Refund payments

Refunds return money from a completed payment back to your customer's original payment method. This tutorial shows you how to create full and partial refunds using the Merchant API, and how to monitor refund status until you can confirm the outcome in your system.

What is a refund

A refund is a server-to-server operation where your backend asks Revolut to return funds to the customer. When you refund a payment:

Revolut creates a new order of type refund.
The refund order contains related_order_id, which links to the original order you refunded.
The refund is processed asynchronously, so you should monitor the refund order's status.

How it works

Refunds are a server-to-server integration between the Merchant API and your backend server:

Your system identifies the original order you want to refund (must be in state completed).
Your server calls the Refund an order endpoint with the refund amount and currency.
Revolut returns a new refund order. Store the id of the refund order in your system.
Your system monitors the refund order's lifecycle.

How refunds fit in your operations

In most merchant setups, refunds are triggered from a customer support tool or an order management system (OMS). Typical steps are:

Validate the request (e.g., returns policy, delivery status, fraud checks).
Calculate the refund amount (full vs. partial, shipping, taxes, discounts).
Create the refund through your backend (Merchant API).
Update internal systems (OMS, accounting, inventory) and notify the customer.

Full vs partial refunds

	Full refund	Partial refund
When to use	You return the entire captured amount	You return only part of the captured amount
API request	`amount` equals the original order amount	`amount` is less than the original order amount
Multiple refunds	Not applicable	You can issue multiple partial refunds, as long as the total refunded amount does not exceed the original paid amount

Before you begin

Ensure you have:

Active Revolut Business account with Merchant capabilities
API credentials for the Merchant API
A completed payment order to refund (you know its order id)
Server-side integration capability (server-to-server API flow)
Understanding of how you accept payments with your chosen integration:

Implement refund processing

1. Retrieve the original order details

Use the Retrieve an order endpoint to confirm:

the order is in state completed
the amount and currency you will use for the refund
how much you have already refunded (if you support multiple partial refunds)

2. Create a refund order

Create a refund by calling Refund an order from your backend server, using the original order id you want to refund.

Required parameters:

Parameter	Description
`amount`	Specified in the smallest currency unit (for example, `10000` = £100.00).
`currency`	Must match the original order currency.

Optional parameters:

Parameter	Description
`description`	Optional, user-facing description for the refund.
`merchant_order_data.reference`	Your internal refund reference/ID for correlating Revolut refund orders with your system. This value is included in webhook callbacks as `merchant_order_ext_ref`.
`metadata`	Optional key-value pairs for internal tracking.

Set amount to the full captured amount of the original order.

Request body
{
  "amount": 10000,
  "currency": "GBP"
}

When the operation succeeds, store the refund order id from the response. You'll use it to monitor the refund status.

3. Monitor refund status

Refunds are processed asynchronously, so you should monitor the refund order until you can confirm that it completed successfully.

Listen to webhooks to receive asynchronous notifications when the refund order changes state. This is the recommended way to get notified about refund outcomes.

To set up webhooks, follow: Use webhooks to track order and payment lifecycle.

When you create the refund, you receive a refund order id. Use that value to correlate webhook callbacks (it will appear as order_id in the webhook payload).

Subscribe to these events and handle them for the refund order:

Event	Description
`ORDER_COMPLETED`	Refund finished successfully
`ORDER_PAYMENT_DECLINED`	Refund could not be processed (declined)
`ORDER_PAYMENT_FAILED`	Refund could not be processed (technical failure)

Webhook payload example
{
  "event": "ORDER_COMPLETED",
  "order_id": "6852e9a6-5cf0-ac65-8182-6a9c251011ce"
}

Info

For refunds to card-based payment methods (including digital wallets), your system may receive confirmation (for example, ORDER_COMPLETED) before the customer sees the funds on their account.

If the customer contacts you, retrieve the refund order and check payments[].payment_method.arn. The ARN (Acquirer Reference Number) is a 23-digit reference that the customer's bank can use to trace the refund and potentially speed up support on their side.

The arn is only returned for refund payments made by a card.

What's next

Explore related topics:

Authorise a payment to capture later - Use manual capture, so you can cancel uncaptured orders instead of refunding captured payments

API references:

Related resources:

Setup:

Accept payments integrations:

What is a refund​

How it works​

How refunds fit in your operations​

Full vs partial refunds​

Before you begin​

Implement refund processing​

1. Retrieve the original order details​

2. Create a refund order​

3. Monitor refund status​

What's next​