Does your customer need a download, a license key or an account?
If you sell a template, a customer can pay and receive the file through Lemon Squeezy. For software that needs a license key, it can issue the code your software checks. If you sell access to a web app, the service takes the payment and your app has to unlock the right account.
Lemon Squeezy acts as merchant of record, the legal seller on eligible sales. It handles the sale’s transaction taxes and takes care of the payment side of refunds and card disputes. You still answer questions about using the product.
What has to happen before your store can charge real customers?
You can set up a store and try it in test mode. Before going live, Lemon Squeezy asks what you sell and verifies your identity. Check whether you can receive payouts through a supported bank or PayPal route in your country.
Think about what someone actually receives after checkout. A download or software subscription can fit its product rules. A physical shipment or a service mostly delivered by a person generally falls outside them. Let the store review happen before you promise a paid launch.
What should you see after a test purchase?
Create a test product and decide whether the customer pays once or starts a subscription, a charge that repeats on a schedule. Use a made-up customer. If you sell a file, see that the customer can reach it. If you sell a plan, sign in to your app and open something on that plan.
Run a declined purchase and a scheduled cancellation too. Before launch, switch to live keys, products, checkout links and notification settings. Copying a product from test mode creates a different checkout address for the live product. Check that your Buy button opens the right one.
How does a Lemon Squeezy order unlock a web app?
Link the order or subscription to the customer’s app account. Lemon Squeezy sends a direct notification called a webhook when billing changes. The app verifies the signature to make sure the message came from Lemon Squeezy, then updates what that account can use.
A buyer who sees the checkout confirmation may return before the app has received the update. Show a useful waiting state and check the billing record. Avoid telling them to pay again while you’re still confirming the first purchase.
The service retries failed messages a limited number of times. Make repeated deliveries safe and look for failures that need fixing. If a customer has a receipt but still sees a free account, compare the order with the account it was supposed to unlock.
How much can a $20 order cost to process?
For a $20 USD order with no tax added, the 5% base rate plus $0.50 is $1.50. For a US subscription payment with no other additions, the subscription charge brings the fee to $1.60. If the subscription payment also counts as international, it comes to $1.90. These are fee examples before payouts and other charges.
The percentage applies to the full order, including any tax. If the checkout totals $22 because $2 tax was added to a $20 subscription, use $22 for the calculation. The tax is separate from what you keep.
A shopper may see a price in their local currency. Lemon Squeezy processes the charge in USD. Check both what the customer sees and the fees and currency for sending earnings to your bank or PayPal account.
| Charge | When it applies |
|---|---|
| 5% + $0.50 USD per transaction | Base ecommerce rate on the full order, with no monthly ecommerce fee. |
| +0.5% subscriptions, +1.5% international, +1.5% PayPal | Add each charge that applies to the payment. |
| 1% for a non-US bank payout | Separate from checkout. The payout route and optional services can change the total. |
When does a canceled subscription actually stop working?
If a customer cancels after paying for the month, Lemon Squeezy keeps the subscription valid through the current paid period. Show them the end date and keep their paid features available until then.
A declined renewal starts a payment recovery process. Check what your app tells someone after a decline, whether access stays available after they pay, and when access ends if the subscription expires. If you change the price of a product, existing subscriptions don’t automatically pick up the new price.
If your software uses Lemon Squeezy subscription license keys, their validity follows the subscription expiry. If the product is a web app, its sign-in and feature checks still have to respect that expiry.
What happens to your earnings if the customer gets a refund?
A refund can reduce your payout even though Lemon Squeezy is the legal seller. Fees can stay deducted, and Lemon Squeezy can refund an order to avoid a card dispute even when your own policy is stricter.
If a customer asks their bank to reverse a charge, that’s a chargeback. The current dispute guide describes an additional $15 USD fee in most chargeback cases. When you approve a refund, decide separately what should happen to the subscription and app access, then check all three records.
What does the order export let you take to another provider?
The order export is a spreadsheet-style file with order and customer details. For card payments it gives limited information such as the last four digits. It helps you keep sales records and match people to purchases.
A new service needs permission and usable payment details before it can charge those customers again. The order export doesn’t establish whether another provider can take over live subscriptions. Confirm what both providers can move, who must enter a card again and how you’ll keep their access working in the meantime.