How can I build a custom payment button for existing Stripe invoice PaymentIntents?

Below is an overview of your options and some recommendations for how to proceed:

---

Background

When you create a subscription through the Dashboard, the billing method is set to “Send invoice,” which creates an invoice in Stripe that includes a PaymentIntent. In this case, payment isn’t collected automatically; instead, the payment must be initiated by the customer. The built‐in Stripe flow uses the hosted invoice URL to allow the customer to complete payment. However, since you prefer not to expose that URL, you need an alternative way of letting your customer pay the invoice from your own UI.

---

Option 1: Use a Custom Payment Flow with the PaymentIntents API

Although you cannot pass an already–existing PaymentIntent ID into a new Checkout Session, you can design your own custom payment flow by:

1. Retrieving the Invoice and PaymentIntent Information:
   When you receive a webhook (for example, an event such as invoice.created or invoice.payment_action_required), note the PaymentIntent ID associated with the invoice.

2. Building a Custom Payment UI:
   Using Stripe Elements (or a similar Stripe client integration), you can build your own payment form interface. In your backend, you can then confirm the PaymentIntent using the PaymentIntents API. For instance, you may call:

   PHPCopied
   $paymentIntent = \Stripe\PaymentIntent::retrieve($payment_intent_id);
   $paymentIntent->confirm([
       'payment_method' => $payment_method_id, // collected from your custom form
   ]);

3. Handling Additional Steps:
   If a next action is required (for example, 3D Secure authentication), you can handle that as part of your UI flow based on the status of the PaymentIntent.

This approach uses the PaymentIntents APIs directly so you have full control over the UI and flow without redirecting to Stripe’s hosted pages.

---

Option 2: Create a Payment Link (Not Using Checkout Session)

Stripe’s Payment Links are intended to be shareable URLs that trigger a hosted payment page. However, if your requirement is to avoid using hosted URLs entirely (i.e., you want to keep the entire UI under your control), with Payment Links you would still be exposing a Stripe–hosted page. Given your note that the hosted_invoice_url is not acceptable, Payment Links may not be the ideal solution for your use case.

---

Recommendation

Since you want to hide Stripe–hosted pages and fully integrate the payment experience into your website, the preferred route is to build a custom payment flow using Stripe Elements and the PaymentIntents API. Your workflow would look roughly like this:

1. Webhook Handling:
   Listen to invoice-related webhooks and capture the PaymentIntent ID from the invoice.

2. Custom Payment UI:
   Present a button (or other UI element) on your website that, when clicked, triggers a process in your backend to confirm the PaymentIntent via the PaymentIntents API.

3. Payment Confirmation:
   Handle any additional required actions (e.g., 3D Secure) in the UI based on the PaymentIntent’s status. Once confirmed, update your internal records accordingly.

This method allows you to integrate all payment steps into your own design and user flow without relying on Stripe’s default hosted invoice or checkout pages.

---

Summary

• No, you can’t “pass” a PaymentIntent ID into a Checkout Session to reuse an existing invoice’s PaymentIntent.
• Using a Payment Link creates a hosted experience, which doesn’t meet your requirements.
• Instead, use the PaymentIntents API together with your custom UI (e.g., Stripe Elements) to programmatically confirm the invoice’s PaymentIntent and finish the payment within your own site.

This gives you full control over the customer experience and ensures that the Stripe-hosted invoice page remains completely hidden from your users.

Feel free to ask if you need more details or code examples on implementing the custom flow!