Payment Optimization Engine overview

The Payment Optimization Engine provides centralized control over how payments are offered, evaluated, and routed - enabling businesses to improve authorization rates, manage processing costs, strengthen fraud controls, and deliver a localized, high-conversion checkout experience.

How the Unified Setup Works

The Payment Optimization Engine offers the following layers to configure and personalize your payment flow:

• Defaults - Base Configuration (Mandatory Foundation) Defines which payment methods are enabled and defines a default gateway per method, ensuring every transaction has a defined routing path.

• Advanced Setup - Rule-based Configuration Layer Enables you to customize payment experiences using rules across display, verification, and routing.

  • Payment Method Display Rules - Customization Layer Controls which payment methods are shown during checkout and in what order, allowing you to optimize the checkout experience based on defined conditions.

  • Verification Rules - Control & Risk Layer Evaluates payment attributes before processing to enforce policies such as blocking specific card types, brands, or issuing countries.

  • Routing Rules - Gateway Optimization Layer Determines which gateway processes a transaction based on defined conditions to optimize authorization performance, processing costs, and multi-PSP strategy.

Value for Businesses

The Payment Optimization Engine helps you:

• Improve geographic performance by localizing payment methods and acquiring strategy.
• Increase authorization rates by optimizing gateway selection and payment method strategy.
• Reduce processing costs through intelligent routing and cross-border control.
• Strengthen fraud and business policies with configurable verification rules.

Migrating from Smart Routing to Payment Optimization Engine

If you are currently using Smart Routing, your existing configuration will be automatically carried over when you start using the Payment Optimization Engine.

• Default gateway assignments will be automatically set under Defaults wherever applicable.
• Existing routing rules will be mapped to the Routing Rules layer within the Payment Optimization Engine.

This ensures continuity in your payment processing setup without requiring a complete reconfiguration.

What you should do next

• Review all migrated configurations to ensure they align with your current payment optimization strategies.
• Modify defaults and add new rules based on your requirements.
• Test in Sandbox to validate behavior before enabling in production.
• Make any necessary adjustments to rules or defaults.

Activating the Payment Optimization Engine

Once you have completed the setup and configured the required default routing settings, you can activate the Payment Optimization Engine.

Follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Chargebee app.
2. Go to Settings > Configure Chargebee > Payment Gateways.
3. In the Payment Optimization section, click Set as Active.
   
4. In the confirmation dialog, click Confirm.
   

Payment Optimization is now active.

After activation:

• All newly added payment methods will be evaluated using the Payment Optimization Engine.
• Payment routing and optimization decisions will follow the configured Defaults, Verification Rules, Payment Method Display Rules, and Routing Rules.

Limitations

• The Payment Optimization engine is currently supported in Payment Components and Full Page Checkout (with Payment Components).
• Support for Chargebee In-App Checkout is under consideration and development. Reach out to our Chargebee support and join the waitlist to try this in Chargebee In-App Checkout.
• Currently, the Payment Optimization Engine can be set up only at the Chargebee site level. Overriding at the entity level with the Multi Business Entity is not supported.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. How do I make sure my previous setup in Smart Routing is fully set up in the Advanced Routing engine?

   Review your existing rules in Smart Routing and the defaults/rules established in the Payment Optimization Engine to ensure they match. You can use the Test feature within the Payment Optimization Engine to check different scenarios.

2. Can I move back to Smart Routing if needed?

   If there is a need to move back to Smart routing from the Payment Optimization Engine, you can do that by clicking the Set as Active option in the Smart routing section.

3. Do Payment Optimization rules apply to existing customers?

   No. Payment Optimization Engine rules only apply to new payment methods added after routing rules are configured. Existing payment methods will continue using the original gateway associated with the customer's first successful transaction. Recurring payments will also be processed through the same gateway unless the customer adds a new payment method.