When does Dodo Payments become the seller?

When you sell an eligible digital product through Dodo Payments as merchant of record, it is the legal seller shown on the customer’s receipt. It handles the transaction taxes and payment processing. You still build, deliver and support the product.

Check that your business country and product qualify, then complete verification for live payments and payouts. A software subscription or downloadable template can fit. In-person services, physical goods and custom work such as freelance design are outside the published acceptance policy. Buyer country and payment-method availability are separate checks.

How should your app handle a failed renewal?

Keep the subscription reference with your customer’s account. Use a verified notice from Dodo or a server lookup to read its current status before changing access. If you enabled a grace period, an overdue subscription can keep access while the customer fixes their payment. When the subscription goes on hold, the app should stop the paid features according to your access policy.

A notice can arrive more than once. Give the customer the access associated with the current subscription state without granting duplicate benefits. The billing status tells you what happened to the subscription. Your app still decides how to show it to the person.

How can you check a renewal without creating a subscription?

Use paper only. Draw a fictional monthly reporting app with two subscribers. For this example, choose a grace period that puts an unpaid subscription on hold when it expires. Dodo also lets you choose cancellation at expiry. Start the second subscriber on hold and write what each person can see. Leave the provider dashboard and your app closed.

Follow one overdue account
Write that a renewal failed and the first subscriber is overdue within the grace period. Keep their reports open. Now write that the grace period ended unpaid and the subscription is on hold. Close paid reports and show a way to fix billing.
Restore only the matching account
Write that the second subscriber’s payment recovered and their subscription is active again. Reopen their reports. Read the same update twice and check that it restores the one account only. The first account should stay on hold.
Check a late notice against the current status
Draw the second subscriber’s earlier on-hold notice arriving after recovery. On paper, look up the same subscription and write down its current status, active. Keep reports open for that subscriber and leave the first account on hold.

What do fees and refunds do to your proceeds?

As of November 12, 2026, Dodo Payments lists a Standard fee of 4% plus US$0.40 per domestic US card or wallet transaction. International card or payment-method surcharges and subscription fees can raise it. Some one-time direct debit methods have a separate rate.

Check the refund rules before promising a refund. Dodo supports full or partial refunds on eligible payments to the original payment method. If a request times out, hold it for review, check the original payment’s refund record and avoid sending another request while you cannot tell what happened.

What should you keep if you reconcile payouts or switch providers?

Check your payout date, linked bank and minimum payout balance. Standard pricing lists a US$5 fee for payouts below US$1,000 or the GBP or EUR equivalent. Your balance may carry forward if it is below the threshold. Use the payments and payout reports to match earnings, refunds and fees to your own customer and subscription records.

Keep copies of the rules your app uses to grant access, alongside the reports. Saved cards require a separate transfer to an eligible receiving payment processor. Check that transfer before planning a switch, and verify what happens to active subscriptions in the new service.