Stripe API Down? Here's Exactly What to Do (2026 Guide)

by API Status Check

When Stripe goes down, every second counts. Your checkout page breaks, subscriptions fail to renew, and customers see error messages instead of confirmation screens. Revenue literally stops flowing.

This guide covers exactly what to do — from the first 30 seconds of detection to long-term architectural decisions that make your next Stripe outage a non-event.

How to Know If Stripe Is Actually Down

Before you panic, confirm the outage isn't on your end.

Check these in order:

  1. API Status Check — Stripe — Real-time independent monitoring with response time charts
  2. Stripe's Official Status Page — Direct from Stripe, but sometimes lags behind actual issues
  3. Is Stripe Down Right Now? — Quick yes/no answer with 24-hour history
  4. Your own logs — Check for elevated 5xx error rates or timeout increases

If Stripe's API returns 500, 502, 503, or hangs past 10 seconds, it's likely a Stripe-side issue. If you're getting 401 or 400 errors, that's your code — not Stripe.

The First 30 Minutes: Assess and Communicate

Check the Scope

Not all Stripe outages affect everything. Check which components are impacted:

  • API — Core payment processing
  • Dashboard — Admin access (doesn't affect live payments)
  • Connect — Marketplace/platform payments
  • Webhooks — Event delivery (critical for subscription logic)

View current Stripe component status →

Webhook Delays Are the Silent Killer

Even when Stripe's API is "up," webhook delivery can lag during incidents. If your app depends on webhooks for:

  • Subscription renewals
  • Invoice finalization
  • Payment confirmations
  • Refund processing

You need a backup polling mechanism:

// Poll for payment status if webhook hasn't arrived in 5 minutes
async function checkPaymentStatus(paymentIntentId) {
  const pi = await stripe.paymentIntents.retrieve(paymentIntentId);
  if (pi.status === 'succeeded' && !webhookReceived(paymentIntentId)) {
    // Process the payment manually
    await fulfillOrder(paymentIntentId);
  }
}

Long-Term: Building Stripe Outage Resilience

Set Up Monitoring Alerts

Don't find out about Stripe outages from angry customers. Set up proactive monitoring:

  1. Subscribe to API Status Check alerts — Get notified before Stripe's own status page updates
  2. Monitor your error rates — A spike in 5xx responses from api.stripe.com is your earliest signal
  3. Track response times — Stripe normally responds in 200-400ms. If it creeps past 2 seconds, something's wrong

Consider a Payment Fallback

For high-volume businesses, a secondary payment processor can save significant revenue during outages:

Primary Fallback Switch Time
Stripe Braintree ~2-5 min (manual)
Stripe Adyen ~1-2 min (automated)
Stripe Square ~5-10 min (manual)

Compare these providers' reliability: Stripe vs Square uptime

The ROI math is simple: if you process $10K/hour and Stripe is down for 2 hours, that's $20K in delayed or lost revenue. A fallback processor that costs $500/month to maintain pays for itself after one incident.

Store Cards for Retry

If you use Stripe's PaymentMethod objects, card details are stored on Stripe's side. During an outage, you can't create new charges — but you can queue them.

For mission-critical flows, consider tokenizing with a backup processor so you can charge through an alternate path during extended outages.

Stripe's Outage Track Record

Stripe maintains one of the best uptimes in the payment industry, but no service is immune:

  • Average incidents per quarter: 2-4 minor, 0-1 major
  • Typical resolution time: 15-45 minutes for minor, 1-4 hours for major
  • Most common issue: Elevated error rates (not full outages)

View Stripe's full incident history →

Checklist: Are You Stripe-Outage-Ready?

  • Idempotency keys on all payment requests
  • Retry logic with exponential backoff
  • Graceful error messages (not "payment failed")
  • Webhook backup polling mechanism
  • Real-time monitoring alerts configured
  • Runbook documented for the team
  • Payment queue for deferred processing
  • (Optional) Secondary payment processor configured

Monitor Stripe and 100+ APIs

Don't wait for customers to report payment issues. API Status Check monitors Stripe and 100 other APIs in real-time with:

  • Instant outage detection — Know before your customers do
  • Response time tracking — Catch degradation before it becomes downtime
  • Embeddable status badges — Show your customers you're monitoring
  • Free alerts — Email notifications when APIs go down

Check Stripe status now → | Compare payment APIs →

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