Now that you have defined your Product and how to price it using Plans and Prices, the next step is to connect your offering with the end-users who will consume it. This is managed through Customers and Subscriptions.

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Customers

A Customer resource represents the relationship between your Merchant Organization and a Consumer Organization that uses your Product.
  • Linkage: It connects a specific Consumer (who holds a Wallet and pays) to your Merchant account.
  • Context: When you report Usage Events, you report them against a Customer ID, allowing Paygentic to identify the correct Consumer Wallet to bill and the correct Merchant Wallet to credit.
  • Creation: Customer resources are typically created automatically as part of the Subscription Flow.

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Subscriptions

A Subscription formalizes the agreement between a Customer and a specific Plan (and by inheritance, a Product).
  • Agreement: It signifies that the Customer (representing the Consumer Organization) has agreed to pay for the Product according to the rates defined in the Plan.
  • Scope: A Subscription links one Customer to one Plan.
  • Billing Basis: Active Subscriptions are necessary for Paygentic to correctly process Usage Events and apply the right Prices.
  • Creation: Like Customers, Subscriptions are usually created automatically during the Subscription Flow.
Essentially:
  1. A Consumer wants to use your Product.
  2. You establish a Customer relationship between your Merchant and their Consumer.
  3. The Customer agrees to a specific Plan by creating a Subscription.
  4. The Subscription allows the Merchant to report Usage Events for that Customer, which are then billed according to the Plan’s Prices against the Consumer’s Wallet.

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The Subscription Flow

Paygentic provides a managed checkout flow to simplify the process of creating Customers and Subscriptions.
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1. Generate Authorization Link

To initiate the flow, you need a unique URL associated with a specific Plan.
  • Method: Use the Create Authorization Session API endpoint (POST v0/customers/authorization) or the “Generate Authorization Link” button on the Plan details page in the Paygentic Merchant Dashboard.
  • Input: You’ll need the planId and your merchantId.
  • Output: Paygentic generates a unique URL (e.g., https://platform.paygentic.io/authorize/...) representing a pending authorization session.
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2. Redirect Consumer to Link

Provide the generated authorization URL to the end-user who wants to subscribe.
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3. Paygentic Checkout

The user clicks the link and is taken to Paygentic’s secure, hosted checkout page.
  • Existing Paygentic User: If the user is already logged into a Paygentic Consumer account, they will be prompted to confirm the subscription to the specified Plan.
  • New Paygentic User: If the user is not logged in or doesn’t have a Paygentic account, they will be guided through creating a new Paygentic Consumer Organization and User account, and adding a payment method to top up their Wallet before confirming the subscription.
  • Merchant Branding: The checkout page displays the Product and Plan details (name, description) you defined.
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4. Resource Creation

Upon successful completion of the checkout flow by the user:
  • Paygentic automatically creates a Customer resource linking your Merchant Organization to the Consumer Organization (if one didn’t already exist for this Consumer).
  • Paygentic automatically creates a Subscription resource linking the Customer to the chosen Plan.
  • The subscription status becomes active.
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5. Ready for Usage

The Customer is now successfully subscribed to your Plan, and you can begin reporting Usage Events against their customerId.
With Customers subscribed, you can now create Entitlements (optional) and report consumption via Usage Events.