Update Subscription

Audience: Low-code Engineers, Software Developers

Skill Prerequisites: Actions, Tokens, Authorize.Net

Changes an existing Authorize.Net recurring subscription, using its Automated Recurring Billing (ARB) service. You identify the subscription by its subscription ID, which Create Subscription returns.

Each update sends the amount, the credit card, the billing name and the number of payments together, so you have to supply all of them every time, even if only one changes.

note

This action requires the Authorize.Net feature (AUTHORIZE) to be licensed. Authorize.Net support is a separate add-on package (DnnSharp.Authorize.Net). If you don't see the Authorize.Net actions, the add-on isn't installed.

Typical Use Cases

• Let a member replace an expired or lost card on their subscription
• Change the amount, for example when a customer moves to a different plan
• Correct the billing name or address
• Extend or shorten a subscription by changing the total number of payments

Don't use it to

• Change how often the subscription bills. The action has no interval parameters, and Authorize.Net doesn't allow the interval to change. Create a new subscription instead.
• Cancel a subscription. There's no action for this. Cancel it in the Authorize.Net Merchant Interface.
• Charge a one-time amount. Use Make a Payment with Credit Card.
• Switch the subscription to a bank account. This action only accepts a credit card.
• Refund a subscription payment. Use Refund a Transaction.

Related Actions

Action Name	Description
Create Subscription	Creates the subscription and returns its ID.
Make a Payment with Credit Card	Charges a card once through Authorize.Net.
Refund a Transaction	Refunds an Authorize.Net transaction.
Run SQL Query	Looks up the saved subscription ID before the update.

Input Parameter Reference

Parameter	Description	Supports Tokens	Default	Required
API Login ID	The API Login ID of the Authorize.Net account that owns the subscription.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Transaction Key	The Transaction Key that goes with the API Login ID. It's masked in the action editor.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Go Live	When checked, the request goes to the Authorize.Net production environment. When unchecked, it goes to the sandbox. It must match the environment the subscription was created in.	No	false	No
Subscription Id	The ID of the subscription to change, as returned by Create Subscription.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Card Number	The credit card number to bill from now on. Spaces and dashes are removed before it's sent.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Card CCV	The card's security code.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Subscription Name	A name for the subscription, shown in the Authorize.Net Merchant Interface.	Yes	empty string	No
Subscription Amount	The amount of each regular payment, with a decimal point and no currency symbol, for example 8.95. It must include tax, shipping and any other charges.	Yes	0	Yes
Subscription Trial Amount	The amount of each trial payment. It's only sent when Trial Occurrences is set and the amount is above 0.	Yes	0	No
Expiration Month	The card's expiration month, for example 7 or 07. A one-digit month gets a leading zero.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Expiration Year	The card's expiration year, for example 30 or 2030. Only the last two digits are sent.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Total Occurrences	The total number of payments, including trial payments. Use 9999 for no end date.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Trial Occurrences	How many of the first payments are billed at the trial amount. It's ignored when Total Occurrences is 9999.	Yes	0	No
First Name	The billing first name.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Last Name	The billing last name.	Yes	empty string	Yes
Country	The billing country.	Yes	empty string	No
State	The billing state or province.	Yes	empty string	No
City	The billing city.	Yes	empty string	No
Address	The billing street address.	Yes	empty string	No
Postal Code	The billing postal or ZIP code.	Yes	empty string	No
Company	The billing company name.	Yes	empty string	No
Response Result Code TokenName	The name of a token to store the result code in. See Output Parameters Reference.	No	empty string	No
Response Message TokenName	The name of a token to store the response message in.	No	empty string	No
Response Customer ProfileId TokenName	The name of a token to store the customer profile ID in.	No	empty string	No
Response Customer PaymentProfileId TokenName	The name of a token to store the customer payment profile ID in.	No	empty string	No
Response Customer Address Id TokenName	The name of a token to store the customer address ID in.	No	empty string	No
Response Ref Id TokenName	The name of a token to store the reference ID in.	No	empty string	No
Response SessionToken TokenName	The name of a token to store the session token in.	No	empty string	No
On Success	Actions that run when Authorize.Net accepts the update.	No	empty list	No
On Error	Actions that run when Authorize.Net rejects the update.	No	empty list	No

Output Parameters Reference

Each token is only created if you enter a name for it. The tokens are set before On Success or On Error runs, so you can use them in both lists.

Parameter	Description
Response Result Code TokenName	Ok if the subscription was updated, Error if it wasn't.
Response Message TokenName	The first message code and text from Authorize.Net, separated by two spaces, for example I00001 Successful. On an error, it tells you why.
Response Customer ProfileId TokenName	The ID of the customer profile linked to the subscription, if Authorize.Net returned one.
Response Customer PaymentProfileId TokenName	The ID of the customer payment profile, if Authorize.Net returned one.
Response Customer Address Id TokenName	The ID of the customer address, if Authorize.Net returned one.
Response Ref Id TokenName	The reference ID. The action doesn't send one, so it's normally empty.
Response SessionToken TokenName	The session token Authorize.Net returned, normally empty.

The subscription ID doesn't change, so there's no token for it.

What happens when it runs

1. The action sends the update to the sandbox or production environment, depending on Go Live. Along with your values, it always sends a start date of tomorrow.
2. It stores the output tokens you named.
3. If the result is Ok, it runs On Success.
4. If the result is Error, for example because the subscription ID is wrong or a value is invalid, it runs On Error. The action doesn't raise an error in this case, so put your error handling in On Error.

If Authorize.Net doesn't answer at all, the action fails with an error. You can catch it with the On Error of an enclosing Execute Actions.

Considerations

• Send every value. The amount, card, expiration date, name and Total Occurrences are all required and all replace what's on the subscription. To change just the card, look up the current amount and number of payments first and pass them unchanged. Fill in the optional billing fields too if you want to keep them, because the update may clear them otherwise.
• Start date. Authorize.Net only lets you change the start date before the first payment. The action always sends tomorrow's date, so test an update of a subscription that has already been billed in the sandbox before you rely on it.
• Trials. Authorize.Net only lets you change the trial before it starts. Leave Trial Occurrences empty if the trial has started or there isn't one.
• Test in the sandbox first. Leave Go Live unchecked and use the sandbox account's credentials, with a subscription created in the sandbox. Authorize.Net's sandbox accepts test card numbers such as 4111111111111111.
• Keep credentials out of the action. Load the API Login ID and Transaction Key into tokens from a protected place, instead of typing them into each action.
• Card data and PCI. Your site receives and passes on the full card number and security code, so your site is in scope for PCI DSS. Use HTTPS, don't save card fields to your database, and don't log them. On success, the action saves the current tokens for 7 days, and these can include your form's card fields.
• Check who's asking. Anyone who can run the action with a subscription ID can change that subscription. Look up the ID from the signed-in user's record instead of taking it from a form field.
• Webhook notifications. On success, the action replaces the tokens that Create Subscription saved for its webhook notifications and keeps them for another 7 days. This action has no notification lists of its own, so test that the Create Subscription lists still run after an update.

Examples

tip

To understand how to use the below examples, please see Running Examples.

1. Replace the card on a membership

This action puts a new card on the member's subscription in the sandbox. It assumes that earlier actions loaded the API credentials into [AnetLoginId] and [AnetTransactionKey], and the member's [SubscriptionId], [PlanAmount] and [TotalPayments] from your database. The form supplies the card and name fields. The condition skips the update if no subscription ID was found.

{
    "Title": "Update Subscription",
    "ActionType": "UpdateSubscription",
    "Description": "Replace the card on the member's subscription",
    "Condition": "\"[SubscriptionId]\" != \"\"",
    "Parameters": {
        "AuthorizeNetAPILoginID": "[AnetLoginId]",
        "AuthorizeNetTransactionKey": "[AnetTransactionKey]",
        "AuthorizeNetLiveMode": false,
        "AuthorizeNetSubscriptionId": "[SubscriptionId]",
        "AuthorizeNetCardNumber": "[CardNumber]",
        "AuthorizeNetCCV": "[CardCode]",
        "AuthorizeNetAmount": "[PlanAmount]",
        "AuthorizeNetExpirationMonth": "[ExpMonth]",
        "AuthorizeNetExpirationYear": "[ExpYear]",
        "TotalOccurrences": "[TotalPayments]",
        "AuthorizeNetFirstName": "[FirstName]",
        "AuthorizeNetLastName": "[LastName]",
        "AuthorizeNetResponseResultCodeTokenName": "AnetResult",
        "AuthorizeNetResponseMessageTokenName": "AnetMessage",
        "OnSuccess": [
            {
                "Title": "Display Message",
                "ActionType": "ShowMessage",
                "Parameters": {
                    "Message": "<p>Your card has been updated.</p>"
                }
            }
        ],
        "OnError": [
            {
                "Title": "Display Error Message",
                "ActionType": "ShowError",
                "Parameters": {
                    "Message": "<p>We couldn't update your card: [AnetMessage]</p>"
                }
            }
        ]
    }
}

Revised 09/27/2026