It's 11am on a Tuesday. Your store is live, your ads are running, and somewhere in your Stripe dashboard a yellow banner just appeared: Degraded performance affecting payment processing. You don't know it yet. Your customers do — because their checkouts are failing silently.
Stripe outages happen. They're rare, but they happen. And when they do, every minute you don't know about it is money you're not recovering.
Here's what to do the moment Stripe goes down — and how to be the first to know next time.
Step 1: Confirm the outage is Stripe, not your store
Before you panic and start digging through your theme code, confirm the problem is on Stripe's end. Go to status.stripe.com. If you see anything other than all-green, it's not you.
Common symptoms of a Stripe outage:
- Customers reaching checkout but payment failing at the last step
- Orders not appearing in your Shopify admin after payment attempts
- Stripe dashboard showing errors or slow response times
- Sudden spike in abandoned checkouts with no corresponding traffic drop
Step 2: Pause your paid ads immediately
This is the most important thing you can do in the first five minutes. If Stripe is down and your ads are still running, you are spending money to send people to a checkout that doesn't work. Go to Google Ads, Meta Ads, TikTok — pause everything.
You can resume the moment Stripe recovers. The money you save by pausing fast is real. The money you lose by leaving ads running during an outage is gone.
Step 3: Add a banner to your store
In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes > Customize and add a banner or announcement bar at the top of your store. Keep it simple:
"We're aware of a payment processing issue and are working to resolve it. Please try again shortly or contact us at [email]."
This does three things: it stops customers from thinking your store is broken, it reduces support tickets, and it keeps people on your site rather than bouncing.
Step 4: Enable a backup payment method if you have one
If you have PayPal, Shop Pay, or another processor set up but not active, now is the time to enable it. Go to Shopify admin > Settings > Payments and activate any available alternative. Even a partial fallback is better than nothing.
If you don't have a backup processor, this outage is the reminder to set one up before the next one.
Step 5: Email your list if the outage lasts more than 30 minutes
If Stripe is still down after half an hour, send a short email to your list. Keep it honest and brief:
"Hey — we're experiencing a payment processing issue outside our control. We expect it to be resolved shortly. [If you're trying to place an order, try again later or reply to this email and we'll help you manually.]"
This turns a frustrating moment into a trust-building one. Customers who feel informed are far less likely to dispute or leave negative reviews.
Step 6: Resume ads and remove the banner when it's over
Check status.stripe.com until you see all-green again. Then: remove the banner, re-enable your ads, and send a recovery email if you sent a warning one. Done.
The real problem: you find out too late
Most Shopify store owners find out about a Stripe outage from a frustrated customer, a spike in abandoned carts, or an email from their VA hours after it started. By then the damage is done.
The playbook above only works if you execute it fast. That means knowing within minutes, not hours.
StatusBird monitors Stripe's status page every two minutes and sends you an SMS the moment an incident is reported — before your customers notice. It also monitors 83 other services your store depends on: Klaviyo, Google Ads, Shopify itself, ShipBob, and more.
When Stripe goes down, you get a text that says: "Stripe is down — major outage detected. Pause paid ads immediately. Add a banner to your store. Consider enabling a backup processor."
Not a vague alert. Actionable advice, right to your phone.
StatusBird is free to start — monitor up to 3 services with no credit card required. Pro is $29/month for all 84 services and instant alerts.
Summary: Stripe outage checklist
- Confirm on status.stripe.com
- Pause all paid ads
- Add a banner to your storefront
- Enable backup payment method if available
- Email your list if it lasts more than 30 minutes
- Remove banner and resume ads on recovery
Save this page. The next outage won't wait for you to figure out what to do.