Pending refunds require you to wait for our financial partner to finish processing the refund, or you to fix your negative balance by either manually topping up your balance or allowing Stripe to automatically debit your bank account. Stripe automatically fails a pending refund after 45 days.

Why is my refund pending?

Your refund is pending because the customer’s bank is still processing the refund—and no action is required from you—or there’s an insufficient balance in your Stripe account that you need to address. To determine if you need to take action, hover over the Refund Pending status on the Dashboard Payments tab.

Learn more about Understanding refund statuses.

How can I fix my pending refunds?

Normally, your pending refunds are automatically released when future payments are processed to offset your negative balance. However, the future payment volume may not always be sufficient. Follow the steps in Fix the negative balance on your account to proactively top up or set up auto debit, or if you’re in a country where you can’t directly top up your payment balance, wait for Stripe to move funds from your Future refunds or disputes (FROD) balance.

Why hasn’t my refund been released after top-up or auto debit?

Funds availability timing. Funds typically become available and show up in your balance within 3 to 7 business days, depending on the method used to add funds. Note that after the refund is released, it takes 5-10 additional days for the banks to settle refunds with the end customers.

Pending refunds in different currencies. A pending refund will not be released unless the balance of the refund settlement currency is sufficient and the overall balance is sufficient. If the refund is settled in the non-default currency, you must also Fix the negative balance on your account.

What happens if a pending refund does not get released?

Stripe automatically fails a pending refund after 45 days.

How do pending refunds work with Connect?

Whether a refund is put into pending depends on the type of Connect set-ups. Follow the Stripe docs to determine the ultimate responsibility and take the right actions to manage your connected account’s negative balances.