Add funds to your platform balance
Platforms can add funds to their balance from a bank account.
Platforms can add funds to their Stripe balance to pay connected accounts for goods or services. There are a number of different use cases for adding funds to pay connected accounts for goods or services, including:
- Paying bonuses or other one-off payouts, independent of specific charges
- Providing customer discounts while still paying full price for goods or services to sellers
- Adding funds from non-Stripe income
- Enabling faster payouts (for example, pay a vendor before incoming funds become available)
Where permitted, platforms can also add funds to their Stripe balance to send funds to recipients off of Stripe (for example, through cross-border payouts). They can also pay out added funds to other accounts they own.
Note
If a transfer or payout fails due to insufficient funds in your platform balance, adding funds doesn’t automatically retry the failed action. After adding funds, you must repeat any failed transfers or payouts.
Availability
This table outlines the regions where your Stripe platform can operate, and can help you understand the approval requirements and the status verification process.
| Availability | Description |
|---|---|
| General availability | USA, UK, Japan |
| Private preview | EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. Contact your sales representative for the latest information on availability in these markets. |
| Approval required | In all markets, you must complete KYC to get your platform profile approved. You can do so using the Stripe Dashboard, or by contacting your sales representative. |
| Status verification | You can verify the status in your settings after you create the platform profile. |
Requirements
All of these requirements must be met to add funds to your Stripe balance:
- Your platform and the connected account receiving the funds are either in the same market or the connected account has a recipient service agreement.
- Your platform profile is approved. You can check the status in your settings after completing the platform profile.
When adding funds to your balance, use a manual payout schedule. If you enable automatic payouts, you can’t control whether the system uses added funds for payouts. You can configure your schedule in your payout settings.
Note
Only team members with administrator access to the platform Stripe account and who’ve enabled two factor authentication can add funds.
If you’re new to Connect, start with a guide to add funds to your platform balance and pay out money.
Confirm funding purpose
To add funds, go to the Balance section in the Dashboard. Click Add to balance and select the reason for adding funds to your account.
Click Pay out connected accounts to add funds that are paid out to your connected accounts. If you’re adding funds to your balance to cover future refunds and disputes, or to repay your platform’s negative balance, click Cover negative balances and see adding funds to your Stripe balance.
Verify your bank account
You must use a verified bank account to add funds. You’ll go through the verification process in the Dashboard when you first attempt to add funds from an unverified bank account.
If your bank account is unverified, you must confirm two microdeposits from Stripe. These deposits appear on your online banking statement within 1-2 business days, with ACCTVERIFY for the statement description.
Stripe notifies you in the Dashboard and through email when the microdeposits have arrived in your account. To complete the verification process, click the Dashboard notification in the Balance section, enter the two microdeposit amounts, and click Verify account.
View your funds
View your added funds in the Dashboard on Top-ups tab under the Balance page. Each time you add funds, a top-up object is made that has a unique ID with the format tu_, which you can see on the detailed view for the top-up.
Settlement timing
This table provides the expected timing for fund settlement based on the region and payment transfer method, and can help you understand how long it typically takes for payments to process.
| Region and currency | Payment transfer method | Estimated speed |
|---|---|---|
| USA (USD) | Wire transfer | 1-5 days |
| USA (USD) | ACH Credit Transfer | 1-3 days |
| USA (USD) | ACH Debit Transfer | 5 days |
| EU (EUR) | SEPA Credit Transfer | 1-2 days |
| UK (GBP) | FPS | 2 hours - 1 day |
| UK (GBP) | BACS | 2-3 days |
| Other currencies | Wire transfer | 1-7 days (if you provide the correct wire information to Stripe) |
Depending on your account configuration, you might not have access to all the methods mentioned above immediately after launching.
If you’re a new user and haven’t completed a substantial amount of top-ups to Stripe, the timing for fund availability might initially be delayed longer than indicated; however, your initial speed will eventually align with the outlined speeds.
Testing
You can use the Dashboard or the API to test adding funds to your balance.