See also the Customer response object.

You can create a customer by itself, with a payment method, or with a credit card with a billing address.

note

If you intend to create a transaction at the same time as a customer, you may want to use Transaction.sale() with either the options.store_in_vault_on_success or options.store_in_vault options.

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result = gateway.customer.create({
    "first_name": "Jen",
    "last_name": "Smith",
    "company": "Braintree",
    "email": "jen@example.com",
    "phone": "312.555.1234",
    "fax": "614.555.5678",
    "website": "www.example.com"
})

result.is_success
# True

result.customer.id
# e.g. 594019
This code snippet now uses gateway instance methods instead of class-level methods. Learn more.
Parameters
'company' str

Company name. Maximum 255 characters.
'credit_card'

A credit or debit payment method.
'billing_address'

A billing address associated with a specific credit card. The maximum number of addresses per customer is 50.
'company' str

Company name. Maximum 255 characters.
'country_code_alpha2' str

The ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code specified in an address. The gateway only accepts specific alpha-2 values.
'country_code_alpha3' str

The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code specified in an address. The gateway only accepts specific alpha-3 values.
'country_code_numeric' str

The ISO 3166-1 numeric country code specified in an address. The gateway only accepts specific numeric values.
'country_name' str

The country name specified in an address. We only accept specific country names.
'extended_address' str

The extended address information—such as apartment or suite number. 255 character maximum.
'first_name' str

The first name. Maximum 255 characters.
'last_name' str

The last name. Maximum 255 characters.
'locality' str

The locality/city. Maximum 255 characters.
'options'
'postal_code' str

The postal code. Postal code must be a string of 4-9 alphanumeric characters, optionally separated by a dash or a space. Spaces and hyphens are ignored.
'region' str

The state or province. Maximum 255 characters.
'street_address' str

The street address. Maximum 255 characters.
'cardholder_name' str

The name associated with the credit card. Must be less than or equal to 175 characters.
'cvv' str

Typically requires PCI SAQ D compliance

We recommend using payment_method_nonce to avoid any PCI concerns with raw credit card data being present on your server.

A 3 or 4 digit card verification value assigned to a credit card. The CVV will never be stored in the gateway, but it can be provided with one-time requests to verify the card.
'expiration_date' str

Typically requires PCI SAQ D compliance

We recommend using payment_method_nonce to avoid any PCI concerns with raw credit card data being present on your server.

The expiration date of a credit card, formatted MM/YY or MM/YYYY. May be used instead of expiration_month and expiration_year.
'expiration_month' str

Typically requires PCI SAQ D compliance

We recommend using payment_method_nonce to avoid any PCI concerns with raw credit card data being present on your server.

The expiration month of a credit card, formatted MM. May be used with expiration_year, and instead of expiration_date.
'expiration_year' str

Typically requires PCI SAQ D compliance

We recommend using payment_method_nonce to avoid any PCI concerns with raw credit card data being present on your server.

The two or four digit year associated with a credit card, formatted YYYY or YY. May be used with expiration_month, and instead of expiration_date.
'number' str

Typically requires PCI SAQ D compliance

We recommend using payment_method_nonce to avoid any PCI concerns with raw credit card data being present on your server.

The 12-19 digit value on a credit card consisting of a bank identification number (BIN) and primary account number (PAN).
'options'

Optional values that can be passed with a request.
'fail_on_duplicate_payment_method' bool

If this option is passed and the same payment method has already been added to the Vault for any customer, the request will fail. This option will be ignored for PayPal, Pay with Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay payment methods.
'make_default' bool

This option makes the specified payment method the default for the customer.
'verification_amount' str

Specify a non-negative amount that you want to use to verify a card. If you do not pass this option, the gateway will automatically use a verification amount of $0 or $1, depending on the processor and/or card type.
'verification_merchant_account_id' str

Specify the merchant account ID that you want to use to verify a card. Can't be a Braintree Marketplace sub-merchant account. For more details on merchant accounts in general, see merchant_account_id on Transaction.sale().
'verify_card' bool

If the payment method is a credit card, this option prompts the gateway to verify the card's number and expiration date. It also verifies the AVS and CVV information if you've enabled AVS and CVV rules.

note

Braintree strongly recommends verifying all cards before they are stored in your Vault by enabling card verification for your entire account in the Control Panel.

In some cases, cardholders may see a temporary authorization on their account after their card has been verified. The authorization will fall off the cardholder's account within a few days and will never settle.

Only returns a CreditCardVerification result if verification runs and is unsuccessful.
'token' str

An alphanumeric value that references a specific payment method stored in your Vault. Must be less than or equal to 36 characters. If using a custom integration, you can specify what you want the token to be. If not specified, the gateway will generate one that can be accessed on the result. If using our Drop-in UI with a customer ID to vault payment methods, you can't specify your own token. Length and format of gateway-generated tokens and IDs may change at any time.
'custom_fields'

A collection of custom field/value pairs. Fields and values must be less than 255 characters. You must set up each custom field in the Control Panel prior to passing it with a request. Querying this value returns a collection of custom field values stored on the customer object.
'device_data' str

Customer device information. Pass this value only if you have Advanced Fraud Tools enabled and are adding credit card data to your Vault. Be sure to provide the full string received from the Braintree client SDK.
'email' str

Email address composed of ASCII characters.
'fax' str

Fax number. Maximum 255 characters.
'first_name' str

The first name. The first name value must be less than or equal to 255 characters.
'id' str

A string value that will represent this specific customer in your Vault. 36 character maximum; must be unique within your Vault; valid characters are letters, numbers, -, and _; the words "all" and "new" currently can't be used. If not specified on creation, the gateway will generate an alphanumeric ID that can be accessed on the result. The generated IDs will never start with a leading 0 and are case insensitive.
'last_name' str

The last name. The last name value must be less than or equal to 255 characters.
'payment_method_nonce' str

One-time-use reference to payment information provided by your customer, such as a credit card or PayPal account. When passed on customer create, it creates a payment method associated with the new customer; see example below.
'phone' str

Phone number. Maximum 255 characters.
'risk_data'

Customer device information, which is sent directly to supported processors for fraud analysis. These fields are automatically populated if using Advanced Fraud Tools. Currently only available when processing American Express via Amex Direct. Contact us with any questions.
'customer_browser' str

The User Agent field provided by the customer. Maximum 255 characters.
'customer_ip' str

The customer's IP address.
'website' str

Website URL. Must be less than or equal to 255 characters. Website must be well-formed. The URL scheme is optional.

Examples

Specify your own customer ID

You can optionally choose what you would like the ID to be. Customer IDs are case insensitive.

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result = gateway.customer.create({
    "id": "customer_123",
    "first_name": "Katrina"
})
This code snippet now uses gateway instance methods instead of class-level methods. Learn more.

Blank customer

If you're only interested in storing a payment method without any customer information, you can create a blank customer:

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result = gateway.customer.create()
This code snippet now uses gateway instance methods instead of class-level methods. Learn more.

Customer with a payment method

You can also create a payment method along with a customer. If all customer validations and credit card validations or PayPal account validations pass, and the credit card is verified (if supplied and verification is requested), success will return true.

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result = gateway.customer.create({
    "first_name": "Charity",
    "last_name": "Smith",
    "payment_method_nonce": nonce_from_the_client
})

result.is_success
# True

result.customer.id
# e.g 160923

result.customer.payment_methods[0].token
# e.g f28w
This code snippet now uses gateway instance methods instead of class-level methods. Learn more.

If you do not specify a token for the payment method, as in the example above, the gateway will generate one. If you are using a custom integration, you can also choose what you want the token to be.

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result = gateway.customer.create({
    "credit_card": {
        "token": "credit_card_123",
    },
    "payment_method_nonce": nonce_from_the_client
})
This code snippet now uses gateway instance methods instead of class-level methods. Learn more.

Customer with a payment method and billing address

You can also pass in a billing address when creating a customer and payment method.

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result = gateway.customer.create({
    "payment_method_nonce": nonce_from_the_client,
    "credit_card": {
        "billing_address": {
            "first_name": "Jen",
            "last_name": "Smith",
            "company": "Braintree",
            "street_address": "123 Address",
            "locality": "City",
            "region": "State",
            "postal_code": "12345"
        }
    }
})
This code snippet now uses gateway instance methods instead of class-level methods. Learn more.

Card verification

By default we will run credit card validations but not perform verification. Braintree strongly recommends verifying all cards before they are stored in your Vault by enabling card verification for your entire account in the Control Panel. If you choose to manually verify cards, set verify_card to True.

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result = gateway.customer.create({
    "payment_method_nonce": nonce_from_the_client,
    "first_name": "Fred",
    "last_name": "Jones",
    "credit_card": {
        "options": {
            "verify_card": True
        }
    }
})
This code snippet now uses gateway instance methods instead of class-level methods. Learn more.
important

If you are using our Advanced Fraud Tools, we strongly recommend passing device_data each time you verify a card.

Use custom fields

Use custom fields to store additional data about your customers in Braintree. You'll need to configure your custom fields in the Control Panel to use them via the API.

Here is an example of setting custom fields with API names of custom_field_one and custom_field_two:

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result = gateway.customer.create({
    "first_name": "Bob",
    "last_name": "Smith",
    "custom_fields": {
        "custom_field_one": "value one",
        "custom_field_two": "value two"
    }
})

if result.is_success:
    result.customer.custom_fields
    # {"custom_field_one": "value one", "custom_field_two": "value two"}
This code snippet now uses gateway instance methods instead of class-level methods. Learn more.

See also

Still have questions?

If you can’t find an answer, contact us