Stripe dunning emails: what Stripe sends and when a sequence pays

Stripe dunning emails: what Stripe sends by default

Stripe's dunning emails are one email to the customer after each failed payment, with a link to a page where the customer updates the payment method. Dunning is the automated follow-up after a subscription payment fails. Stripe also offers an expiring-card email 1 month before expiry and a trial-ending reminder 7 days before a free trial ends. All of them use your branding settings.

1. Open the revenue recovery settings page and turn on "Send emails when card payments fail".
2. Turn on the other emails under "Email notifications and customer management" in the subscriptions and emails settings.
3. Test in the sandbox with the confirmed email address of an active team member, then read the log of emails sent in the last 60 days on the Customers page.

How to recover failed subscription payments puts these emails in order with Smart Retries.

The card-update link: Stripe-hosted page or your own

Stripe's dunning emails link to a page where the customer can update the payment method. You can point the link at a Stripe-hosted Customer Portal or at your own subscription management page. The hosted link stops working once the subscription is canceled or unpaid, so a customer who clicks after that point cannot update the card. Set the end-of-retry status with that in mind.

Baremetrics' Recover (Payment Recovery) add-on uses its own hosted card-update form, on a Baremetrics subdomain or your own domain. Baremetrics says the page collects the payment and updates the stored card information.

A dunning sequence: timing, SMS and in-app notices

A sequence is several timed messages, not one. Baremetrics' blog gives Recover's seven default emails on days 0, 3, 7, 13, 15, 20 and 30. Recover also sends SMS, which needs customer phone numbers and runs on prepaid credits that the pricing page does not price. In the app, delinquent customers see a banner, which becomes a paywall, an in-app screen that replaces access until the card is updated, after a grace period you choose.

• Stunning says it sends up to eight emails on Stripe, plus SMS and an in-app notice.
• Churn Buster says it sends branded email and SMS, with retries routed by decline code.

One dunning tool at a time: switching Stripe's emails off

A business with only a few failed payments a month can stay on Stripe's own email. Once a second tool sends emails, run one dunning tool at a time, as Baremetrics advises, and Stunning says to keep Stripe's retries on and turn off its customer emails.

Turning Stripe's emails off removes Stripe's failed-payment email, so do it only once the new tool's first email is live. To do it, turn off "Send emails when card payments fail" on the same settings page.

Which sequence tool to add, and what it costs

Baremetrics Recover, a $129 a month add-on to a Baremetrics plan, sends seven timed emails by default, plus in-app banners and SMS on prepaid credits. Baremetrics says "Your first 14 days of Recover are on us!", so Recover's sequence is free for its first 14 days and can be weighed against Stripe's own failed-payment email.

Prices are as read on October 23, 2026, on different meters. At $180K ARR, which is $15,000 MRR, Stunning is $100 a month, a flat fee by MRR with a 15-day free trial. Recover needs a Baremetrics plan: Launch is $49 a month with the pricing page's yearly switch on or $75 with it off, so $178 or $204 a month with Recover (arithmetic). The best dunning software for small business list compares more options.