Stripe Restricted Businesses List

This document is Stripe's list of businesses and activities it will not support as a payment processor. If your business falls into a prohibited category—such as adult services, gambling, or dealings with sanctioned countries—you cannot use Stripe. Even if Stripe has approved your business, that approval applies only to the specific service offer reviewed and can be taken away at any time.

Stripe's Restricted Businesses List establishes the categories of businesses, activities, and transactions that Stripe prohibits or restricts across its payment and issuing products. It bars a defined set of high-risk or legally sensitive business types—including adult services (explicitly extended to AI-generated content), gambling and games of chance, and transactions involving sanctioned jurisdictions and restricted parties—from using Stripe's services entirely. It further imposes affirmative obligations on all users, including geographic consistency between a business's physical location, registration jurisdiction, and beneficial ownership address, and accurate disclosure of business identity, merchant relationships, and product types at application and throughout the relationship. Stripe retains the authority to modify or revoke any approval it grants on a per-offer basis at any time under the Stripe Services Agreement, and reserves discretion to determine which persons or entities qualify as prohibited parties beyond the enumerated sanctions lists. Stripe Issuing is restricted to business use cases, with automatic account closure triggered by 12 consecutive months of inactivity across all associated cards.

As an individual user, this document means that if you operate a business or use Stripe Issuing, you must accurately disclose your identity, your business type, and the products or services you process payments for—any false or misleading information at any stage is prohibited. If you hold a Stripe Issuing account, all cards on that account must show activity at least once every 12 consecutive months or Stripe will automatically close the account. If Stripe sets a deadline for you to comply with its requirements, missing that deadline may result in your account being closed.