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Refund Transaction

PayTabs provides you with a collection of API endpoints which used to process all payments, regardless of if they are through either your own payment pages, the managed payment pages, or if you are using the hosted payment pages.

To refund a transaction means to return/transfer back a transaction amount from your bank account to the customer's bank account. It will be logged as a new separated transaction with this type, and it will be related to the previous "Sale" or "Capture" transaction. In this manual, we walk you through how to use and manage the mentioned endpoint.

Refund request is available ONLY for those Successful Sale transactions or Sucessful Capture transactions. In which the tran_type MUST be “refund”, and transaction reference of the previous successful transaction, which is requested to be refunded MUST be passed to the tran_ref parameter in the request.

you should know

Through out the article we will use the transaction types clarified in ourWhat is the "tran_type" (transaction type)?solution article.




In this tutorial, we will rely on the PayTabs Refund Transaction API Endpoint, mentioned on the PayTabs API endpoints postman collection, which you can access fromhere. he endpoint will need to be accessed with the mentioned HTTP request via the below URL endpoint:

POST{{domain}}/payment/request
Be Aware Of

Please note that not using the proper endpoint URL {domain} will lead to authentication issues within your responses. To find the your proper domain you can read ourWhat is my (Region)/(endpoint URL)?tutorial article.

https://secure.paytabs.sa/payment/request


The Minimum Required Parameters​

be aware of

Refund request is ONLY available for successfully Authorized (A) transactions of type Sale or Capture

To initiate a Refund payment request, there are minimum required parameters that need to be passed with valid information. The specification of these required parameters is clarified below:

ParameterData TypeMinMaxRequired
profile_id
INT

STRING		Accept only valid profile number.✔
The merchant Profile ID you can get from your PayTabs dashboard. For more information please check our How to get your account information from PT Dashboard? solution article. To know more about this parameter please click here.
{
 "profile_id": 987654
}
tran_type
STRING

Valid string from this enum list:

sale auth void release capture refund register		✔
The identification of the type of the transaction. in the response payload it's returned in the sucess only To know more about these types please check our What is the "tran_type" (transaction type)? solution article.
To know more about this parameter please click here.
{
 "tran_type": "sale"
}
tran_class
STRING

Valid string from this list

ecom recurring moto		✔
The identification of the category/class this transaction will follow, such as eCommerce, Recurring, etc. To know more about these types please check our What is the "tran_class" (transaction class)? solution article.
To know more about this parameter please click here.
{
 "tran_class": "ecom"
}
cart_id
STRING164✔
Indicates the cart/order id at the merchant end, it should be a unique value at the merchant end. to easily relate the PayTabs transaction to.
at the response payload it's returned in sucess only
To know more about this parameter please click here.
{
 "cart_id": "CART#10001"
}
cart_description
STRING1128✔
Indicates the cart/order description at the merchant end,it should be something descrips the reason of the transaction at the merchant end, to easily relate the PayTabs transaction to.
at the response payload it's returned in success only
To know more about this parameter please click here.
{
 "cart_description": "Description of the items/services"
}
cart_currency
STRING1128✔
Indicates the transaction currency, which the customer will be charged with.
To know more about this parameter please click here.
{
 "cart_currency": "SAR"
}
cart_amount
int|float|string0.019999999999.99✔
Indicates the amount of the transaction the customer is about to be charged. Both min and max values are subjected to the merchant transaction limits.
if param donation_mode is true, cart_amount is not required and will be ignored
at the response payload it's returned in sucess only
To know more about this parameter please click here.
{
 "cart_amount": 500.99
}
ParameterData TypeMinMaxRequired
tran_ref
STRING✘
Indicates the Transaction Reference on the PayTabs side check details on [Response Parameters | tran_ref]
at the response payload it's returned in success only
{
 "tran_ref": "TST2234701408XXX"
}


Sample Request/Response Payloads​

The below sample request payload will show you how you can pass the above-mentioned required parameter/s, which are needed to be passed with valid values to perform a request. Along with the response payload received after using this request payload.
{
  "profile_id": 83061,
  "tran_type": "refund",
  "tran_class": "ecom",
  "cart_id": "CART#10001",
  "cart_currency": "SAR",
  "cart_amount": 200,
  "cart_description": "Cart Description",
  "tran_ref": "TST2234701408XXX"
}


Expected Flow Behavior​

Reaching this stage, you are now able to initiate a Refund Transaction, which is handled as a follow-up transaction. Refunds can only be processed against successful sale transactions and require a previously generated transaction reference.

  1. Initial Sale Transaction:

    1. The merchant first initiates a sale transaction using the payment APIs, regardless of the API integration type (e.g., Invoices, Hosted Payment Page, etc.).

    2. Upon a successful sale, a transaction reference (tran_ref) is returned.

    3. The merchant must securely store this transaction reference for any future follow-up actions.

  2. Preparing for a Refund:

    1. Refunds are only allowed for completed Sale or Capture transactions.

    2. The previously saved tran_ref is required to initiate the refund.

    3. The refund request must include all required parameters as defined in the Minimum Required Parameters.

  3. Initiating the Refund Request:

    The merchant sends a refund request using the follow-up Refund API, using the mentioned endpoint, and, passing the original transaction reference along with the required refund details.


  4. Successful Refund Scenario:

    1. In the happy-path scenario, the refund is processed successfully. The system confirms that the refunded amount has been returned to the customer, and the refund transaction is completed normally.


    2. At this point, you will see the refund transaction response as described above. For more details, refer to theSample Request/Response Payload.


    3. Below is a sample from the dashboard showing how a refunded transaction appears:

      Refunded Transaction Sample

  5. Refund Failure Scenarios:

    A refund may fail under certain conditions. Common reasons include:


    • Insufficient funds available on the merchant side to process the refund.

    • The original card has expired or is no longer valid for refund processing.

    In these cases, the refund request is rejected and a detailed failure reason is returned in the refund response, allowing the merchant to take the appropriate action.

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