Authorize and Capture Payments

In some scenarios, your checkout process may collect and pre-authorize a purchase before the customer completes checkout. This is useful when you want to run a customer and card against your fraud rules, enable pre-orders, or adjust the final amount at fulfillment.

Both Payment Intents and the direct Payments API support authorize-and-capture. Both approaches result in a Payment object on success.

Getting Started

To get started, you will need a Credova Account.

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Get your Secret Key

Next you will need your Secret Key. Go to your Developers section and click Reveal for your Secret Key and copy the value.

Save the Secret Key as it will be used in the next steps of this guide.

Payment Intents

Use capture_method: manual to authorize the card without immediately capturing funds. The intent moves to requires_capture after confirmation and waits up to 7 days for an explicit capture call.

Create a Payment Intent

Call the Create Payment Intent endpoint with capture_method: manual. Including a card at creation time starts the intent in requires_confirmation status:

Create a Payment Intent with Manual Capture

curl 'https://api.publicsquare.com/payment_intents' \
-X 'POST' \
-H 'X-API-KEY: <SECRET_API_KEY>' \
-H 'IDEMPOTENCY-KEY: 09ec2c87-7fb8-44ca-bb18-5c71a76974da' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
  "amount": 1000,
  "currency": "USD",
  "capture_method": "manual",
  "payment_method": {
    "card": "card_AjkCFKAYiTsjghXWMzoXFPMxj"
  },
  "customer": {
    "first_name": "John",
    "last_name": "Smith",
    "email": "john.smith@email.com"
  },
  "billing_details": {
    "address_line_1": "111 Test St.",
    "city": "Des Moines",
    "state": "IA",
    "postal_code": "51111",
    "country": "US"
  }
}'

The amount is provided in cents. 1000 is the equivalent of $10.00

Create Response

{
  "id": "pmt_int_2xNjK7abcdefghij",
  "account_id": "acc_B518niGwGYKzig6vtrRVZGGGV",
  "environment": "test",
  "status": "requires_confirmation",
  "amount": 1000,
  "currency": "USD",
  "capture_method": "manual",
  "payment_method": {
    "card": {
      "id": "card_AjkCFKAYiTsjghXWMzoXFPMxj",
      "last_four": "4242",
      "brand": "visa",
      "exp_month": "12",
      "exp_year": "2025"
    }
  },
  "payment_id": null,
  "expires_date": "2026-04-16T14:22:10Z",
  "created_date": "2026-04-15T14:22:10Z",
  "modified_date": "2026-04-15T14:22:10Z"
}

Create Without a Payment Method

For multi-step checkout flows where the payment method is collected separately, omit the payment_method field. The intent starts in requires_payment_method status and can be updated once the card is available:

Create a Payment Intent without a Payment Method

curl 'https://api.publicsquare.com/payment_intents' \
-X 'POST' \
-H 'X-API-KEY: <SECRET_API_KEY>' \
-H 'IDEMPOTENCY-KEY: 09ec2c87-7fb8-44ca-bb18-5c71a76974da' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
  "amount": 1000,
  "currency": "USD",
  "capture_method": "manual"
}'

Once you have a card, call the Update Payment Intent endpoint to attach it. The intent will transition to requires_confirmation:

Attach a Payment Method

curl 'https://api.publicsquare.com/payment_intents/pmt_int_2xNjK7abcdefghij' \
-X 'PUT' \
-H 'X-API-KEY: <SECRET_API_KEY>' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
  "payment_method": {
    "card": "card_AjkCFKAYiTsjghXWMzoXFPMxj"
  }
}'

Confirm the Payment Intent

With the intent in requires_confirmation, call the Confirm Payment Intent endpoint to authorize the card. Because capture_method is manual, a successful authorization moves the intent to requires_capture rather than succeeded:

Confirm a Payment Intent

curl 'https://api.publicsquare.com/payment_intents/pmt_int_2xNjK7abcdefghij/confirm' \
-X 'POST' \
-H 'X-API-KEY: <SECRET_API_KEY>' \
-H 'IDEMPOTENCY-KEY: 3a9f1b72-cc4e-4f92-b7d3-1e5a9c8d2041' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'

Confirm Response

{
  "id": "pmt_int_2xNjK7abcdefghij",
  "account_id": "acc_B518niGwGYKzig6vtrRVZGGGV",
  "environment": "test",
  "status": "requires_capture",
  "amount": 1000,
  "currency": "USD",
  "capture_method": "manual",
  "payment_id": null,
  "expires_date": "2026-04-22T14:22:10Z",
  "confirmed_date": "2026-04-15T14:22:45Z",
  "created_date": "2026-04-15T14:22:10Z",
  "modified_date": "2026-04-15T14:22:45Z"
}

The authorization expires after 7 days. The intent will automatically move to canceled status if not captured before the expires_date.

Capture the Payment

Using the authorized intent, call the Capture Payment Intent endpoint:

Capture a Payment Intent

curl 'https://api.publicsquare.com/payment_intents/pmt_int_2xNjK7abcdefghij/capture' \
-X 'POST' \
-H 'X-API-KEY: <SECRET_API_KEY>' \
-H 'IDEMPOTENCY-KEY: 7c2e9a41-fd83-4b1e-a5d9-2f6c8b3e1047' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
  "amount": 1000
}'

You can capture up to, but not exceeding, the original authorized amount. If no amount is passed, the full authorized amount will be captured.

Capture Response

{
  "id": "pmt_int_2xNjK7abcdefghij",
  "account_id": "acc_B518niGwGYKzig6vtrRVZGGGV",
  "environment": "test",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "amount": 1000,
  "currency": "USD",
  "payment_id": "pmt_5mBpT2ghiklmnopq",
  "expires_date": null,
  "succeeded_date": "2026-04-17T09:14:22Z",
  "created_date": "2026-04-15T14:22:10Z",
  "modified_date": "2026-04-17T09:14:22Z"
}

Legacy

The direct Payments API supports authorize-and-capture by passing "capture": false when creating the payment.

For example, given you have a previously collected card:

card.json

{
  "id": "card_AjkCFKAYiTsjghXWMzoXFPMxj",
  "account_id": "acc_B518niGwGYKzig6vtrRVZGGGV",
  "environment": "test",
  "cardholder_name": "John Smith",
  "last4": "4242",
  "exp_month": "12",
  "exp_year": "2025",
  "fingerprint": "CC2XvyoohnqecEq4r3FtXv6MdCx4TbaW1UUTdCCN5MNL",
  "created_at": "2024-06-30T01:02:29.212Z",
  "modified_at": "2024-06-30T01:02:29.212Z"
}

Create Authorized Payment

We need to make a call to Create Payment endpoint passing "capture": false in the request body:

Create a Payment

curl 'https://api.publicsquare.com/payments' \
-X 'POST' \
-H 'X-API-KEY: <SECRET_API_KEY>' \
-H 'IDEMPONTENCY-KEY: 09ec2c87-7fb8-44ca-bb18-5c71a76974da' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
  "amount": 1000,
  "currency": "USD",
  "capture": false,
  "payment_method": {
    "card": "card_AjkCFKAYiTsjghXWMzoXFPMxj"
  },
  "customer": {
    "first_name": "John",
    "last_name": "Smith",
    "email": "john.smith@email.com"
  },
  "billing_details": {
    "address_line_1": "111 Test St.",
    "city": "Des Moines",
    "state": "IA",
    "postal_code": "51111",
    "country": "US"
  }
}'

The amount is provided in cents. 1000 is the equivalent of $10.00

The IDEMPONTENCY-KEY header can be passed to protect against duplicate payments being processed.

Authorized Payment Response

You should see a payment response with a requires_capture status similar to:

Authorized Payment Response

{
  "id": "pmt_2YKewBonG4tgk12MheY3PiHDy",
  "account_id": "acc_B518niGwGYKzig6vtrRVZGGGV",
  "environment": "test",
  "status": "requires_capture",
  "transaction_id": "trx_95rvMJvAVeG68W4NtLdfkN3LG",
  "amount": 0,
  "amount_charged": 0,
  "amount_capturable": 1000,
  "amount_refunded": 0,
  "refunded": false,
  "currency": "USD",
  "payment_method": {
    "card": {
      "id": "card_AjkCFKAYiTsjghXWMzoXFPMxj",
      "cardholder_name": "John Smith",
      "last4": "4242",
      "exp_month": "12",
      "exp_year": "2025",
      "brand": "visa",
      "avs_code": "Y",
      "cvv2_reply": "M",
      "fingerprint": "CC2XvyoohnqecEq4r3FtXv6MdCx4TbaW1UUTdCCN5MNL"
    }
  },
  "customer": {
    "id": "cus_7Ay5mcUXAxwrN6wQEQUVEHBCJ",
    "first_name": "John",
    "last_name": "Smith",
    "email": "john.smith@email.com"
  },
  "billing_details": {
    "address_line_1": "111 Test St.",
    "city": "Des Moines",
    "state": "IA",
    "postal_code": "51111",
    "country": "US"
  },
  "transaction": {
    "id": "trx_95rvMJvAVeG68W4NtLdfkN3LG",
    "account_id": "acc_B518niGwGYKzig6vtrRVZGGGV",
    "environment": "test",
    "status": "requires_capture",
    "amount": 1000,
    "fee_amount": 0,
    "net_amount": 1000,
    "currency": "USD",
    "type_id": "pmt_2YKewBonG4tgk12MheY3PiHDy",
    "type": "payment",
    "processor": "nuvei",
    "created_at": "2024-06-30T01:02:29.212Z",
    "modified_at": "2024-06-30T01:02:29.212Z"
  },
  "created_at": "2024-06-30T01:02:29.212Z",
  "modified_at": "2024-06-30T01:02:29.212Z"
}

If the payment authorization was declined by the processor or rejected because of fraud decisioning rules, you will see a payment status of rejected or declined. These payments cannot be captured.

Capture the Payment

Using the authorized payment from the previous step, we now need to make a call to Capture Payment endpoint:

Capture a Payment

curl 'https://api.publicsquare.com/payments/capture' \
-X 'POST' \
-H 'X-API-KEY: <SECRET_API_KEY>' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{
  "payment_id": "pmt_2YKewBonG4tgk12MheY3PiHDy",
  "amount": 1000
}'

You can capture up to, but not exceeding, the original authorized payment amount. If no amount is passed, the full authorized amount of the payment will be captured.

Captured Payment Response

You should see a payment response with a succeeded status similar to:

Captured Payment Response

{
  "id": "pmt_2YKewBonG4tgk12MheY3PiHDy",
  "account_id": "acc_B518niGwGYKzig6vtrRVZGGGV",
  "environment": "test",
  "status": "succeeded",
  "transaction_id": "trx_95rvMJvAVeG68W4NtLdfkN3LG",
  "amount": 1000,
  "amount_charged": 1000,
  "amount_capturable": 0,
  ...
  "transaction": {
    "id": "trx_95rvMJvAVeG68W4NtLdfkN3LG",
    "account_id": "acc_B518niGwGYKzig6vtrRVZGGGV",
    "environment": "test",
    "status": "succeeded",
    "amount": 1000,
    "fee_amount": 0,
    "net_amount": 1000,
    "processor": "nuvei",
    "processor_id": "7110000000010554769",
    ...
  },
  ...
}

Conclusion

Authorize and capturing payments also works with ACH payments using a bank account payment method. See our Process ACH payments guide to see how to collect bank accounts and process ACH payments following similar steps in this guide.

Now that we have seen how to authorize and capture payments with a collected card, we may need to manage the payment or view information about the payment. Follow these guides to learn more:

• Issue a Refund
• Cancel a Payment
• Search and View Transactions