Customers can dispute a Stripe charge for about 120 days on a card payment and up to 180 days on an LPM payment.
Key takeaways
- Plan around about 120 days for card payments and up to 180 days for LPM payments.
- Check the payment method on each charge before you assume which window applies.
- Keep records for every sale at least through the 180-day figure.
- Watch for Stripe notifications, and gather evidence that answers the reason the customer gave.
- When currencies differ, record the original and final amounts along with their dates.
What a dispute is
If your business accepts card payments through Stripe, you will eventually hear the word "dispute" from someone other than a customer service contact. Stripe's documentation describes the event this way: a dispute occurs when an account owner contacts their bank to contest a payment to you for a number of possible reasons.
That sentence is short, but it holds the detail small-business owners most need to remember. The customer does not have to speak with you first. The challenge starts with the customer's bank, and it can be opened at any point within the window that applies to the payment. For a shop that ships orders, a studio that runs services, or a business that takes deposits, that means a sale that felt finished can come back weeks or months later.
Customers can contest a charge for many reasons. A charge may look unfamiliar on a bank statement, a customer may believe they were billed twice, or they may say a product or service did not arrive or did not match what was promised. The page refers to "a number of possible reasons" without making a list its focus, so this guide does not try to catalogue every one. What you can plan for is the timing, and the timing depends on how the customer paid.
It helps to treat a dispute as a different event from a refund request. A refund is usually something you decide yourself. A dispute runs through the customer's bank and then through Stripe's process, and it can happen even if you were willing to make things right had the customer asked you directly. That changes how you handle the first message a customer sends about a charge, because it may not be the last word on it.
How long a customer has to file
A dispute window is the period after a payment during which a customer can still open a dispute. Stripe's page sets out the two figures that matter most for planning: LPMs typically allow customers up to 180 days to file a dispute, compared to the 120-day window common for card payments.
Two words in that sentence are easy to skip past. The first is "typically" for LPMs and "common" for cards. Those words describe the usual case. They do not promise that every payment of a given type follows the same timeline, so treat the figures as planning numbers rather than guarantees about one specific charge.
In day terms, a card payment is commonly open to dispute for 120 days, and an LPM payment is typically open for up to 180 days. The difference between the two windows matters for record keeping.
For a related checklist, see Card dispute deadlines: 4 details to record today.
If you keep sales records only for the card window, you may be missing information for an LPM payment that a customer disputes later in the longer period. A simple rule covers both cases: keep the records for every sale at least through the longer figure. Doing so costs little, and it means you are not guessing which window applies when a dispute arrives.
Which records should you keep? At a minimum, keep order confirmations or invoices, and proof that a product shipped or a service was delivered. Keep the messages you exchanged with the customer, and a copy of the refund, cancellation, or booking terms that were in place at the time of the sale. A dispute can ask you to explain a charge long after the details have faded from memory, so the records should be easy to find without a search through old inboxes.
Comparing card and LPM windows
| Payment type | Dispute window on Stripe's page | How the page words it |
|---|---|---|
| Card payments | 120 days | "the 120-day window common for card payments" |
| LPMs | Up to 180 days | "LPMs typically allow customers up to 180 days" |
The table repeats only what the page states, so it is a planning guide and not a promise about any single charge. Use the card row when a payment was made by card and the LPM row when it was made through another method. When you are unsure which applies, assume the longer figure for record keeping. That is the simplest way to avoid a gap in your files.
The comparison also helps when you talk with a bookkeeper. Instead of asking "how long can a customer dispute?" in general, ask which payment method each open sale used. The answer tells you which window still applies and when your supporting files can safely be archived under your own policy.
Timing matters for cash flow too. A dispute can arrive after you have already spent the money from the original sale, and it can land in a different month from the one in which you recorded the revenue. If you run a monthly close, a dispute that arrives after the close is still a real cost to your business, even if the original sale was already reconciled.
Illustrative example: two sales in one week
Consider a simple case. Two sales made in the same week can carry different dispute windows if one was paid by card and the other through an LPM. If your filing system tracks only the card window, the LPM sale's file may be the first one thrown out, and that is exactly the file a late dispute would need. Setting one retention rule for every sale removes that risk without asking you to sort files by payment method.
What happens after a dispute is opened
Stripe's page describes what you can expect once a dispute exists. Here is the sequence in plain terms, drawn from the same documentation.
- You are notified. Stripe notifies you of the dispute through the Stripe Dashboard, email, webhooks, and the API. If your business runs its own software, webhooks let that software record the event as it happens rather than waiting for someone to check a screen.
- The money is debited. Stripe debits the disputed amount, plus a dispute fee, from your Stripe account. Because the amount comes out of your Stripe account, a dispute affects cash flow as well as your books.
- You get an explanation. Stripe provides you with an explanation of the dispute and access to the account owner's claim to their bank. That claim is the customer's side of the story. Reading it closely is the starting point for any response, because your evidence should answer what the customer actually said.
- You submit evidence. Stripe walks you through the process of submitting convincing evidence to counter the dispute. The word "convincing" suggests that a general statement that the charge was legitimate is not enough. Evidence works best when it answers the specific reason the customer gave.
Notifications are only useful if someone reads them. Many owners route Stripe email to a shared inbox that more than one person checks, so a dispute notice does not wait on a single person's vacation. Decide ahead of time who is responsible for watching for disputes, who gathers the evidence, and who approves the final submission. Writing those roles down takes little time and saves a great deal of confusion later. For the steps to hold funds until a case is resolved, see Disputed payment: 3 steps to hold funds until resolved.
Keep a copy of everything you submit. When a dispute is resolved, your records should show what you sent, when you sent it, and what the outcome was. Those notes are useful for your bookkeeper and for any future dispute that raises similar questions. Note the date each dispute arrived and the date you responded as well, so you can show your timing if it is ever questioned.
Evidence that helps, and what Stripe adds
Stripe's page notes that in certain situations, Stripe automatically provides some evidence for you, such as data from 3D Secure. When that data is available, it can help support the payment without you collecting anything yourself. Automatic evidence still leaves you with the rest of the file to build, so do not assume the system has covered everything.
The same page also names Visa TC40 reports and Mastercard's System to Avoid Fraud Effectively (SAFE) reports. You do not need to become an expert in either report to run a business.
What evidence should you gather yourself? Start with proof of delivery or proof of access. For a shipped product, that means tracking information and delivery confirmation. For a digital product or a service, it means logs showing the customer used what they paid for, or records of the appointments or sessions they attended. Add the messages you exchanged, the terms the customer accepted at checkout, and any earlier orders from the same customer that went smoothly.
Organize the evidence by the reason the customer gave. If the complaint is that a product never arrived, lead with the shipping proof. If the complaint is that the charge was a duplicate, show the two separate orders and explain why they were different. A tidy response that addresses each point is far easier for a reviewer to follow than a folder of loosely related documents.
Be honest in what you submit. Evidence that is accurate and relevant is what you want. Anything that overstates what happened, or that you cannot back up, will work against you and makes it harder to trust your records later.
Send a complete response rather than a partial one. Because Stripe's process is built around submitting evidence step by step, it is worth going through each part of it rather than attaching a single file and hoping it covers the claim. A response that skips a point the customer raised leaves that point open, and a reviewer may read the gap as a weakness.
Currency changes can change the amount
Stripe's documentation includes an example in which exchange rates move between the original payment and the dispute. The page describes the case this way: in April, the customer disputes the 113.74 USD payment, but the exchange rate has changed, so the 113.74 USD chargeback is now 107.86 EUR to the business instead of the original 100 EUR.
The lesson is that the amount your business ends up with may not match the amount of the original sale. In the example, the business's figure is 107.86 EUR, not the original 100 EUR. If you price in one currency and settle in another, or if a customer pays in a currency different from your home currency, expect that a dispute may change the number in your books.
This is one more reason to record more than a single figure. Note the original amount, the currency, the date of the sale, and the amount that came back in the dispute. Your bookkeeper can then explain the difference clearly rather than trying to reconstruct it from a bank statement months later.
Practical steps for small businesses
Pulling these points together gives you a short routine you can apply to any card or LPM payment:
- Keep sales records through the longer figure. Retain records for every sale at least through the 180-day window, since you may not know in advance which payment method a customer used.
- Check the payment method on each charge. Find out whether a payment was a card or an LPM before deciding which window applies.
- Watch for notifications. Route Stripe email to a monitored inbox, and connect webhooks if your business has the technical setup to use them.
- Gather evidence early. Collect delivery proof, customer messages, and terms while the details are fresh, and organize them by the reason the customer gave.
- Record original and final amounts when currencies differ. Keep both figures and the dates, so the difference is easy to explain.
- Tell your bookkeeper when a dispute arrives. Make sure the debited amount and the dispute fee are recorded in the right period, and that the outcome is noted when it is known.
Several mistakes come up often enough to name. The first is assuming the card window covers every payment. The second is clearing out sales files once the shorter figure has passed. The third is letting notifications sit unread in a personal inbox. The fourth is sending generic evidence that does not address the reason the customer gave. The fifth is recording a dispute only as a bank entry, without a note explaining what it was about. Each one is easy to avoid once you know about it.
None of these steps requires specialist knowledge. They require consistency. A business that keeps organized records, watches its notifications, and treats each dispute as a process with defined steps is in a much better position than one that handles each case from memory.
A dispute is not a verdict on your business. It is a process with its own timeline, and knowing the windows and the steps in advance makes it far easier to handle. Set up your records now, decide who watches for notifications, and agree with your bookkeeper on how disputes will be recorded. Then, when a customer's bank contacts Stripe, you will already know what to do.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a customer dispute a Stripe charge?
A card payment can typically be disputed for about 120 days, and an LPM payment for up to 180 days, according to Stripe's documentation. These are planning figures, not guarantees for any single charge.
Which window applies to a payment?
Check the payment method on each charge before you assume which window applies, because a card payment and an LPM payment can follow different timelines.
How long should I keep sales records?
Keep records for every sale at least through the 180-day figure, since you may not know in advance which payment method a customer used.
What does Stripe do when a dispute opens?
Stripe notifies you, debits the disputed amount plus a dispute fee from your Stripe account, provides an explanation of the dispute, and walks you through submitting evidence.