Make recurring payments

Summary

Learn how an Open Payments-enabled client can be used to set up a payment of a specific amount that pays out at a recurring interval.

The Open Payments APIs facilitate multiple use cases for recurring payments to and from Open Payments-enabled wallets. Paying a fee for a monthly subscription service is one example.

This guide provides the steps your Open Payments-enabled client will take to set up a $50 USD payment from a user that recurs once a month for three months. There’s a few different ways to set up the payment. In this guide, you’ll begin by getting an outgoing payment grant, then request the creation of an incoming payment resource and an outgoing payment resource at each interval.

Endpoints

• GET Get Wallet Address
• POST Grant Request
• POST Create an Incoming Payment
• POST Create an Outgoing Payment
• POST Rotate an Access Token

Steps

1. Get wallet address information

To set up a recurring payment, the client must get the wallet address information for both the sender and recipient.

Let’s assume the sender’s wallet address is already saved in your client. The sender is essentially your client’s user. Let’s also assume the sender has entered the recipient’s wallet address into a payment form in your client application.

Call the GET Get Wallet Address API for each address.

TypeScript/JavaScript

const senderWalletAddress = await client.walletAddress.get({
  url: 'https://cloudninebank.example.com/sender'
})
const recipientWalletAddress = await client.walletAddress.get({
  url: 'https://happylifebank.example.com/recipient'
})

Example response

The following shows an example response from the recipient’s wallet provider. A similar response will be returned from the sender’s wallet provider.

{
  "id": "https://happylifebank.example.com/recipient",
  "assetCode": "USD",
  "assetScale": 2,
  "authServer": "https://auth.happylifebank.example.com/",
  "resourceServer": "https://happylifebank.example.com/op"
}

2. Request an interactive outgoing payment grant

Use the sender wallet’s authServer information received in the previous step to call the POST Grant Request API.

This call obtains an access token that allows your client to request outgoing payment resources be created on the sender’s wallet account.

Note

Outgoing payments require an interactive grant. This type of grant will obtain the user’s consent before an outgoing payment is made against their wallet account. You can find more information in the Open Payments flow and identity providers pages.

Include the following in the request:

• limits object
  • debitAmount - The maximum amount that the user will pay per interval (for example, per month). When the next interval begins, the value resets.
  • interval - The time interval under which the grant is valid.

Remember that your user, the sender, wants to make payments of $50 a month for three months. The amount resets each month and any unspent portions don’t roll over.

TypeScript/JavaScript

const pendingSenderOutgoingPaymentGrant = await client.grant.request(
  {
    url: senderWalletAddress.authServer,
  },
  {
    access_token: {
      access: [
        {
          identifier: senderWalletAddress.id,
          type: 'outgoing-payment',
          actions: ['read', 'create'],
          limits: {
            interval: 'R3/2025-03-12T23:25:00Z/P1M',
            debitAmount: {
              assetCode: 'USD',
              assetScale: 2,
              value: '5000',
            },
          },
        },
      ],
    },
    interact: {
      start: ['redirect'],
      finish: {
        method: 'redirect',
        uri: 'https://paymentplatform.example/finish/{...}', // where to redirect the user after they've completed the interaction
        nonce: NONCE,
      },
    },
  },
);

Example response

{
  "interact": {
    "redirect": "https://auth.interledger-test.dev/{...}", // uri to redirect the user to, to begin interaction
    "finish": "..." // unique key to secure the callback
  },
  "continue": {
    "access_token": {
      "value": "..." // access token for continuing the outgoing payment grant request
    },
    "uri": "https://auth.interledger-test.dev/continue/{...}", // uri for continuing the outgoing payment grant request
    "wait": 30
  }
}

About the interval

The interval used in this guide is R3/2025-03-12T23:25:00Z/P1M. Remember that your user wants to send payments of $50 USD a month for three months. The interval breaks down like this:

• R3/ is the number of repetitions - three
• 2025-03-12 is the start date of the repeating interval - 12 March 2025
• T23:25:00Z/ is the start time of the repeating interval - 11:25 PM UTC
• P1M is the period between each interval - one month. Used with R3, you have a grant that’s valid once a month for three months.

Altogether, this grant will allow your user to send $50 USD three times, from:

• 11:25 PM UTC on 12 March 2025 through 11:24 PM UTC on 12 April 2025
• 11:25 PM UTC on 12 April 2025 through 11:24 PM UTC on 12 May 2025
• 11:25 PM UTC on 12 May 2025 through 11:24 PM UTC on 12 June 2025

3. Start interaction with the user

Once the client receives the authorization server’s response, it must send the user to the interact.redirect URI contained in the response. This starts the interaction flow.

The response also includes a continue object, which is essential for managing the interaction and obtaining explicit user consent for outgoing payment grants. The continue object contains an access token and a URI that the client will use to finalize the grant request after the user has completed their interaction with the identity provider (IdP). This ensures that the client can securely obtain the necessary permissions to proceed with the payment process.

4. Finish interaction with the user

The user interacts with the authorization server through the server’s interface and approves or denies the grant.

Provided the user approves the grant, the authorization server:

• Sends the user to the finish.uri provided in the interactive outgoing payment grant request. The means by which the server sends the user to the URI is out of scope, but common options include redirecting the user from a web page and launching the system browser with the target URI.
• Secures the redirect by adding a unique hash, allowing your client to validate the finish call, and an interaction reference as query parameters to the URI.

5. Request a grant continuation

In this guide, we’re assuming the IdP the user interacted with has a user interface. When the interaction completes, the user is returned to your client. Now your client can make a continuation request for the outgoing payment grant.

Note

In a scenario where a user interface isn’t available, consider implementing a polling mechanism in the client to check for the completion of the interaction.

Call the POST Grant Continuation Request API. This call obtains an access token that allows your client to continue the outgoing payment request.

Issue the request to the continue.uri provided in the initial outgoing payment grant response (Step 2).

Include the interact_ref returned in the redirect URI’s query parameters.

TypeScript/JavaScript

const senderOutgoingPaymentGrant = await client.grant.continue(
  {
    url: pendingSenderOutgoingPaymentGrant.continue.uri,
    accessToken: pendingSenderOutgoingPaymentGrant.continue.access_token.value
  },
  {
    interact_ref: interactRef
  }
)

Example response

{
  "access_token": {
    "value": "...", // final access token required before creating an outgoing payment
    "manage": "https://auth.cloudninebank.example.com/token/{...}", // management uri for access token
    "access": [
      {
        "type": "outgoing-payment",
        "actions": ["create", "read"],
        "identifier": "https://cloudninebank.example.com/sender",
        "limits:" {
          "interval": "R3/2025-03-12T23:25:00Z/P1M"
          "debitAmount": {
            "assetCode": "USD",
            "assetScale": 2,
            "value": "5000",
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "continue": {
    "access_token": {
      "value": "..." // access token for continuing the request
    },
    "uri": "https://auth.cloudninebank.example.com/continue/{...}" // continuation request uri
  }
}

6. Request an incoming payment grant

Use the recipient’s authServer details, returned in Step 1, to call the POST Grant Request API.

This call obtains an access token that allows your client to request an incoming payment resource be created on the recipient’s wallet account.

TypeScript/JavaScript

const recipientIncomingPaymentGrant = await client.grant.request(
  {
    url: recipientWalletAddress.authServer
  },
  {
    access_token: {
      access: [
        {
          type: "incoming-payment",
          actions: ["read", "create"],
        },
      ],
    },
  },
);

Example response

{
  "access_token": {
    "value": "...", // access token value for incoming payment grant
    "manage": "https://auth.happylifebank.example.com/token/{...}", // management uri for access token
    "access": [
      {
        "type": "incoming-payment",
        "actions": ["create", "read"]
      }
    ]
  },
  "continue": {
    "access_token": {
      "value": "..." // access token for continuing the request
    },
    "uri": "https://auth.happylifebank.example.com/continue/{...}" // continuation request uri
  }
}

7. Request the creation of an incoming payment resource

Use the access token returned in the previous response to call the POST Create Incoming Payment API.

This call requests an incoming payment resource be created on the recipient’s wallet account.

The value is the maximum allowable amount that can be paid into this resource. Since the monthly payment is for $50 USD, the value is 5000.

TypeScript/JavaScript

const recipientIncomingPayment = await client.incomingPayment.create(
  {
    url: recipientWalletAddress.resourceServer,
    accessToken: recipientIncomingPaymentGrant.access_token.value
  },
  {
    walletAddress: recipientWalletAddress.id,
    incomingAmount: {
      value: '5000',
      assetCode: 'USD',
      assetScale: 2
    },
  },
)

Example response

{
  "id": "https://happylifebank.example.com/incoming-payments/{...}",
  "walletAddress": "https://happylifebank.example.com/recipient",
  "incomingAmount": {
    "value": "5000",
    "assetCode": "USD",
    "assetScale": 2
  },
  "receivedAmount": {
    "value": "0",
    "assetCode": "USD",
    "assetScale": 2
  },
  "completed": false,
  "createdAt": "2025-03-12T23:20:50.52Z",
  "methods": [
    {
      "type": "ilp",
      "ilpAddress": "...",
      "sharedSecret": "..."
    }
  ]
}

8. Request the creation of an outgoing payment resource

Use the access token returned in the grant continuation response (Step 5) to call the POST Create Outgoing Payment API.

TypeScript/JavaScript

const senderOutgoingPaymentToRecipient = await client.outgoingPayment.create(
  {
    url: senderWalletAddress.resourceServer,
    accessToken: senderOutgoingPaymentGrant.access_token.value
  },
  {
    walletAddress: senderWalletAddress.id,
    incomingPayment: 'https://happylifebank.example/com/incoming-payments/{...}',
  },
)

Example response

{
  "id": "https://cloudninebank.example.com/outgoing-payments/{...}", // url identifying the outgoing payment
  "walletAddress": "https://cloudninebank.example.com/sender",
  "receiver": "https://happylifebank.example.com/incoming-payments/{...}", // url of the incoming payment being paid
  "debitAmount": {
    "value": "5000",
    "assetCode": "USD",
    "assetScale": 2
  },
  "receiveAmount": {
    "value": "5000",
    "assetCode": "USD",
    "assetScale": 2
  },
  "sentAmount": {
    "value": "0",
    "assetCode": "USD",
    "assetScale": 2
  },
  "createdAt": "2025-03-12T23:27:54.52Z"
}

The first of the three recurring payments is now set up. At the next interval (for example, one month from now), repeat Steps 6 - 8. You don’t need to request new outgoing or incoming payment grants because the original grants are still valid.

Access token expiry

If a particular grant’s access token has expired, call the POST Rotate Access Token API, then use the new token in the appropriate incoming or outgoing payment request.