Automatic downtime retries

Last updated: July 30, 2025

You can enable automatic downtime retries for merchant-initiated transactions (MITs) that fail due to an issuer or acquirer network timeout and return one of the following response codes:

If an MIT fails and a retry is scheduled, you receive a Payment retry scheduled webhook.

To enable automatic downtime retries for a payment, call the Request a payment endpoint and set the retry.downtime field to true.

post

https://api.checkout.com/payments


1{
2  "source": {
3    "type": "card",
4    "name": "test",
5    "expiry_month": 12,
6    "expiry_year": 2029,
7    "cvv": "422",
8    "number":"4242424242424242"
9  },
10  "3ds": {
11    "enabled": false
12  },
13  "retry": {
14    "downtime": {
15      "enabled": true
16    }
17  },
18  "amount": 100,
19  "currency": "GBP",
20  "capture": false,
21  "merchant_initiated": true,
22  "payment_type": "Recurring",
23  "processing_channel_id": "pc_lseidaphwziubknx6sbfifq6dq"
24}


1{
2  "id": "pay_foyki4polp7upkooyx3xnvfcca",
3  "action_id": "act_sgr6fxcobgwutjhfggsvyx7rie",
4  "amount": 100,
5  "currency": "GBP",
6  "approved": false,
7  "status": "Retry Scheduled",
8  "response_code": "20096",
9  "response_summary": "System Malfunction",
10  "retry": {
11    "max_attempts": 2,
12    "next_attempt_on": "2023-11-27T12:59:31.5797568Z",
13    "ends_on": "2023-11-28T12:59:18.1914252Z"
14  },
15  "processed_on": "2023-11-27T12:59:21.645231Z",
16  "_links": {
17    "self": {
18      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_foyki4polp7upkooyx3xnvfcca"
19    },
20    "actions": {
21      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/gateway/payments/pay_foyki4polp7upkooyx3xnvfcca/actions"
22    },
23    "cancel": {
24      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/gateway/payments/pay_foyki4polp7upkooyx3xnvfcca/cancellations"
25    }
26  }
27}

Automatic downtime retries

Request example

Response example