Stripe Prohibited and Restricted Businesses: The Complete 2026 List

This guide summarizes Stripe’s official Acceptable Use Policy and restricted businesses page. Stripe updates its policy periodically, so confirm the current version before you apply.

Stripe prohibits some businesses outright — adult content, gambling, illegal products, counterfeit goods, deceptive schemes — and restricts others, including vape, low-THC CBD, and regulated financial services. If your business appears anywhere on that list, Stripe can decline your application, hold your funds, or close your account with little notice. Below is the complete, categorized 2026 list, the current adult content, gambling, CBD, and counterfeit policies, and the steps to take if Stripe will not support you.

Prohibited vs. Restricted: What Stripe’s Policy Actually Means

Stripe’s Acceptable Use Policy splits unsupported businesses into two tiers, and the difference matters:

• Prohibited businesses are never supported. There is no approval process. Categories like adult content, gambling, illegal products, and counterfeit goods sit here, and applying anyway typically ends in rejection or termination.
• Restricted businesses are conditional. Stripe may support them with prior written approval, in specific jurisdictions, or under extra requirements, and accounts that operate without the required approval risk being declined or closed once Stripe identifies the business model.

The practical catch: Stripe is a payment aggregator, not a dedicated merchant account provider, so restricted merchants who pass instant onboarding are often flagged later by automated risk reviews. Many merchants first learn they are on the list when their account is already frozen.

The Complete Stripe Prohibited and Restricted Businesses List

The categories below mirror the groupings in Stripe’s official Acceptable Use Policy and restricted businesses documentation. Stripe’s banking partners can impose additional limits, so treat this as a current summary rather than legal advice.

Stripe Prohibited Businesses (Never Supported)

• Illegal products and services — anything unlawful where you or your customers are located.
• Counterfeit goods and IP infringement — replicas, knockoffs, unauthorized sale of brand-name or designer products, and unauthorized use of trademarks or copyrighted work.
• Gambling — games of chance, online gambling, casino games, prize-based sweepstakes, fantasy sports, and games of skill with cash or material prizes.
• Adult content and services — pornography and other mature audience content, escorts, pay-per-view, adult live-chat, and sexual massage.
• Get-rich-quick and deceptive schemes — pyramid schemes and deceptive money-making offers.
• Multi-level marketing — commission- or recruitment-based sales models.
• Debt collection and debt relief — debt collection agencies, plus debt settlement, negotiation, and consolidation.
• Credit repair and counseling.
• Bail bonds — listed alongside bankruptcy attorneys under prohibited legal services.
• High-THC CBD — CBD products with THC above the local legal limit, including CBD edibles.
• Shell banks and unlicensed money transmission — financial entities with no physical presence or required licensing.
• Peer-to-peer money transmission.

Stripe Restricted Businesses (Conditional or Prior Approval)

• Investment and credit services — brokerage, investment, and lending services, including real estate-based investments and loans. Credit card loan repayments and “get rich quick” investment offers are prohibited.
• Money transmission and money services businesses — remittances, currency exchange, and licensed MSBs require approval from Stripe’s sales team.
• Low-THC CBD — CBD products with only negligible THC under local limits. Nutraceuticals making regulated health claims also draw scrutiny.
• Vape, tobacco, and e-cigarettes — must be sold in line with applicable law; in the US, only FDA-authorized e-cigarette products are allowed.

A single restricted or prohibited product line can put your whole account under review. The full policy is longer and more granular than any summary, so confirm your exact model against the official list before you build on the platform.

Restrictions Vary by Jurisdiction

Stripe’s list is not uniform worldwide. A category Stripe conditionally supports in one country can be prohibited in another, because the acquiring banks and local regulations behind each market set their own limits. If you sell across borders, check the policy for every market you operate in — an approval in your home market does not travel with you.

Stripe’s Adult Content Policy in 2026

Adult content generates more Stripe policy questions than almost any other category, and the short answer is that Stripe prohibits adult content and services. As of our October 2026 review of the official Acceptable Use Policy:

• Pornography and adult subscription sites — prohibited. The policy covers pornography and other mature audience content, pay-per-view, and adult live-chat, and content platforms on Stripe cannot sell adult content.
• Sexual services — prohibited outright. Stripe lists prostitution, escorts, and sexual massage as prohibited adult services.

The strictness comes down to overhead: card networks impose special registration, monitoring, and fee requirements on adult merchants, and aggregators like Stripe sidestep that by excluding the category. There is no approval path for pornography or sexual services on Stripe, and we do not support adult content or services either.

Stripe’s Gambling Policy: Betting, Casinos, Fantasy Sports, and Sweepstakes

Stripe’s current Acceptable Use Policy lists gambling as prohibited, and it defines gambling broadly:

• Betting and casino games — games of chance and internet gambling are prohibited. Operators who need underwriting built for the category use dedicated merchant accounts for online gaming and casinos.
• Sportsbooks — fall under the same prohibition. Specialized sports betting payment processing exists because aggregators will not take this business.
• Fantasy sports — paid-entry fantasy contests are listed as prohibited. Dedicated fantasy sports payment solutions are the practical route.
• Sweepstakes and skill-based gaming — prize-based sweepstakes and games of skill with monetary or material prizes are also prohibited. Purpose-built sweepstakes payment processing handles these models up front, and platforms with no real-money wagering or prizes can run on a social gaming merchant account underwritten for the category.

Stripe’s gambling rules also vary by country, and some markets add their own restrictions, so check the policy for every jurisdiction you operate in.

Stripe’s CBD, Vape, and Nutraceutical Rules

Stripe splits CBD in two: products with THC above the local legal limit, including CBD edibles, are prohibited, while products with only negligible THC are restricted — even where they are legal. The sticking points are regulated health claims, patchy state and national rules, and banking partners that decline the category wholesale. In practice, most CBD merchants are declined or closed once the product line is identified.

Federal rules are also changing. Starting November 12, 2026, hemp products containing synthetic cannabinoids are excluded from the definition of hemp. On December 11, 2026, most remaining changes take effect: THC will be measured as total THC, including THCA, and finished hemp products will be capped at 0.4 mg of total THC and similar cannabinoids per container. Several bills in Congress would delay or repeal these changes, so confirm the current status before you rely on these dates.

Vape, tobacco, and e-cigarettes face a similar wall for different reasons. Stripe restricts the category and allows only FDA-authorized e-cigarettes in the US, and age verification and cross-border shipping rules add compliance work most aggregators avoid. Supplements follow the same pattern when marketing makes regulated claims, which is why nutraceutical credit card processing exists as its own underwritten category rather than a checkbox on an aggregator form. If Stripe has ruled out your supplement or CBD line, that underwritten route is the practical place to start.

Counterfeit Goods and IP-Infringing Products

Counterfeit goods are prohibited on Stripe — never supported, with no approval path. The prohibition covers replicas and knockoffs, unauthorized use of trademarks or logos, unauthorized sale of brand-name or designer products, pirated software and digital goods, and gray-market items misrepresented as authentic. When Stripe identifies counterfeit sales, it can terminate the account and hold funds, because card network rules require processors to shut down IP-infringing merchants.

One honest caveat: this is not a category where a high-risk processor is the workaround. No legitimate payment provider supports counterfeit goods. If you sell branded merchandise, the fix is documented authorization from the rights holder — not a new processor.

Why Stripe Declines Entire Categories

Stripe is a payment aggregator: every merchant is onboarded into a shared processing arrangement rather than an individual merchant account, so Stripe’s risk tolerance is set by its acquiring banks and the card networks, not by your individual business. Anything that raises risk at the portfolio level gets filtered out, which is why the platform declines or drops whole categories rather than underwriting merchants one by one — and why automated reviews can flag a restricted model well after onboarding, once processing patterns reveal what the business sells.

Stripe is not unusual here. Square’s own prohibited businesses list excludes many of the same categories, because every aggregator answers to similar banking partners. For a side-by-side look at Stripe, PayPal, and Square and how each treats restricted industries, we have compared all three.

Common triggers include:

• Chargebacks — categories with high dispute rates, such as debt collection, are prohibited outright.
• Regulated products — tobacco and vape products carry age verification and cross-border compliance challenges Stripe will not take on.
• Reputational risk — adult content, gambling, and multi-level marketing create exposure for Stripe’s banking partners regardless of legality.

When Stripe’s risk systems flag an account, the consequences range from paused payouts and funds held in reserve to full termination — often with limited notice and while money is still in transit.

What to Do If Stripe Restricts or Shuts Down Your Account

If Stripe has flagged, restricted, or terminated your account, work through this checklist:

• Export your data immediately. Pull customer records, subscription details, and payment data while you still have dashboard access.
• Compare your options. We maintain a review of Stripe alternatives built for high-risk businesses so you can see the field before you apply anywhere.
• Apply for a dedicated account. With a high-risk merchant account, your industry is disclosed and underwritten up front, so you are far less likely to face a surprise shutdown for the category itself.
• Set up a second rail. Alongside credit cards, ACH payment processing gives you a bank-transfer option that reduces your dependence on any single card relationship.
• Put chargeback prevention in place. The dispute patterns that flagged you at Stripe will follow you unless you add chargeback prevention and monitoring from day one.

How PayKings Supports Stripe-Restricted Businesses

High-risk payment processing is the only thing we do, and that changes how your application is handled.

Tailored High-Risk Merchant Accounts

Individual underwriting, not a blanket policy. We review your actual business and place it with acquiring banks that accept your industry — gambling and gaming, CBD and nutraceuticals, vape and tobacco, debt collection, and regulated financial services among them. Every fee is disclosed in the merchant service agreement before you sign, and reserves and terms are set out up front.

The account itself is built for restricted models: secure gateways with credit card and ACH rails under one account, real-time transaction monitoring, and fraud and dispute tools designed for the chargeback patterns high-risk industries actually see.

Stripe-Restricted Business Models We Support

• E-cigarettes and vape shops — compliant processing for vape and tobacco businesses, with underwriting that addresses age verification and cross-border sales rules.
• Debt collection agencies — processing built for collection agencies and the chargeback patterns they see, a category Stripe prohibits outright.
• Challenger banks and financial services — accounts for businesses offering credit services or money transmission, models Stripe restricts.
• CBD and nutraceuticals — underwriting that accounts for the regulatory scrutiny these products draw.

We do not support adult content or services.

Compliance does not end when you leave Stripe. High-risk businesses must meet local, national, and global regulations, and failure can mean penalties, frozen accounts, or closure. We support merchants in stringently regulated industries, and you should plan for those requirements before you switch processors.

Operating a high-risk business should not mean struggling to accept payments. With an 86% approval rate and experience supporting over 10,000 merchants, we pair tailored solutions for restricted categories with 24/7 expert support. If Stripe’s prohibited and restricted businesses list has you locked out, apply for a high-risk merchant account built for the industries Stripe will not touch.