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Products are the foundation of Dodo Payments. Whether you sell a one-time download, a recurring subscription, or usage-based access, you start by creating a product. Each product defines how it’s priced, presented at checkout, and fulfilled after purchase.

One-Time

Charge once for lifetime access or a single deliverable.

Subscriptions

Bill on a schedule with trials, proration, and add-ons.

Usage-Based

Meter consumption and bill by actual usage.

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Create a Product

Create products from the dashboard or via API. Choose the pricing model upfront—One-Time, Subscription, or Usage-Based—then configure the details. The pricing model is immutable; create a new product if you need a different model.
1

Name and Description

Provide a clear title and a concise, value-oriented description. Markdown is supported in descriptions.
Keep the first sentence customer-facing and outcome-oriented; it appears prominently in checkout.
Products dashboard showing product creation form
2

Pricing Model and Price

Select the pricing model:
  • One-Time: Fixed price paid once.
  • Subscription: Recurring price with interval and optional trial.
  • Usage-Based: Price derived from metered events.
Then set pricing:
  • Price: Base amount and currency. You can set the base price in any currency Dodo Payments supports, except for Pay What You Want products, whose base currency must be USD, GBP, or EUR. USD, GBP, EUR, and INR are pinned to the top of the currency selector for quick access.
  • Discount (%): Optional percentage discount shown in checkout and invoices.
  • For subscriptions, set Repeat every (e.g., 1 month or 1 year), Trial days, and an optional Trial amount for a paid trial. A non-zero subscription price must be at least $1 (or the equivalent in your chosen currency). A price of exactly $0 is also supported, and you can let customers start a $0 subscription without a card; see Card-Optional at Zero Price. Negative amounts aren’t supported.
With Adaptive Currency turned on, customers outside your base currency are billed in their local currency, so you can author prices in whichever currency best fits your market. With it off, they pay in your base currency.
Want a fixed price per currency or country instead of a live FX conversion? Set a pricing_mode on the product and attach Localized Pricing rules, such as €9.99 in EUR or ₹999 in India.
Editing a price changes what new customers pay. Existing subscriptions are never repriced; each keeps the price it was created with. To move an existing subscriber onto a different price, change their plan explicitly with the Change Plan API; proration settings apply to that plan change, not to price edits.
3

Product Media

Upload images to showcase the product on checkout and invoices. Supported formats: PNG, JPG, WebP, up to 3 MB. Reorder or replace images at any time.
4

Automated Entitlements

In the Entitlements section, attach fulfillment that activates automatically after payment:
  • License Keys: Issue and validate unique keys.
  • Digital Files: Grant secure file access.
  • Feature Flags: Unlock a capability that your app checks.
  • Platform Access: Grant access on Discord, GitHub, Telegram, Figma, Framer, or Notion.
Add or remove benefits as your offer evolves. Existing subscribers gain or lose access accordingly.

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Variants and Pricing Options

Instead of variants under one product, create separate products for each pricing option (for example, Monthly and Yearly). Then group them into a Product Collection to present all options in a single checkout and enable plan switching in the Customer Portal.
Checkout page showing multiple product options in a collection

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Why This Approach?

  • Clear pricing models: Each product has a single, well-defined pricing model (one-time, subscription, or usage-based).
  • Predictable APIs: Simpler integrations without nested variant logic.
  • Easier reporting: Track revenue and metrics per product without variant aggregation.
  • Flexible checkout: Display multiple products side-by-side, letting customers compare and choose.

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How Product Collections Work

  1. Create products: Set up individual products for each plan (e.g., Starter Monthly, Starter Annual, Pro Monthly, Pro Annual).
  2. Group into a collection: Add related products to a Product Collection.
  3. Unified checkout: Customers see all options in one checkout and select their preferred plan.
  4. Plan switching: Customers can upgrade or downgrade between products in the same collection via the Customer Portal.

Product Collections

Group related products together for unified checkout experiences and upgrade/downgrade paths.

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Managing Products

You can manage products through the dashboard or programmatically via API. The API provides full control over product creation, updates, retrieval, image uploads, and archiving.

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Dashboard Management

  • Update: Edit name, description, images, price, fields, and benefits at any time (pricing model is immutable).
  • Archive: Hide a product from new purchases without disrupting existing customers. You can unarchive later.
  • Drafts: An in-progress product is saved as a draft so you can return to it later. Drafts are kept separately for test mode and live mode, so an unfinished product in one mode never bleeds into the other. Use Clear Draft to discard it and start fresh.
Product and collection form pages include header action buttons, so you can save without scrolling to the bottom of a long form.

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API Management

The following instructions allow you to create, update, manage, and retrieve products, including uploading images.
Send a POST request to the /products endpoint with details such as name, description, price, currency, and whether it is a recurring product.For recurring products, set the price object to a recurring price (type: recurring_price) and specify payment_frequency_interval and subscription_period_interval (Day, Week, Month, or Year) along with their corresponding counts.

Create Product API

View detailed request and response structure in the Create Product API documentation.
Send a PATCH request to the /products/{product_id} endpoint. You can update properties such as name, price, and description while keeping other details unchanged.Ensure that the product_id in the endpoint matches an existing product.

Update Product API

View detailed request and response structure in the Update Product API documentation.
Fetch a list of products stored in your account using a GET request to the /products endpoint. This allows you to retrieve product details, including active and archived products.

Retrieve Products API

View detailed request and response structure in the Retrieve Products API documentation.
Associate an image with a product by uploading it to AWS S3 using a pre-signed URL provided by the API. First, request an image upload URL from the /products/{product_id}/images endpoint, then use the provided URL to upload the image within 60 seconds.
The pre-signed URL expires in 60 seconds, so the image must be uploaded within that timeframe.
Once the pre-signed URL is received from the API, upload the image using the PUT method. This ensures secure and temporary access to AWS S3 for uploading the image.Supported libraries for uploading to S3:
  • Node.js: axios, node-fetch
  • Python: requests, boto3
  • Go: net/http
  • PHP: GuzzleHttp
  • Ruby: rest-client
If the upload is successful, AWS S3 will return a 200 OK status, indicating that the image has been stored successfully.

Upload Product Image API

View detailed request and response structure in the Upload Product Image API documentation.
Hide a product from new purchases without deleting it permanently using a DELETE request to the /products/{id} endpoint.

Archive Product API

View detailed request and response structure in the Archive Product API documentation.
Restore an archived product by sending a POST request to the /products/{product_id}/unarchive endpoint. This reactivates the product and makes it available for use again.

Unarchive Product API

View detailed request and response structure in the Unarchive Product API documentation.
Create payment or subscription flows from products, and fulfill automatically via benefits and webhooks.

Checkout Sessions

Create checkout sessions for one-time or subscription purchases.

Payment Webhooks

React to payment lifecycle events.

Subscription Webhooks

Handle subscription created, renewed, and canceled events.

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Best Practices

  • Start with clarity: Separate products for each pricing option (Monthly vs Yearly).
  • Use trials thoughtfully: Pair trials with onboarding to drive activation.
  • Automate fulfillment: Use benefits and webhooks to deliver instantly.
  • Tag with metadata: Store your system IDs for reconciliation.

Product Analytics

Track revenue, customers, retention, subscribers, and MRR for each individual product.

Localized Pricing

Set fixed per-currency or per-country prices on a product instead of relying on live exchange rates.
Last modified on September 26, 2026