Square's Payments API FAQ

Square’s Payments API is a payment solution that allows you to accept credit and debit card payments from your own website. Connect your website to Square with an eCommerce API application, and without ever leaving your website, customers can securely make online purchases. Payment processing is completed entirely through Square, so you’ll never need to handle sensitive payment card data. You can view your sales activity on your online Square dashboard, and deposits are sent to your linked bank account.

You can use Square to accept payments from any cards with the Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, JCB, or UnionPay logos. You can also accept any gift card or prepaid card with the same logos mentioned above, as long as the amount of the charge does not exceed the balance on the card.

Every card has the same flat rate. Corporate, prepaid, gift cards, and rewards cards have no additional fees, and debit cards are run just like credit cards (you do not need to enter a PIN).

Yes! If you use Square’s Payments API or Square Checkout API, you can accept payments from your customers with Apple Pay.

Checkout API: Square Checkout API lets merchants accept online payments for supported payment types using a checkout workflow hosted by Square, simplifying the process of accepting online payments. Once it’s time to collect the payment, buyers enter Square’s hosted checkout flow and return back to your website once the payment is complete.

Payments API: Square’s Payments API is a payment solution that allows you to accept credit and debit card payments from your own website. Customize your own payment form and checkout experience to accept payments with Square.

Square Integrations: With our partners – Wix, Bigcommerce, Ecwid, WooCommerce, and more – you’re able to seamlessly integrate online payments with your Square account and process orders directly from your partner-hosted eCommerce website. No need to enlist help from a developer, simply connect your website to Square with a few clicks.

If you’re a Square merchant and you are building a mobile checkout or hosting your own website, the API is a great option to streamline all your sales channels. We recommend working with a website developer to get set up.

If you don’t have access to developer resources, we encourage you to visit Square’s App Marketplace. Our partners offer customizable templates and tools for managing your online business — with easy to follow steps for accepting payments with Square.

Support for itemizations is limited to Square Checkout. Items sold using Square’s Payments API display as ‘Online Transaction’ in your online Dashboard, whereas sales using Square Checkout API enable you to view item-level sales and inventory sold online. Learn more about Square Checkout API.

Visit the get started guide to learn how to set up your application and start accepting payments through your website.

To get started with implementing Square Checkout into your site, visit our getting started guide.

Once you’ve fully implemented Square Checkout, all payments will appear in your transaction history in your Square Dashboard and Point of Sale.

For an overview of documentation regarding Square Checkout, take a look at our Square Checkout Overview article.

This is a code your application uses to communicate with Square for processing payments. If you’re working with a trusted developer, you may want to share your personal access token to help create your API application. Keep in mind that your token is sensitive account information, similar to your Square account password. If you offer your developer your token, they will have access to make changes to your account information.

Although you are unable to link Square directly with your Squarespace website, Squarespace developers can embed Ecwid to accept payments with Square.

Read more about integrating with Ecwid.

Once you’ve connected an app to your Square account, you can manage connection settings online:

1. Visit App integrations in your online Square Dashboard.
2. Locate the app you’d like to disconnect. Click the X and confirm you’d like to revoke access to your Square account.

A fee of 2.9% +$0.30 is applied to payments processed through Square’s Transactions API.

Learn more about how processing fees and rates are calculated.

Although you are able to accept international cards with Square’s Transactions API, all payments will be processed in US dollars.

Payments processed with Square’s payment processing APIs appear in your transaction history from your online Dashboard. For easy identification, payments are labeled as “Online Transaction.”

Refunds can be processed from the Square app, your Dashboard, or from a Refund API. Just like Square app, payments are sent to your linked bank account following your regular deposit schedule.

Note: At this time, support for itemization in your transaction history is limited to Square Checkout API.