Blocks » Payments

The Payments feature (formerly called Recurring Payments) lets you accept credit and debit card payments for goods, services, subscriptions, memberships, donations, and more. The Payments feature can be used to create recurring revenue or one-time payments to your site.

The Payments feature is available for all sites using the Block editor and a WordPress.com plan like Personal, Premium, Business, or eCommerce plan. The feature is also available for self-hosted sites on a paid Jetpack plan.

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About Payments

• Uses Stripe to collect payments. You can set up a new Stripe account or connect to an existing one. Stripe ensures that the credit card data is encrypted.
• Automatically sends receipts to subscribers.
• For recurring subscriptions:
  • Automatically bills subscribers at the end of their Renewal Period and transfers the funds to your Stripe account.
  • It allows the buyer to cancel the subscription at any time.
• Payment information does not transfer to other tools that use Stripe payments, such as WooCommerce.

Learn all about creating a paid membership site with WordPress.com from our special tutorial site with step-by-step information to get going.

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Setting up Payments

Using this feature requires two steps:

1. Set up at least one Payment Plan
2. Add a Button to your website

Add a Payments button

The Payments button is a block that you can insert into posts and pages.

1. Go to My Site → Pages/Posts
2. Edit the Page or Post you want to add the Payment button to
3. Add a new block by clicking the ( + ) icon, or type `/` to start searching for blocks
4. Search for “payments”

The first time you add a Payments block you will be prompted to connect your WordPress.com account to Stripe. Stripe is the payment processor used to take payments for the Payments feature.

Click the Connect button to be taken to Stripe to connect your WordPress.com account.

Connecting Stripe

You can also connect to your Stripe account before adding your first button by visiting My Site → Tools → Earn. Then, click Collect payments to get started.

If you already have a Stripe account, you can log in at the top of the screen. Otherwise, fill out the form to create your new Stripe account.

Any money you earn using WordPress.com Payments will go into your Stripe account. From there, you can move it to the personal account of your choice. WordPress.com never has any access to the money you earn.

Stripe supported countries and currencies

In order to start accepting payments using a Stripe account, you must be a citizen or own a company in one of the following countries. Your customers can pay using a credit card issued anywhere in the world.

Stripe account connected

Once you fill out the Stripe form and connect it to your WordPress.com account, you’ll be taken back to your WordPress.com account and you’ll see “Congrats! Your site is now connected to Stripe. You can start making money by adding your first subscription!”

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Creating Your First Plan

You’re ready to create your first plan. Add the following information:

• Price – how much the payment will be
• Currency – what currency the payment will be collected in
• Describe your subscription in a few words – this description will appear on the emails your customers receive
• Renewal interval – the frequency in which your subscribers are billed. This can be either monthly or annually. Or, you can set up a One Time payment.

Once you click “Add this plan,” the new Payments button will be created and inserted into your post or page.

You can customize the text on your button by clicking on it and editing it directly, and you can add multiple Payments buttons to a page if you’d like to offer a range of price points.

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Creating a One-Time Payment

Creating a one-time payment uses the same steps as creating a plan outlined above, except in the drop-down for Renew Interval select the One Time Payment option.

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Adding More Plans

After you’ve created your first plan, you can add more buttons and plans by adding another Payments block.

When you add another Payments block you will have the option to select an existing plan or Add a plan to create a new plan. Creating multiple plans is a great way to create tiered access to exclusive content using the Premium Content block.

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Payment Block Settings

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Video: How to Add Memberships to Your Website

We also recommend the “How to get started with memberships on WordPress.com” video if you’re just getting started with subscriptions and memberships on your website. We’ve also created several how to videos on how to get started with a premium membership blog, membership website, paid newsletter, or crowdfunding campaign.

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Related Fees

The Payments feature is available on all paid plans, for both WordPress.com and WordPress.org Jetpack-connected sites. Fees are based on the WordPress.com or Jetpack Plan you have and are calculated as a percentage of your revenue.

If you have a WordPress.com hosted site, you do not need to worry about the Jetpack plan fees as those apply to self-hosted WordPress.org sites only.

WordPress.com Plan	Jetpack plan	Related Fees
WordPress.com eCommerce	N/A	0
WordPress.com Business	Jetpack Security Real-time and Jetpack Complete	2%
WordPress.com Premium	Jetpack Security Daily	4%
WordPress.com Personal	N/A	8%
WordPress.com free	Jetpack free	Feature Unavailable

In addition to the fees you pay us, Stripe collects 2.9% + US$0.30 for each payment made to your Stripe account. Not in the USA? Check Stripe’s fees in your currency.

This system allows you to offer Payments with minimal upfront investment. As you collect more subscribers, it may make sense to move to a higher plan to retain more revenue.

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Payments Management

Payments provides a suite of tools to help you monitor and grow your subscription base.

Revenue Breakdown

You can view a detailed breakdown of your revenue by visiting My Site(s) → Tools → Earn → Collect Payments

• Total earnings – shows all charges collected by Payments buttons on your site.
• Last 30 days – shows the revenue you’ve earned over the last 30 days.
• Next month – shows upcoming charges in the next 30 days. This assumes that nobody unsubscribes, and does not include any new subscribers.

Subscribers List

You’ll find the list of your subscribers at My Site(s) → Tools → Earn → Collect Payments as well.

At the end of the list is a link for downloading a CSV file containing a list of your subscribers with their email addresses, subscription data, and other information. You can use that file to connect payments to any accounting or fulfillment systems you use.

Canceling a Subscription

Your subscribers can cancel any time from their WordPress.com accounts. You can also cancel their subscriptions from the subscriber list.

On the right side of the subscriber list, there is “three dots” menu:

Once you click “Cancel Subscription”, your subscriber will not be billed again. However, canceling will not refund the customer.

Issuing Refunds

You can manage refunds yourself through your Stripe Dashboard. Follow the instructions here to issue a full or partial refund.

Managing Payment Plans

Under your subscriber list, you’ll find options for editing your payment plans (that is, the amounts).

After clicking the arrow on the right of that section, you’ll see:

Editing a Plan

To edit the details of an existing plan, click the three dots to the right of the plan and click Edit.

You can change:

• Currency
• Price
• Renewal schedule
• Description

You can also add a “Pay what you want” option and the option to allow the same customer to sign up multiple times to the same plan.

If you change any prices, existing subscriptions will not be affected. They will continue renewing at the same rate they started with.

Sending Emails to subscribers

Your subscribers will receive a confirmation message when they purchase from your site. You can use this option to send either additional information or even include links to digital products. For example, you can sell a guide or tutorial with the Payments block and add the downloadable link in the email sent to subscribers.

You can edit this in the Email tab of your payment plan settings.

Deleting a Plan

To delete an existing plan, click the three dots to the right of the plan and click Delete.

 

NOTE: any existing subscriptions will continue. If you want to stop subscriptions for existing customers, please contact a Happiness Engineer.

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The “Pay what you want” Option

The “Pay what you want” option allows your contributors/paid subscribers to customize the “contribution amount” during checkout.

The default price will be the one selected by you, but it will be possible to change it during the checkout process.

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Disconnecting the Stripe Account

You can disconnect Stripe in by going to My Site(s) → Tools → Earn → Payments section. When you scroll to the very bottom of the page, you will see “Disconnect Stripe Account”.

Disconnecting Stripe Account here will:

• remove Stripe from all your WordPress.com and Jetpack sites
• prevent visitors from purchasing a subscription
• block renewals of any existing payments subscribers

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Tips for Using Payments

Limit Access to Content

Use the Premium Content block in the WordPress editor to create subscriber-only content or a specific call to action (Subscribe/Login) for non-subscribers.

Read more about the Premium Content block here.

Reuse the Same Plan

Some visitors will become subscribers right away,  while others might need multiple reminders. That’s why it’s common practice to repeat offers multiple times across your site and in multiple posts and pages.

To simplify the process of adding the same Payments button in multiple locations, each new button includes all the price points you’ve already added. When you insert a new Payments block into your post, you can select one of your previously-added payment plans.

Don’t Forget About Your Subscribers!

People who decided to support your site expect to get something in return for their support along with your great content out there.

We’ve noticed the most successful creators focus on providing added value and on keeping their supporters engaged.

• They send emails to their community.
• They publish videos or other art publicly.
• They remind their fans that all of this is possible because of their support.

And above all: continue creating.

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Other Ways To Collect Payments

Learn more about the Payments block above. Please visit separate support docs to learn about the Premium Content and Pay with PayPal blocks, or the WooCommerce plugin available on the Business and eCommerce plans.