Documentation / Start here
Build payment decisions into your backend
PayInference returns one instruction per payment attempt in under 50 ms. Your backend executes it with the providers and credentials you already have.
1. Send payment context from your backend.
2. Receive one instruction from the Decision API.
3. Execute through your existing payment stack.
4. Send the outcome back to PayInference.
One call, one instruction#
curl -s https://api.payinference.com/v1/decision \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-H "x-api-key: $PAYINFERENCE_API_KEY" \
-d '{
"merchant_id": "m_123",
"order_id": "order_456",
"transaction": {
"amount": 14900,
"currency": "USD",
"country": "US",
"payment_method": "card"
},
"available_providers": ["stripe", "adyen", "paypal"]
}'
{
"decision_id": "dec_9f3a1c0b22d14e55",
"action": "route",
"route": { "primary_provider": "adyen", "fallback_provider": "stripe" },
"reason_codes": ["ADYEN_HEALTHY_FOR_SEGMENT", "HIGHER_EXPECTED_APPROVAL_RATE"],
"decision_latency_ms": 11.4,
"ttl_ms": 3000
}
Create the payment on adyen with your own PSP credentials, then report what happened to POST /v1/outcomes.
Start here#
- Getting started โ first decision in five minutes.
- Core concepts โ the vocabulary the rest of the docs use.
- API reference โ every endpoint, field by field.
How the product fits together#
| Surface | What it does | Docs |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Intelligence | Collects and normalizes provider health, outcomes, and pricing outside the checkout path | Payment Intelligence |
| Policy Manager | Merchant-defined routing, risk, retry, step-up, and block rules, validated and versioned | Policy Manager |
| Decision API | One synchronous endpoint that returns one instruction per payment attempt | Decision API |
| Observability | Decision logs, reason codes, outcomes, audit trail, latency visibility | Observability |
What PayInference is not#
- Not a PSP, gateway, acquirer, or wallet. It never moves money.
- Not in the card-data path. Request schemas are strict and reject card numbers, CVVs, and emails outright.
- Not a fraud tool replacement. It consumes the risk signals you already have and applies your policy to them.
- Not an approval authority. Issuers and PSPs approve or decline. PayInference returns an instruction before submission.

