A Paydude payment moves through five stages: capture, tokenize, authorize, settle, pay out. You build two of them — the checkout and the webhook handler — and the rest happens on the platform side.
The flow
- The customer enters their card
Into drop-in card fields served by Paydude, so the raw card number never reaches your server.
- The card is tokenized
You receive a token — a reference with no relationship to the card number. Store it; it is safe in your database.
- The payment is authorized
Risk scoring runs, 3D Secure steps up when the signals warrant it, and the issuing bank approves or declines.
- The transaction settles
Funds move from the issuing bank to the acquirer, net of interchange, over one to two business days.
- You are paid out
Standard, next-day or instant — chosen per payout. Instant costs 1%; the others do not.
Stages two through four are the platform's responsibility. For the mechanics of what happens between banks, see what is settlement.
What you build
| You build | Handled for you |
|---|---|
| Checkout page with drop-in fields | Card capture and tokenization |
| Webhook endpoint | Risk scoring and 3D Secure |
| Product logic on success or failure | Retries and idempotency |
| Storing tokens against customers | PCI-scoped card storage |
| Settlement and payouts |
Webhooks are the part worth getting right
Payments are asynchronous. A charge can succeed after the customer has closed the tab, a subscription renews without anyone present, and a dispute arrives weeks later. Webhooks are how you find out.
Paydude signs every webhook and makes writes idempotent, which addresses the two classic failure modes — a forged event, and the same event processed twice because your endpoint timed out and the platform retried.
Building it with an AI agent
Paydude publishes an official MCP server, which gives a coding agent typed payment tools rather than scraped documentation. Install it with npx -y @paydude/mcp, or in Claude Code with claude mcp add paydude -- npx -y @paydude/mcp, and set PAYDUDE_API_KEY to a sandbox key — sandbox keys need no signup.
The server can create and refund sandbox payments, search transactions, scaffold checkout and explain fees for a given volume. See the API overview for the surface it wraps.
GOOD QUESTIONS
Frequently asked
How long does a Paydude integration take?+
Sandbox keys need no signup, so you can make a test payment immediately. A basic checkout using drop-in card fields and the typed SDK is a short piece of work; subscriptions and webhook handling add more. The MCP server can scaffold checkout and test it against the sandbox for you.
Does card data touch my servers?+
No. Drop-in card fields capture the card inside Paydude's environment and return a token. Your database stores the token, never the card number — which is what keeps your PCI scope at the smallest self-assessment level.
When do I get paid?+
Payouts are standard, next-day or instant, chosen per payout rather than fixed on the account. Instant payouts cost 1%; the others carry no fee.
What do I need to build myself?+
The checkout page using drop-in fields, a webhook endpoint to receive events, and whatever your product does when a payment succeeds or fails. Tokenization, 3D Secure, risk scoring, retries and reconciliation are handled by the platform.