Settlement

Settlement is when the money from a captured payment becomes available in your account balance. An approved card payment is not spendable right away. It starts as pending and becomes available a few business days later.

How settlement works

When a customer pays, the charge is authorized and captured. The funds go to your pending balance first. After a delay, written as T+X business days where T is the transaction date, they move to your available balance. From there you can use them for a payout, a refund, or a transfer.

Timing depends on country, card type, and account. A common US default is T+2 business days. Newer or higher-risk accounts can wait longer.

Settlement vs payout schedule

These are two separate clocks:

• Settlement timing sets how long pending funds take to become available.
• The payout schedule sets when available funds go to your bank.

A daily, weekly, or monthly payout schedule does not change settlement speed. If your account settles in two business days and you have daily payouts, each payout contains funds from payments captured two business days earlier.

Why it matters

Revenue you see today is not cash you can withdraw today. Settlement explains the gap. Stripe records each settled payment as a balance transaction, which shows the fee deducted and feeds your net volume.