Check how switching from Stripe to Adyen affects your integration
Check whether your GOV.UK Pay integration needs changes before your service switches from Stripe to Adyen.
This guidance is for people responsible for maintaining and testing your service’s technical integration with GOV.UK Pay.
You may work for the organisation using GOV.UK Pay or for an external supplier.
It explains the integration differences you need to consider when your service switches from Stripe to Adyen.
Use this guidance to:
- check whether your integration is affected
- identify any changes you need to make
- plan and run tests
- tell GOV.UK Pay if something is missing or could prevent your migration
Last updated: 7 October 2026
We will update this guidance when implementation or testing information changes.
GOV.UK Pay will email an admin user for your service if a change could affect work you have already planned or completed.
When to contact GOV.UK Pay
Email GOV.UK Pay support at govuk-pay-support@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk if:
- you identify an integration impact that is not covered here
- you cannot determine whether your integration is affected
- an instruction does not match the behaviour you observe
- you cannot test a change that you need to make
- you need significant development or supplier work
- the work could affect when your service is able to migrate
What will not change
When your service switches to Adyen:
- the payment journey for your users will stay the same
- your team members, API keys and other service settings will stay the same
- new payments created after the switch will use Adyen
You can continue to refund payments previously processed by Stripe until the Stripe refund cut-off date. GOV.UK Pay will make this date available when it is confirmed.
Accept Adyen as a payment provider
What is changing
For payments processed by Adyen, the payment_provider field will contain:
adyen
instead of:
stripe
This affects payment information returned through:
Check your integration if
Check your integration if it:
- expects
payment_providerto always containstripe - rejects or does not recognise other payment provider values
- uses the provider value to determine how payment information is processed
What you need to do
Your integration must accept adyen as a valid value for payment_provider.
Do not make your integration depend on the field containing only stripe.
Handle settlement information that arrives later
What is changing
With Stripe, settlement_summary.captured_date becomes available almost immediately after the user confirms a payment.
With Adyen, this field may not be available immediately.
It becomes available after GOV.UK Pay receives the relevant information from Adyen. There may be a delay of several minutes.
This affects:
Check your integration if
Check your integration if it expects settlement_summary.captured_date to be populated as soon as a payment reaches a successful or captured state.
What you need to do
Your integration must be able to handle settlement_summary.captured_date being absent initially.
If you need the value, retrieve the payment again later.
The card_payment_captured webhook also includes this information.
Handle payment fee information that arrives later
What is changing
With Adyen, net_amount and fee may not be available immediately after a successful payment.
The information becomes available after GOV.UK Pay receives the relevant information from Adyen. There may be a delay of several minutes.
This can affect:
Check your integration if
Check your integration if it expects net_amount or fee to be populated immediately after a successful or captured payment.
What you need to do
Your integration must be able to handle these fields being absent initially.
If you need the values soon after a payment, retrieve the payment again later.
The values will also be available when you reconcile payments using the API.
Treat wallet card expiry dates as optional
What is changing
For Stripe:
card_details.expiry_dateis always available for Apple Pay payments- the field is not available for Google Pay payments
For Adyen, the expiry date can be available for both Apple Pay and Google Pay payments.
However, Adyen may occasionally not provide the information.
This can affect:
Check your integration if
Check your integration if it assumes card_details.expiry_date will always be present for Apple Pay payments.
What you need to do
Treat card_details.expiry_date as optional for Apple Pay and Google Pay payments.
Your integration must not fail if the field is absent.
Handle fees on Adyen refunds
What is changing
Stripe refunds do not have a payment provider fee.
A gateway fee applies to Adyen refunds.
The fee and net_amount fields become available after GOV.UK Pay receives the relevant information from Adyen. There may be a delay of several minutes.
This can affect:
Check your integration if
Check your integration if it:
- uses refund
feeornet_amount - assumes refunds do not have a gateway fee
- expects fee information immediately after requesting a refund
What you need to do
Your integration must be able to handle a gateway fee on Adyen refunds.
If you need fee or net_amount shortly after requesting a refund, retrieve the refund again later.
When reconciling refunds, you can use from_settled_date and to_settled_date to retrieve refunds settled during a particular period, including the fee and net amount.
Do not treat submitted as the final refund status
What is changing
When you refund a Stripe payment through the API, Stripe confirms the outcome in the API response.
When you request a refund for an Adyen payment, the initial refund status returned by GOV.UK Pay is:
submitted
Adyen confirms the final outcome later.
Check your integration if
Check your integration if it assumes the status returned when you request a refund is the final outcome.
What you need to do
Do not treat submitted as the final refund outcome.
Accept submitted as the initial status.
Include won disputes when reconciling Adyen fees
What is changing
For Stripe disputes, a dispute fee applies only to disputes with a status of lost.
For Adyen disputes, a dispute fee applies to both:
wonlost
This affects Search disputes.
Check your integration if
Check your integration if it includes only lost disputes when calculating or reconciling dispute fees and net amounts.
What you need to do
Include both won and lost disputes when you query and reconcile dispute fees and net amounts.
Do not assume that a dispute fee applies only to lost disputes.
Check that a recurring payment agreement is active
What is changing
With Stripe, an agreement becomes active immediately after the user successfully completes the payment used to set up the agreement.
With Adyen, the user will still return to your service after successfully completing the payment.
However, the agreement may not become active immediately.
GOV.UK Pay updates the agreement after it receives the relevant information from Adyen.
This usually happens within a few minutes.
You cannot take recurring payments until the agreement is active.
Check your integration if
Check your integration if it assumes the agreement is active as soon as the user returns to your service after the first payment.
What you need to do
Retrieve the agreement to check its latest status.
Treat the agreement as ready for recurring payments only when its status is active.
Handle the gateway fee in comma-separated values (CSV) downloads
What is changing
For Stripe transactions, the fee breakdown in GOV.UK Pay CSV downloads includes:
Fee (transaction)Fee (3DS)Fee (fraud protection)
For Adyen transactions, it also includes:
Fee (gateway)
The gateway fee also applies to refunds.
Check your systems if
Check any integration, spreadsheet, reporting process or other system that processes fee information from GOV.UK Pay CSV downloads.
What you need to do
Your integration, spreadsheet, reporting process or other system must be able to handle the additional Fee (gateway) field.
Test changes to your integration
Plan and run tests for any changes you make to your integration.
We will update this guidance about how to test these changes when it is available.
Check automated tests that use Stripe test cards
Adyen uses different test card details from Stripe.
Check your automated tests if they use Stripe test card details.
We will update this guidance with the Adyen test card details when they are confirmed.
When the Adyen test cards are confirmed, update affected automated tests to use the appropriate card for each scenario.