Top up your wallet

A top-up is a one-time purchase that adds dollars to your wallet’s prepaid Top-Up Bucket. Top-ups are how you fund verifications without a subscription, or cover spikes on top of one.

You can spend top-up funds with no subscription

Prepaid top-up funds are immediately spendable — a subscription is a feature gate, not an access gate. An organization funded only by top-ups can run verifications with no subscription at all. (The one exception: if you subscribed and then canceled, your balance is frozen until you re-subscribe — see Subscription.)

Pick an amount

Open Billing → Add funds in the console. You can choose a preset or enter a custom amount in US dollars.

• Some presets include a checkout discount — where a preset is discounted you pay less than the face value, and your wallet is credited the full face value. The illustrative presets are $50 → pay $50 (no discount), $250 → pay $200, and $1,000 → pay $700. The console shows the “you saved $X” amount before you commit (and shows nothing saved when a preset has no discount). The exact preset face/charge pairs are configuration (BILLING_TOPUP_PRESETS in @rf/config) and may change.
• Custom amounts fund 1:1 — an arbitrary amount adds exactly that many dollars to your wallet, with no discount.

Pay with Stripe

Submitting the form redirects you to Stripe Checkout, which handles the payment securely on Stripe’s domain. Pay with a saved card or a new one. Stripe handles 3D Secure (SCA) challenges automatically when your bank requires them. Tax is added by Stripe on top of the (already-discounted) charge — your wallet is only ever funded with the pre-tax face value.

When funds land in your wallet

On a successful charge, the funds are written into your wallet as a grant_created transaction in the Top-Up Bucket. You’re redirected back to Billing with a success banner. The funds are immediately spendable and expire 365 days after they are added. A payment that takes a few days to confirm adds its funds when it confirms (see Payments that take a few days).

If your bank asks for additional authentication after you leave Checkout, the top-up shows as pending until the payment finalizes.

Payments that take a few days

Some payment methods, such as a bank debit, take a few business days to confirm. When you pay with one, the Billing page says your payment is processing, and the funds are added to your wallet as soon as the payment confirms. If you need funds sooner, choose Add funds and pay with a card.

If the payment fails, no funds are added and we email you. To top up, choose Add funds and pay again.

What the Billing page tells you after you pay

When you come back from checkout, a banner on Billing says what happened to your top-up and what to do next:

• Top-up complete: the funds are in your wallet.
• Adding your funds: the payment is confirming. Refresh the page after a few seconds.
• Your payment is processing: a payment method that takes a few days to confirm (above). The funds are added when it confirms.
• This payment didn’t go through: no funds were added. Choose Add funds to try again.
• This payment was refunded: it was refunded before the funds reached your wallet, so none were added. Choose Add funds to top up again.
• Part of this payment was refunded: it was refunded in part before the funds reached your wallet. We add funds for the part that was not refunded. If you need funds sooner, choose Add funds.
• We couldn’t add this top-up to your wallet: our team has been notified. If you’re charged for it, they add the funds or refund the payment, so you don’t need to pay again. If you need funds before then, choose Add funds.
• We couldn’t confirm your top-up just now: refresh the page in a few minutes. If you need funds before then, choose Add funds.

Receipts

Stripe emails a receipt to your billing address as soon as the charge succeeds. You can also see the charge as a row in Transactions and download the invoice from there.

Troubleshooting

• Card was declined — try another card from Payment methods, or contact your bank if every card is declining.
• Paid but the funds aren’t in my wallet yet: read the banner on Billing, which says what happened and what to do next (what each banner means). A payment that takes a few days to confirm adds its funds when it confirms.
• Top-up shows as requires_action — Stripe needs you to complete an authentication step. Open the recovery link from the Stripe email.
• Test mode — see Test mode and live mode. Test-mode top-ups do not bill and funds are isolated from live mode.