Authorise a payment to capture later

Manual capture gives you control over when to settle a payment by separating authorisation from capture. When a customer pays, you can reserve funds on their payment method without immediately transferring them to your account. This lets you verify orders, confirm stock availability, or wait until services are delivered before finalising the transaction.

This tutorial shows you how to authorise a payment and capture it later. You can authorise an amount on a customer's payment method and capture all or part of it later using standard (final) authorisation with manual capture.

What is manual capture

Manual capture separates authorisation from capture, giving you control over when funds are actually settled:

Authorisation: Reserve funds on the customer's payment method
Capture: Settle the transaction and transfer funds to your account

This two-step process allows you to verify order details, check stock availability, or wait for fulfilment before settling the payment.

Why use manual capture

Manual capture with standard authorisation offers several benefits over automatic capture:

Benefit	Description
Instant refunds	Cancel authorisations to return funds immediately (vs 5-7 days for standard refunds)
Fulfilment protection	Only capture when products are ready to ship or services can be delivered
Partial capture	Capture only the actual amount needed if the final cost is lower than authorised
Fraud prevention	Review suspicious orders before capturing payment
Stock verification	Confirm product availability before finalising the transaction

Use cases

Capturing payments separately is useful in many scenarios, for example:

When cancelling a payment authorisation, this method presents a much faster and more efficient way to issue refunds to your customers compared to the standard refund process (usually taking 5-7 days)
When your business relies on fulfilment of products, you might want to avoid capturing until the products are ready. This way, if you can't fulfil them, you can cancel the order and the money will be immediately returned to your customer's account
When your business requires holding an amount of money for a service provided and at the end of the service you only take its final value (e.g., equipment rental, service deposits)

Authorisation validity

When you authorise a payment with manual capture, the funds are held on the customer's payment method for a limited time. You must capture the payment before this period expires, or the authorisation will be automatically cancelled.

Default validity period

By default, authorised payments are valid for 7 days. If you don't capture within this period:

The authorisation automatically expires
The order state changes to cancelled
Funds are immediately released back to the customer's payment method
You'll need to create a new order and request payment again

Extended validity for advanced scenarios

If you need authorisation validity periods longer than 7 days, or the ability to increase authorised amounts during service delivery, see our advanced authorisation features:

Pre-authorisation - Extended clearing windows (up to 30 days depending on card scheme)
Incremental authorisation - Increase authorised amounts during service

Authorisation types

When creating an order with manual capture, you can choose between two authorisation types using the authorisation_type parameter. Each type offers different capabilities for managing the authorisation period and amount:

Final authorisation

Final authorisation is the default approach for manual capture where the authorised amount is fixed at the time of payment.

Characteristics:

Fixed amount: The authorised amount cannot be increased after initial authorisation
Standard validity: 7 days by default, customisable with cancel_authorised_after parameter (see Customise the validity period)
Simpler flow: Best for straightforward scenarios where the final amount is known upfront

When to use:

E-commerce orders with known final amounts
Order verification before fulfilment
Stock confirmation workflows
Standard manual capture scenarios

Example
{
  "amount": 10000,
  "currency": "GBP",
  "capture_mode": "manual",
  "authorisation_type": "final"
}

Pre-authorisation

Pre-authorisation provides extended authorisation capabilities for variable-amount scenarios and longer hold periods.

Characteristics:

Extended clearing windows: Up to 30 days depending on card scheme and MCC (vs 7 days for final authorisation)
Incremental authorisation: Ability to increase the authorised amount during service delivery
Flexible amounts: Ideal for scenarios where final cost isn't known at authorisation time

When to use:

Hotel bookings and accommodation (incidental charges)
Car rentals (fuel, damage, tolls)
Service deposits with variable final costs
Long-duration services requiring extended holds

Example
{
  "amount": 10000,
  "currency": "GBP",
  "capture_mode": "manual",
  "authorisation_type": "pre_authorisation"
}

How it works

Manual capture is a server-to-server integration between the Merchant API and your backend server. Your frontend (website or app) implementation is up to you—this guide focuses on the server-side API interactions.

Manual capture flow

Here's the step-by-step process for manual capture:

Your server creates an order with capture_mode: manual via the Merchant API.
Customer provides payment details via your chosen integration (Revolut Checkout, card widget, Revolut Pay, etc.).
Order reaches authorised state and funds are reserved (held) on the customer's payment method.
Funds remain on hold for 7 days by default for final authorisation (customisable with cancel_authorised_after parameter). Pre-authorisation offers extended clearing windows up to 30 days. See Authorisation types for details.
At this point, you decide to:
- Capture - Finalise the transaction and transfer funds to your account (full or partial amount).
- Cancel - Release the held funds immediately back to the customer.
If no action is taken within the validity period, the authorisation expires and funds are automatically released.

Before you begin

Ensure you have:

Active Revolut Business account with Merchant capabilities
API credentials for the Merchant API
Server-side integration capability (server-to-server API flow)
Understanding of how to create an order

Capture the authorised amount

1. Create an order with manual capture mode

Create an order and set capture_mode to manual. This instructs Revolut to authorise the payment (reserve funds on the customer's payment method) but not capture it (transfer funds to your account). You'll capture the funds separately when you're ready.

Example request payload with minimal required parameters:

Request body
{
  "amount": 10000,
  "currency": "GBP",
  "capture_mode": "manual"
}

Customise the validity period

You can customise the authorisation validity period using the cancel_authorised_after parameter when creating an order. This parameter accepts an ISO 8601 duration value.

Examples:

"cancel_authorised_after": "P3D" - Cancel after 3 days
"cancel_authorised_after": "P1D" - Cancel after 1 day
"cancel_authorised_after": "PT12H" - Cancel after 12 hours

Request body
{
  "amount": 10000,
  "currency": "GBP",
  "capture_mode": "manual",
  "cancel_authorised_after": "P3D"
}

2. Take a payment from a customer

Take a payment from your customer with your preferred payment solution. To cater to different customer preferences we offer several options to take payments:

Revolut Checkout: Offers an embedded checkout form which includes all available payment methods in one widget.
Revolut Pay: Customers can pay directly from their Revolut accounts, offering a seamless payment experience.
Card payments: Our widget accepts most major credit and debit cards. This is a familiar and widely used payment method.
Apple Pay or Google Pay: Provides a quick and convenient checkout experience for users on Apple and Android devices.
Hosted Checkout Page: Use payment links to redirect your customers to our self-hosted checkout page.

3. Monitor order state

After the customer completes payment, monitor the order state to confirm successful authorisation:

Configure a webhook URL to receive real-time notifications:

Webhook payload
{
  "event": "ORDER_AUTHORISED",
  "order_id": "6920869a-8d8d-aefd-a3c3-8fe4690e4323",
  "merchant_order_ext_ref": "Hotel booking #12345"
}

When you receive the ORDER_AUTHORISED event, retrieve the full order details using the order_id to confirm the authorisation and check the capture_deadline.

Handling events:

Event	When it fires	Recommended action
`ORDER_AUTHORISED`	Payment authorised successfully	Deliver service, capture when ready
`ORDER_PAYMENT_DECLINED`	Payment declined by issuer/bank	Notify customer to retry with different card
`ORDER_PAYMENT_FAILED`	Technical failure during processing	Customer can retry same payment method
`ORDER_CANCELLED`	Order manually cancelled	No action needed
`ORDER_FAILED`	Order expired (timeout)	Create new order if customer returns

When a payment is declined or fails, the order returns to pending state and customers can make another payment attempt.

4. Capture the payment

To capture an order manually, use one of the following methods:

To capture the payment using the Merchant API, follow these steps:

Confirm that the payment authorisation is valid and that your product or service is ready for delivery or fulfilment.
Use the Capture an order endpoint in the Merchant API to capture the payment. You can choose from two approaches:
- Full capture: Send the request without a body to capture the full amount.
- Partial capture: Send the request with a specific amount in the body to capture a partial amount of what was initially authorised.
Once the capture request is successful, the order will proceed to the processing stage.

Partial capture

Partial capture allows you to charge less than the originally authorised amount. This is useful when:

Final costs are lower than estimated (e.g., actual delivery cost less than initially authorised)
Some items in an order are out of stock or cancelled
You want to apply a discount after authorisation

How it works

When you perform a partial capture, the remaining authorised amount is automatically voided and immediately returned to the customer's payment method.

Update line items at capture

When capturing an order, you can optionally provide line_items to update the final order details at the time of capture.

When to use line items at capture

Updating line items at capture is useful when the final delivered items differ from what was initially authorised:

Partial captures: When capturing only specific items from the original order (e.g., customer ordered 3 items, but 1 is out of stock—capture with updated line items showing only the 2 available items)
Final adjustments: When delivered items differ from initial authorisation (e.g., substituted product, quantity changes)
Inventory changes: When stock availability changes between authorisation and capture

How it works

When you include line_items in the capture request, you specify the exact items being captured. This is particularly useful with partial captures to accurately reflect which items were captured versus voided.

5. (Optional) Cancel the payment

If you would like to return the full authorised amount to your customer, you can Cancel the order. The amount will be immediately voided and returned to your customer's original payment method.

What's next

Explore advanced authorisation features:

Pre-authorisation - Extended clearing windows for deposits and variable-amount scenarios
Incremental authorisation - Increase authorised amounts during service delivery
Clearing windows - Card scheme clearing window details

Related resources:

What is manual capture​

Why use manual capture​

Use cases​

Authorisation validity​

Default validity period​

Extended validity for advanced scenarios​

Authorisation types​

Final authorisation​

Pre-authorisation​

How it works​

Manual capture flow​

Before you begin​

Capture the authorised amount​

1. Create an order with manual capture mode​

Customise the validity period​

2. Take a payment from a customer​

3. Monitor order state​

4. Capture the payment​

Partial capture​

Update line items at capture​

5. (Optional) Cancel the payment​

What's next​