# The Core Stripe Objects — Stripe Payments

Source: https://www.skillbyai.com/en/stripe-payments/f-objects

> Customers, products, prices, intents and invoices.

## A map of the main resources

A **Customer** represents a buyer and can hold saved payment methods, an email and addresses. A **Product** describes what you sell; a **Price** says how much and how often (one-off or recurring) in a currency, and one product can have many prices. A **PaymentIntent** tracks one attempt to collect a payment through its lifecycle (`requires_payment_method`, `requires_confirmation`, `requires_action`, `processing`, `requires_capture`, `succeeded`, `canceled`). A **PaymentMethod** is a card, wallet or bank account used to pay. A **Charge** is the record of an individual payment attempt created by a PaymentIntent. An **Invoice** is a bill, often generated by a **Subscription**, which bills a customer on a recurring Price. IDs carry prefixes such as `cus_`, `prod_`, `price_`, `pi_`, `pm_`, `ch_`, `in_` and `sub_`.

## Creating a customer, product and price

Node.js library calls (IDs are placeholders).

```javascript
const customer = await stripe.customers.create({
  email: 'asha@example.com',
  name: 'Asha Verma',
  metadata: { userId: 'u_42' },   // link back to your own database
});

const product = await stripe.products.create({ name: 'Pro Plan' });

const monthly = await stripe.prices.create({
  product: product.id,
  unit_amount: 1500,               // 15.00
  currency: 'usd',
  recurring: { interval: 'month' },
});

const oneOff = await stripe.prices.create({
  product: product.id,
  unit_amount: 9900,               // 99.00 one-time setup fee
  currency: 'usd',
});

```

## A shop catalogue and its receipts

Products and prices are the catalogue on the shelf, the customer is the loyalty card, and each PaymentIntent is the till transaction that records whether the sale went through.

**Quiz:** Which object tracks a single payment from creation to success?

- [ ] Customer
- [ ] Product
- [ ] Price
- [x] PaymentIntent

*Answer:* PaymentIntent. A PaymentIntent moves through statuses until it succeeds or is canceled.