Midjourney Card Declined: Fix Payment and Billing Issues

Midjourney processes all subscription payments through Stripe, a third-party payment processor. If your card is declined, or if you cannot complete your subscription upgrade, the problem is typically caused by strict banking fraud filters, international transaction limits, or unsupported card types.

Use this guide to troubleshoot billing errors, check your subscription limits, and manage your payment options.

1. Resolve Stripe and Bank Authorization Blocks Stripe requires Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) for most transactions, especially for users outside of the United States. If your bank does not immediately approve the 3D Secure verification step, Stripe will block the card.

1. Contact your bank: Call the number on the back of your card. Inform them that you are attempting an international, recurring online transaction with Stripe/Midjourney and ask them to whitelist the charge.
2. Verify 3D Secure: Ensure your bank's mobile app or SMS notifications are active, as Stripe will trigger a verification prompt that you must approve within a few minutes of initiating the checkout.
3. Disable VPNs during checkout: Stripe evaluates your IP address location against your card's billing address. Using a VPN during checkout can trigger fraud alerts, causing an automatic decline.

2. Check Card Compatibility Stripe has strict rules regarding the payment methods it accepts for recurring subscriptions.

• Accepted: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and JCB credit or debit cards.
• Not Accepted: Most prepaid cards, virtual single-use cards, gift cards, and some cash-app debit cards are automatically rejected by Stripe to prevent billing lapses on recurring monthly plans.
• Set up payment using a standard, bank-issued debit or credit card linked directly to a checking or credit account.

3. Fix Subscriptions Not Upgrading After Payment If your card was charged but your Discord account still shows you are on the trial or a lower tier, the subscription synchronization is delayed. Use these steps to force-refresh your status.

1. Go to any active Discord channel where the Midjourney bot is present.
2. Type /info in the chat bar and press Enter.
3. This command triggers a direct query to the Midjourney database, forcing your local Discord session to update with your current active plan details.
4. If the subscription still does not show as active, log into midjourney.com/account to verify if the payment status is marked as "Active" or "Pending."

4. Manage "Plan Limit Reached" and Upgrades If you receive a limit error, you have exhausted your Fast GPU hours for your current billing cycle.

• Purchase more hours: You can buy additional Fast GPU hours for $4/hour directly through the account page instead of upgrading your tier.
• Upgrade your plan: To upgrade, use the /subscribe command in Discord to generate your unique billing link. Stripe will automatically calculate a prorated amount, charging you only the difference between your old plan and the new plan for the remainder of your billing cycle.

5. How to Request a Refund Midjourney permits refunds under specific, limited conditions.

1. To qualify for a refund, you must have used less than 10% of your monthly Fast GPU hours (approximately 0.3 hours for Basic, 1.5 hours for Standard, and 3 hours for Pro).
2. Navigate to midjourney.com/account.
3. If you qualify, a refund prompt will appear automatically when you click Cancel Plan.
4. Select Refund and Cancel immediately. If you do not qualify, the system will only allow you to cancel at the end of your current billing period.

When to escalate If your card continues to be declined and your bank confirms they are not blocking the transaction, do not repeatedly try to submit payment, as Stripe may block your IP address for security. Send an email describing your issue to `billing@midjourney.com`. Note that support cannot manually bypass Stripe's security protocols, but they can review your invoice history to identify specific decline codes.