Authorize.Net Automated Recurring Billing (ARB): How It Works, Costs and Setup

People use "recurring billing" to mean three different setups. Knowing which one you have tells you where to look when something goes wrong.

Authorize.Net's developer docs now call CIM "Customer Profiles". It's the same feature.

Which should you use? ARB suits a fixed amount on a fixed schedule, like a $29 monthly membership. CIM suits charges that change, such as usage billing, a card kept on file for repeat orders, or a subscription app that wants to control its own timing.

One thing that isn't ARB: the "Recurring Transaction" checkbox in the virtual terminal. Authorize.Net says it only marks a single charge as recurring. It doesn't schedule anything. Our Authorize.Net virtual terminal guide covers it.

You can create an ARB subscription three ways:

• In the Merchant Interface, Authorize.Net's online account, by typing in the customer's details.
• Through the API, when your website or software creates subscriptions at checkout.
• From an existing CIM customer profile, so the card you already saved becomes the subscription's payment method.

The limits, from Authorize.Net's API reference, checked September 27, 2026:

ARB can bill a bank account as well as a card. Bank payments go through eCheck, which has its own fees and rules. See eCheck processing with Authorize.Net before you set up bank-account subscriptions.

ARB has no "pause" button. A subscription is active, suspended, terminated, cancelled or expired. To skip a month, you'd change the subscription or cancel it and create a new one.

This is where older guides go wrong. Here's what Authorize.Net's own pages say, checked September 27, 2026.

• No automatic retry on new accounts. Authorize.Net's support article on the feature (last modified April 27, 2026) says: "Automatic Retry is a legacy feature and can no longer be enabled on new Authorize.net accounts." Merchants who turned it on before keep it. Everyone else has to follow up on failed payments themselves.
• A declined first payment suspends the subscription. ARB asks you for a new start date. It doesn't re-run the declined payment.
• Not fixed in time means terminated. If that suspended subscription isn't fixed before its next scheduled payment date, it's terminated.
• Terminated and expired subscriptions can't come back. Authorize.Net says you have to create a new one.
• Failed payments don't use up the schedule. A payment that fails and suspends the subscription doesn't count against the total number of payments.

How you find out. ARB can email you a failed transaction notice, a card expiration notice, and notices when a subscription is suspended, terminated or expires, plus a daily summary file (CSV). If your software needs to react on its own, use Authorize.Net's Webhooks, which include subscription events. Don't build on Silent Post. Authorize.Net's support article calls it "obsolete and in the process of being phased out" and recommends Webhooks instead.

A simple failed-payment checklist:

1. Turn on the ARB email notices and make sure someone reads them every business day.
2. Contact the customer the same day. Send a secure way to update their card, not a request to email the number.
3. Update the payment details on the subscription before its next run date, so it isn't terminated.
4. Collect the missed amount separately if you need it. New accounts don't retry it for you.
5. Watch for card expiration notices and ask for a new card before the old one lapses.
6. Turn on Account Updater so many replaced cards update without a failed payment at all.

The Customer Information Manager stores a customer's payment details on Authorize.Net's servers and gives you back profile IDs. Your site keeps those IDs, not the card numbers. Each customer profile can hold:

• Payment profiles: saved cards or bank accounts.
• Shipping profiles: saved delivery addresses.

Returning customers check out without retyping their card, you can charge a card on file for repeat or phone orders, and ARB can bill from a saved profile. Authorize.Net's pricing page lists CIM at $0 a month.

Why it matters for PCI. PCI DSS is the card industry's security standard, and the less card data touches your systems, the less you have to prove. Authorize.Net says its Accept Customer hosted form, which collects the card on Authorize.Net's own page, keeps you at SAQ A, the shortest self-assessment questionnaire. Your provider or assessor has the final say on your SAQ. Our PCI compliance guide explains the levels.

If your site is old. The original hosted CIM pages were retired in 2018 and replaced by Accept Customer. If your saved-card page still points at them, it needs rebuilding. The legacy integration section of our integration guide covers what else has been retired.

Cards get replaced when they expire, are lost or are reissued after a breach. Each time, a saved card can start declining. Account Updater asks the card networks for new card numbers and expiration dates and updates the cards stored in ARB subscriptions and CIM profiles.

What Authorize.Net's support article (last modified August 18, 2026) and pricing page say, checked September 27, 2026:

• Visa and Mastercard only. American Express and Discover cards aren't updated.
• U.S. and North American processing accounts only.
• Not available for MCCs 5962, 5966 and 5967. An MCC is the merchant category code that describes your business. These three cover direct marketing and telemarketing businesses.
• You opt in. In the Merchant Interface, go to Tools, then Account Updater. Once enrolled, it runs automatically.
• It runs monthly, starting on the 3rd and working in batches through the month.
• A "closed account" response has consequences. If the card's account is closed, the ARB subscription is suspended and the CIM payment profile is deleted. Reach out to the customer for a new card.
• Cost: Authorize.Net's direct pricing page lists $0.25 per update. The support article says charges are "per-response" and billed on the 1st of the following month. If your gateway comes through a provider, ask what your account is charged.

Account Updater only covers cards stored at Authorize.Net. Cards saved in your cart's or billing app's own vault depend on that company's updater, if it has one.

Shopify stores now connect to Authorize.Net through the Visa Acceptance Solutions app. Authorize.Net's Shopify update page, checked September 27, 2026, says: "Authorize.net's Customer Information Manager and Recurring Billing are no longer available through the payment app."

The same page says merchants must move customer profiles to Shopify's own token vault for subscription billing, and that a third-party subscription app handles the scheduling. So on Shopify, ARB and CIM aren't part of your subscription setup, and Authorize.Net's Account Updater doesn't reach cards held in Shopify's vault.

If you're mid-migration or choosing a subscription app, read the Shopify section of our Authorize.Net shopping cart guide.

Subscriptions draw more chargebacks than one-time sales. The usual reason isn't fraud. The customer forgot they signed up, didn't recognize the charge or couldn't find a way to cancel. A chargeback is when the cardholder's bank reverses the payment. Too many can put your merchant account at risk.

• Clear terms at signup. Show the amount, how often you charge, when the first full charge happens after a trial, and how to cancel, next to the pay button.
• Get a clear yes. Use an unticked checkbox the customer has to tick to agree to recurring charges.
• Send a receipt every time and a reminder before renewals, especially before a trial turns into a paid plan and before annual renewals.
• Make cancelling easy. Online, in a few clicks, with a confirmation email.
• Use a recognizable descriptor. The name on the card statement should match your brand, with a phone number or website if your provider allows it.
• Refund quickly when someone asks. A refund costs less than a dispute.

Card networks have their own rules for trials and subscriptions, and they change. Ask your provider which apply to your account. For how disputes are counted and the network thresholds, see our guide to chargeback ratio limits.

Your saved cards and subscriptions are often the hardest part of switching. Losing them means asking every customer to re-enter a card. Before you change anything, get answers to these questions in writing.

Moving to or from another provider or gateway:

• Will your current provider or gateway export your stored cards? Exports usually go only to another PCI-compliant company, never to you as a spreadsheet.
• What format and timeline do they use, and is there a fee?
• Can the receiving side import them into CIM profiles and rebuild the subscription schedules?
• Do subscription schedules move too, or only the cards?

Changing only your merchant account: The gateway and the merchant account are separate. The gateway sends payments. The merchant account is where the money is processed and deposited. Ask whether you keep your existing Authorize.Net gateway account, with its CIM profiles and ARB subscriptions, or get a new one. Plan for both answers: if it's a new gateway account, the saved cards have to move or be collected again.

Whichever way you go, run the old and new setups side by side until every subscription has billed once on the new one. Our Authorize.Net merchant account guide explains how the two accounts fit together, and the Authorize.Net payment gateway overview covers the rest of the gateway.

START has worked with Authorize.Net for more than 20 years and set up over 60,000 Authorize.Net accounts, with the merchant account and gateway set up together. Tell us how many saved cards and subscriptions you have and where they are now, and we'll tell you what a move involves.