Polar

What can Polar give a customer after they pay?

Polar can sell a download, issue a software license key or give a paying customer access to a supported community or repository. Polar calls the things a purchase unlocks benefits. If the purchase unlocks part of your own app, use the customer’s billing record to check their access there.

For eligible sales Polar is the legal seller, or merchant of record. It handles the transaction taxes that go with those sales. Your customer still comes to you if the product doesn’t work, and your business still handles its own income taxes.

Can you get paid for the thing you want to sell?

Check what your business mainly sells and where you can receive payouts, the money sent to you after sales. Polar focuses on eligible software and digital goods. Businesses whose main offer is physical goods or human services are outside that fit. Its rules also prohibit marketplace sales of other people’s products or services.

Before sending your first payout, Polar reviews the business, owner’s identity and payout account. Have a working product and purchase flow ready. Check whether your receiving country is supported and allow time for the review before counting on the earnings. Later reviews can also hold payouts.

How do you see what a buyer receives without using a real card?

Create a separate test account and organization in Polar’s sandbox. The organization holds the products, customers and settings. Add one product and its benefit, then use Polar’s documented test payment details to buy it as a made-up customer.

Check whether that test account can get the download or open the feature it bought. Try the account before it buys, after it pays and when its subscription ends. Keep the test and live accounts, keys and records separate.

Polar says to use its sandbox for test purchases. If you need to check the live setup, follow its production-check guidance rather than paying yourself with a real card.

How does Polar tell your app what a customer can use?

Polar’s Customer State is a record of the customer’s active subscriptions and granted benefits. Connect it to the account your app already uses. If someone upgrades to paid reports, the app can check whether their billing record includes that benefit before letting them open a report.

Polar can notify your app when the record changes. This direct message is called a webhook. Verify the message came from Polar and make repeat deliveries safe. When in doubt, check the current record before changing access.

Messages have limited retries, and Polar can disable a receiving address that keeps failing. If people paid but can’t open reports, check the payment, the account connection and recent failed deliveries.

When does Polar’s monthly plan start to cost less?

With 50 successful $20 charges in a month, Starter would cost $75 in transaction fees. Pro would cost $58 in transaction fees plus its $20 monthly fee, or $78 total. At 100 of the same charges, Starter would cost $150 and Pro $136. These examples use US cards and USD with no added tax and exclude payout charges, refunds, disputes and other additions.

The comparison depends on how many times you charge customers and what each charge is worth. Check both. Polar’s fee example uses the amount the customer pays, including tax. Non-US cards can add 1.5%. The original transaction fee stays deducted after a refund.

Older organizations may still have the Early Member rate. It applies only to qualifying organizations created before May 27, 2026. Once you move that organization to a paid plan, you can’t get the old rate back. Use your organization’s actual rate in your estimate.

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What if you need to return the money and stop access?

For an order tied to a Polar subscription, returning the money leaves the subscription running. If you also intend to stop renewals, cancel it separately. A cancellation at the end of the paid period lets the customer keep the plan until then. Revoking it ends the subscription and its benefits immediately and can’t be undone.

For a one-time purchase, the refund controls can revoke supported benefits. That can stop new access to a download. The service can’t retrieve a file the person already saved.

Polar can issue a refund and cancel related access itself to head off a card dispute. Make sure your app responds when the change starts at Polar as well as when you initiate it.

Who handles an order dispute and who pays for it?

You still support the product and keep its description accurate. A customer disputing a charge through their bank can cost you money even when Polar handles the payment side.

Polar’s fee guide lists $15 USD per dispute. Its agreement also allows a per-incident fee up to $30 USD plus related costs under the applicable terms. Confirm your terms before treating $15 as the most you could owe.

Keep money available for refunds and disputes and be prepared for a payout delay. If Polar asks about a product or purchase during account review, respond through its review process. An unresolved review can restrict payments or payouts.

What records should you keep if you might change services?

Keep your own link between the app account and the customer’s purchases. Polar provides a subscription export through its API, a way for software to request records. It can help you rebuild the list of who’s subscribed and what they bought. Save the records you need while you have access, including the plan and when the customer is due to renew.

These records tell you who should be billed and when. Confirm separately whether the new service can charge their saved payment methods. Plan for customers who need to enter their card again and for refunds on sales made before the switch.