Database

PayKit uses your app's PostgreSQL database to store billing state. Entitlement checks are fast local queries, not provider API calls. No round-trips to Stripe on every check().

Pass a pg.Pool instance or a connection string to createPayKit.

import { Pool } from "pg";

export const paykit = createPayKit({
  database: new Pool({
    connectionString: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
  }),
  // ...
});

// Or pass a connection string directly
export const paykit = createPayKit({
  database: process.env.DATABASE_URL,
  // ...
});

PayKit creates tables prefixed with paykit_. The key ones are:

paykitjs push applies any pending migrations. Run it on initial setup and whenever you update your plan configuration.

pnpm dlx paykitjs push

PayKit keeps two sources of truth in sync:

From webhooks (provider to database): Subscriptions, invoices, payment methods, and customer-provider ID mappings are synced automatically when provider events arrive.

From your config (code to database): Plans, products, and features are synced from your createPayKit configuration when you run paykitjs push. Each time you change a plan and push, a new version is created. Previous versions are kept so running instances can continue serving existing subscriptions.