how to create a customer after a payment intent is created

[Kenji Hino]

Hi,

I've just started to learn coding with the payment intent api.

What I want to do is close to this:

https://stripe.com/docs/payments/save-during-payment?platform=web

However, I don't want to create a Customer object before creating a payment intent because the customer may not finish the payment and it leaves the customer object without any Paymethod associated with.  Is there any way to create a Customer object during the charge process? Please help.

[Remi J.]

Hello,

You don't need to create a Customer upfront if you don't want to. You can create the PaymentIntent and pass `setup_future_usage` to configure the payment method to be saved afterwards. Once the PaymentIntent is confirmed successfully, you can then create a Customer via the API [1] and then update the PaymentIntent [2] to set the `customer` parameter [3] to your new Customer id `cus_123`. This will associate that payment with your new customer and attach the PaymentMethod to it automatically if needed.

Hope this helps!

Remi

[1] https://stripe.com/docs/api/customers/create

[2] https://stripe.com/docs/api/payment_intents/update

[3] https://stripe.com/docs/api/payment_intents/update#update_payment_intent-customer

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[Kenji Hino]

I was able to associate the payment with a customer I created.

However, it didn't attach the PaymentMethod to the customer. Is there any more thing I need to do?

Here is the code:

          $paymentIntent = $stripe->paymentIntents->create([

              'payment_method_types' => ['card'],

              'amount'               => 1999,

              'currency'             => 'usd',

              'setup_future_usage'   => 'off_session',

            ]);

then after the card is confirmed at the front end, I  called this:

           $paymentIntent = $stripe->paymentIntents->update(

                $request->id,  // this the PaymentIntent id

                [

                    'customer' => $customer->id, // $customer is an object I created

                ],

            );

[Remi J.]

Hey Kenji,

Sorry about the confusion on that one. I was convinced we automatically attached the PaymentMethod after updating the PaymentIntent but it doesn't look like this is happening. What you should do instead if attach the PaymentMethod itself and that operation will automatically associate the PaymentIntent and the underlying Charge with that Customer for you.

$paymentMethod = $stripe->paymentMethods->attach(

  'pm_123',
  [
    'customer' => 'cus_123',
  ],
);

Hope this clarifies the confusion!

Best,

Remi

[Kenji Hino]

Remi,

It worked. Thanks!

Payment Intent id, Payment Method id, Customer id.. all these ids can be public?  Because I am going to use them as part of the url like https://localhost/id=pm_123.

[Remi J.]

None of those ids can be used without your Secret API key so they are not secret per se. On the other hand, we discourage putting that kind of ids in your URL since anyone can change the value and could pretend to be someone else. It's best to use cookies or similar to recognize the customer while they are redirected and then find the corresponding PaymentIntent and related information from it.