A Stripe customer is the record that holds everything Stripe needs to bill one person or business: their name and email, addresses, payment methods, preferred language, tax details and currency. You create one for every new user or business you want to bill, either on the Customers page in the Dashboard or while you're creating an invoice.
Here's the catch. Stripe customers are single-currency. Once you've assigned a currency, invoiced the customer or set a customer credit balance, you can't change it, and the Currency dropdown in the Dashboard shows as disabled. Stripe's standard advice for billing one business in two currencies is a new customer for each currency, although its multi-currency customers feature lets you invoice in a different currency through the Invoicing API. Duplicates bring their own problems, so decide the currency before the first invoice goes out.
What a customer record holds
| Part of the record | What it's used for, as of October 2026 |
|---|---|
| Email and name | The minimum Stripe asks for; the email is how Stripe tells the customer about failed payments or payments that need an action |
| Metadata | Your own internal customer ID, so you can search for the customer by your reference |
| Billing address | Shown on invoices, credit notes and receipts, a common requirement for tax compliance |
| Shipping address | For businesses delivering physical goods |
| Preferred language | Localizes invoice, receipt and credit note emails and PDFs |
| Payment details | Saved payment methods and a customer credit balance |
| Tax details | One or more tax IDs and a tax exemption status |
| Currency | The currency for recurring billing; locked once set or used |
Stripe describes a basic customer profile as a lightweight CRM for your application. That's a fair description for a small business: it's where the billing side of a client relationship lives, and every subscription, invoice, pending invoice item and receipt hangs off it.
Adding a customer in the Dashboard
You don't need code for this. The Customers page is built for anyone who wants to create customers by hand or bill someone with a one-off invoice.
- Check the Customers list first to make sure the customer doesn't already exist.
- On the Customers page, click Add customer, or press N.
- Start typing the name or email. If it matches a Stripe profile, you can attach it to autofill their business information.
- Enter at least the Name and Account email, and set Country, preferred language and currency if you know them.
- Click Add customer in the dialog.
To change details later, click the customer's name, then Actions and Edit information, and click Update customer. To delete one, tick the box next to their name and click Delete, or open the customer and choose Actions and Delete customer.
Why does Stripe stress checking for duplicates? Its Invoicing guide says multiple records for the same customer cause problems later, for example when you need to reconcile transaction history or coordinate saved payment methods. If you've got lots of customers to bring in at once, Stripe points you to Productivity Stripe Apps for bulk upload.
Tax IDs on invoices
If your customers need their tax number on your invoices, add it to their record and Stripe shows it in the header of invoice and credit note PDFs. You can add more than one. In the Dashboard, open the customer, click the pencil icon next to Details, scroll to Tax Status and Tax ID, and click Add another ID to choose the ID type and enter the value. To update a tax ID, you delete the old one and create another.
Stripe checks the formatting when you add an ID, and for three types it goes further. Australian Business Numbers are checked with the Australian Business Register, EU VAT numbers with the European Commission's VIES, and UK VAT numbers with HMRC. Each check usually takes a few seconds, and Stripe retries when a government database is down.
Two things people assume and shouldn't. First, the invoice shows the customer's tax ID whether or not it's valid, and accuracy is your responsibility. Second, a valid number doesn't mean the name and address match: Stripe says you still need to verify those against the registration information. Stripe also doesn't keep revalidating IDs over time. If you use Stripe Tax, it applies the reverse charge or zero rate when the tax ID has the required number format, regardless of the government verification result.
Tax exemption status
Every customer has a tax exemption status. By default it's none, which means they're a taxable billing entity. You can set it to reverse, for customers who must pay the invoice's tax themselves, or to exempt. Stripe is clear that it's your responsibility to make sure invoices carry the right tax IDs, exemption status and addresses for your tax jurisdiction.
Billing customers who change currency
The multi-currency customers feature in Stripe Invoicing lets you bill the same customer in a currency other than their default, and change the currency for their subscriptions. There are limits you'll want to know before you rely on it:
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- You can't have two active subscriptions in different currencies.
- An invoice in one currency only pulls in invoice items in that currency, and ignores the others.
- A credit balance in one currency isn't applied to invoices in another, and amount-off coupons in a different currency are ignored too.
- Credit from a credit note goes to the balance for that invoice's currency.
- An invoice takes up to 250 pending invoice items, and the rest roll on to the next invoice.
Customers, subscriptions and one-off invoices
Before you can create a subscription, you need a customer. The order is: create the customer, set up your products and prices, then create the subscription with that customer. You can keep updating the customer's details after that, and changes apply to the next billing period, when a new invoice uses the latest details.
One-off invoices also start from a customer, and they don't follow a schedule. Stripe suggests them for things like setup fees, consultancy or single orders. You add line items, choose whether to charge the saved payment method or email the invoice, and finalize it. My guide to Stripe invoicing walks through that side.
My verdict on Stripe customers
I'd set up every client as a Stripe customer before you bill them, with a name, email and billing address at the very least, and your own reference in the metadata. Decide their currency first, because it's locked once you invoice. And don't treat a green tick on a VAT number as the whole check: match the name and address yourself.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a customer in Stripe?
It's the record Stripe uses to bill one person or business, holding their profile, billing, payment and tax information. Subscriptions and invoices are attached to it.
Can I change a Stripe customer's currency?
Not once it's set. After you assign a currency, invoice the customer or set a credit balance, the currency is locked. Stripe suggests a new customer for each currency, or its multi-currency customers feature for invoicing.
Does Stripe check a customer's VAT number?
Stripe validates the format, and automatically checks Australian ABNs, EU VAT numbers through VIES and UK VAT numbers with HMRC. You still need to check the name and address match.
Where does a customer's tax ID show?
In the header of invoice and credit note PDFs. You can add more than one tax ID to a customer.
What happens if I create the same customer twice?
Stripe warns that duplicate records cause problems later, such as when you reconcile transaction history or coordinate saved payment methods, so check the Customers list first.
