payment-failure-recovery

Automated dunning for failed Stripe subscription payments configures retry schedules, sequences failure stage emails, and handles invoice.payment_failed webhooks to recover revenue. You can use Stripe Smart Retries or define a custom retry schedule to optimize the recovery workflow.

Webhook handling for failed payment recovery processes invoice.paid and invoice.payment_failed events to trigger state transitions in your database. It automatically initiates dunning emails, updates failure tracking records, and halts retries when a payment succeeds.

Customers can update their payment method themselves after a failed subscription charge using the Stripe Customer Portal or Setup Intent flows. This self-service approach securely collects new details and automatically retries the failed invoice.

Reducing involuntary churn from failed payments requires configuring grace periods that preserve customer access while automated dunning sequences attempt collection. Tracking recovery metrics and telemetry across retry stages helps optimize the strategy and recover more accounts.

Stripe Smart Retries is recommended for dunning because it uses machine learning to optimize retry timing automatically. A custom retry schedule is available if you need strict control over retry intervals and specific failure stage email sequencing.

You need to track database state for failed subscription payments to manage dunning workflows accurately. State tracking records failure events, monitors grace periods, and ensures correct transitions when webhooks confirm invoice.paid or invoice.payment_failed statuses.