Link payment gateway
Link payment gateway — share a URL, get paid.
topropay's payment links turn one API call (or one dashboard click) into a tokenised URL the merchant can drop into an email, an invoice, an SMS or a DM. The buyer clicks, lands on the hosted checkout, picks any supported method, and the merchant's webhook fires. Same engine as the rest of the platform.
topropay.link/p/9a4f2e8b1c - One click
- payment link from the dashboard
- Every method
- card, wallet, bank rail, BNPL, crypto
- <200ms
- routing decision per authorisation
- 1 ledger
- across every connected provider
Key benefits
Why orchestrated payment link solutions win on every buyer touchpoint
Four outcomes that show up consistently once payment links replace the wire-instructions line on invoices, the "log in to your account" flow on dunning emails, and the build-your-own-checkout work on social commerce.
- 01
Generate a link payment gateway URL in one click
From the dashboard or via a one-line API call, generate a shareable payment-link URL with the amount, currency, description, expiry and method mix you want. Send it via email, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack, an invoice PDF — the buyer clicks and lands on the hosted checkout.
- 02
Same back-end as the hosted checkout
A payment link gateway page is the hosted checkout reached via a tokenised URL. Routing, vault, cascade, PCI posture and reconciliation all share the same engine as your embedded integrations — the merchant doesn't run a second back-end for links.
- 03
Every supported method on the link
Card, wallet (Apple Pay, Google Pay), bank rails (SEPA, Bacs, iDEAL, PIX, OXXO, PayID), BNPL and crypto (via partner gateways) all surface on the same payment link. The buyer picks the method that fits; the link doesn't need to be re-issued per method.
- 04
Reconciles into the same ledger as every other authorisation
Payment-link receipts roll into one normalised ledger keyed off vault tokens — tagged with the link ID and any reference fields the merchant attached. Finance closes the month from one export, regardless of whether the authorisation came from a checkout, an SDK or a link.
How it works
From link creation to a normalised ledger entry in five stages
Five concrete stages between creating the link and the receipt landing in finance's daily export. Most are measured in seconds; the slowest is whatever channel the link travels through to the buyer.
- 01
Create the link
From the dashboard or via POST /v1/payment-links with amount, currency, description, expiry, method mix and reference metadata. Returns a tokenised URL and a QR code.
- 02
Share it
Drop the URL into an email, an invoice PDF, an SMS, a WhatsApp message, a social DM, a website button or a printed QR. No special handling needed — the URL is a normal HTTPS link.
- 03
Buyer clicks and pays
The link renders the hosted checkout with the methods the merchant enabled for this link. The buyer picks card / wallet / bank rail / BNPL / crypto and authorises; the routing engine picks the best route.
- 04
Webhook fires
Signed webhook lands on the merchant's URL — authorised, captured, failed or expired. The merchant marks the invoice paid, ships the order or unlocks the service.
- 05
Reconcile alongside the rest
The payment-link row lands in the unified reconciliation feed with the link ID, reference metadata and the connected provider tag. Finance closes the month from one export.
Main use cases
Where a payment link for business earns its keep
Six merchant shapes that share the same payment-link primitive but stress it differently — B2B invoicing, social DMs, email collection, ACH bill-pay, travel deposits and cross-border buyers.
- Invoice
B2B invoicing and accounts-receivable
A payment link for business invoicing replaces 'wire to this IBAN' on an invoice PDF. The customer clicks the link, lands on hosted checkout, picks card or bank rail, and the invoice is paid in seconds. The link ID matches the invoice number for reconciliation.
- Social
Social commerce and DM-based sales
Sellers running on Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook DM drop a payment link into the conversation. No checkout to build; no shopping cart to integrate. The link captures the authorisation and a normalised webhook tells the seller the order is paid.
- Email
Email and SMS collection
Subscription dunning emails, one-off donation campaigns, SMS payment reminders — all paste the payment link into the message body. The buyer clicks once and pays; conversion is measurably higher than a 'log in to your account' flow.
- ACH
ACH payment link for US bill-pay
An ach payment link captures the buyer's bank-account details on the hosted checkout's ACH surface, with NACHA mandate evidence retained per scheme rules. Useful for utility-style bill-pay and high-ticket B2B where card economics don't fit.
- Travel
Travel deposits and quoted bookings
Travel agents and operators send a payment link for the deposit alongside a quoted booking. Staged captures handle the balance later through the same engine; the customer touches one link per booking.
- Intl
International payment link flows
An international payment link inherits the platform's multi-currency capture and per-market method ordering — the buyer in BR sees PIX first; the buyer in NL sees iDEAL first; cards are everywhere as the fallback. Same link, different surfaces per shopper.
Platform features
Capabilities behind the payment link gateway on the platform
What the platform actually ships for payment links — the API surface, the dashboard generator, the link-level controls and the unified back-end primitives.
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Payment-link API
POST /v1/payment-links to create; GET to retrieve; PATCH to update; DELETE to revoke. Tokenised URL plus a QR-code asset returned.
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Dashboard link generator
One-click link generator with amount, currency, description, expiry, method mix and reference fields — for ops teams without engineering involvement.
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Hosted checkout surface
Links land on the same PCI DSS L1 hosted checkout as the rest of the platform; the surface respects the merchant's brand overrides.
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Every method on the link
Card, wallet, bank rail, BNPL and (via partner gateways) crypto all surface on the same link; per-link method mix is configurable.
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Expiry & single-use options
Per-link expiry (timestamp), per-link payment cap, single-use or multi-use behaviour — all configurable from the dashboard or the API.
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Custom reference metadata
Up to N custom fields per link (invoice ID, customer ID, order number) flow through to the webhook event and the reconciliation row.
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Smart routing on every link authorisation
Per-transaction scoring across the connected acquirer panel; soft declines cascade to the next ranked acquirer inside the same request.
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Multi-currency capture
Capture in the buyer's currency; settle in the merchant's. Settlement currency per provider is a policy choice.
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Signed webhooks
Replay-safe webhook delivery on link state changes — created, opened, authorised, captured, refunded, expired, revoked.
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PCI L1 vault
Card data captures into the platform vault on the link's hosted checkout; the merchant's origin never sees PAN.
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Audit log
Operator actions on links (create, edit, revoke), authorisations against them and refund operations are logged with actor identity and timestamp.
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Sandbox parity
Sandbox supports the full link lifecycle — generate, open, authorise, refund, expire — with deterministic helpers for decline scenarios.
Trust & compliance
Compliance posture behind every payment link
Payment-link authorisations inherit the platform's full PCI / SCA / AML posture — the link is a tokenised URL pointing at the hosted checkout, and the hosted checkout is the same audited surface as the rest of the platform.
- PCI DSS Level 1
- Annual on-site assessment plus quarterly ASV scans; payment-link authorisations inherit the same vault and posture as the rest of the platform.
- Tokenised link URLs
- Link URLs are tokenised; revoke-on-demand removes the link from the surface immediately.
- SCA & PSD2
- Selective 3DS2 on the authorisation path keeps approval high in Europe without skipping the compliance bar.
- Signed events
- Replay-safe webhook delivery with HMAC signatures; SIEM-friendly out of the box.
- Data residency
- Regional data-residency options for merchants under regulators that require it.
- Licensed verticals only
- Licensed gaming, regulated financial services and other compliance-bound verticals supported only where current operating licences exist. Grey and black-market verticals are out of scope regardless of integration shape.
Ready to send links
One API call. One link. Every method.
A 30-minute payment-links review covers the link API, the dashboard generator, the method mix relevant for your buyer base, and a sandbox to test against before any commercial commitment.
Frequently asked
Buyer questions about link payment gateway on topropay
Questions buyers ask before committing — link creation, expiry / single-use, invoicing, ACH, recurring, refunds, brand overrides and the boundary with a hosted checkout integration.
- 01
What is a link payment gateway?
A link payment gateway is a payment-collection model where the merchant generates a shareable URL (a payment link) and the buyer clicks through to a hosted checkout to authorise the payment. There's no merchant-side integration on the checkout surface; the merchant only needs to create the link and handle the resulting webhook.
- 02
How does the payment gateway link integration work?
The payment gateway link integration is two endpoints from the merchant's perspective: POST /v1/payment-links to create the link (returns a tokenised URL and a QR code), and a signed webhook the merchant verifies when the payment lands. The hosted checkout, vault, routing engine and reconciliation are all platform-side.
- 03
Why use a payment link for business invoicing?
A payment link for business invoicing replaces the 'wire to this account' line on a PDF. The customer clicks once, picks card or bank rail, and the invoice is paid in seconds. Conversion is dramatically higher than wire-transfer instructions, especially on smaller-ticket invoices where the friction of opening a banking app to wire is the deciding factor.
- 04
Can the platform issue an ach payment link for US bill-pay?
Yes — an ach payment link captures bank-account details on the hosted checkout's ACH surface, with NACHA mandate evidence retained per scheme rules. The link can be one-off or recurring (where the merchant enables the recurring flag); refunds and R-code retries are handled through the same API.
- 05
Is the payment link gateway the same surface as the wider hosted checkout?
Yes — the payment link gateway shares the same hosted-checkout surface, the same routing engine, the same vault, the same reconciliation feed and the same operator portal as the rest of the platform. The link is just a tokenised entry point to that surface.
- 06
Can I send an international payment link to a buyer abroad?
Yes. An international payment link inherits the platform's multi-currency capture and per-market method ordering. A buyer in Brazil sees PIX surfaced first; a buyer in the Netherlands sees iDEAL first; cards are surfaced as a baseline everywhere. The merchant doesn't have to issue different links per region — one link, region-aware surface.
- 07
What about a gateway payment link generated for a recurring subscription?
A gateway payment link for a recurring subscription captures the first authorisation and the customer's saved-card consent; subsequent renewals run through the platform's recurring engine on the vault token. The link itself doesn't need to be re-clicked — only the first authorisation does.
- 08
Is a gateway link for payment something a non-technical user can manage?
Yes — gateway link for payment generation is dashboard-level. Ops teams without engineering involvement can create links, set the amount, expiry and method mix, and revoke them on demand. The API surface exists for merchants who want to automate the creation step from their billing system.
- 09
What are typical payment link solutions on the platform?
Payment link solutions on the platform cover one-off invoice links, recurring-onboarding links, donation-campaign links, dunning links for failed renewals, deposit links for travel and high-ticket retail, and dynamic per-customer links generated programmatically from a billing system. All share the same hosted-checkout surface.
- 10
What happens if a buyer doesn't pay before the link expires?
If the link expires before payment, the link surface shows a 'this link has expired' message and the webhook fires with the expired state. The merchant can re-issue a new link (with a new tokenised URL) from the dashboard or the API — the previous one stays revoked.
- 11
Can a single payment link be paid by multiple buyers (e.g. a donation campaign)?
Yes — payment links can be configured as multi-use (anyone with the URL can pay any number of times until expiry or revocation) or single-use (the first successful authorisation closes the link). Donation campaigns typically use multi-use; invoice links typically use single-use.
- 12
How does the platform handle refunds initiated against a payment link?
Refunds against a payment-link authorisation run through the same /v1/payments/:id/refund endpoint as any other authorisation. The reconciliation row links back to the original payment-link ID; the refund row carries the operator identity, reason code and timestamp for audit.
- 13
How does pricing work for payment links?
Payment links don't carry a separate fee — the per-authorisation platform fee is the same as for any other authorisation on topropay. Underlying provider economics (interchange, scheme fees, ACH fees, crypto-rail fees) pass through where the underlying provider supports it.
- 14
Can a merchant brand the hosted checkout the link lands on?
Yes — the hosted checkout surface respects the merchant's dashboard brand overrides (colours, typography, brand mark, button shape). Links from the merchant render with the merchant's brand; the surface still inherits the platform's PCI posture underneath.
- 15
What's the difference between a link payment gateway and a hosted checkout integration?
A hosted-checkout integration is embedded in the merchant's own surface (cart → checkout flow). A link payment gateway is a tokenised URL the merchant shares — no merchant-side surface involved. Both back onto the same engine; pick the one that fits the buyer touchpoint (checkout vs invoice / email / DM).
Related
Related on the topropay platform
- Surface Payment page on the website The hosted-checkout surface payment links land on — same vault, same routing, same reconciliation.
- Acceptance Accept online payment, MID optional The merchant-facing acceptance flow — sub-merchant or direct MID; payment links are one way to capture.
- Checkout Modern e-commerce payment system The wider e-commerce surface; payment links sit alongside embedded checkouts and hosted pages.
- API Web payment systems on one API The web payment API; payment-link creation is one POST endpoint inside it.
- Aggregation Payment aggregator overview The aggregation pattern behind the multi-provider routing every payment-link authorisation runs through.
- Finance Reconciliation & reporting How payment-link receipts roll into one ledger alongside every other authorisation.