Smart retries provide an intelligent, data-driven approach to recovering failed subscription payments. The system automatically selects the best time to retry a payment based on multiple factors, rather than following a fixed schedule.
How smart retries work
Smart retries use an intelligent algorithm that adapts retry timing based on payment history, decline patterns, and other related details.
- Payments to retry - temporary issues like insufficient funds or card activity limits.
- Payments not to retry - permanent issues like expired cards, closed accounts, or fraud.
The process unfolds as follows:
- When a payment fails due to a transaction decline, the subscription goes into the redemption state.
- If it is a decline that can be retried, the system schedules a retry based on an intelligent algorithm.
- If it is a decline that should not be retried, no retry is made.
- The set number of retries is attempted within a defined period.
- If the retry is successful, the payment is recovered, and the subscription becomes active.
- If the invoice remains unpaid after all retries, it is marked as not paid, and the subscription status changes to cancelled.
You can decide whether to grant access during the retry period. Solidgate provides a subscription status that indicates when the subscription is in redemption. If you choose to allow access, include the retry period in the next billing cycle.
The timing and frequency of these retries are automatically optimized to align with the subscription billing cycle and business preferences. This approach ensures that subscriptions are not retried too often or too infrequently.
Configure smart retries
Smart retries are enabled by default with four retries within four weeks. These settings can be modified based on your business requirements. Your changes are saved and applied automatically.
- Go to Billing > Billing settings.
- Navigate to the Smart retries tab.
- For the Retry frequency, set:
- number of retry attempts
- timeframe for processing retries
- In Billing 1.0, optionally click on Discounts to add discounts to retry attempts.
A discounted retry in Billing 1.0 runs only after a regular retry fails with error 3.02 and is processed 30 minutes after that failed attempt. Discounted retries count toward the total retry limit, which cannot exceed 14 attempts due to limits set by card networks.
Example
You configure 3 regular retries with discounts applied to attempts 2 and 3 if they fail with error 3.02. This means 5 total possible attempts: 3 regular and 2 discounted.
- Attempt 1: Regular ($100) → Fails, no discount applied
- Attempt 2: Regular ($100) → Error 3.02, triggers a 10% discounted retry that fails
- Attempt 3: Regular ($100) → Success
In total, 4 out of 5 attempts are used.
Apply smart retries to product
Based on your preferred flow, you can apply smart retries to products via API or the Solidgate Hub.
retry_mode field to
smart
in your request.
next_charge_at value if it is unavailable in real time.
In this case, you need to request the
subscription status
API v1
after 5–15 seconds of receiving the webhook to retrieve the next_charge_at information.
In some cases, it may take up to 15 minutes, so retrying requests is recommended.This logic is being improved, and changes are coming soon.
- Go to Billing > Products.
- Find the product you need and click on it.
- In the Product section, click on Edit.
- Next to Retry mode, select Smart retries.
- Click on Save changes.
Once you start using smart retries with your products, all new subscriptions created with such products use the intelligent retry approach automatically. This method increases the chances of recovering failed payments, helping businesses reduce revenue loss and improve customer retention.