Handling Stripe payments manually is fine for a side project — until it's not. Whether you're running a SaaS product or managing client projects, automation can save hours of repetitive work.

In this guide, we’ll walk through setting up a Stripe automation workflow in n8n that:

• Listens for successful payments in Stripe
• Sends a thank-you email to your customer
• Stores the data in Google Sheets or Airtable for tracking

Let’s dive in.

🧰 What You’ll Need

• A free n8n account or self-hosted instance
• A Stripe account
• A Gmail account (or any SMTP)
• Optional: Google Sheets/Airtable account for logging

🔌 Step 1: Trigger on Stripe Payment Success

1. In your n8n workflow, add a Stripe Trigger node.
2. Set the event to checkout.session.completed or invoice.payment_succeeded depending on your use case.
3. Connect your Stripe account using the secret key.
4. Configure the webhook URL in your Stripe dashboard (this happens automatically for n8n cloud).

✅ At this point, your workflow is listening for successful payments.

✉️ Step 2: Send a Confirmation Email

1. Add a Gmail (or SMTP) node.
2. Set To to {{$json["customer_email"]}} from the Stripe event.
3. Craft a subject like: Thanks for your payment!
4. Include dynamic fields like customer name or payment amount in the email body.

Here’s a quick example:

htmlCopyEditHi {{ $json["customer_name"] || "there" }}, Thanks for your recent payment of ${{ $json["amount_total"] / 100 }}. We truly appreciate your support! - Shourav

📊 Step 3 (Optional): Log to Google Sheets or Airtable

If you want to maintain a payment record:

• Add a Google Sheets or Airtable node.
• Map the fields like: name, email, amount, and timestamp.
• You’ll now have a real-time payment dashboard.

🧠 Pro Tip: Add Fail-Safes

• Use a Set node to validate required data.
• Add a Slack or Telegram node to notify your internal team when something fails.

✅ Test Your Flow

Use Stripe’s test mode to simulate a payment and watch your n8n workflow execute. Confirm the email is sent, and data is logged.

💡 Real-World Use Cases

• SaaS billing: Automate new user welcome emails after payment
• Agencies: Notify your team when a client pays an invoice
• Course creators: Unlock access or send PDF content automatically

🎯 Why This Matters

Manual payment handling creates friction and leads to missed follow-ups. With this automation:

• Your Stripe billing becomes hands-free
• Customers feel appreciated instantly
• You stay organized without lifting a finger

🚀 Next Steps

• Add retry logic for failed email attempts
• Integrate with a CRM or Notion database
• Build a customer portal with n8n + Supabase