# Create a payment link (/merchants/payment-links-create)

You create a payment link in a drawer on the **Payment links** page: pick what it sells, choose a
few options, and the dashboard opens the new link with its address ready to copy. What it sells is
fixed for the link's life; the options can be changed later.

## Before you start [#before-you-start]

* Your account is approved. Before approval, **New link** opens the approval dialog instead.
* To sell a price you already have, it is active and its product is active, under **Products**. See
  [Products and prices](/merchants/products-and-prices). Otherwise the drawer makes a new product for
  you.
* Your support email is set, in **Settings** → "Checkout" → "Support email". Payers see it at the
  foot of the link's page, and a closed link offers it to them.

## Steps [#steps]

**Step 1.**

### Open the drawer [#open-the-drawer]

In the sidebar, under **Payments**, click **Payment links**, then **New link**. A drawer titled
"New link" opens.

**Step 2.**

### Choose what the link sells [#choose-what-the-link-sells]

The drawer has three parts: "Product", "Checkout" and "Limits (optional)". "Product" starts with a
switch between "New product" and "Existing price".

With "New product", describe the product in three fields:

* "Product name" ("What are you selling?"), at most 120 characters;
* "Amount", in USDC: from 0.01 to 1,000,000, with at most 6 decimals;
* "Charge": "One-off" for a single payment, or the second choice for a subscription that renews
  every 30 days.

![The New link drawer: the Product part with New product selected, Product name, Amount in USDC and Charge with One-off selected, then the Checkout part with Ask for email.](/screenshots/payment-links/new-link-drawer.webp)

The dashboard then creates the product and its price first, so they also appear under **Products**,
and makes the link for that price.

With "Existing price", the drawer shows only "Price": a list of each active price of an active
product, with its amount and how often it charges. Pick one; **Create link** with nothing picked
asks you to "Pick a price." A price that renews every 365 days can be linked only this way.

**Step 3.**

### Ask for an email, if you want to [#ask-for-an-email-if-you-want-to]

Under "Checkout", "Ask for email" has three choices, each with a line that says what the payer
sees: "Don’t ask" (the default), "Ask, optional" and "Ask, required". With "Ask, required", the payer
can't go on without typing one. The email becomes the checkout's customer email.

"Don’t ask" means only that the link's page shows no email field: the checkout page still offers
its own optional email field. Fianto does not check that an email belongs to the payer.

**Step 4.**

### Send payers somewhere after paying, if you want to [#send-payers-somewhere-after-paying-if-you-want-to]

"After payment, send them to" takes an address of yours. It must start with `https://`, be at most
2,048 characters, contain no user name, password or spaces, and not be a Fianto checkout page.

The field is there for one-time payments only. After a one-time payment, the receipt on the
checkout page shows a **Continue to** button with your business name, and it opens this address;
with no address set there is no such button. A subscription's receipt never has it: it shows
"Manage your subscription" instead. So when the link sells a subscription, the drawer shows a
note in place of the field: "Subscribers stay on their receipt after paying. It has no Continue
button, so there is no address to send them to."

**Step 5.**

### Set an end date, if you want to [#set-an-end-date-if-you-want-to]

Under "Limits (optional)", tick "Ends on a date" to show a date and time field. It reads the time in
the dashboard's time zone, which the hint under the field names, for example "In UTC (Settings →
Times and dates)." Choose the zone in **Settings** under **Times and dates**. The date must be more
than one minute and at most five years from now. From that moment the link reads Ended.

Untick the box, or leave the field empty, and the link has no end date.

![The New link drawer scrolled down: Ask for email with Ask, optional selected, After payment, send them to, Limits (optional) with Ends on a date and Ends when full ticked and filled in, and the Create link button.](/screenshots/payment-links/new-link-options.webp)

**Step 6.**

### Set a payment limit, if you want to [#set-a-payment-limit-if-you-want-to]

Tick "Ends when full" to show a number field. Type a whole number from 1 to 10,000: the number of
paid payments after which the link reads Full. Visits, clicks and checkouts nobody paid are not
counted. Untick the box, or leave the field empty, and the link has no limit. See
[Limits](/merchants/payment-links#limits) for the place a payer holds while paying.

**Step 7.**

### Create and share [#create-and-share]

Click **Create link**. If something needs fixing, the drawer says so beside the field and keeps
everything you chose, ticked boxes included. Otherwise the dashboard opens the link's page, with its address under the product name
and a **Copy link** button. Copy the address and share it wherever your payers are. The same
**Copy link** button is on every row of the **Payment links** list.

## Check it worked [#check-it-worked]

> The link's page shows the product name, the status Open and the address,
> `https://checkout.fianto.xyz/l/` followed by 16 characters. Open the address in a private window: it
> shows your product, the price and the pay button.

## Troubleshooting [#troubleshooting]

| You see | Why | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "This price or its product has ended. Make a new link with an active price." | The price you picked, or its product, was ended. | Pick an active price, or make a new product. |
| "This price is not one of yours." | The price is not on your account. | Reload the page and pick a price from the list. |
| "Use a link that starts with https:// and is not a Fianto checkout page." | The after-payment address is not https, holds a user name, password or spaces, or points at the checkout page. | Use an https address of your own. |
| "Pick an end date between one minute and five years from now." | The end date is too close or too far. | Pick a later or an earlier date, or clear it. |
| "Finish the date or clear it." | The end date is only partly typed. | Fill in the whole date and time, or clear the field. |
| "A whole number from 1 to 10,000" | The payment limit is not a whole number in range. | Type a whole number, or leave it empty. |
| "You have reached the number of payment links you can keep. Close one before you create another." | You have 1,000 links that are not closed, or 10,000 in all. | Close a link you no longer use. |
| "Pick a price." | You chose "Existing price" but picked none. | Pick a price from the list, or switch to "New product". |
| "The product was created, but the link wasn’t. It’s now picked under Existing price: create the link again." | The new product and its price were saved, but the link was refused. | The drawer has switched to "Existing price" with the new price picked: fix what it points out, then click Create link again. |
| "The product was created, but the link wasn’t, and its price couldn’t be picked for you." | The new product was saved, but the link was refused and the dashboard could not pick its price. | Pick the new price under "Existing price" and create the link again. |

## See also [#see-also]

- [Payment links](/merchants/payment-links): How a sale works, statuses and limits.

- [Manage your payment links](/merchants/payment-links-manage): Change the settings, close and reopen, and see payments.

- [Paying through a payment link](/payers/paying-through-a-payment-link): What your payers see.