Stripe restricted businesses — screening guide for merchants
How Stripe's restricted and prohibited business categories work, where borderline industries fall, and what a preliminary screening can and cannot determine.
Stripe publishes lists of restricted and prohibited businesses. They are representative, not exhaustive. Preliminary screening helps; it does not replace Stripe’s own determination.
Definition. Stripe’s restricted businesses page distinguishes prohibited industries (which cannot use Stripe) from restricted industries (which require additional diligence and may or may not be approved). A preliminary screening compares your public business description against these published lists and against patterns Stripe tends to scrutinize. It is not a binding decision.
How Stripe categorizes business risk
Stripe maintains two related but distinct categories:
- Prohibited businesses are not supported. Applying does not change that.
- Restricted businesses are supported case-by-case. Stripe may approve, may decline, and may revoke an approval if conditions change.
The published lists are explicitly representative. Categories that are not listed may still be reviewed; categories that are listed may sometimes be approved for specific product offers. The lists also evolve.
Common borderline categories
These are categories where merchants frequently misjudge their position. None of the following is a final answer — each requires Stripe’s own determination — but each is worth screening before you apply.
Content and creator platforms
Creator monetization platforms can be supported, prohibited, or restricted depending on content moderation, age verification, and the actual content type. A general-purpose creator platform with strong content moderation may be supported; an adult-content platform is typically restricted or prohibited.
Dating and matchmaking
Dating platforms can be supported, but Stripe pays attention to age verification, content moderation, and the absence of escort or paid-companionship features. Subscription auto-renewal disclosure is also a recurring scrutiny point.
Crypto-adjacent services
The crypto category is granular. On-ramps, off-ramps, custody, exchanges, NFT marketplaces, and “we hold the wallet for the customer” services each have different exposure. Stored value, third-party transmitter, and KYC obligations are real and not all of them are supported.
Financial services
Lending, factoring, BNPL, money transmission, and securities-adjacent services are usually restricted or prohibited depending on the structure. Even adjacent services like financial advice subscriptions can fall under specific scrutiny if they imply a guaranteed return.
Stored value, credits, and third-party agents
Where the merchant is selling something they will fulfill later from a third party — gift cards for arbitrary brands, stored credits redeemable elsewhere, agent-of-record arrangements — Stripe pays attention. Disclosure of who actually delivers and who holds the money matters.
Travel and ticketing
Air, lodging, tour, and event ticketing have higher dispute exposure due to long fulfillment windows and force-majeure events. Stripe supports many travel businesses, but the website and refund language has to match.
High-value or pre-order goods
High average order value, made-to-order goods, and pre-orders are not prohibited but draw extra attention because of fulfillment-delay disputes. Setting customer expectations on lead times is the most often-missed piece.
What a preliminary screening produces
When MerchantReady’s report includes a restricted-business screening, the output is one of four labels:
- No obvious restricted business risk found. Public description does not match the published list. Not a final clearance.
- Needs further review. Public description has elements that overlap with the restricted list. Specific questions are listed for the merchant to confirm.
- High risk based on available information. Public description matches a category Stripe explicitly restricts. This is a preliminary advisory only.
- Unknown due to insufficient information. Public description is too sparse to screen meaningfully. We ask for clarification before deciding.
In every case, the screening reflects what was visible publicly at the time. It cannot substitute for Stripe’s underwriting.
What goes wrong most often
Merchants who get tripped up by the restricted-businesses category typically share a pattern: their landing page describes the business in one way (often broadly), their pricing page describes it more narrowly, and their actual checkout sells a product that touches a restricted category. Stripe reviewers notice the gap.
The fix is consistency. If you sell a service that includes any element near a restricted line, describe that element clearly on the landing page, in pricing, in your ToS, and in your support pages. Inconsistency is worse than a borderline category honestly disclosed.
What we do not do
We do not advise you to hide or restate your business to avoid Stripe’s review. We do not advocate for your application. We do not contact Stripe. Our screening is one input among many you should consider, including consulting Stripe’s official documentation directly.
Stripe’s published list is the authoritative reference: Prohibited and restricted businesses.
Frequently asked
- Is the restricted list the same as the prohibited list?
- No. Prohibited categories cannot use Stripe at all. Restricted categories require extra diligence and Stripe may or may not support them. The restricted list is also explicitly representative, not exhaustive.
- If my business is on neither list, am I clear?
- Not necessarily. Stripe makes its own determination based on the totality of your business. The published list is a starting point, not a final answer.
- What is the biggest reason borderline businesses get reviewed?
- Ambiguity between the public business description and the actual product. Stripe reviewers want a consistent story across the landing page, pricing page, terms, and support communications.