Operations
Operation Types
operation | Meaning | Typical use case |
|---|---|---|
purchase | Standard sale (one-step); funds captured immediately | E-commerce checkout |
debit | Charge a customer for a previously agreed service (no linked Checkout purchase) | Post-paid services, back-office charges |
credit | Payout / push funds to the customer | Payouts, refunds, rewards |
transfer | Move funds between two parties using the Checkout form | P2P, marketplace payouts |
Use purchase unless your business explicitly requires one of the others. vat_calc and the recurring schedule parameters are valid only for purchase; recurring_init is valid for purchase and debit. The methods array applies to every operation.
Purchase
operation: purchase
Description: Initiates a standard sale (purchase) operation. The customer is charged immediately for the specified amount.
Typical use cases:
- One-time e‑commerce payments
- Standard online purchases where funds are captured right away
Debit
operation: debit
Description: Initiates a debit operation, where funds are taken from the customer’s payment instrument (e.g. card or account) without a linked prior purchase via Checkout.
Typical use cases:
- Charging a customer based on a previously agreed service (e.g. post‑paid services)
- Manual debits initiated by the merchant’s back‑office or CRM flow
Apple Pay and Google Pay are available for debit as well as for purchase. See Apple Pay and Google Pay for DEBIT.
Credit
operation: credit
Description: Initiates a credit operation, where funds are sent to the customer instead of being charged from them. This is effectively a payout/credit to the customer’s card or account.
Typical use cases:
- Payouts to customers (cash‑out, winnings, rewards, etc.)
- Manual adjustments or balance top‑ups in favor of the customer
Recipient details are sent in the authentication request in payee, payee_billing_address and parameters. Any field the selected payment method requires and you did not send is collected from the payer on the Checkout page.
In the authentication request, card_token and req_token apply to purchase and debit only, and a credit page does not offer previously saved cards. When you already hold a token for the payee card, use Card credit (payout) instead: it accepts card_token and completes the payout without redirecting the payer to Checkout.
The outcome arrives as a callback with type=credit. For the full parameter list and a request example, see the Authentication Request.
This operation value belongs to the authentication request on /api/v1/session. The direct Card credit (payout) endpoint has no operation parameter, because the endpoint itself fixes the operation.
Transfer
operation: transfer
Description: Initiates a transfer between two parties/accounts using the Checkout form. Funds are moved from the source side to the destination side according to your business logic.
Typical use cases:
- Internal transfers between customer wallets/accounts
- Marketplace or platform flows where funds are moved from one participant to another
Post-payment operations
Post-payment actions (capture, refund, void, recurring, retry, status lookup) act on a payment that has already been initiated through /api/v1/session. See the Payment Checkout API for request parameters and examples, and Recurring for how the later charges of a subscription are made.
API requests
Request parameters, field definitions, and curl examples for all Checkout operations live in the API requests section, not on this page.