Why do in-app and in-game purchases get declined?

Small, frequent purchases of digital goods match a common fraud pattern, so card issuers decline more of them. Routing each payment to the provider most likely to approve it, and offering local payment methods next to cards, wins back part of those sales.

How can subscription apps reduce involuntary churn?

Read the issuer's decline reason before you retry: an expired card needs a new card, not another attempt. Then ask users for a backup payment method before their access lapses.

Which payment methods can users pay with?

Cards with Apple Pay and Google Pay, plus prepaid gaming wallets such as Razer Gold and local methods such as Pix in Brazil or BLIK in Poland. The methods available depend on the market and the payment providers you connect.

Can app and game companies use Payrails Merchant of Record?

Yes. Payrails MoR sells digital products and services by subscription or one at a time, including consumables such as game currency and free apps with in-app purchases. For subscriptions, you can keep your own billing engine.

What can't I sell with Payrails Merchant of Record?

Gambling of any kind, such as real-money betting or casino games, and physical goods. We review every product in your catalog before you can sell it, and ask whether it has user-generated content or digital-asset features, or needs a regulatory license.

Can I use MoR in some markets and my own setup in others?

Yes. MoR runs in its own Payrails workspace, next to your existing one and under the same account, so the rest of your traffic stays on your own merchant setup.

Do I have to replace my current payment providers?

No. Payrails connects to the providers you already use, and you add new ones as you enter markets. Routing rules change in Payrails, not in your checkout code, so switching or adding a card provider doesn't need a new app release.

Apps and gaming

Own your app and game checkout

Users buy subscriptions, in-app purchases and in-game currency on web and in your app, from all over the world. Payrails gives app and game companies one platform to accept the way they pay and keep more of each sale.

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CHALLENGES

Selling direct makes payments your job

Once users pay through your own checkout, the app store no longer picks the provider or files the tax for you. Every renewal and top-up then depends on your own payment setup, market by market.

Checkout for 1,000 in-game credits with tax included, routed by region and card type to a provider, and the payment accepted.

App stores take up to 30% per sale

On in-app purchases and subscriptions, the store also keeps the payment details, so you can't see why a purchase was declined or send it to a provider more likely to approve it.

Users arrive before your entities do

A new release can bring paying users from many countries at once. They expect their own currency and the local methods they use at home, and digital sales are taxed where the buyer lives. Opening an entity and registering for tax in each country takes months.

Failed renewals end subscriptions nobody canceled

A renewal fails when a card expires or runs short of funds. Retrying too soon brings more declines and scheme fees, and each renewal you don't recover is a subscriber who leaves without choosing to.

Instant delivery attracts fraud and disputes

In-app items and game currency reach the buyer within seconds, so stolen cards get tested on small purchases. Account holders also dispute purchases that a family member made, and each chargeback adds a fee to the lost sale.

SOLUTIONS

Payment infrastructure for apps and games

Each of these products runs on the same API and SDKs. Start with the one you need now, and add the others as your app grows.

Launch new markets without a local entity

Payrails becomes the legal seller in markets where you have no entity yet, and takes on sales tax and invoicing as well as chargebacks. Move a market to your own merchant IDs later, without re-integrating.

Accept the way users pay, recover failed renewals

Offer the wallets and local payment methods your users prefer. Failed renewals retry on issuer signals instead of a fixed schedule, and a payment moves to the next provider when one is down or returns errors.

Keep your subscribers' saved cards

Saved cards live outside any single provider, so you can switch providers without migrating tokens. Network tokens update them when the bank reissues a card, and renewals keep going through.

Fight disputes across every provider

Bring disputes from every provider into one place. AI-assisted workflows collect the evidence and draft the defense, for a flat fee per case instead of a share of what you recover.

App and game companies on Payrails

See what changes when every purchase and renewal has more than one way through.

Teknasyon increases authorization rates for 250 million active customers by 6% with Payrails

authorization rate: +6%
payment churn: -10%

Eneba improves global payment performance by 3.5% with Payrails

capture performance: +3.5%

100+ integrations with Payrails

All integrations

Solution for every goal

From the first transaction to global scale, payments that match your journey.

Be ready for agentic commerce

AI agents are becoming a new path to purchase. Payrails keeps the payments behind your checkout ready for whatever standard comes next.

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Want to turn payments into profit?

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Got questions?

Yes, where the app store allows it. The rules differ by store and country, and some stores still take a smaller fee on purchases made through the link. Users pay on your web checkout, and your app unlocks the purchase once the payment is confirmed: Payrails SDKs run the checkout, and payment notifications tell your backend when to unlock it.

Own your app and game checkout