Decline rates
Attempt Decline Rate is the flip side of authorization rates: the percentage of transactions or orders that are not approved. In Reveal Transactions, decline rates help you quantify failure at checkout before you dig into individual error reasons.
Like authorization rates, Reveal measures decline rates by count and by volume, at both the transaction and order level. For definitions of transactions versus orders, see Understand payment performance.
To open these charts, select Transactions, open Performance in the left navigation, then select the Decline Rate tab.
Transaction-level Attempt Decline Rate
By count
Definition: The percentage of individual transactions that are declined.
Calculation: (Number of declined transactions ÷ Total number of transaction attempts) × 100
By volume
Definition: The percentage of transaction value that is declined.
Calculation: (Total value of declined transactions ÷ Total value of all transaction attempts) × 100
On Chargebee-connected sites, the transaction-level chart is labeled Attempt Decline Rate.
Order-level Attempt Decline Rate
By count
Definition: The percentage of orders that qualify as declined (see the definition below).
Calculation: (Number of declined orders ÷ Total number of order attempts) × 100
By volume
Definition: The percentage of order value associated with declined orders.
Calculation: (Total value of declined orders ÷ Total value of all order attempts) × 100
On Chargebee-connected sites, order-level decline charts often use labels such as Invoice Decline Rate.
What counts as a declined order
An order is considered declined or failed when both of the following are true:
- It has at least one failed or declined transaction, and
- It has no successful authorization transaction
A single order can involve multiple payment attempts across Gateway Accounts, payment methods, card types, and funding types. If a later attempt succeeds and is authorized, the order is not counted as a declined order—even though earlier attempts still appear in transaction-level decline rates.
Example
| Order | Attempts | Declined order? | | --- | --- | --- | | A | Decline, then approve | No — recovered | | B | Decline only | Yes | | C | Approve on first try | No |
Order B raises order-level decline rate. Order A's first decline raises transaction-level decline rate but not the order-level declined-order count.
Ways to inspect order declines in Reveal
Reveal supports two complementary views when you analyze failed orders:
Last declined transaction
For each failed order, you can review details of the last declined transaction. That final failure is often the best signal of why the purchase did not complete, especially when earlier attempts used different cards or error codes.
Averaged decline metrics
Reveal also surfaces metrics averaged across dimensions such as Gateway Account, payment method, and Funding Type. Use these when you need a broader view of systemic decline patterns rather than a single order's last attempt.
For the revenue cost of specific error reasons (including last-occurrence impact), continue in Error analysis and Revenue impact analysis.
How to use decline rates with authorization rates
- Confirm the period, currency, and Gateway Account filters match the question you are answering.
- Compare Attempt Decline Rate with Attempt Success. Together they should describe the same attempt population from opposite sides.
- Compare transaction-level declines with order-level declines. A high transaction decline rate with a lower order decline rate often means retries are recovering purchases.
- Segment problem areas with Drill down into auth and decline rates, then identify reasons in Error analysis.
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