Gateway Recurring Billing Setup

🔄 Introduction: What is Recurring Billing?

Recurring billing is the process of automatically charging customers on a regular schedule (weekly, monthly, yearly) for subscription-based products or services. It is essential for businesses with subscription models like SaaS, memberships, and recurring services.

With the rise of crypto payments, many gateways now support recurring billing — allowing merchants to accept subscription payments in cryptocurrency. This guide covers everything you need to know about setting up recurring billing with crypto payment gateways.

📋 Common Use Cases

Recurring billing is used across many industries and business models:

⚙️ How Recurring Billing Works in Crypto Gateways

The recurring billing flow follows these stages:

• Plan creation — define the subscription plan (name, price, currency, billing cycle) in the gateway dashboard.
• Checkout — customer selects a plan, provides payment details, and authorizes recurring charges.
• First payment — the initial payment is processed immediately.
• Recurring charges — subsequent payments are automatically processed on the scheduled date.
• Webhooks — the gateway sends notifications for each billing event (payment.succeeded, payment.failed, subscription.cancelled).

📋 Step-by-Step Setup Guide

Step 1: Choose a Gateway with Recurring Billing

Not all crypto gateways support recurring billing. Choose one that offers subscription management features:

Step 2: Create a Subscription Plan

In your gateway dashboard, create a subscription plan with the following details:

• Plan name — e.g., "Premium Monthly"
• Price — amount and currency (use stablecoins for predictable pricing)
• Billing cycle — monthly, quarterly, yearly
• Currency — USD (stablecoins), EUR, etc.
• Trial period — optional free trial (days)

Step 3: Implement Checkout Flow

// Example: Creating a subscription checkout (Node.js)
const response = await axios.post('https://api.gateway.com/v1/subscriptions', {
    plan_id: 'plan_abc123',
    customer_email: 'customer@example.com',
    payment_currency: 'USDC',
    success_url: 'https://yoursite.com/success',
    cancel_url: 'https://yoursite.com/cancel'
});

// Redirect customer to the gateway's checkout page
res.redirect(response.data.checkout_url);
                    

Step 4: Configure Webhooks

Set up webhook endpoints to receive subscription event notifications:

Step 5: Handle Payment Failures

Implement retry logic and dunning emails to recover failed payments:

• Retry logic — most gateways automatically retry failed charges with exponential backoff.
• Dunning emails — send reminder emails to customers whose payment failed.
• Grace period — allow a grace period before suspending/cancelling the subscription.

Step 6: Test in Sandbox

Test your recurring billing setup in the sandbox environment before going live:

• Create test subscriptions — use testnet or simulated payments.
• Simulate billing cycles — trigger multiple billing cycles to verify automated charges.
• Simulate failures — test retry logic and dunning emails.
• Test cancellation flows — verify that cancellations work correctly.

📈 Managing Volatility in Recurring Billing

Volatility is a key challenge in crypto recurring billing. Here are strategies to manage it:

✅ Best Practices for Recurring Billing

• 1
  Use stablecoins for predictable pricing

  Price subscriptions in USD and settle in USDC or USDT to avoid volatility.

• 2
  Implement dunning emails

  Send reminder emails when payments fail to recover revenue and retain customers.

• 3
  Set a grace period

  Allow 3-7 days for customers to update payment methods before cancelling subscriptions.

• 4
  Test thoroughly in sandbox

  Simulate all billing scenarios before going live to ensure your integration works correctly.

• 5
  Monitor subscription metrics

  Track churn rate, average revenue per user (ARPU), and customer lifetime value (LTV) to optimize your subscription model.

• 6
  Provide easy cancellation

  Make it easy for customers to cancel subscriptions — this builds trust and reduces chargebacks.