---
title: Payment profiles
description: Store and manage customer payment methods securely
---

A payment profile stores the payment method of a customer for a recurring payment and for a
later one. The platform stores it as a token under PCI DSS. As a result, the customer enters
their card details once, not on every payment.

## Payment profile entity

A payment profile in the API represents:

- **Secure storage**: Tokenized payment method information stored with PCI DSS compliance
- **Customer association**: Payment methods linked to specific customer accounts for easy access
- **Multi-Method support**: Credit cards, bank accounts, digital wallets, and alternative payment methods
- **Recurring integration**: Seamless integration with subscription billing and automatic payment processing

## Key capabilities

- **Secure tokenization** — Store payment methods securely using industry-standard tokenization and encryption.
- **Multi-method storage** — Support various payment methods including cards, bank accounts, and digital wallets.
- **Customer management** — A customer adds, updates, and removes a stored payment method in your self-service portal.
- **Recurring payments** — Bill a subscription automatically, and take the recurring payment for it.

## Common use cases

- **Subscription billing** — Enable automatic recurring payments for telecommunications subscriptions and services.
- **Quick checkout** — Provide one-click payment experiences using previously stored payment methods.
- **Payment management** — Allow customers to manage their stored payment methods through self-service portals.
- **Backup payment methods** — Maintain multiple payment profiles for billing redundancy and payment failure recovery.

## Related resources

Payment Profile entities integrate with other API resources:

- **Payment sessions**: Create payment profiles from successful hosted payment completions
- **Payments**: Process payments using stored payment profile information
- **Customers**: Customer-owned payment profiles for account-specific payment management
- **Subscriptions**: Automatic billing using customer payment profiles for recurring charges
- **Payment profile sessions**: Dedicated flows for adding and updating payment profiles
- **Invoices**: Payment profile selection for invoice payment and settlement

## Next steps

- [List payment profiles](/api-reference/payment-profiles.md#tag/payment-profiles/GET/payment-profiles) — Retrieve all stored payment methods
- [Get payment profile](/api-reference/payment-profiles.md#tag/payment-profiles/GET/payment-profiles/{paymentProfileId}) — View specific payment profile details
- [Delete payment profile](/api-reference/payment-profiles.md#tag/payment-profiles/DELETE/payment-profiles/{paymentProfileId}) — Remove a stored payment method