Payouts & bank transfers

You have made a sale. The money exists somewhere. But where is it, and when does it reach your actual bank account? And why did a $500 sale put less than $500 in your bank? This guide explains the journey from payment to payout. For the fees taken along the way, see Payment fees explained.

The stages money moves through

After a successful payment, your money goes through three stages:

1. Pending. The payment has been captured, but the funds have not settled yet. You cannot withdraw or spend them. How long this takes depends on your country and the payment method.

2. Available. The funds have settled and are ready to be paid out, refunded or transferred. At this point they are sitting in your processor's system, allocated to your account.

3. In your bank. The processor sends a transfer to your linked bank account. Most banks deposit a payout as soon as they receive it, though some take a few extra days to make it spendable.

Stripe payouts

Stripe sends money to your bank on a payout schedule. Where Stripe supports it that schedule defaults to daily, every business day, and you can switch to weekly, monthly, or manual, where nothing goes out until you ask for it. You can pick a schedule during onboarding and change it later in the Stripe Dashboard under Settings → Payouts (you need administrator access to change it). Moving to monthly means you wait longer between deposits. A few countries have preset schedules set by local rules, so the options you see depend on where your business is.

Settlement is a separate clock. Your schedule controls when payouts leave; settlement controls how long a payment takes to become available in the first place. Stripe's own example for the US: a card payment made on Monday is pending at first and available on Wednesday, two business days later. So on a daily schedule, each payout covers transactions captured a couple of business days earlier. Your bank may take a little longer to post it, and payouts scheduled for a weekend or a public holiday arrive on the next business day.

Your Stripe balance has two states:

Available: settled, ready for payout, refunds and transfers
Pending: still settling, not yet usable

Reading your Stripe Dashboard balance

Label	What it means
Pending	Recent payments that have not settled yet. You cannot pay out or spend these funds
Available	Funds that have settled. These can go out as a payout, or cover a refund
In transit	A payout Stripe has already sent to your bank, on its way
Paid	A payout that went through. Occasionally one shows as paid and then turns to failed within a few business days, so check your bank

You can see a full history of individual payouts, and their expected deposit dates, in the Payouts section of your dashboard. Each payout shows the total gross amount collected, the fees deducted, any refunds issued, and the net amount sent to your bank. Stripe also has prebuilt reports covering payments, payouts, fees and balance changes, which you can view in the Dashboard or download as a CSV for your accountant.

Stripe may also create a reserve balance on your account. That holds back funds to cover expected refunds and disputes, and you cannot pay them out until the reserve hold period ends.

If you turn automatic payouts off, you send funds to your bank yourself from the Dashboard. Stripe says a manual payout typically takes one to four business days to arrive, and same-day manual payouts are available in the US, the UK and the Eurozone if you meet the conditions and request them before the daily cut-off.

PayPal payouts

PayPal works differently. Funds land in your PayPal balance and stay there until you move them.

To transfer to your bank:

Log in to your PayPal account. Go to paypal.com and sign in as a business.

Go to Wallet and click Transfer Money.

Select Transfer to your bank. Choose your linked bank account.

Choose standard or instant transfer. Standard has no fee and usually completes in one to three business days. Instant charges a fee and typically completes within minutes.

Set up automatic transfers: PayPal can move your balance to your bank on a schedule so you never have to trigger it by hand. On the web, click Finance, then Money, then More Actions, and select Set Up Auto Transfers. You pick the bank account, the frequency (daily or weekly), and whether to send the full balance or everything above a threshold you set.

Don't forget to move your PayPal balance

Some business owners are surprised to find PayPal money sitting in their PayPal account for weeks. If you use PayPal, either enable automatic transfers or make it a habit to manually transfer the balance regularly.

How bank transfer timing works

Once your processor sends a payout, the money usually travels through the US bank transfer network, ACH (Automated Clearing House); faster options use other rails. Rough timings:

Stripe, manual payout: typically one to four business days
Stripe, same-day manual payout: available in the US, the UK and the Eurozone if you qualify and initiate before the cut-off
PayPal, standard transfer to a bank: usually one to three business days
PayPal, instant transfer: typically minutes, for a fee

Weekends and bank holidays extend processing time. PayPal says holidays and weekends delay a withdrawal by at least one business day, so a transfer started on Friday afternoon may not arrive until the middle of the following week.

Why payouts might be delayed

Common reasons a payout does not arrive when expected:

New account: Your first Stripe payout takes longer. Stripe says it typically schedules the initial payout to complete within 7 to 14 days after your first live payment, and it can be longer depending on your industry, country and risk level. New PayPal sellers have their first payments held for up to 21 days.
Identity verification incomplete: If you have not finished Stripe or PayPal's identity verification, payouts may be paused.
Unusual activity: A sudden spike in volume or a high refund/dispute rate may trigger a temporary hold.
Bank holiday: Bank holidays pause ACH processing.
Wrong bank details: If your bank account number or routing number is entered incorrectly, payouts may fail and be returned. Stripe warns that it can take up to five extra business days for your bank to return a failed payout and tell Stripe about it, and that a payout can show as paid before flipping to failed.

If a payout is overdue, check your processor dashboard for any alerts or notifications. If everything looks correct there, contact your processor's support.

How to link or change your bank account

Log in to the Stripe Dashboard and open Settings → Payouts (Stripe labels the bank-account part of that page External payout accounts and scheduling). You can add a bank account or click Edit next to an existing one. In the US you will need your bank's nine-digit routing number and your account number.

Common questions

Why was my payout less than I expected?

Check your Stripe Dashboard under Payouts and open the individual payout to see the breakdown. Common reasons include: transaction fees deducted, refunds issued during the period, a chargeback dispute fee, a reserve, or a portion of funds still in your Pending balance. See Payment fees explained for what each fee is.

Can I speed up my payouts?

With Stripe, eligible accounts can use Instant Payouts (for a fee) to send money to a supported debit card or bank account any day of the week; Stripe says funds typically arrive within 30 minutes. New Stripe accounts are not immediately eligible. You can check in the Dashboard. With PayPal, the instant transfer option does the same job for a fee. Otherwise, timing follows your normal schedule.

What happens to a payout if my bank account is closed?

The transfer will fail and the funds will go back into your processor's balance. Stripe re-enters the payout at your next scheduled interval once you fix the details, and PayPal returns a failed transfer to your PayPal balance (a return fee may apply). Update your bank details in your processor dashboard promptly if your bank account changes.

Can I split payouts to multiple bank accounts?

Not in the way most people mean. Stripe lets you add one bank account per settlement currency, so if you only take payments in one currency you have a single payout account; if you add more, you pick a default settlement currency. PayPal lets you link several bank accounts, but you choose one destination per transfer, and automatic transfers can only run to one account at a time. Neither will split a single payout across accounts. Most businesses take one payout and allocate it in their accounting software afterwards.

What currency does Stripe pay me in?

Stripe pays out in your settlement currency, which has to match the currency of the bank account you linked. If a payment comes in a currency you have not set up a bank account for, Stripe converts it to your default currency and charges a conversion fee (+1% on standard US pricing). In some countries you can add a bank account per currency to avoid the conversion.

How do I get a tax document from Stripe?

Stripe issues 1099-K forms to eligible US-based accounts. You can export your 1099-K from the Documents section of the Dashboard, and Stripe makes the previous calendar year's form available by 31 January. Thresholds are set by the IRS and have changed more than once, so check Stripe's own 1099-K help article for the year you are filing.

What is on a payout statement?

A payout shows the net amount sent to your bank after fees and refunds. In Stripe you can open a payout to see what went into it, and Stripe also produces a payout reconciliation report if you need the full transaction-by-transaction breakdown for bookkeeping.