Crypto payments for subscriptions and recurring billing

CryptoLike bills a subscription in crypto one period at a time: your system creates an invoice for each renewal, the customer pays it from the link in your renewal e-mail, and a signed webhook tells your server to extend access. The price stays in USD or EUR; the customer pays the equivalent in Bitcoin, USDT or another enabled asset at a rate locked for the invoice.

#Why can't crypto be charged automatically each month?

A crypto payment is always pushed by the payer's wallet; nobody can pull it from the customer later, the way a card is charged on file. So a crypto subscription is a series of invoices, not a stored payment method. The customer confirms each period, which suits annual plans, B2B contracts and customers who prefer to prepay; your product decides what happens when a period is not paid.

#How recurring billing works with CryptoLike invoices

Your billing system keeps the schedule; CryptoLike handles each period's payment. A renewal takes one API call and one webhook, and the same code works for monthly, quarterly and annual plans.

1. A few days before renewal, create the invoice. POST /v1/invoices with the plan price in USD, an order_id that names the subscription and the period, and a time to pay of up to 30 days (ttl_seconds up to 2,592,000).
2. Send the checkout_url in your renewal e-mail or show it in the customer's account. The page shows the amount, the network, the address with a QR code and the time left.
3. Extend access on invoice.paid. Verify the webhook signature, find the subscription by order_id or metadata, and move the paid-until date by one period.
4. Handle the other outcomes. invoice.underpaid — ask for the rest to the same address before the deadline; invoice.expired — start your grace period or pause the plan and offer a new invoice.

{
  "amount": "49.00",
  "currency": "USD",
  "order_id": "sub-4821-2026-10",
  "idempotency_by_order_id": true,
  "ttl_seconds": 604800,
  "metadata": { "subscription_id": "4821", "period": "2026-10" },
  "return_url": "https://app.example.com/billing"
}

With idempotency_by_order_id, a retried job for the same period returns the open invoice instead of billing twice. metadata comes back in every invoice.* webhook and is never shown to the payer.

#Which renewal model fits your product?

Three patterns cover most subscription businesses. They differ in who starts the payment and how your system learns about it; all three use the same statuses and webhooks.

The prepaid model is described in deposits to static addresses, and manual invoices in payment links.

#Pricing in fiat and the exchange rate

The plan price stays in your currency. When the customer picks the coin on the payment page, CryptoLike converts the amount at the current rate and locks it until the invoice expires, so a long time to pay does not change what the customer owes in crypto once the coin is chosen. Price in a stablecoin instead if you want the amount fixed in USDT from the start. The platform fee per confirmed payment is on the pricing page.

#How to connect

Subscriptions need a backend that stores the secret key and receives webhooks. Install an SDK — TypeScript SDK, Python SDK, PHP SDK or Go SDK — create a key with create_invoice and read, and test the whole renewal on test networks with a ck_test_ key and the test API URL from CryptoLike support. The full request and webhook reference is in the API overview; more patterns for services are in crypto payments for digital goods and SaaS.

#FAQ

#Can CryptoLike charge my customers automatically every month?

No. A crypto transfer is always sent by the payer's own wallet, so nothing can be charged without the customer confirming it. CryptoLike subscriptions work with one invoice per billing period: your system creates it before the renewal, the customer pays from the link, and the invoice.paid webhook extends access. A prepaid balance on a static address is the alternative for frequent charges.

#How long can a renewal invoice stay open?

Up to 30 days: ttl_seconds accepts 60 to 2,592,000 seconds, and without it the account's default time to pay (30 minutes) applies. For renewals, 3 to 7 days is common. Once the customer chooses a coin, the exchange rate is locked until the invoice expires, so the crypto amount they see does not change while the invoice is open.

#What if the customer pays less than the plan price?

The invoice becomes underpaid and stays open to a top-up to the same address until its deadline; remaining_amount tells your system how much is missing, and the customer sees it on the payment page. If the rest arrives in time, invoice.paid follows. If not, the invoice closes as underpaid and you decide whether to extend access or refund.

#How do I avoid billing the same period twice?

Use an order_id that names the subscription and the period, such as sub-4821-2026-10, and send idempotency_by_order_id: true. A retried job or a second request for the same period then returns the open invoice instead of creating a new one, and a period that has already received money is refused with 409 conflict.