Refund Initiate
Refund all or part of a successful payment.
POST
/v1/route/refund-initiate/Initiates a full or partial refund against a successful payment, referenced by its GrowthBnk transaction_id. Multiple partial refunds are supported until the refundable balance is exhausted.
Authentication
This endpoint is authenticated with your API key plus a per-request SHA-256 hash. Send the key in X-API-Key and the hash in Hash:
Hash formula
Hash = SHA256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt), joined with the | character. Your salt is a server-side secret — see the Authentication guide.
Headers
| Header | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| X-API-Key | string | Required | Your merchant API key. |
| Hash | string | Required | SHA-256 auth hash (see Authentication). |
| Content-Type | string | Required | Must be application/json. |
Request Parameters
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| transaction_id | string | Required | GrowthBnk transaction id of the original payment (not your merchant reference). Non-empty, ≤ 255 chars. |
| refund_amount | string / number | Required | Amount to refund, in rupees. Decimal > 0, two decimals; ≤ remaining refundable balance. |
| refund_reason | string | Optional | Free-text reason for the refund. Optional. |
Responses
A successful call returns HTTP 201 Created. Response fields:
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| success | boolean | true on success. |
| refund_id | string | GrowthBnk refund id (RFD<YYYYMMDD><epoch_ms>) — use it for status lookups. |
| transaction_id | string | Original payment id. |
| merchant_transaction_id | string | Your reference for the original payment. |
| refund_amount | string | Refund amount (two decimals). |
| refund_status | string | One of INITIATED, PROCESSING, SUCCESS, FAILURE. |
Example responses
Success
201 Created
{
"success": true,
"refund_id": "RFD20260707180512345",
"transaction_id": "TXN20260707172038123",
"merchant_transaction_id": "ORDER-2026-0001",
"refund_amount": "150.00",
"refund_status": "INITIATED"
}Not refundable
400 Bad Request
{
"success": false,
"message": "Refund is allowed only for successful transactions.",
"data": null
}Over cap
400 Bad Request
{
"success": false,
"message": "Refund amount exceeds refundable balance. Remaining refundable: 50.00",
"data": null
}Not found
404 Not Found
{
"success": false,
"message": "Transaction not found.",
"data": null
}Status Codes
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 201 Created | Refund created. |
| 400 Bad Request | Validation failed / not a successful txn / exceeds refundable balance. |
| 401 Unauthorized | Bad API key or hash mismatch. |
| 404 Not Found | Original transaction not found. |
Error Codes
| Status | Message | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 400 | Refund is allowed only for successful transactions. | Original payment is not SUCCESS. |
| 400 | Refund amount exceeds refundable balance. Remaining refundable: {amt} | Refund + prior refunds > original amount. |
| 404 | Transaction not found. | transaction_id not found for this merchant. |
Validation Rules
transaction_id— required, non-empty, ≤ 255 chars.refund_amount— required decimal > 0, two decimals.- Original transaction must be
SUCCESSand owned by you. - Sum of non-failed refunds + this amount must not exceed the original amount.
Notes
- Reference the payment by its GrowthBnk
transaction_id, notmerchant_transaction_id. - The hash includes the amount:
SHA256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt). Sendrefund_amountexactly as hashed. - No refund-specific webhook is emitted — poll Refund Status for completion.
Best Practices
- Store the returned
refund_idand reconcile with Refund Status. - For partial refunds, track the remaining refundable balance on your side to avoid over-cap errors.
Request · POST
# 1. Compute the auth hash: sha256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt)
API_KEY="YOUR_API_KEY"
API_SALT="YOUR_API_SALT"
HASH=$(printf '%s' "$API_KEY|TXN20260707172038123|150.00|$API_SALT" | openssl dgst -sha256 | awk '{print $2}')
# 2. Call the API
curl -X POST "https://api.growthbnk.com/v1/route/refund-initiate/" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-H "X-API-Key: $API_KEY" \
-H "Hash: $HASH" \
-d '{
"transaction_id": "TXN20260707172038123",
"refund_amount": "150.00",
"refund_reason": "Customer requested cancellation"
}'import hashlib
import requests
API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY"
API_SALT = "YOUR_API_SALT"
BASE_URL = "https://api.growthbnk.com"
payload = {
'transaction_id': 'TXN20260707172038123',
'refund_amount': '150.00',
'refund_reason': 'Customer requested cancellation'
}
# Auth hash: sha256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt)
signing = f"{API_KEY}|TXN20260707172038123|150.00|{API_SALT}"
auth_hash = hashlib.sha256(signing.encode("utf-8")).hexdigest()
response = requests.post(
f"{BASE_URL}/v1/route/refund-initiate/",
json=payload,
headers={
"Content-Type": "application/json",
"X-API-Key": API_KEY,
"Hash": auth_hash,
},
timeout=30,
)
response.raise_for_status()
print(response.json())<?php
$apiKey = 'YOUR_API_KEY';
$apiSalt = 'YOUR_API_SALT';
$baseUrl = 'https://api.growthbnk.com';
$payload = [
'transaction_id' => 'TXN20260707172038123',
'refund_amount' => '150.00',
'refund_reason' => 'Customer requested cancellation'
];
// Auth hash: sha256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt)
$signing = "{$apiKey}|TXN20260707172038123|150.00|{$apiSalt}";
$authHash = hash('sha256', $signing);
$ch = curl_init("{$baseUrl}/v1/route/refund-initiate/");
curl_setopt_array($ch, [
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => 'POST',
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
'Content-Type: application/json',
"X-API-Key: {$apiKey}",
"Hash: {$authHash}",
],
CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode($payload),
]);
$response = curl_exec($ch);
curl_close($ch);
echo $response;const crypto = require('crypto');
const API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY';
const API_SALT = 'YOUR_API_SALT';
const BASE_URL = 'https://api.growthbnk.com';
const payload = {
'transaction_id': 'TXN20260707172038123',
'refund_amount': '150.00',
'refund_reason': 'Customer requested cancellation'
};
// Auth hash: sha256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt)
const signing = `${API_KEY}|TXN20260707172038123|150.00|${API_SALT}`;
const authHash = crypto.createHash('sha256').update(signing).digest('hex');
const response = await fetch(`${BASE_URL}/v1/route/refund-initiate/`, {
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
'X-API-Key': API_KEY,
'Hash': authHash,
},
body: JSON.stringify(payload),
});
console.log(await response.json());import java.net.URI;
import java.net.http.HttpClient;
import java.net.http.HttpRequest;
import java.net.http.HttpResponse;
import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
import java.security.MessageDigest;
public class GrowthBnkExample {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
String apiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY";
String apiSalt = "YOUR_API_SALT";
String baseUrl = "https://api.growthbnk.com";
String payload = """
{
"transaction_id": "TXN20260707172038123",
"refund_amount": "150.00",
"refund_reason": "Customer requested cancellation"
}
""";
// Auth hash: sha256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt)
String signing = apiKey + "|TXN20260707172038123|150.00|" + apiSalt;
String authHash = sha256Hex(signing);
HttpRequest request = HttpRequest.newBuilder()
.uri(URI.create(baseUrl + "/v1/route/refund-initiate/"))
.header("Content-Type", "application/json")
.header("X-API-Key", apiKey)
.header("Hash", authHash)
.method("POST", HttpRequest.BodyPublishers.ofString(payload))
.build();
HttpResponse<String> response = HttpClient.newHttpClient()
.send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofString());
System.out.println(response.body());
}
private static String sha256Hex(String input) throws Exception {
byte[] digest = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA-256")
.digest(input.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (byte b : digest) sb.append(String.format("%02x", b));
return sb.toString();
}
}using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
class GrowthBnkExample
{
static async Task Main()
{
var apiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY";
var apiSalt = "YOUR_API_SALT";
var baseUrl = "https://api.growthbnk.com";
var payload = """
{
"transaction_id": "TXN20260707172038123",
"refund_amount": "150.00",
"refund_reason": "Customer requested cancellation"
}
""";
// Auth hash: sha256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt)
var signing = $"{apiKey}|TXN20260707172038123|150.00|{apiSalt}";
var authHash = Convert.ToHexString(
SHA256.HashData(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(signing))).ToLowerInvariant();
using var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("X-API-Key", apiKey);
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Hash", authHash);
var content = new StringContent(payload, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
var response = await client.PostAsync($"{baseUrl}/v1/route/refund-initiate/", content);
Console.WriteLine(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
}
}package main
import (
"bytes"
"crypto/sha256"
"encoding/hex"
"fmt"
"io"
"net/http"
)
func main() {
apiKey := "YOUR_API_KEY"
apiSalt := "YOUR_API_SALT"
baseURL := "https://api.growthbnk.com"
payload := []byte(`{
"transaction_id": "TXN20260707172038123",
"refund_amount": "150.00",
"refund_reason": "Customer requested cancellation"
}`)
// Auth hash: sha256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt)
signing := apiKey + "|TXN20260707172038123|150.00|" + apiSalt
sum := sha256.Sum256([]byte(signing))
authHash := hex.EncodeToString(sum[:])
req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", baseURL+"/v1/route/refund-initiate/", bytes.NewReader(payload))
req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")
req.Header.Set("X-API-Key", apiKey)
req.Header.Set("Hash", authHash)
resp, err := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)
if err != nil {
panic(err)
}
defer resp.Body.Close()
body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
fmt.Println(string(body))
}require 'digest'
require 'json'
require 'net/http'
require 'uri'
api_key = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
api_salt = 'YOUR_API_SALT'
base_url = 'https://api.growthbnk.com'
payload = {
'transaction_id' => 'TXN20260707172038123',
'refund_amount' => '150.00',
'refund_reason' => 'Customer requested cancellation'
}
# Auth hash: sha256(key|transaction_id|refund_amount|salt)
signing = "#{api_key}|TXN20260707172038123|150.00|#{api_salt}"
auth_hash = Digest::SHA256.hexdigest(signing)
uri = URI("#{base_url}/v1/route/refund-initiate/")
http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = true
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(uri, {
'Content-Type' => 'application/json',
'X-API-Key' => api_key,
'Hash' => auth_hash
})
request.body = payload.to_json
response = http.request(request)
puts response.bodyRequest body
{
"transaction_id": "TXN20260707172038123",
"refund_amount": "150.00",
"refund_reason": "Customer requested cancellation"
}Response
201 Created
{
"success": true,
"refund_id": "RFD20260707180512345",
"transaction_id": "TXN20260707172038123",
"merchant_transaction_id": "ORDER-2026-0001",
"refund_amount": "150.00",
"refund_status": "INITIATED"
}