deactivate_payment_method

Stop offering a payment method to new buyers. Subscriptions already sold through it keep renewing.

Purpose

The creator's off-switch for a gateway, and the safe way to retire one: new buyers stop seeing it at checkout, while every subscription already sold through it keeps renewing with its gateway. The plan sync for the gateway is re-queued. Idempotent: a method that is already off is a no-op and emits nothing; when the switch flips, project.payment_method.updated emits once with changes.active.

Deactivate before you delete

Deactivating keeps the row and its history and can be undone with activate_payment_method. delete_payment_method removes the gateway from the project. Prefer this one unless the creator asks for removal.

Required ability

project-payment-method:update

Input schema

{
  "type": "object",
  "required": ["project_id", "payment_method_id"],
  "properties": {
    "project_id": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "UUID of the project the method belongs to."
    },
    "payment_method_id": {
      "type": "string",
      "description": "UUID of the payment method to switch off."
    }
  }
}

Output shape

{
  "data": {
    "id": "a15d70c8-3e46-4b92-b70f-58c9d2140e63",
    "provider": "paypal",
    "mode": "live",
    "active": false,
    "created_at": "2026-05-18T10:05:00+00:00"
  }
}

Example prompts

"Stop offering PayPal at checkout on project 7f3d1c92-8b45-4e6a-9d21-5c8e0a4b6f13 — keep the existing subscribers on it."

"Switch off payment method a15d70c8-3e46-4b92-b70f-58c9d2140e63."

"Pause the crypto gateway while we sort out the wallet."

Failure modes

VALIDATION_FAILED — the switch was refused for the method's current state.
RESOURCE_NOT_FOUND — unknown project_id or payment_method_id, a method of another project, or a project outside the token's scope.
AUTHENTICATION_REQUIRED — no authenticated user on the request.
TOKEN_MISSING_ABILITY — token lacks project-payment-method:update.

activate_payment_method — the reverse.
delete_payment_method — remove the gateway instead.
Payment methods API — the REST equivalent.