Refunds and cancellations
Refunds and cancellations are processes you can initiate once a payment has been made. Since these actions involve a return of money, they may seem similar, but it is important to understand what differentiates them in order to correctly carry out each of the processes.
- Refund: is made after the payment is processed, and the amount will be credited directly to the statement in the case of a credit card, or to the payer's account when the payment is made by other means.
- Cancellation: is made when a payment has not yet been approved, and the limit is returned to the buyer's card within the timeframe defined by the issuing bank.
See below for more information on refunds and cancellations.
Transactions that occur when a specific charge is reversed, and the amounts paid are returned to the buyer. This means the customer will receive the payment amounts back.
There are two ways to process a refund using the endpoint /v1/orders/{order_id}/refundPOST:
- Total: when the total amount of the sale is returned to the buyer. In this case, the amount to be refunded should not be specified in the
bodyof the request, which should be sent empty. - Partial: when only part of the amount paid is returned to the buyer. In this case, the amount to be refunded should be specified in the
bodyof the request along with the transaction ID.
Before processing a refund, it is important to consider the factors below.
- Refund timeframe: it is possible to refund a payment within 180 days from its approval date.
- Payment method: for credit card payments, the amount will be refunded directly on the statement. For other payment methods, such as Pix, for example, the amount will be refunded to the payer's account.
- Account balance: you must have sufficient balance available in your account to process the refund; otherwise, the transaction will not be completed.
- Refund processing: it will be possible to refund only a specific transaction, either partially or in full, but for the order to be fully refunded, it is necessary that all transactions manually included are completely reversed.
To process full or partial refunds for a payment and to check the refunds made in your store, visit our API ReferenceAPI for more information about the endpoint Refund an orderPOST. Use your test Access TokenPrivate key of the application created in Mercado Pago, which is used in the backend. You can access it through Your integrations > Integration data > Tests > Test credentials. The test Access Token starts with the prefix `APP_USR`. to run refund tests, and your production Access TokenPrivate key of the application created in Mercado Pago, which is used in the backend. You can access it through Your integrations > Integration data > Production > Production credentials. to refund live payments.