Enabling Apple Pay on your Donations form with Authorize.net

To accept Apple Pay donations through your Authorize.net account, four phases of setup are required. You will handle the Payment Processing Certificate and the Soapbox admin configuration independently. Domain verification and the Merchant Identity Certificate each involve a file exchange with Soapbox.

Important: This setup requires an active Apple Developer Program account ($99/year), registered to your organization. Do not use a personal Apple ID — if the account is registered to an individual employee, your organization will lose access if that person leaves.

Before you begin

Confirm you have the following before starting:

• An active Authorize.net production account connected to a supported processor (Chase Paymentech, Global Payments, TSYS, FDC Nashville, NAB EPX, or Worldpay)
• An Apple Developer Program account registered to your organization — if you do not have one, visit developer.apple.com to enroll before proceeding. Organization enrollments are reviewed by Apple and typically take 1–5 business days; Apple may call to verify your organization. You will receive an email when your account is approved and ready to use. Do not proceed with the steps below until your enrollment status shows as active.

Part 1 — Payment Processing Certificate (you handle this independently)

Step 1 — Create an Apple Merchant ID

1. Sign in to your Apple Developer account at developer.apple.com.
2. Go to Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles.
3. Under Identifiers, click + and select Merchant IDs.
4. Enter a description and an identifier for your organization. The identifier must be in reverse-domain format — for example, merchant.com.yourorganization.
5. Click Register and make a note of your Merchant ID.

Step 2 — Generate your Apple Pay CSR in Authorize.net and create your Payment Processing Certificate

Important: These steps must be completed in your live Authorize.net production account. This setup is not available in Authorize.net sandbox accounts.

1. Sign in to your Authorize.net production account.
2. At the top of the page, toggle Try the new Authorize.net to ON.
3. Navigate to Account → Digital Payment Solutions → Apple Pay.
4. For Apple Merchant ID, enter the Merchant ID you created in Step 1.
5. Click Generate Apple CSR. A confirmation message will appear and a CSR file will download to your computer.
6. Return to Apple Developer → select your Merchant ID → under Apple Pay Payment Processing Certificate, click Create Certificate.
7. Upload the CSR file you downloaded from Authorize.net and download the resulting certificate.

Step 3 — Enter your Apple Merchant ID in Soapbox

1. Log in to your Soapbox administrator.
2. In the right column, click Payment Processor Settings.
3. With Authorize.net selected as the Payment Gateway, locate the Apple Pay Merchant ID field.
4. Enter the Merchant ID you registered in Step 1.
5. Click Save Payment Processor Settings.

Part 2 — Domain Verification (back-and-forth with Soapbox)

Step 4 — Add your Soapbox domain and download the verification file

1. In Apple Developer → Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles → Identifiers → Merchant IDs → select your Merchant ID.
2. Under Merchant Domains, click Add Domain.
3. Enter your Soapbox-prefixed domain (for example, yourorg.soapboxengage.com).
4. Click Save, then click Download to download the domain association file.
5. Send the downloaded file to Soapbox support.

Step 5 — Verify your Soapbox domain

Soapbox will host the domain association file and notify you when it is ready. Once notified, return to Apple Developer → your Merchant ID → Merchant Domains and click Verify next to your Soapbox domain.

Step 6 — Custom domain (if applicable)

If you use a custom domain for your Donations form, you must also verify it using the same process as the Soapbox domain:

1. In Apple Developer → your Merchant ID → Merchant Domains → click Add Domain.
2. Enter your custom domain, click Save, then click Download to download the domain association file.
3. Send the downloaded file to Soapbox support.
4. Soapbox will host the file and notify you when it is ready.
5. Return to Apple Developer → your Merchant ID → Merchant Domains and click Verify next to your custom domain.

Note: Domains must be verified one at a time. Both your Soapbox domain and any custom domain use the same file path on Soapbox's server. Wait for Soapbox to confirm one domain is verified before initiating the next.

Part 3 — Merchant Identity Certificate (back-and-forth with Soapbox)

Step 7 — Receive a CSR file from Soapbox

Soapbox will send you a .certSigningRequest file. Wait for this file before continuing.

Step 8 — Create the Merchant Identity Certificate

1. In Apple Developer → Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles → Identifiers → Merchant IDs → select your Merchant ID.
2. Under Apple Pay Merchant Identity Certificate, click Create Certificate.
3. Click Continue.
4. Click Choose File → select the .certSigningRequest file Soapbox sent → click Choose.
5. Click Continue, then click Download.
6. Send the downloaded .cer file to Soapbox support. Soapbox will install it on your site.

Step 9 — Enable Apple Pay on your Donation form(s)

Once Soapbox confirms your Merchant Identity Certificate is installed, enable Apple Pay on your donation forms.

To enable Apple Pay for all your Donation forms by default:

1. Log in to your Soapbox administrator.
2. Open the Configuration for the Donations app.
3. Click the Payment tab.
4. Under the General section, for Enable Apple Pay, select Yes.
5. Click Save.

To enable or disable Apple Pay for a specific Donation form instead, see Enabling or disabling Apple Pay as a payment option for an individual Donation page.

Troubleshooting

The Digital Payment Solutions page shows "Unable to display Apple information. Please try again later"

You are likely signed in to an Authorize.net sandbox account. Sign in to your production account and try again.

No file downloaded after the confirmation message appeared

Your CSR was still generated on Authorize.net's side. Contact Authorize.net support and ask them to provide the CSR file for your account. Once you receive it, continue with the Apple Developer steps in Step 2.

Apple Pay fails at checkout with an error about processing or decrypting payment data

This typically means that Authorize.net cannot decrypt the Apple Pay payment token — a mismatch between the private key in your Authorize.net account and the public key in your Payment Processing Certificate.

The most common causes are:

• The Payment Processing Certificate was created from a CSR that belongs to a different Authorize.net account (not yours)
• You clicked Generate Apple CSR in Authorize.net after your Payment Processing Certificate was already active, which replaced your private key and made the existing certificate invalid

The fix is to start Step 2 from the beginning: click Generate Apple CSR in your Authorize.net account to get a fresh CSR, then go to Apple Developer and create a new Payment Processing Certificate from that CSR. The new certificate will use your account's current private key, and decryption will work.

Important: Do not click Generate Apple CSR unless you are ready to immediately create a new Payment Processing Certificate in Apple Developer. Generating a new CSR immediately replaces the private key in Authorize.net, which disables Apple Pay until a matching certificate is in place.

Keeping Apple Pay active

Your Apple Developer Program membership must remain active (renewed annually at $99/year) for Apple Pay to continue functioning on your site. If your membership lapses, Apple Pay will stop working for your supporters.

Related articles:

• Setting up the Authorize.net payment processor credentials
• Enabling or disabling Apple Pay as a payment option for all Donation pages by default