment request directly to the shopper's email address.
  - Send a payment confirmation success email to the shopper upon successful and completed payments.
2. In the input field that appears, enter the shopper's email address.

Under Additional details, fill in:

Field name	Required	Description
Shopper reference	Depends on creation settings.	A unique identifier for the shopper.
Shopper country/region	Depends on creation settings.	The shopper's country/region.

Select Create payment link. The next page confirms the payment link was created.

Step 2: Send the payment link to your shopper

On the payment link confirmation page, select Copy link.

Below is an example payment link.
```
https://test.adyen.link/PL45D0F79183A4CCA2
```
Send the payment link to your shopper.

When the shopper selects the link, they are redirected to the Adyen-hosted payment form. The shopper can choose to pay with any payment method available in the Shopper country/region you provided in the form.

Step 3: Get updates about the payment

After the shopper completes the payment, you can check the payment result in your Customer Area, under Transactions > Payments.

To keep track of the payment, you can also get payment updates sent to your email, and view payment links in your Customer Area.

Alternatively, you can set up webhooks to get payment updates sent to your server. This requires development work.

We keep payment link details for three months. If it was more than three months ago that a payment link was created, the details are no longer available.

Get payment updates to your email

To get payment status updates sent to email addresses, configure in your Pay by Link general settings.

When a payment has been completed, you receive an email that contains information about the payment, including the Merchant reference, PSP reference, and payment method.

View payment links in your Customer Area

You can view payment links created within the last 90 days in your Customer Area.

Log in to your Customer Area.
Select Pay by Link > Payment Links.

Payment links can have the following statuses:

Active: the payment link is active and can be used to make a payment.
Completed: the payment has been authorized. If you have enabled manual capture on your merchant account, you also need to capture the payment.
Payment pending: the final result of the payment is not yet known.
Expired: the payment link has expired.

If you created a reusable payment link, only two statuses apply: Active and Expired. The status will not change to completed.

Tokenize payment details

Ask for the shopper's consent before tokenizing their payment details.

When creating payment links through Customer Area, we only support saving payment details for recurring payments and not for one-off payments. To save your shopper's payment details for subsequent one-off payments, use the Pay by Link API.

To tokenize the shopper's payment details for recurring payments, enable it in your Pay by Link settings.

When the shopper wants you to save their payment details, follow the instructions for creating a payment link and include the Shopper reference.

Force the expiry of a payment link

In some scenarios, you may want to force the expiry of a payment link. For example, if a shopper updates their order after you have sent them a payment link, you may want to create a new payment link with the updated amount.

To force the expiry of a payment link:

Log in to your Customer Area.
Select Pay by Link > Payment Links.
Under the Payment link column, select the payment link you want to force expiry for.
In the Summary section, select the Manually expire link button under the Payment link.

Customize the payment page

You can customize:

Which payment methods are shown on the payment page, and in which order.
The appearance of the payment page, using themes.

Payment methods

The payment methods are ordered by popularity, the most popular payment methods in the shopper's country/region appearing at the top. You can configure which payment methods are rendered (and in which order) based on the shopper's country/region.

To configure these settings, you must have the Change payment methods user role.

Log in to your Customer Area.
Go to Settings > Checkout settings.
Select a Shopper country/region.
Drag the payment methods into the order you want them to appear to shoppers in this country/region.
To hide a payment method from shoppers in this country/region, drag it to the Other configured payment methods box.

Themes

Themes allow you to specify a background image and a brand logo to customize the appearance of the payment page. If you create multiple themes, you can choose a theme when you create the payment link.

On the company account level, you can create only one theme. However, on the merchant account level, you can create multiple themes and set up a default one. If you do not create any themes on the merchant account, the one from the company account will be used for all payment pages.

Create a new theme

To create a theme, you must have one of the following user roles:

Merchant admin
Pay by Link Settings

To create a new theme:

Log in to your Customer Area and switch to your merchant account if necessary.
Go to Pay by Link > Themes.
Select Create a new theme.
Enter a Theme name. This name is visible to the user creating the payment link in the Customer Area.
Enter a Display name. This name is visible to the shopper.
Upload a brand logo.
Upload a background image.
Enter a background color. This color is used instead of the background image if the shopper's internet connection is too slow.
If you want this to be the default theme for all payment links, select Set as default. Available only on the merchant account.
Select Create.

Test and go live

Before going live, use our list of test cards and other payment methods to test your integration. We recommend testing each payment method that you intend to offer to your shoppers.

You can check the test payments in your Customer Area, under Transactions > Payments.

When you are ready to go live, you need to:

Apply for a live account.
Configure your live account.
Submit a request to add payment methods in your live Customer Area .
Add your terms and conditions to your live Customer Area.