What does the Payment Intent API represent?

The Payment Intent API represents the intention to collect payment. This design allows for a more flexible payment process, enabling developers to manage complex payment flows effectively. By using the Payment Intent API, you can represent your intent to collect a payment, which encompasses various states of the payment process such as pending, succeeded, or failed.

This approach helps in scenarios where multiple interactions may be needed to complete a payment, such as requiring additional customer verification steps like 3D Secure authentication. The API gives you control and visibility over the lifecycle of the payment process, ensuring that the outcome aligns with user expectations and improves overall user experience during transactions.

The focus on the intention behind the payment simplifies the integration for developers, allowing them to handle payments robustly by presenting a consistent way to track the progress and respond to different scenarios that might arise during the payment flow.