Digital Product Delivery

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Overview

• Hosted file uploads: Dodo Payments stores your files and serves them through short-lived presigned URLs.
• External download link: one URL per entitlement that points to files hosted elsewhere, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, or S3.
• Download instructions: free-form text shown to the customer on their order page and in the delivery email.

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Key Features

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Set Up Digital Product Delivery

1

Open Entitlements

Go to Entitlements in the dashboard and click + to create an entitlement.

2

Choose Digital Files

Select Digital Files and enter a Name for the entitlement.

3

Add Files, Links, and Instructions

Configure any combination of these fields:

• Upload files: upload one or more files. Each upload returns a file_id and adds the file to the entitlement’s digital_file_ids.
• External Download Link: a URL, starting with http:// or https://, that customers can reach. Dodo Payments delivers it alongside the hosted files.
• Instructions: free-form text shown to the customer, for example “Unzip and run setup.sh.”

4

Save the Entitlement

Click Create Entitlement. You can now attach the entitlement to any product.

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Attach to Products

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How Delivery Works

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Customer Experience

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Purchase Confirmation

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Customer Portal Access

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Manage Files Programmatically

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Upload a File to an Entitlement

import DodoPayments from 'dodopayments';
import { openAsBlob } from 'node:fs'; // Node.js 20 or later

const client = new DodoPayments({
  bearerToken: process.env['DODO_PAYMENTS_API_KEY'],
  environment: 'test_mode',
});

// The SDK sends a FormData body as multipart/form-data. Append `filename` before `file`.
const form = new FormData();
form.append('filename', 'pro-bundle.zip');
form.append('file', await openAsBlob('./pro-bundle.zip'), 'pro-bundle.zip');

const { file_id } = await client.entitlements.files.upload('ent_files_abc', { body: form });
console.log(file_id);

curl -X POST "https://test.dodopayments.com/entitlements/ent_files_abc/files" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DODO_PAYMENTS_API_KEY" \
  -F "filename=pro-bundle.zip" \
  -F "file=@./pro-bundle.zip"

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List Grants and Resolve Download URLs

const grants = await client.entitlements.grants.list('ent_files_abc', {
  customer_id: 'cus_abc123',
});

for (const grant of grants.items) {
  for (const file of grant.digital_product_delivery?.files ?? []) {
    console.log(file.filename, file.download_url, `expires in ${file.expires_in}s`);
  }
}

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Remove a File from an Entitlement

await client.entitlements.files.delete('YOUR_FILE_ID', { id: 'ent_files_abc' });

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Important Considerations

• Presigned URLs expire quickly. Download URLs in grant payloads and webhook events are valid for 15 minutes. Don’t store them. Fetch new URLs when the customer needs to download again.
• Updating files affects future purchases only. Replacing or removing a file doesn’t change downloads already issued. Each grant keeps the entitlement configuration from when it was created, so past customers can still get the version that was current then.
• Refunds don’t invalidate downloaded copies. A customer who already downloaded a file keeps that copy. For revocable content, such as license-restricted media or time-limited access, pair Digital Files with License Keys and validate the key at runtime.
• For sensitive content, prefer external URLs with their own authentication. Presigned URLs from Dodo Payments are short-lived, but anyone with the URL can download the file until it expires. Externally hosted content behind an account login gives you more control.

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API Management

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Webhooks

"digital_product_delivery": {
  "files": [
    {
      "file_id": "YOUR_FILE_ID",
      "download_url": "https://files.dodopayments.com/.../pro-bundle.zip?Signature=...",
      "filename": "pro-bundle.zip",
      "content_type": "application/zip",
      "file_size": 18742390,
      "expires_in": 900
    }
  ],
  "instructions": "Unzip and run setup.sh from the project root.",
  "external_url": null
}

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Legacy Digital Product Delivery

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Best Practices

• Treat downloads as one-time deliveries. Customers can share or lose links, so design your product on the assumption that anything they download is theirs to keep.
• Use instructions to set expectations. For multi-file bundles, add an instructions line that explains what to install first or how to combine the files.
• Watch the 500 MiB cap. Host larger artifacts, such as multi-GB datasets or video courses, externally, and link them with external_url instead of uploading them.
• Combine with License Keys for revocable access. To revoke access to in-product features after a refund, pair the Digital Files entitlement with a License Key entitlement and validate the key at runtime.
• Test the Customer Portal refresh flow. Confirm that a customer can return to the portal a week later and still get a working download link. The portal is the main recovery path when email links expire.