Overview

Stripe is a secure online payment processing platform used by organizations to collect payments, manage subscriptions, and power digital commerce experiences.

Common uses for the Alchemer Stripe integration

• Generate a Stripe Checkout Session from an Alchemer survey so respondents can pay for a product, service, or registration
• Retrieve Checkout Session details (e.g., payment status) after submission to confirm if a payment was successful
• Use payment status from Stripe to drive survey logic (e.g., show confirmation or failure messages)
• Store Stripe Checkout Session IDs and payment status alongside survey responses for reporting and reconciliation
• Reduce manual verification of customer payments by automating payment confirmation within surveys

What can the Alchemer Stripe integration do?

• Create Checkout Session
• Get Checkout Session

How the Alchemer + Stripe Checkout Integration Works

This integration lets you collect payments during an Alchemer survey using Stripe's secure checkout experience. Here’s the simple end‑to‑end flow your customers can expect:

End‑to‑End Flow Overview

Customer starts survey
        ↓
Survey creates a Stripe Checkout link
        ↓
Customer clicks the link to pay in Stripe
        ↓
Customer completes (or cancels) payment
        ↓
Customer is sent back to the survey
        ↓
Survey checks payment status in Stripe
        ↓
Survey shows the correct follow‑up message
        (payment successful, failed, or canceled)

You will need

• Stripe API access and credentials (Stripe Secret Key)
• An Alchemer plan that includes integrations and the Integration Manager permission enabled.
  • Contact us if you are unsure if your plan includes integrations.

Setup Alchemer Stripe integration in surveys

Stripe | Create Checkout Session

You will need:

• Stripe API credentials
• Survey fields containing the inputs needed to create a Checkout Session, such as:
  • Price ID (e.g., price_123...)
  • Quantity
  • Success URL and Cancel URL
  • Optional metadata fields you would like to pass

Configure the action

1. Open your survey in Survey builder.
2. Select Add New: Action.
3. In the Add Action modal, scroll to the Integrations section.
4. Select Stripe.
5. Select Stripe | Create Checkout Session.
6. Stripe | Authentication: Select an existing authentication or create a new authentication.
7. Stripe | Create Checkout Session: Choose the survey data you want to use to fill out the Checkout Session fields. All required values may be mapped from Hidden Value Actions.
   
   SuccessURL and CancelURL redirect respondents back to your survey after a completed or canceled payment. These URLs must contain parameters to capture the Stripe Checkout Session ID.
   
   To construct a correct redirect URL:
   • Begin with the URL of the survey.
   • Add the required Alchemer return parameter (this will be the page ID): __sgtarget=1
   • Add the Alchemer 'snc' parameter with the merge code: snc=[survey("session id")]
   • Append a parameter to capture the Stripe session ID:
     stripe_session_id={CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}
   • Optional: Add any additional parameters needed for reporting or branching logic.
   Example SuccessURL:
   https://www.survey.com/123456?__sgtarget=1&snc=[survey("session id")]&stripe_session_id={CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID}
   
   CancelURL can be used to direct them to a different page in the survey.
   Note: Stripe automatically replaces {CHECKOUT_SESSION_ID} with the live session ID when performing the redirect.
8. Stripe | Metadata: Select the fields you want to push to Stripe as metadata. This is optional.
9. Stripe | Get Stripe checkout session URL: This is the URL that will be used as the payment link for your respondents. Select a field in your survey to store this.
10. Save the action.

Status codes

• 200: Successfully created Stripe checkout session
• 400: The external integration returned an error

Stripe | Get Checkout Session

You will need:

• Stripe API credentials
• Fields containing the Checkout Session ID

Configure the action

1. Open your survey in Survey builder.
2. Select Add New: Action.
3. In the Add Action modal, scroll to the Integrations section.
4. Select Stripe.
5. Select Stripe | Get Checkout Session.
6. Stripe | Authentication: Select an existing authentication or create a new authentication.
7. Stripe | Get checkout session: Select the Alchemer field that contains the Checkout Session ID you want to look up. This will need to be captured from the Success or Cancel URL into a Hidden Value Action.
8. Stripe | Get data back: Select the Stripe Checkout Session fields you want returned to the survey.
   These can be used to confirm payment and personalize follow‑up messaging.    
9. Save the action.

Status codes

• 200: Successfully retrieved Stripe checkout session
• 400: The external integration returned an error

Testing and Troubleshooting

Testing and Validation

How to test

• Submit a test survey response that triggers the Create Checkout Session action.
• Confirm that a new Checkout Session appears in your Stripe Dashboard and that the Checkout URL is generated.
• Complete a test payment using Stripe’s test mode and test cards.
• Use a second survey action with Get Checkout Session to retrieve the session details using the stored session ID.
• Verify that the payment status and other fields are returned to Alchemer as expected.

How to verify results

• Check the specific Checkout Session in the Stripe Dashboard and compare:
  • Session ID
  • Metadata
  • Amount and currency
  • Payment status
• Ensure the values stored in Alchemer fields match the data in Stripe (especially payment status).

Monitoring Integration Activity

Where to find logs

• Go to Results → Individual Responses.
• Select the response you want to inspect.
• Open the Action Log tab.

What logs display

• Success or failure status

• Timestamp
• Input and output values
• Returned status codes and messages from Stripe

Troubleshooting

Authentication issues

• Incorrect or expired Stripe Secret Key
• Using a test key in production or vice versa
• Stripe account restrictions or missing API permissions

Lookup failures (Get Checkout Session)

• Invalid or empty Checkout Session ID in the Alchemer field
• Using a test mode Session ID with a live mode key
• No matching Checkout Session in Stripe for the given ID

Creation/mapping errors (Create Checkout Session)

• Missing required parameters
• Invalid Price ID or unsupported parameter combinations
• Incorrect formatting of URLs, IDs, or email addresses

API errors

• Validation failures returned by Stripe
• Endpoint restrictions
• Rate limiting or temporary service issues

FAQs