subscriptions quickstart.md

Subscriptions Quickstart

Learn how to create subscriptions quickly using the Finix Dashboard or using the Finix API.

Subscriptions allow you to charge a fixed amount to a card or bank account on a recurring time period. You can use Subscriptions to charge buyers, customers, and more.

Example use cases for Subscriptions:

Charging buyers a recurring monthly fee to access a gym or health club
Charging buyers an annual membership fee for services or goods rendered
Charging merchants a monthly or annual fee for using your software

Creating a Subscription on the Finix Dashboard

You can create a Subscription in the Finix Dashboard without any development work. Using the Finix Dashboard, you can:

Create subscriptions from existing buyers and payment instruments
View the existing Subscriptions
Cancel a Subscription if a buyer or customer chooses to end their goods or services

Step 1: Navigate to Subscriptions

To create a Subscription in the Finix Dashboard:

Log into the Finix Dashboard.
Click Subscriptions.
Click Create Subscription
Fill out the form with the requested details.

Step 2. Create a Subscription

When you click on Create Subscription, a form will appear with the following options:

Billing Settings

This section specifies how you want to bill your buyers.

Subscription Name
Billing Frequency
Recurring Price

Trial Phase

You can enter a trial phase if your Subscription requires a set number of days before charging the buyer. For example, a 30-day trial, 3-month trial, or other combinations are possible.

Discount Phase

You can enter a discount phase if you would like to have a discounted rate for a set of amount of intervals. These take place after the Trial Phase is completed.

Start Date

You can specify a start date for the subscription in the future. This can be useful if you would like all your subscriptions to start on the same day.

Interval Length

If you want to create a Subscription for a set amount of time, you can specify an interval length. For example, if you have a monthly subscription, you can specify an interval length of 6 and the subscription will bill for 6 months.

Select Buyer

When you create a Subscription, you'll need to:

Select a buyer you want to charge. This can be either a buyer, seller, or recipient identity.
Select the payment instrument you want to bill.

Creating a Buyer and Payment Instrument

On the Create Subscription page, we allow you to create a buyer and a card payment instrument.

If you would like to add a bank account on this page, you will need to use our API. If you require an exception, email our support team.

Review and Create Subscriptions

After filling out the previous section, you can create the subscription.

Depending on whether there is a trial phase or not, the subscription will create a transfer shortly after creation. The initial transfer will be made within 60 minutes of the subscription creation.

Card Validation with $0 Authorization

When a subscription is created using a card-type payment instrument, Finix automatically performs a $0 Authorization to validate the card. This soft check confirms that the card is active and that the billing address and security code match the card issuer’s records (AVS and CVV checks).

By performing this check up front, Finix helps reduce failed payments and prevent fraudulent transactions — ensuring a smoother experience for both you and your customers.

Additional Details

Supported Payment Methods

Subscriptions currently support:

Recurring Card payments
Recurring Bank account payments (ACH in USA and EFTs in Canada)

For more details about ACH payments, see ACH Direct Debit.

Supported Time Periods

Finix supports the following time periods for Subscriptions:

Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Quarterly
Yearly

When creating a Subscription, you can specify the billing_frequency.

Creating a Subscription via API

To create a Subscription, include:

The ID of the Merchant that the Subscription will be linked_to
The amount and currency of the Subscription
The subscription_details
The buyer_details including both the identity_id and instrument_id

At this time, only APPROVED Merchants with one of the following processors can create subscriptions:

DUMMY_V1
FINIX_V1

For detailed API information, please see our Subscriptions API Reference.

The following example shows how to create a basic subscription:

Example Subscription

{
  "id": "subscription_cxe8cii53VTHqk5Q1SqP6",
  "created_at": "2026-02-17T18:36:16.36Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-02-17T18:36:16.36Z",
  "application_id": "APc9vhYcPsRuTSpKD9KpMtPe",
  "first_charge_at": "2026-02-17T18:36:16.00Z",
  "next_billing_date": {
    "year": 2026,
    "month": 2,
    "day": 17
  },
  "amount": 19900,
  "buyer_details": {
    "identity_id": "IDtEnKsZyJNUGK83ZTx4C45S",
    "instrument_id": "PImXAVgkKVshKWWHUk4xXbve",
    "requested_delivery_methods": [],
    "shipping_address": null
  },
  "currency": "USD",
  "linked_to": "MUcgYZswyRfqSSbvMsxuaHxZ",
  "linked_type": "MERCHANT",
  "nickname": null,
  "billing_interval": "MONTHLY",
  "subscription_details": {
    "collection_method": "BILL_AUTOMATICALLY",
    "send_invoice": false,
    "send_receipt": false,
    "trial_details": null,
    "discount_phase_details": null,
    "notification_preferences": {
      "send_confirmation": false
    }
  },
  "subscription_phase": "EVERGREEN",
  "state": "ACTIVE",
  "subscription_plan_id": null,
  "start_subscription_at": "2026-02-17T18:35:16.102Z",
  "total_billing_intervals": null,
  "expires_at": null,
  "canceled_via": null,
  "tags": {
    "order_number": "21DFASJSAKAS"
  },
  "subscription_link_id": null,
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "https://finix.sandbox-payments-api.com/subscriptions/subscription_cxe8cii53VTHqk5Q1SqP6"
    }
  }
}

Trial Period

You can create a subscription with a trial period by providing trial_details in the request body.

For example, to include a trial period that lasts one month set trial_details.interval_type to MONTH and trial_details.interval_count to 1.

Discount Period

To apply a discount period, include discount_phase_details in the request body.

For example, if the full subscription price is $20 per month, and you want to offer a discounted rate of $10 per month for three months, set discount_phase_details.amount to 1000 and discount_phase_details.billing_interval_count to 3.

Fixed Length Subscriptions

To create fixed-length subscriptions, you can pass total_billing_intervals in the request body. The API will return an expires_at field to let you know when the Subscription will expire. The subscription_phase will also return a value of FIXED.

Example Subscription - Fixed-Length

{
  "id": "subscription_cxe8rTTPCwzUu7p1zmk6t",
  "created_at": "2026-02-17T18:39:34.38Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-02-17T18:39:34.38Z",
  "application_id": "APc9vhYcPsRuTSpKD9KpMtPe",
  "first_charge_at": "2026-02-17T18:39:33.00Z",
  "next_billing_date": {
    "year": 2026,
    "month": 2,
    "day": 17
  },
  "amount": 19900,
  "buyer_details": {
    "identity_id": "IDtEnKsZyJNUGK83ZTx4C45S",
    "instrument_id": "PImXAVgkKVshKWWHUk4xXbve",
    "requested_delivery_methods": [],
    "shipping_address": null
  },
  "currency": "USD",
  "linked_to": "MUcgYZswyRfqSSbvMsxuaHxZ",
  "linked_type": "MERCHANT",
  "nickname": null,
  "billing_interval": "MONTHLY",
  "subscription_details": {
    "collection_method": "BILL_AUTOMATICALLY",
    "send_invoice": false,
    "send_receipt": false,
    "trial_details": null,
    "discount_phase_details": null,
    "notification_preferences": {
      "send_confirmation": false
    }
  },
  "subscription_phase": "FIXED",
  "state": "ACTIVE",
  "subscription_plan_id": null,
  "start_subscription_at": "2026-02-17T18:38:33.747Z",
  "total_billing_intervals": 12,
  "expires_at": "2027-02-17T18:38:33.747Z",
  "canceled_via": null,
  "tags": {},
  "subscription_link_id": null,
  "_links": {
    "self": {
      "href": "https://finix.sandbox-payments-api.com/subscriptions/subscription_cxe8rTTPCwzUu7p1zmk6t"
    }
  }
}

End of Month Handling

Finix charges the buyer on the last day of that month instead if a month does not include the day you selected. For example, a subscription with a billing_cycle_day of 31 bills on April 30, then on May 31.