Redirecting to a specific payment method from an app, bypassing the standard checkout page

Felipe_Chibey · July 2, 2025, 11:12am

I have a question regarding the customization of the checkout flow.

Currently, my application gathers the buyer’s information and shipping details. Once this data is collected, it redirects the user to the standard Shopify checkout page where they can review their details and select a payment method.

I would like to change this behavior. Instead of redirecting to the main checkout page, my goal is to create a more direct payment experience. Specifically, I want to:

Display available payment methods: Fetch and show the list of payment methods that are enabled in the store where my app is installed.
Redirect directly to payment: After the user provides their shipping information within my app, I want to redirect them directly to their chosen payment gateway (e.g., the PayPal page or the credit card form powered by Stripe), bypassing the standard checkout review step.

My core questions are:

Is it possible for an app to programmatically retrieve the list of a store’s configured and active payment methods via an API?
Can I create a checkout URL or use an API that sends the user directly to a specific payment method’s interface with their cart and shipping information already populated?

Essentially, I am trying to determine if it’s possible to skip the payment selection step of the standard checkout and instead direct the user straight to the payment finalization page from my app.

Could you please let me know if this is feasible and, if so, point me toward the relevant API documentation or guides?

Thank you for your assistance.

Liam-Shopify · July 3, 2025, 12:21pm

Hi

I asked the Shopify dev assistant to break down your questions and describe what is possible with the Shopify Admin GraphQL API and related technologies let me know if this helps:

1. Is it possible for an app to programmatically retrieve the list of a store’s configured and active payment methods via an API?

Short answer:
No, the Shopify Admin GraphQL API does not provide a direct query to list all active/configured payment gateways or payment methods for a store. There is no official API endpoint that returns the list of enabled payment gateways (e.g., PayPal, Stripe, manual methods) for a given store.

What you can do:

If you are building a payments extension as a Shopify Plus Partner, you can manage and configure your own payment methods, but you cannot list all payment methods enabled on a store via the Admin API.
For stores with multiple legal entities (Shopify Plus), you can query legal entities and their associated Shopify Payments accounts, but not all payment gateways.

2. Can I create a checkout URL or use an API that sends the user directly to a specific payment method’s interface with their cart and shipping information already populated?

Short answer:
You cannot bypass the Shopify checkout flow to send a customer directly to a specific payment gateway (like PayPal or Stripe) with their cart and shipping info pre-filled, except for Shop Pay.

What is possible:

Cart Permalinks: You can create a cart permalink that pre-fills the cart and some checkout fields (like shipping address and email). However, this still sends the customer to the standard Shopify checkout, where they must select a payment method.
Example:

https://{shop}.myshopify.com/cart/VARIANT_ID:1?checkout[email]=example@example.com&checkout[shipping_address][city]=CityName

See full guide: Create cart permalinks.

Shop Pay Direct Checkout: You can send buyers directly to Shop Pay by adding ?payment=shop_pay to the cart permalink:

https://{shop}.myshopify.com/cart/VARIANT_ID:1?payment=shop_pay

This only works for Shop Pay, not for other gateways like PayPal or Stripe.

Custom Payment Extensions: If you are building a custom payment extension (Shopify Plus only), you can create your own payment method and control the redirect, but this is only for your extension, not for all gateways.

3. Is it possible to skip the payment selection step and direct the user straight to the payment finalization page from my app?

Short answer:
No, except for Shop Pay, you cannot skip the payment selection step for standard Shopify checkouts. The checkout flow is designed to always present the payment method selection unless using Shop Pay.