Stripe Connect

Stripe Connect is Stripe's toolset for platforms and marketplaces that need to move money between many parties. It lets one business — the platform — onboard other businesses as sellers, accept payments on their behalf, take a cut, and pay each seller out, all through a single integration.

What Connect enables

A Connect integration has two roles: the platform account that owns the integration, and the connected accounts that sell through it. Connect handles the hard parts of a multi-party flow:

• Onboarding — verifying each seller's identity and bank details (KYC) so they can be paid.
• Charge routing — deciding whether a payment lands on the platform or directly on the seller.
• Fees — letting the platform collect an application fee on each transaction.
• Payouts — sending each seller their balance on a schedule.

Connect also authorizes third-party apps through OAuth, so a business can grant a tool access to its Stripe account without sharing API keys.

Charge types

Connect supports a few money-flow models, chosen per integration:

• Direct charges — the payment happens on the connected account; the platform takes an application fee.
• Destination charges — the payment happens on the platform, which then transfers the seller's share.
• Separate charges and transfers — the platform charges the customer and later moves funds with independent transfers.

Marketplaces, on-demand platforms, SaaS with embedded payments, and creator tools all use Connect to become the ledger between buyers and sellers while Stripe handles compliance and settlement underneath.