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Resolve a payment failure

If a payment fails when purchasing a product, changing a subscription, or paying an invoice, you may see one of the following error messages:

  • "The payment has failed. Please contact your bank or use a different payment method."
  • "Payment error: authorization failed for [“example.com”]"

You may also receive an email with the subject "[Cloudflare]: We could not process your renewal payment" when a recurring subscription charge fails.

Automatic retries and product removal

If the failed payment relates to a recurring charge for a Cloudflare plan, add-on, or subscription, your account is automatically downgraded to a Free plan after a 5-day grace period. Downgrading to a Free plan does not suspend your website, but you lose any paid features associated with the Pro, Business, or Enterprise plan.

To avoid this, resolve the failing payment and retry using the steps below. If you do not resolve the issue within the 5-day grace period, you must manually re-subscribe to each product. You may also need to pay an outstanding balance from the grace period.

Causes

  • Your card details are incorrect
  • There are not enough funds in your account
  • You did not pass 3D Secure (3DS) correctly
  • Your bank is rate limiting payments from us
  • Your bank is declining the payment

Solution

Check your details & contact your bank

Check your card details

  • Check your address is valid and matches the one registered with your bank for the payment method you are using
  • Check that the Card Verification Value (CVC) you entered is correct for your card
  • If you are using PayPal, check for a verification email to your PayPal email address and follow the instructions to authorize

Check you have enough funds

Verify that your payment method has enough funds to cover the charge.

Correctly authorise your transaction with 3D Secure (3DS)

You may be using a bank that mandates the use of 3D Secure (3DS) for online card transactions. For one off or first time subscription payments, you need to be prepared to pass 3DS authentication when you attempt the payment in the Cloudflare dashboard. Your bank will contact you to authorise the transaction in real time. This contact typically comes via an SMS or push notification from your bank’s mobile application.

For customers of Indian banks, 3DS is mandatory for all transactions as per the mandate from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Contact your bank if purchasing / renewing Registrar domains

If you were purchasing or renewing multiple domains via Cloudflare Registrar each domain will be charged as a separate transaction. This may be flagged as fraud by your credit card company. Contact your bank to confirm and resolve this.

Contact your bank to understand & fix the declined payment

Cloudflare’s payment system does not know why a payment was declined, so contact your bank to find out the specific reason for the decline.

Try your payment again

After checking the items above, retry your transaction in the Cloudflare dashboard. If the payment that failed was a renewal, Cloudflare retries automatically 5 times over 5 days. Retrying manually in the dashboard gives you instant feedback. To do this:

  1. Log into the Cloudflare dashboard ↗ and select your account.
  2. Go to Manage Account > Billing.
  3. Go to Invoices and documents.
  4. Click Pay Now next to your invoice OR from the Invoice PDF, click the payment link.
  5. Follow the on screen instructions to try again.

Try a new payment method

If you cannot resolve this using your current payment method, you may wish to try an alternative payment method. Cloudflare accepts credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover), PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Stripe Link. To try this, refer to update your payment methods.