Programming Tutorials

  You have built your pricing page, set up your backend endpoint, and executed   stripe.subscriptions.create . You expect the subscription object to return with   status: 'active' . Instead, the API returns  status: 'incomplete' . This is one of the most common frustration points for engineers integrating Stripe Billing. It breaks your provisioning logic because your system assumes the user has paid, but Stripe says they haven't. If you try to force the charge, it fails. If you ignore it, you have "zombie" subscriptions in your dashboard that never collect revenue. This article explains strictly why this happens within the Stripe state machine and provides the modern, SCA-compliant architecture to handle it correctly. The Root Cause: SCA and The First Invoice To understand why your subscription is "incomplete," you must look at the underlying  PaymentIntent . When you create a subscription, Stripe immediately generates the first invoice. Attempti...