This page provides general information and FAQ about Google Pay API.
About Google Pay API
Google Pay enables effortless checkouts for your app and website. With the Google Pay API, your
customers can use the cards saved to their Google Accounts for seamless checkout within your apps
and sites.
Supported features
The Google Pay API has several supported features.
Supported forms of payment
Google Pay API may return the following payment methods:
Cards and network tokens
PayPal tokens, for merchants that may process with PayPal.
Recurring billing and subscriptions
Support for recurring billing is tied to the payment method returned in the Google Pay API
response. Both tokenized cards and cards on file can be used for recurring billing. To process
recurring billing, the merchant doesn't have to call our API at a cadence. Rather, the payment
credential is stored on the merchant side for recurring payments. The merchant uses their
payment gateway APIs to manage recurring billing.
Google Pay supports recurring payments if the following statements are true:
Merchants comply with network rules, such as merchant-initiated transactions.
Terms of payment are disclosed and accepted by the user within the merchant’s buyflow.
We also support recurring billing with variable amounts. For example, monthly phone bills for
mobile carriers are supported. To get more information, merchants must contact their payment
gateway representative.
Auto-reload or "top-up"
To process an auto-reload charge for the same cost, the merchant doesn't have to call our API
each time. The payment credential is stored on the merchant side and reused. To get more
information, merchants must contact their payment gateway representative.
Chargebacks
Merchants can handle transaction reversals for cancellations, reimbursements, or disputes in
the manner that they currently handle chargebacks for other forms of payment. To get more
information, merchants must contact their processors representative.
Donation collection
Approved nonprofit organizations (NPOs) can integrate the Google Pay API to collect donations,
if, and only if, they provide documentation to prove, certify, and validate their nonprofit
status. For example, US NPOs must provide valid 501(c)3 status proof from the IRS in order to
qualify.
General FAQ
The following FAQ apply to merchants.
How can merchants promote Google Pay acceptance in their apps and sites to their
users?
To highlight support for Google Pay, make sure to use the assets available in our
Android and
Web brand guidelines.
If you have an Android integration, you can note in the Play Store description that you now
support Google Pay. For web integrations, you can directly add a description to the merchant
website.
Can ecommerce platforms support Google Pay?
Yes, Google Pay API supports onboarding ecommerce platforms. Payment processor, gateway, or
ecommerce platform partners that host a checkout page on behalf of their merchants can use Google
Pay’s hosted checkout feature.
Which payment providers support Google Pay?
To find a list of processors that support Google Pay, see our
Google Pay processors list.
What countries and regions are supported for Google Pay?
What's the difference between Google Play In-app Billing and the Google Pay API?
Google Play developers that sell digital goods and services on Android apps must use Google Play
In-app Billing, as specified in the
Play Developer Policy Center.
Examples of In-app Billing include virtual game products, app functionality or content, and cloud
software products. See the
Google Play Billing overview
page to learn more about In-app Billing.
When used in apps, the Google Pay API is only available for physical products and services.
Does Google Pay charge any fees?
Google Pay doesn't additionally charge users, merchants, and developers additional fees to use
the Google Pay API for payments. Merchants, specifically, continue to pay processing fees to their
payment processor.
What does Google do to validate credentials and prevent fraud?
All cards added to Google go through a verification authorization to validate card details,
which include the card verification code (CVC). Google also runs a proprietary risk engine based
on instrument data, Google account profiles, purchase history, locations, and device information.
Merchants, however, must continue to use their current fraud and risk assessment tools with Google
Pay transactions.
PayPal with Google Pay
Users can now use PayPal through Google Pay to make purchases when they shop in apps or online.
Find details of the integration in PayPal’s
How to Link PayPal to Google Pay
documentation.
Users can still use their PayPal accounts that are linked with Google Pay even if merchants don't
have a PayPal integration. In this case, a MasterCard tokenized card is returned in the Google
Pay API response.
Does the Google Pay API integration work in WebViews?