Laravel Cashier (Stripe)
Introduction
Laravel Cashier Stripe provides an expressive, fluent interface to Stripe's subscription billing services. It handles almost all of the boilerplate subscription billing code you are dreading writing. In addition to basic subscription management, Cashier can handle coupons, swapping subscription, subscription "quantities", cancellation grace periods, and even generate invoice PDFs.
Upgrading Cashier
When upgrading to a new version of Cashier, it's important that you carefully review the upgrade guide.
To prevent breaking changes, Cashier uses a fixed Stripe API version. Cashier 15 utilizes Stripe API version 2023-10-16
. The Stripe API version will be updated on minor releases in order to make use of new Stripe features and improvements.
Installation
First, install the Cashier package for Stripe using the Composer package manager:
composer require laravel/cashier
After installing the package, publish Cashier's migrations using the vendor:publish
Artisan command:
php artisan vendor:publish --tag="cashier-migrations"
Then, migrate your database:
php artisan migrate
Cashier's migrations will add several columns to your users
table. They will also create a new subscriptions
table to hold all of your customer's subscriptions and a subscription_items
table for subscriptions with multiple prices.
If you wish, you can also publish Cashier's configuration file using the vendor:publish
Artisan command:
php artisan vendor:publish --tag="cashier-config"
Lastly, to ensure Cashier properly handles all Stripe events, remember to configure Cashier's webhook handling.
Stripe recommends that any column used for storing Stripe identifiers should be case-sensitive. Therefore, you should ensure the column collation for the stripe_id
column is set to utf8_bin
when using MySQL. More information regarding this can be found in the Stripe documentation.
Configuration
Billable Model
Before using Cashier, add the Billable
trait to your billable model definition. Typically, this will be the App\Models\User
model. This trait provides various methods to allow you to perform common billing tasks, such as creating subscriptions, applying coupons, and updating payment method information:
use Laravel\Cashier\Billable;
class User extends Authenticatable
{
use Billable;
}
Cashier assumes your billable model will be the App\Models\User
class that ships with Laravel. If you wish to change this you may specify a different model via the useCustomerModel
method. This method should typically be called in the boot
method of your AppServiceProvider
class:
use App\Models\Cashier\User;
use Laravel\Cashier\Cashier;
/**
* Bootstrap any application services.
*/
public function boot(): void
{
Cashier::useCustomerModel(User::class);
}
If you're using a model other than Laravel's supplied App\Models\User
model, you'll need to publish and alter the Cashier migrations provided to match your alternative model's table name.
API Keys
Next, you should configure your Stripe API keys in your application's .env
file. You can retrieve your Stripe API keys from the Stripe control panel:
STRIPE_KEY=your-stripe-key
STRIPE_SECRET=your-stripe-secret
STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET=your-stripe-webhook-secret
You should ensure that the STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET
environment variable is defined in your application's .env
file, as this variable is used to ensure that incoming webhooks are actually from Stripe.
Currency Configuration
The default Cashier currency is United States Dollars (USD). You can change the default currency by setting the CASHIER_CURRENCY
environment variable within your application's .env
file:
CASHIER_CURRENCY=eur
In addition to configuring Cashier's currency, you may also specify a locale to be used when formatting money values for display on invoices. Internally, Cashier utilizes PHP's NumberFormatter
class to set the currency locale:
CASHIER_CURRENCY_LOCALE=nl_BE
In order to use locales other than en
, ensure the ext-intl
PHP extension is installed and configured on your server.
Tax Configuration
Thanks to Stripe Tax, it's possible to automatically calculate taxes for all invoices generated by Stripe. You can enable automatic tax calculation by invoking the calculateTaxes
method in the boot
method of your application's App\Providers\AppServiceProvider
class:
use Laravel\Cashier\Cashier;
/**
* Bootstrap any application services.
*/
public function boot(): void
{
Cashier::calculateTaxes();
}
Once tax calculation has been enabled, any new subscriptions and any one-off invoices that are generated will receive automatic tax calculation.
For this feature to work properly, your customer's billing details, such as the customer's name, address, and tax ID, need to be synced to Stripe. You may use the customer data synchronization and Tax ID methods offered by Cashier to accomplish this.
Logging
Cashier allows you to specify the log channel to be used when logging fatal Stripe errors. You may specify the log channel by defining the CASHIER_LOGGER
environment variable within your application's .env
file:
CASHIER_LOGGER=stack
Exceptions that are generated by API calls to Stripe will be logged through your application's default log channel.
Using Custom Models
You are free to extend the models used internally by Cashier by defining your own model and extending the corresponding Cashier model:
use Laravel\Cashier\Subscription as CashierSubscription;
class Subscription extends CashierSubscription
{
// ...
}
After defining your model, you may instruct Cashier to use your custom model via the Laravel\Cashier\Cashier
class. Typically, you should inform Cashier about your custom models in the boot
method of your application's App\Providers\AppServiceProvider
class:
use App\Models\Cashier\Subscription;
use App\Models\Cashier\SubscriptionItem;
/**
* Bootstrap any application services.
*/
public function boot(): void
{
Cashier::useSubscriptionModel(Subscription::class);
Cashier::useSubscriptionItemModel(SubscriptionItem::class);
}
Quickstart
Selling Products
Before utilizing Stripe Checkout, you should define Products with fixed prices in your Stripe dashboard. In addition, you should configure Cashier's webhook handling.
Offering product and subscription billing via your application can be intimidating. However, thanks to Cashier and Stripe Checkout, you can easily build modern, robust payment integrations.
To charge customers for non-recurring, single-charge products, we'll utilize Cashier to direct customers to Stripe Checkout, where they will provide their payment details and confirm their purchase. Once the payment has been made via Checkout, the customer will be redirected to a success URL of your choosing within your application:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::get('/checkout', function (Request $request) {
$stripePriceId = 'price_deluxe_album';
$quantity = 1;
return $request->user()->checkout([$stripePriceId => $quantity], [
'success_url' => route('checkout-success'),
'cancel_url' => route('checkout-cancel'),
]);
})->name('checkout');
Route::view('/checkout/success', 'checkout.success')->name('checkout-success');
Route::view('/checkout/cancel', 'checkout.cancel')->name('checkout-cancel');
As you can see in the example above, we will utilize Cashier's provided checkout
method to redirect the customer to Stripe Checkout for a given "price identifier". When using Stripe, "prices" refer to defined prices for specific products.
If necessary, the checkout
method will automatically create a customer in Stripe and connect that Stripe customer record to the corresponding user in your application's database. After completing the checkout session, the customer will be redirected to a dedicated success or cancellation page where you can display an informational message to the customer.
Providing Meta Data to Stripe Checkout
When selling products, it's common to keep track of completed orders and purchased products via Cart
and Order
models defined by your own application. When redirecting customers to Stripe Checkout to complete a purchase, you may need to provide an existing order identifier so that you can associate the completed purchase with the corresponding order when the customer is redirected back to your application.
To accomplish this, you may provide an array of metadata
to the checkout
method. Let's imagine that a pending Order
is created within our application when a user begins the checkout process. Remember, the Cart
and Order
models in this example are illustrative and not provided by Cashier. You are free to implement these concepts based on the needs of your own application:
use App\Models\Cart;
use App\Models\Order;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::get('/cart/{cart}/checkout', function (Request $request, Cart $cart) {
$order = Order::create([
'cart_id' => $cart->id,
'price_ids' => $cart->price_ids,
'status' => 'incomplete',
]);
return $request->user()->checkout($order->price_ids, [
'success_url' => route('checkout-success').'?session_id={CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}',
'cancel_url' => route('checkout-cancel'),
'metadata' => ['order_id' => $order->id],
]);
})->name('checkout');
As you can see in the example above, when a user begins the checkout process, we will provide all of the cart / order's associated Stripe price identifiers to the checkout
method. Of course, your application is responsible for associating these items with the "shopping cart" or order as a customer adds them. We also provide the order's ID to the Stripe Checkout session via the metadata
array. Finally, we have added the CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID
template variable to the Checkout success route. When Stripe redirects customers back to your application, this template variable will automatically be populated with the Checkout session ID.
Next, let's build the Checkout success route. This is the route that users will be redirected to after their purchase has been completed via Stripe Checkout. Within this route, we can retrieve the Stripe Checkout session ID and the associated Stripe Checkout instance in order to access our provided meta data and update our customer's order accordingly:
use App\Models\Order;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Laravel\Cashier\Cashier;
Route::get('/checkout/success', function (Request $request) {
$sessionId = $request->get('session_id');
if ($sessionId === null) {
return;
}
$session = Cashier::stripe()->checkout->sessions->retrieve($sessionId);
if ($session->payment_status !== 'paid') {
return;
}
$orderId = $session['metadata']['order_id'] ?? null;
$order = Order::findOrFail($orderId);
$order->update(['status' => 'completed']);
return view('checkout-success', ['order' => $order]);
})->name('checkout-success');
Please refer to Stripe's documentation for more information on the data contained by the Checkout session object.
Selling Subscriptions
Before utilizing Stripe Checkout, you should define Products with fixed prices in your Stripe dashboard. In addition, you should configure Cashier's webhook handling.
Offering product and subscription billing via your application can be intimidating. However, thanks to Cashier and Stripe Checkout, you can easily build modern, robust payment integrations.
To learn how to sell subscriptions using Cashier and Stripe Checkout, let's consider the simple scenario of a subscription service with a basic monthly (price_basic_monthly
) and yearly (price_basic_yearly
) plan. These two prices could be grouped under a "Basic" product (pro_basic
) in our Stripe dashboard. In addition, our subscription service might offer an Expert plan as pro_expert
.
First, let's discover how a customer can subscribe to our services. Of course, you can imagine the customer might click a "subscribe" button for the Basic plan on our application's pricing page. This button or link should direct the user to a Laravel route which creates the Stripe Checkout session for their chosen plan:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::get('/subscription-checkout', function (Request $request) {
return $request->user()
->newSubscription('default', 'price_basic_monthly')
->trialDays(5)
->allowPromotionCodes()
->checkout([
'success_url' => route('your-success-route'),
'cancel_url' => route('your-cancel-route'),
]);
});
As you can see in the example above, we will redirect the customer to a Stripe Checkout session which will allow them to subscribe to our Basic plan. After a successful checkout or cancellation, the customer will be redirected back to the URL we provided to the checkout
method. To know when their subscription has actually started (since some payment methods require a few seconds to process), we'll also need to configure Cashier's webhook handling.
Now that customers can start subscriptions, we need to restrict certain portions of our application so that only subscribed users can access them. Of course, we can always determine a user's current subscription status via the subscribed
method provided by Cashier's Billable
trait:
@if ($user->subscribed())
<p>You are subscribed.</p>
@endif
We can even easily determine if a user is subscribed to specific product or price:
@if ($user->subscribedToProduct('pro_basic'))
<p>You are subscribed to our Basic product.</p>
@endif
@if ($user->subscribedToPrice('price_basic_monthly'))
<p>You are subscribed to our monthly Basic plan.</p>
@endif
Building a Subscribed Middleware
For convenience, you may wish to create a middleware which determines if the incoming request is from a subscribed user. Once this middleware has been defined, you may easily assign it to a route to prevent users that are not subscribed from accessing the route:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Middleware;
use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
class Subscribed
{
/**
* Handle an incoming request.
*/
public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next): Response
{
if (! $request->user()?->subscribed()) {
// Redirect user to billing page and ask them to subscribe...
return redirect('/billing');
}
return $next($request);
}
}
Once the middleware has been defined, you may assign it to a route:
use App\Http\Middleware\Subscribed;
Route::get('/dashboard', function () {
// ...
})->middleware([Subscribed::class]);
Allowing Customers to Manage Their Billing Plan
Of course, customers may want to change their subscription plan to another product or "tier". The easiest way to allow this is by directing customers to Stripe's Customer Billing Portal, which provides a hosted user interface that allows customers to download invoices, update their payment method, and change subscription plans.
First, define a link or button within your application that directs users to a Laravel route which we will utilize to initiate a Billing Portal session:
<a href="{{ route('billing') }}">
Billing
</a>
Next, let's define the route that initiates a Stripe Customer Billing Portal session and redirects the user to the Portal. The redirectToBillingPortal
method accepts the URL that users should be returned to when exiting the Portal:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::get('/billing', function (Request $request) {
return $request->user()->redirectToBillingPortal(route('dashboard'));
})->middleware(['auth'])->name('billing');
As long as you have configured Cashier's webhook handling, Cashier will automatically keep your application's Cashier-related database tables in sync by inspecting the incoming webhooks from Stripe. So, for example, when a user cancels their subscription via Stripe's Customer Billing Portal, Cashier will receive the corresponding webhook and mark the subscription as "canceled" in your application's database.
Customers
Retrieving Customers
You can retrieve a customer by their Stripe ID using the Cashier::findBillable
method. This method will return an instance of the billable model:
use Laravel\Cashier\Cashier;
$user = Cashier::findBillable($stripeId);
Creating Customers
Occasionally, you may wish to create a Stripe customer without beginning a subscription. You may accomplish this using the createAsStripeCustomer
method:
$stripeCustomer = $user->createAsStripeCustomer();
Once the customer has been created in Stripe, you may begin a subscription at a later date. You may provide an optional $options
array to pass in any additional customer creation parameters that are supported by the Stripe API:
$stripeCustomer = $user->createAsStripeCustomer($options);
You may use the asStripeCustomer
method if you want to return the Stripe customer object for a billable model:
$stripeCustomer = $user->asStripeCustomer();
The createOrGetStripeCustomer
method may be used if you would like to retrieve the Stripe customer object for a given billable model but are not sure whether the billable model is already a customer within Stripe. This method will create a new customer in Stripe if one does not already exist:
$stripeCustomer = $user->createOrGetStripeCustomer();
Updating Customers
Occasionally, you may wish to update the Stripe customer directly with additional information. You may accomplish this using the updateStripeCustomer
method. This method accepts an array of customer update options supported by the Stripe API:
$stripeCustomer = $user->updateStripeCustomer($options);
Balances
Stripe allows you to credit or debit a customer's "balance". Later, this balance will be credited or debited on new invoices. To check the customer's total balance you may use the balance
method that is available on your billable model. The balance
method will return a formatted string representation of the balance in the customer's currency:
$balance = $user->balance();
To credit a customer's balance, you may provide a value to the creditBalance
method. If you wish, you may also provide a description:
$user->creditBalance(500, 'Premium customer top-up.');
Providing a value to the debitBalance
method will debit the customer's balance:
$user->debitBalance(300, 'Bad usage penalty.');
The applyBalance
method will create new customer balance transactions for the customer. You may retrieve these transaction records using the balanceTransactions
method, which may be useful in order to provide a log of credits and debits for the customer to review:
// Retrieve all transactions...
$transactions = $user->balanceTransactions();
foreach ($transactions as $transaction) {
// Transaction amount...
$amount = $transaction->amount(); // $2.31
// Retrieve the related invoice when available...
$invoice = $transaction->invoice();
}
Tax IDs
Cashier offers an easy way to manage a customer's tax IDs. For example, the taxIds
method may be used to retrieve all of the tax IDs that are assigned to a customer as a collection:
$taxIds = $user->taxIds();
You can also retrieve a specific tax ID for a customer by its identifier:
$taxId = $user->findTaxId('txi_belgium');
You may create a new Tax ID by providing a valid type and value to the createTaxId
method:
$taxId = $user->createTaxId('eu_vat', 'BE0123456789');
The createTaxId
method will immediately add the VAT ID to the customer's account. Verification of VAT IDs is also done by Stripe; however, this is an asynchronous process. You can be notified of verification updates by subscribing to the customer.tax_id.updated
webhook event and inspecting the VAT IDs verification
parameter. For more information on handling webhooks, please consult the documentation on defining webhook handlers.
You may delete a tax ID using the deleteTaxId
method:
$user->deleteTaxId('txi_belgium');
Syncing Customer Data With Stripe
Typically, when your application's users update their name, email address, or other information that is also stored by Stripe, you should inform Stripe of the updates. By doing so, Stripe's copy of the information will be in sync with your application's.
To automate this, you may define an event listener on your billable model that reacts to the model's updated
event. Then, within your event listener, you may invoke the syncStripeCustomerDetails
method on the model:
use App\Models\User;
use function Illuminate\Events\queueable;
/**
* The "booted" method of the model.
*/
protected static function booted(): void
{
static::updated(queueable(function (User $customer) {
if ($customer->hasStripeId()) {
$customer->syncStripeCustomerDetails();
}
}));
}
Now, every time your customer model is updated, its information will be synced with Stripe. For convenience, Cashier will automatically sync your customer's information with Stripe on the initial creation of the customer.
You may customize the columns used for syncing customer information to Stripe by overriding a variety of methods provided by Cashier. For example, you may override the stripeName
method to customize the attribute that should be considered the customer's "name" when Cashier syncs customer information to Stripe:
/**
* Get the customer name that should be synced to Stripe.
*/
public function stripeName(): string|null
{
return $this->company_name;
}
Similarly, you may override the stripeEmail
, stripePhone
, stripeAddress
, and stripePreferredLocales
methods. These methods will sync information to their corresponding customer parameters when updating the Stripe customer object. If you wish to take total control over the customer information sync process, you may override the syncStripeCustomerDetails
method.
Billing Portal
Stripe offers an easy way to set up a billing portal so that your customer can manage their subscription, payment methods, and view their billing history. You can redirect your users to the billing portal by invoking the redirectToBillingPortal
method on the billable model from a controller or route:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::get('/billing-portal', function (Request $request) {
return $request->user()->redirectToBillingPortal();
});
By default, when the user is finished managing their subscription, they will be able to return to the home
route of your application via a link within the Stripe billing portal. You may provide a custom URL that the user should return to by passing the URL as an argument to the redirectToBillingPortal
method:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::get('/billing-portal', function (Request $request) {
return $request->user()->redirectToBillingPortal(route('billing'));
});
If you would like to generate the URL to the billing portal without generating an HTTP redirect response, you may invoke the billingPortalUrl
method:
$url = $request->user()->billingPortalUrl(route('billing'));
Payment Methods
Storing Payment Methods
In order to create subscriptions or perform "one-off" charges with Stripe, you will need to store a payment method and retrieve its identifier from Stripe. The approach used to accomplish this differs based on whether you plan to use the payment method for subscriptions or single charges, so we will examine both below.
Payment Methods for Subscriptions
When storing a customer's credit card information for future use by a subscription, the Stripe "Setup Intents" API must be used to securely gather the customer's payment method details. A "Setup Intent" indicates to Stripe the intention to charge a customer's payment method. Cashier's Billable
trait includes the createSetupIntent
method to easily create a new Setup Intent. You should invoke this method from the route or controller that will render the form which gathers your customer's payment method details:
return view('update-payment-method', [
'intent' => $user->createSetupIntent()
]);
After you have created the Setup Intent and passed it to the view, you should attach its secret to the element that will gather the payment method. For example, consider this "update payment method" form:
<input id="card-holder-name" type="text">
<!-- Stripe Elements Placeholder -->
<div id="card-element"></div>
<button id="card-button" data-secret="{{ $intent->client_secret }}">
Update Payment Method
</button>
Next, the Stripe.js library may be used to attach a Stripe Element to the form and securely gather the customer's payment details:
<script src="https://js.stripe.com/v3/"></script>
<script>
const stripe = Stripe('stripe-public-key');
const elements = stripe.elements();
const cardElement = elements.create('card');
cardElement.mount('#card-element');
</script>
Next, the card can be verified and a secure "payment method identifier" can be retrieved from Stripe using Stripe's confirmCardSetup
method:
const cardHolderName = document.getElementById('card-holder-name');
const cardButton = document.getElementById('card-button');
const clientSecret = cardButton.dataset.secret;
cardButton.addEventListener('click', async (e) => {
const { setupIntent, error } = await stripe.confirmCardSetup(
clientSecret, {
payment_method: {
card: cardElement,
billing_details: { name: cardHolderName.value }
}
}
);
if (error) {
// Display "error.message" to the user...
} else {
// The card has been verified successfully...
}
});
After the card has been verified by Stripe, you may pass the resulting setupIntent.payment_method
identifier to your Laravel application, where it can be attached to the customer. The payment method can either be added as a new payment method or used to update the default payment method. You can also immediately use the payment method identifier to create a new subscription.
If you would like more information about Setup Intents and gathering customer payment details please review this overview provided by Stripe.
Payment Methods for Single Charges
Of course, when making a single charge against a customer's payment method, we will only need to use a payment method identifier once. Due to Stripe limitations, you may not use the stored default payment method of a customer for single charges. You must allow the customer to enter their payment method details using the Stripe.js library. For example, consider the following form:
<input id="card-holder-name" type="text">
<!-- Stripe Elements Placeholder -->
<div id="card-element"></div>
<button id="card-button">
Process Payment
</button>
After defining such a form, the Stripe.js library may be used to attach a Stripe Element to the form and securely gather the customer's payment details:
<script src="https://js.stripe.com/v3/"></script>
<script>
const stripe = Stripe('stripe-public-key');
const elements = stripe.elements();
const cardElement = elements.create('card');
cardElement.mount('#card-element');
</script>
Next, the card can be verified and a secure "payment method identifier" can be retrieved from Stripe using Stripe's createPaymentMethod
method:
const cardHolderName = document.getElementById('card-holder-name');
const cardButton = document.getElementById('card-button');
cardButton.addEventListener('click', async (e) => {
const { paymentMethod, error } = await stripe.createPaymentMethod(
'card', cardElement, {
billing_details: { name: cardHolderName.value }
}
);
if (error) {
// Display "error.message" to the user...
} else {
// The card has been verified successfully...
}
});
If the card is verified successfully, you may pass the paymentMethod.id
to your Laravel application and process a single charge.
Retrieving Payment Methods
The paymentMethods
method on the billable model instance returns a collection of Laravel\Cashier\PaymentMethod
instances:
$paymentMethods = $user->paymentMethods();
By default, this method will return payment methods of every type. To retrieve payment methods of a specific type, you may pass the type
as an argument to the method:
$paymentMethods = $user->paymentMethods('sepa_debit');
To retrieve the customer's default payment method, the defaultPaymentMethod
method may be used:
$paymentMethod = $user->defaultPaymentMethod();
You can retrieve a specific payment method that is attached to the billable model using the findPaymentMethod
method:
$paymentMethod = $user->findPaymentMethod($paymentMethodId);
Payment Method Presence
To determine if a billable model has a default payment method attached to their account, invoke the hasDefaultPaymentMethod
method:
if ($user->hasDefaultPaymentMethod()) {
// ...
}
You may use the hasPaymentMethod
method to determine if a billable model has at least one payment method attached to their account:
if ($user->hasPaymentMethod()) {
// ...
}
This method will determine if the billable model has any payment method at all. To determine if a payment method of a specific type exists for the model, you may pass the type
as an argument to the method:
if ($user->hasPaymentMethod('sepa_debit')) {
// ...
}
Updating the Default Payment Method
The updateDefaultPaymentMethod
method may be used to update a customer's default payment method information. This method accepts a Stripe payment method identifier and will assign the new payment method as the default billing payment method:
$user->updateDefaultPaymentMethod($paymentMethod);
To sync your default payment method information with the customer's default payment method information in Stripe, you may use the updateDefaultPaymentMethodFromStripe
method:
$user->updateDefaultPaymentMethodFromStripe();
The default payment method on a customer can only be used for invoicing and creating new subscriptions. Due to limitations imposed by Stripe, it may not be used for single charges.
Adding Payment Methods
To add a new payment method, you may call the addPaymentMethod
method on the billable model, passing the payment method identifier:
$user->addPaymentMethod($paymentMethod);
To learn how to retrieve payment method identifiers please review the payment method storage documentation.
Deleting Payment Methods
To delete a payment method, you may call the delete
method on the Laravel\Cashier\PaymentMethod
instance you wish to delete:
$paymentMethod->delete();
The deletePaymentMethod
method will delete a specific payment method from the billable model:
$user->deletePaymentMethod('pm_visa');
The deletePaymentMethods
method will delete all of the payment method information for the billable model:
$user->deletePaymentMethods();
By default, this method will delete payment methods of every type. To delete payment methods of a specific type you can pass the type
as an argument to the method:
$user->deletePaymentMethods('sepa_debit');
If a user has an active subscription, your application should not allow them to delete their default payment method.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions provide a way to set up recurring payments for your customers. Stripe subscriptions managed by Cashier provide support for multiple subscription prices, subscription quantities, trials, and more.
Creating Subscriptions
To create a subscription, first retrieve an instance of your billable model, which typically will be an instance of App\Models\User
. Once you have retrieved the model instance, you may use the newSubscription
method to create the model's subscription:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::post('/user/subscribe', function (Request $request) {
$request->user()->newSubscription(
'default', 'price_monthly'
)->create($request->paymentMethodId);
// ...
});
The first argument passed to the newSubscription
method should be the internal type of the subscription. If your application only offers a single subscription, you might call this default
or primary
. This subscription type is only for internal application usage and is not meant to be shown to users. In addition, it should not contain spaces and it should never be changed after creating the subscription. The second argument is the specific price the user is subscribing to. This value should correspond to the price's identifier in Stripe.
The create
method, which accepts a Stripe payment method identifier or Stripe PaymentMethod
object, will begin the subscription as well as update your database with the billable model's Stripe customer ID and other relevant billing information.
Passing a payment method identifier directly to the create
subscription method will also automatically add it to the user's stored payment methods.
Collecting Recurring Payments via Invoice Emails
Instead of collecting a customer's recurring payments automatically, you may instruct Stripe to email an invoice to the customer each time their recurring payment is due. Then, the customer may manually pay the invoice once they receive it. The customer does not need to provide a payment method up front when collecting recurring payments via invoices:
$user->newSubscription('default', 'price_monthly')->createAndSendInvoice();
The amount of time a customer has to pay their invoice before their subscription is canceled is determined by the days_until_due
option. By default, this is 30 days; however, you may provide a specific value for this option if you wish:
$user->newSubscription('default', 'price_monthly')->createAndSendInvoice([], [
'days_until_due' => 30
]);
Quantities
If you would like to set a specific quantity for the price when creating the subscription, you should invoke the quantity
method on the subscription builder before creating the subscription:
$user->newSubscription('default', 'price_monthly')
->quantity(5)
->create($paymentMethod);
Additional Details
If you would like to specify additional customer or subscription options supported by Stripe, you may do so by passing them as the second and third arguments to the create
method:
$user->newSubscription('default', 'price_monthly')->create($paymentMethod, [
'email' => $email,
], [
'metadata' => ['note' => 'Some extra information.'],
]);
Coupons
If you would like to apply a coupon when creating the subscription, you may use the withCoupon
method:
$user->newSubscription('default', 'price_monthly')
->withCoupon('code')
->create($paymentMethod);
Or, if you would like to apply a Stripe promotion code, you may use the withPromotionCode
method:
$user->newSubscription('default', 'price_monthly')
->withPromotionCode('promo_code_id')
->create($paymentMethod);
The given promotion code ID should be the Stripe API ID assigned to the promotion code and not the customer facing promotion code. If you need to find a promotion code ID based on a given customer facing promotion code, you may use the findPromotionCode
method:
// Find a promotion code ID by its customer facing code...
$promotionCode = $user->findPromotionCode('SUMMERSALE');
// Find an active promotion code ID by its customer facing code...
$promotionCode = $user->findActivePromotionCode('SUMMERSALE');
In the example above, the returned $promotionCode
object is an instance of Laravel\Cashier\PromotionCode
. This class decorates an underlying Stripe\PromotionCode
object. You can retrieve the coupon related to the promotion code by invoking the coupon
method:
$coupon = $user->findPromotionCode('SUMMERSALE')->coupon();
The coupon instance allows you to determine the discount amount and whether the coupon represents a fixed discount or percentage based discount:
if ($coupon->isPercentage()) {
return $coupon->percentOff().'%'; // 21.5%
} else {
return $coupon->amountOff(); // $5.99
}
You can also retrieve the discounts that are currently applied to a customer or subscription:
$discount = $billable->discount();
$discount = $subscription->discount();
The returned Laravel\Cashier\Discount
instances decorate an underlying Stripe\Discount
object instance. You may retrieve the coupon related to this discount by invoking the coupon
method:
$coupon = $subscription->discount()->coupon();
If you would like to apply a new coupon or promotion code to a customer or subscription, you may do so via the applyCoupon
or applyPromotionCode
methods:
$billable->applyCoupon('coupon_id');
$billable->applyPromotionCode('promotion_code_id');
$subscription->applyCoupon('coupon_id');
$subscription->applyPromotionCode('promotion_code_id');
Remember, you should use the Stripe API ID assigned to the promotion code and not the customer facing promotion code. Only one coupon or promotion code can be applied to a customer or subscription at a given time.
For more info on this subject, please consult the Stripe documentation regarding coupons and promotion codes.
Adding Subscriptions
If you would like to add a subscription to a customer who already has a default payment method you may invoke the add
method on the subscription builder:
use App\Models\User;
$user = User::find(1);
$user->newSubscription('default', 'price_monthly')->add();
Creating Subscriptions From the Stripe Dashboard
You may also create subscriptions from the Stripe dashboard itself. When doing so, Cashier will sync newly added subscriptions and assign them a type of default
. To customize the subscription type that is assigned to dashboard created subscriptions, define webhook event handlers.
In addition, you may only create one type of subscription via the Stripe dashboard. If your application offers multiple subscriptions that use different types, only one type of subscription may be added through the Stripe dashboard.
Finally, you should always make sure to only add one active subscription per type of subscription offered by your application. If a customer has two default
subscriptions, only the most recently added subscription will be used by Cashier even though both would be synced with your application's database.
Checking Subscription Status
Once a customer is subscribed to your application, you may easily check their subscription status using a variety of convenient methods. First, the subscribed
method returns true
if the customer has an active subscription, even if the subscription is currently within its trial period. The subscribed
method accepts the type of the subscription as its first argument:
if ($user->subscribed('default')) {
// ...
}
The subscribed
method also makes a great candidate for a route middleware, allowing you to filter access to routes and controllers based on the user's subscription status:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Middleware;
use Closure;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response;
class EnsureUserIsSubscribed
{
/**
* Handle an incoming request.
*
* @param \Closure(\Illuminate\Http\Request): (\Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Response) $next
*/
public function handle(Request $request, Closure $next): Response
{
if ($request->user() && ! $request->user()->subscribed('default')) {
// This user is not a paying customer...
return redirect('/billing');
}
return $next($request);
}
}
If you would like to determine if a user is still within their trial period, you may use the onTrial
method. This method can be useful for determining if you should display a warning to the user that they are still on their trial period:
if ($user->subscription('default')->onTrial()) {
// ...
}
The subscribedToProduct
method may be used to determine if the user is subscribed to a given product based on a given Stripe product's identifier. In Stripe, products are collections of prices. In this example, we will determine if the user's default
subscription is actively subscribed to the application's "premium" product. The given Stripe product identifier should correspond to one of your product's identifiers in the Stripe dashboard:
if ($user->subscribedToProduct('prod_premium', 'default')) {
// ...
}
By passing an array to the subscribedToProduct
method, you may determine if the user's default
subscription is actively subscribed to the application's "basic" or "premium" product:
if ($user->subscribedToProduct(['prod_basic', 'prod_premium'], 'default')) {
// ...
}
The subscribedToPrice
method may be used to determine if a customer's subscription corresponds to a given price ID:
if ($user->subscribedToPrice('price_basic_monthly', 'default')) {
// ...
}
The recurring
method may be used to determine if the user is currently subscribed and is no longer within their trial period:
if ($user->subscription('default')->recurring()) {
// ...
}
If a user has two subscriptions with the same type, the most recent subscription will always be returned by the subscription
method. For example, a user might have two subscription records with the type of default
; however, one of the subscriptions may be an old, expired subscription, while the other is the current, active subscription. The most recent subscription will always be returned while older subscriptions are kept in the database for historical review.
Canceled Subscription Status
To determine if the user was once an active subscriber but has canceled their subscription, you may use the canceled
method:
if ($user->subscription('default')->canceled()) {
// ...
}
You may also determine if a user has canceled their subscription but are still on their "grace period" until the subscription fully expires. For example, if a user cancels a subscription on March 5th that was originally scheduled to expire on March 10th, the user is on their "grace period" until March 10th. Note that the subscribed
method still returns true
during this time:
if ($user->subscription('default')->onGracePeriod()) {
// ...
}
To determine if the user has canceled their subscription and is no longer within their "grace period", you may use the ended
method:
if ($user->subscription('default')->ended()) {
// ...
}
Incomplete and Past Due Status
If a subscription requires a secondary payment action after creation the subscription will be marked as incomplete
. Subscription statuses are stored in the stripe_status
column of Cashier's subscriptions
database table.
Similarly, if a secondary payment action is required when swapping prices the subscription will be marked as past_due
. When your subscription is in either of these states it will not be active until the customer has confirmed their payment. Determining if a subscription has an incomplete payment may be accomplished using the hasIncompletePayment
method on the billable model or a subscription instance:
if ($user->hasIncompletePayment('default')) {
// ...
}
if ($user->subscription('default')->hasIncompletePayment()) {
// ...
}
When a subscription has an incomplete payment, you should direct the user to Cashier's payment confirmation page, passing the latestPayment
identifier. You may use the latestPayment
method available on subscription instance to retrieve this identifier:
<a href="{{ route('cashier.payment', $subscription->latestPayment()->id) }}">
Please confirm your payment.
</a>
If you would like the subscription to still be considered active when it's in a past_due
or incomplete
state, you may use the keepPastDueSubscriptionsActive
and keepIncompleteSubscriptionsActive
methods provided by Cashier. Typically, these methods should be called in the register
method of your App\Providers\AppServiceProvider
:
use Laravel\Cashier\Cashier;
/**
* Register any application services.
*/
public function register(): void
{
Cashier::keepPastDueSubscriptionsActive();
Cashier::keepIncompleteSubscriptionsActive();
}
When a subscription is in an incomplete
state it cannot be changed until the payment is confirmed. Therefore, the swap
and updateQuantity
methods will throw an exception when the subscription is in an incomplete
state.
Subscription Scopes
Most subscription states are also available as query scopes so that you may easily query your database for subscriptions that are in a given state:
// Get all active subscriptions...
$subscriptions = Subscription::query()->active()->get();
// Get all of the canceled subscriptions for a user...
$subscriptions = $user->subscriptions()->canceled()->get();
A complete list of available scopes is available below:
Subscription::query()->active();
Subscription::query()->canceled();
Subscription::query()->ended();
Subscription::query()->incomplete();
Subscription::query()->notCanceled();
Subscription::query()->notOnGracePeriod();
Subscription::query()->notOnTrial();
Subscription::query()->onGracePeriod();
Subscription::query()->onTrial();
Subscription::query()->pastDue();
Subscription::query()->recurring();
Changing Prices
After a customer is subscribed to your application, they may occasionally want to change to a new subscription price. To swap a customer to a new price, pass the Stripe price's identifier to the swap
method. When swapping prices, it is assumed that the user would like to re-activate their subscription if it was previously canceled. The given price identifier should correspond to a Stripe price identifier available in the Stripe dashboard:
use App\Models\User;
$user = App\Models\User::find(1);
$user->subscription('default')->swap('price_yearly');
If the customer is on trial, the trial period will be maintained. Additionally, if a "quantity" exists for the subscription, that quantity will also be maintained.
If you would like to swap prices and cancel any trial period the customer is currently on, you may invoke the skipTrial
method:
$user->subscription('default')
->skipTrial()
->swap('price_yearly');
If you would like to swap prices and immediately invoice the customer instead of waiting for their next billing cycle, you may use the swapAndInvoice
method:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->subscription('default')->swapAndInvoice('price_yearly');
Prorations
By default, Stripe prorates charges when swapping between prices. The noProrate
method may be used to update the subscription's price without prorating the charges:
$user->subscription('default')->noProrate()->swap('price_yearly');
For more information on subscription proration, consult the Stripe documentation.
Executing the noProrate
method before the swapAndInvoice
method will have no effect on proration. An invoice will always be issued.
Subscription Quantity
Sometimes subscriptions are affected by "quantity". For example, a project management application might charge $10 per month per project. You may use the incrementQuantity
and decrementQuantity
methods to easily increment or decrement your subscription quantity:
use App\Models\User;
$user = User::find(1);
$user->subscription('default')->incrementQuantity();
// Add five to the subscription's current quantity...
$user->subscription('default')->incrementQuantity(5);
$user->subscription('default')->decrementQuantity();
// Subtract five from the subscription's current quantity...
$user->subscription('default')->decrementQuantity(5);
Alternatively, you may set a specific quantity using the updateQuantity
method:
$user->subscription('default')->updateQuantity(10);
The noProrate
method may be used to update the subscription's quantity without prorating the charges:
$user->subscription('default')->noProrate()->updateQuantity(10);
For more information on subscription quantities, consult the Stripe documentation.
Quantities for Subscriptions With Multiple Products
If your subscription is a subscription with multiple products, you should pass the ID of the price whose quantity you wish to increment or decrement as the second argument to the increment / decrement methods:
$user->subscription('default')->incrementQuantity(1, 'price_chat');
Subscriptions With Multiple Products
Subscription with multiple products allow you to assign multiple billing products to a single subscription. For example, imagine you are building a customer service "helpdesk" application that has a base subscription price of $10 per month but offers a live chat add-on product for an additional $15 per month. Information for subscriptions with multiple products is stored in Cashier's subscription_items
database table.
You may specify multiple products for a given subscription by passing an array of prices as the second argument to the newSubscription
method:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::post('/user/subscribe', function (Request $request) {
$request->user()->newSubscription('default', [
'price_monthly',
'price_chat',
])->create($request->paymentMethodId);
// ...
});
In the example above, the customer will have two prices attached to their default
subscription. Both prices will be charged on their respective billing intervals. If necessary, you may use the quantity
method to indicate a specific quantity for each price:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->newSubscription('default', ['price_monthly', 'price_chat'])
->quantity(5, 'price_chat')
->create($paymentMethod);
If you would like to add another price to an existing subscription, you may invoke the subscription's addPrice
method:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->subscription('default')->addPrice('price_chat');
The example above will add the new price and the customer will be billed for it on their next billing cycle. If you would like to bill the customer immediately you may use the addPriceAndInvoice
method:
$user->subscription('default')->addPriceAndInvoice('price_chat');
If you would like to add a price with a specific quantity, you can pass the quantity as the second argument of the addPrice
or addPriceAndInvoice
methods:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->subscription('default')->addPrice('price_chat', 5);
You may remove prices from subscriptions using the removePrice
method:
$user->subscription('default')->removePrice('price_chat');
You may not remove the last price on a subscription. Instead, you should simply cancel the subscription.
Swapping Prices
You may also change the prices attached to a subscription with multiple products. For example, imagine a customer has a price_basic
subscription with a price_chat
add-on product and you want to upgrade the customer from the price_basic
to the price_pro
price:
use App\Models\User;
$user = User::find(1);
$user->subscription('default')->swap(['price_pro', 'price_chat']);
When executing the example above, the underlying subscription item with the price_basic
is deleted and the one with the price_chat
is preserved. Additionally, a new subscription item for the price_pro
is created.
You can also specify subscription item options by passing an array of key / value pairs to the swap
method. For example, you may need to specify the subscription price quantities:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->subscription('default')->swap([
'price_pro' => ['quantity' => 5],
'price_chat'
]);
If you want to swap a single price on a subscription, you may do so using the swap
method on the subscription item itself. This approach is particularly useful if you would like to preserve all of the existing metadata on the subscription's other prices:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->subscription('default')
->findItemOrFail('price_basic')
->swap('price_pro');
Proration
By default, Stripe will prorate charges when adding or removing prices from a subscription with multiple products. If you would like to make a price adjustment without proration, you should chain the noProrate
method onto your price operation:
$user->subscription('default')->noProrate()->removePrice('price_chat');
Quantities
If you would like to update quantities on individual subscription prices, you may do so using the existing quantity methods by passing the ID of the price as an additional argument to the method:
$user = User::find(1);
$user->subscription('default')->incrementQuantity(5, 'price_chat');
$user->subscription('default')->decrementQuantity(3, 'price_chat');
$user->subscription('default')->updateQuantity(10, 'price_chat');
When a subscription has multiple prices the stripe_price
and quantity
attributes on the Subscription
model will be null
. To access the individual price attributes, you should use the items
relationship available on the Subscription
model.
Subscription Items
When a subscription has multiple prices, it will have multiple subscription "items" stored in your database's subscription_items
table. You may access these via the items
relationship on the subscription:
use App\Models\User;
$user = User::find(1);
$subscriptionItem = $user->subscription('default')->items->first();
// Retrieve the Stripe price and quantity for a specific item...
$stripePrice = $subscriptionItem->stripe_price;
$quantity = $subscriptionItem->quantity;
You can also retrieve a specific price using the findItemOrFail
method:
$user = User::find(1);
$subscriptionItem = $user->subscription('default')->findItemOrFail('price_chat');
Multiple Subscriptions
Stripe allows your customers to have multiple subscriptions simultaneously. For example, you may run a gym that offers a swimming subscription and a weight-lifting subscription, and each subscription may have different pricing. Of course, customers should be able to subscribe to either or both plans.
When your application creates subscriptions, you may provide the type of the subscription to the newSubscription
method. The type may be any string that represents the type of subscription the user is initiating:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::post('/swimming/subscribe', function (Request $request) {
$request->user()->newSubscription('swimming')
->price('price_swimming_monthly')
->create($request->paymentMethodId);
// ...
});
In this example, we initiated a monthly swimming subscription for the customer. However, they may want to swap to a yearly subscription at a later time. When adjusting the customer's subscription, we can simply swap the price on the swimming
subscription:
$user->subscription('swimming')->swap('price_swimming_yearly');
Of course, you may also cancel the subscription entirely:
$user->subscription('swimming')->cancel();
Metered Billing
Metered billing allows you to charge customers based on their product usage during a billing cycle. For example, you may charge customers based on the number of text messages or emails they send per month.
To start using metered billing, you will first need to create a new product in your Stripe dashboard with a metered price. Then, use the meteredPrice
to add the metered price ID to a customer subscription:
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
Route::post('/user/subscribe', function (Request $request) {
$request->user()->newSubscription('default')
->meteredPrice('price_metered')
->create($request->paymentMethodId);
// ...
});