Adyen Payment API

Name: Adyen Payment API API
Brand: Adyen Payment API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecPaymentsPayment ProcessingapiKey, basic13 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Authorise, capture, cancel, and refund card payments through Adyen's classic server-to-server interface, including 3D Secure and 3DS2 step-up flows.

Quickstart

Get started with Adyen Payment API in minutes using your preferred integration method.

# Add to your MCP client config (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf)
{
  "jentic": {
    "url": "https://api.jentic.com/mcp",
    "auth": "oauth"
  }
}

# Then ask your agent:
"authorise an Adyen card payment"

# → Jentic returns the GET /events tool with parameter schema, agent executes.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Adyen Payment API API.

Authorise a card payment via POST /authorise with card data, amount, and merchantAccount

Capture an authorised payment via POST /capture and refund a settled payment via POST /refund

Complete 3D Secure 1 challenges via POST /authorise3d and 3DS2 challenges via POST /authorise3ds2

Cancel an outstanding authorisation by pspReference via POST /cancel or by merchant reference via POST /technicalCancel

GET STARTED

Start building with Adyen Payment API API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Spec

The Adyen Payment API is the classic-integration interface for authorising, capturing, modifying, and reversing card and alternative-payment-method transactions on Adyen's payment platform. The 13 endpoints cover the full authorise-capture-refund lifecycle, plus 3D Secure 1 and 3DS2 step-up flows, donation collection, and technical cancellations by merchant reference. New integrations should use the Checkout API; the Payment API remains the right choice for legacy classic integrations and server-to-server card processing where the integrator collects the PAN.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Adyen Payment API API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Server-to-Server Card Authorisation and Capture

Merchants with classic integrations send card data directly to Adyen via POST /authorise, receive a pspReference, and later capture the funds via POST /capture when the order ships. The same flow handles 3D Secure 1 and 3DS2 step-up: an Authorised resultCode means the funds are reserved, while ChallengeShopper or RedirectShopper means the front end must collect the challenge and post the result to /authorise3d or /authorise3ds2.

Call POST /authorise with card.number, card.expiryMonth, card.expiryYear, card.cvc, amount, and merchantAccount, then POST /capture with originalReference and modificationAmount once the order ships

Refunds and Cancellations Lifecycle

When a customer cancels before settlement, POST /cancel voids the authorisation by pspReference. After settlement, POST /refund returns money to the original card. POST /cancelOrRefund chooses the right behaviour based on the current state, which is useful for support tooling that does not know whether a payment has captured yet. POST /technicalCancel handles the same void using the integrator's own reference rather than Adyen's pspReference.

Call POST /cancelOrRefund with originalReference set to the pspReference from the original authorisation and merchantAccount set to the merchant identifier

Authorisation Adjustment for Hospitality and Travel

Hotels, car rentals, and travel merchants frequently need to increase or decrease an authorised amount before final capture as the cart total changes. POST /adjustAuthorisation modifies the held amount on a still-open authorisation, preserving the original 3DS authentication context. This avoids re-authorising the card and going through 3DS again, which improves authorisation rates.

Call POST /adjustAuthorisation with originalReference, modificationAmount.value, and modificationAmount.currency to change the held amount on an open authorisation

AI Agent Payment Processing via Jentic

An agent processing refunds for customer service tickets searches Jentic for 'refund an Adyen card payment', loads the schema for /refund, and executes with the pspReference and amount from the ticket. Jentic injects the X-API-Key from the encrypted vault, so the agent never holds the raw secret. The agent receives the new pspReference for the refund modification and writes it back to the ticket.

Search Jentic for 'refund an Adyen card payment', load the refund schema, then execute with originalReference, modificationAmount, and merchantAccount from the support ticket

Key Endpoints

13 endpoints — the adyen payment api is the classic-integration interface for authorising, capturing, modifying, and reversing card and alternative-payment-method transactions on adyen's payment platform.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

POST

/authorise

Create a card authorisation

POST

/capture

Capture an authorised payment

POST

/refund

Refund a captured payment

POST

/cancel

Cancel an open authorisation

POST

/cancelOrRefund

Cancel or refund based on settlement state

POST

/authorise3ds2

Complete a 3DS2 challenge

POST

/adjustAuthorisation

Change an authorised amount

POST

/technicalCancel

Cancel using merchant reference

POST

/authorise

Create a card authorisation

POST

/capture

Capture an authorised payment

POST

/refund

Refund a captured payment

POST

/cancel

Cancel an open authorisation

POST

/cancelOrRefund

Cancel or refund based on settlement state

POST

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

Adyen API keys and basic-auth credentials are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents receive scoped access tokens at execution time — the raw X-API-Key value never enters the agent context.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search by intent (e.g., 'authorise a card payment' or 'refund a settled payment') and Jentic returns the matching authorise, capture, or refund operation with its full input schema, so the agent picks the right endpoint without browsing Adyen's classic-integration docs.

Time to first call

Direct Adyen Payment API integration: 3-5 days for credentials, 3DS2 challenge handling, capture timing logic, and webhook reconciliation. Through Jentic: under 1 hour — search, load, execute.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

Adyen Checkout API

Modern hosted-and-headless checkout surface that supersedes the classic Payment API

Use Checkout for any new integration that needs payment methods beyond cards, hosted Drop-in, or payment links

Complementary

Adyen Recurring API

Manage stored payment tokens created during Payment API authorisations

Pair with Payment API to enable subscription billing and one-click checkout against tokens generated on first payment

Complementary

Adyen Payout API

Send funds back to consumers from the same classic platform balance

Use alongside Payment API when your platform also needs to make payouts to gig workers or marketplace sellers

Complementary

Adyen Disputes API

Defend chargebacks raised against Payment API transactions

Use after Payment API when a captured payment is disputed and you need to upload defence documents

FAQs

Specific to using Adyen Payment API API through Jentic.

What authentication does the Adyen Payment API use?

The API supports an API key in the X-API-Key header (ApiKeyAuth) and HTTP Basic auth using web-service user credentials (BasicAuth), as declared in the OpenAPI spec. Through Jentic, the credential is held encrypted in the vault and the agent receives only a scoped execution token.

Can I process 3D Secure 2 payments with the Adyen Payment API?

Yes. POST /authorise initiates the payment and may return resultCode=ChallengeShopper or IdentifyShopper for 3DS2. The integrator collects the challenge result on the front end and submits it via POST /authorise3ds2; POST /retrieve3ds2Result fetches the final authentication outcome. The classic 3DS1 equivalents are /authorise3d and /getAuthenticationResult.

Should I use the Payment API or the Checkout API?

Use the Checkout API for any new integration; it includes Drop-in, Components, payment links, and 50+ payment methods out of the box. Use the Payment API when you have a classic server-to-server integration that already collects card PANs under PCI scope, or when you need direct authorise/capture/refund control without Checkout's session orchestration.

How do I refund an Adyen payment with the Payment API through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'refund an Adyen card payment', load the refund schema, then execute with originalReference set to the pspReference from the original authorisation, modificationAmount.value and modificationAmount.currency, and merchantAccount. Jentic injects X-API-Key from the encrypted vault. Get an account at https://app.jentic.com/sign-up.

What are the rate limits for the Adyen Payment API?

Adyen does not publish a fixed quantitative rate limit in the spec; live throughput is provisioned per merchant account based on contract. If your integration receives HTTP 429 or saturation responses, contact Adyen support to raise the limit on the account.

Can I adjust the authorised amount after creating an authorisation?

Yes. POST /adjustAuthorisation lets you increase or decrease the held amount on an open authorisation by passing originalReference and a new modificationAmount. This preserves the original 3DS authentication and is the recommended pattern for hospitality, travel, and any flow where the final amount is known later than authorisation.