How many times should you retry a failed payment? Retry schedules compared across billing platforms
How many retries, over how many days: Stripe, Chargebee, Recurly, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Mollie, Braintree, App Store and Google Play rules side by side.
By Florian
The billing platforms compared here document default retry limits from 4 retries (Lemon Squeezy) to 20 attempts (Recurly) for a failed subscription payment, over a window that runs from about five days (Mollie) to 60 days (Recurly, the App Store). In our view, a sensible default for monthly card subscriptions is a handful of retries spread over 2 to 4 weeks, timed around likely paydays, with no retries at all on hard declines until the customer updates their card. The retry schedule matters less than what you tell the customer: on most platforms, a card update triggers an immediate retry.
This guide puts the documented retry rules of nine platforms side by side, so you can see what yours does before you add anything on top. Every number below comes from the platform’s own documentation, linked in each section and accessed in November 2026. Where a platform does not publish a detail, we say so.
Retry schedules at a glance
| Platform | Default retries | Window | Who picks the timing | Hard declines |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe Billing | Smart Retries: up to 8 retries (new accounts) | 2 weeks by default; 1 week to 2 months | Stripe’s model, or a custom schedule of up to 3 retries | Not charged until a new payment method is attached |
| Chargebee | Smart mode: up to 12; Custom mode: 1 to 5 | Your dunning period | Chargebee (Smart) or you (Custom) | Smart mode waits for a new payment method |
| Recurly | Up to 20 attempts | 60 days from invoice creation, or end of dunning | Intelligent Retries (ML) or static rules | Generally not retried |
| Paddle Billing | Up to 7 | 30 days | Paddle | Not documented in detail |
| Lemon Squeezy | 4 | About 2 weeks | Lemon Squeezy | Not documented in detail |
| Mollie | Up to 5, once a day | About 5 days | Mollie, depending on the failure reason | Depends on the failure reason |
| Braintree | 3 automatic retries, then at least 2 more | Up to 2 days, then intervals you set (1 to 10 days) | You, in the Control Panel | Some codes are never retried |
| App Store | Not published | Up to 60 days of billing retry | Apple | Apple decides |
| Google Play | Not published | Grace period plus account hold, 60 days by default | Google decides |
Polar, GoCardless, Maxio and Zuora also retry failed payments; see our guides on Polar, GoCardless, Maxio and Zuora for their rules.
How does Stripe retry failed subscription payments?
Stripe’s Smart Retries page says that for new accounts, Stripe enables Smart Retries by default with up to 8 retries within 2 weeks. You can set the window to 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 1 month or 2 months. The alternative is a custom schedule with up to three retries, each a set number of days after the previous attempt.
Stripe does not publish the signals its model uses or the exact times it picks. For hard declines such as lost_card or stolen_card, Stripe will not charge again until a new payment method is attached. Details in how Stripe Smart Retries work.
How does Chargebee retry failed payments?
Chargebee’s dunning documentation describes two modes:
- Smart: Chargebee picks the timing from transaction patterns and the type of gateway error, and retries up to 12 times.
- Custom: you choose 1 to 5 retries and the days they run. Chargebee’s example: with an 8-day dunning period and a retry frequency of “1,4,8”, retries run 1, 4 and 8 days after the first failure.
Retries only happen inside the dunning period, so its length caps everything else. More in how to recover failed payments in Chargebee.
How does Recurly retry failed payments?
Recurly’s Intelligent Retries use a machine learning model on soft declines only. Retries stop at 20 total transaction attempts or 60 days from invoice creation, whichever comes first. Direct debit (ACH, SEPA) is not included.
The non-ML option, static retries, schedules attempts from decline codes and merchant advice codes and stops after 7 transaction declines, 20 total attempts or 60 days, or earlier if the dunning cycle ends first. See how to set up dunning in Recurly.
How do Paddle and Lemon Squeezy retry failed payments?
Both are merchants of record, so they run retries for you and you mostly react to status changes.
- Paddle Billing: Paddle’s 2025 changelog says failed payments on automatically collected subscriptions are retried up to seven times over 30 days, at times chosen by Paddle’s algorithms. If the customer does not update their payment method, the subscription is canceled after 30 days. See failed payments on Paddle.
- Lemon Squeezy: the Subscription object reference says a failed renewal moves the subscription to
past_due, followed by 4 payment retries over about 2 weeks. PayPal subscriptions follow PayPal’s own cadence, which the Recovery and Dunning page describes as a retry every 5 days. See failed payments on Lemon Squeezy.
How does Mollie retry failed subscription payments?
Mollie’s recurring payments guide says a failed subscription payment may be attempted again up to 5 times, once a day, depending on the failure reason, and that behavior may differ per payment method. When all retries are exhausted, the subscription is cancelled. That is a short window compared with card-first platforms, so the customer email matters more. See failed recurring payments on Mollie.
How does Braintree retry failed subscription payments?
Braintree’s recurring billing advanced settings describe a two-stage process:
- When a transaction fails, there are three built-in automated retries before the subscription is marked Past Due, which can take up to two days. A processor decline or gateway rejection moves the subscription to Past Due immediately.
- Once Past Due, Braintree tries at least two more times. You set each interval in the Control Panel, between 1 and 10 days.
- After that, you choose: cancel the subscription, keep retrying once per billing cycle, or leave it past due.
Braintree sends no customer emails for this, so the card update page and reminders are yours to build. See failed subscription payments on Braintree.
How do the App Store and Google Play retry payments?
On the stores, you cannot retry a charge or choose the schedule. What you control is how long the customer keeps access.
- App Store: Apple’s involuntary churn guide says a failed renewal enters a billing retry state where the App Store tries to collect payment for up to 60 days. Billing Grace Period lets the customer keep access during part of that time. See App Store billing retry and grace period.
- Google Play: Google’s subscription lifecycle page says grace period and account hold are enabled by default, and account hold lasts 60 days minus the grace period. With a 0-day grace period, Google still waits at least 1 day for retries. See Google Play grace period and account hold.
How many retries are too many?
There is no single right number, but a few rules hold across platforms:
- Do not retry hard declines. Lost, stolen or closed cards will not start working. Every major platform above either skips them or waits for a new payment method.
- Card networks limit retries. Recurly’s August 4, 2026 changelog says it now retries soft declines up to 20 times per 30-day period, “aligning with card network retry rules”. If you build your own retries, check your processor’s limits before adding more attempts.
- Keep the window shorter than the billing cycle. On a monthly plan, a window longer than a month means a second invoice lands on the first. Recurly’s dunning windows guide, for example, recommends a 27-day window for monthly billing.
- Timing beats volume. For
insufficient_funds, one retry after a likely payday can do more than several retries the same week.
Retries or emails: which recovers more?
Retries recover customers whose card works again on its own. Everyone else needs to act: update an expired card, confirm a 3D Secure payment, call their bank. On Stripe, a hard-declined invoice only gets charged again once a new payment method is attached, and Apple’s documentation says the App Store attempts to renew immediately when the customer updates their payment information. Either way, the email or in-app message that gets the customer to the update page is what recovers them. Pair the retry schedule with a short email sequence; our dunning email templates cover days 0, 3, 7 and 14.
FAQ
How many times does Stripe retry a failed payment?
With Smart Retries on a new account, up to 8 times within 2 weeks by default, per Stripe’s docs. You can change the window to between 1 week and 2 months, or use a custom schedule of up to three retries.
Should I use smart retries or a fixed schedule?
Start with the platform’s smart option if it has one; it is usually the recommended default. Move to a fixed schedule when you know something the model does not, such as when your customers are paid.
Do retries continue after the subscription is canceled?
It depends on the platform. Some keep collecting open invoices after a cancellation, others stop. Check your platform’s end-of-retry and cancellation settings before you rely on either behavior.
Can I retry App Store or Google Play payments myself?
No. Apple and Google run all retries. You can only extend access with a grace period and send the customer to the store’s subscription page.
How NoChurn helps
NoChurn sits next to your billing platform’s retries rather than replacing them. On Stripe you can keep Smart Retries or let NoChurn time retries to likely paydays and the customer’s local time; on other platforms, retries stay where the platform runs them. On top, NoChurn sends AI-written recovery emails on days 0, 3, 7 and 14 by default, reviewed by you before they go out, with a link to update the payment method, and shows logged-in customers an in-app banner or wall. It works with Stripe in one click, with Chargebee, Recurly, Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Mollie, Braintree, the App Store, Google Play and others, or with any billing through the API. See failed payments.