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A customer represents an individual or business entity that can have accounts and bills within the billing system.

​
id
string
required

Unique identifier for a customer

Example:

"bcus_H4jp6KnU5cPw263v1jyz4"

​
external_reference
string
required

External reference for reconciliation or tracking purposes. Must be unique within your merchant account.

Maximum string length: 255
Example:

"INV-2024-001"

​
name
string

The customer's full name or business name

Maximum string length: 255
Example:

"John Doe"

​
email
string<email>

The customer's email address

Maximum string length: 255
Example:

"[email protected]"

​
phone
string

The customer's phone number in E.164 format

Example:

"+27123456789"

​
currency
string

The ISO 4217 currency code for the payment.

Example:

"ZAR"

​
balance
integer

Current balance of the entity. If balance is negative, the entity has credit; if positive, the entity owes this amount. If not specified, no balance tracking.

The value is in the smallest currency unit (e.g., cents for ZAR).

Note: If balance is specified, the currency field must also be provided.

Example:

2000

​
payment_rules
object

Payment rules associated with the entity. If not specified, the entity cannot be paid against.

​
metadata
object

Set of key-value pairs that you can attach to an object. This can be useful for storing additional information about the object in a structured format. NEW Limitations:

  • Maximum 10 keys
  • Key names must be strings (max 40 characters)
  • Values must be strings (max 500 characters)
Example:
{
  "customer_id": "cust_123456",
  "order_id": "ord_789012"
}