Deduct from Virtual Account

A Deduction debits money from a Virtual Account, reducing its available balance.

Use deductions to:

• Pay for orders or services from a wallet balance
• Move funds into escrow or settlement flows (depending on your product design)
• Charge fees or subscriptions from stored value
• Reverse previously credited amounts (if supported by your business logic)

After a successful deduction:

• The virtual account balance decreases
• A debit record appears in the account's debit history

Endpoint

POST /v2/virtual-accounts/{virtual_account_id}/deduct
Host: api.chapa.co

Authentication

Headers

Path Parameter

Request Body

Required Fields

Optional Fields

Example Request

POST https://api.chapa.co/v2/virtual-accounts/VA_ABC123456/deduct
Authorization: Bearer CHAPA_TEST_xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Content-Type: application/json

{
  "amount": 3000,
  "currency": "ETB",
  "merchant_reference": "DEB_001",
  "reason": "Payment for order ORD_99887",
  "meta": {
    "customer_id": "CUST_12345",
    "order_id": "ORD_99887"
  }
}

Example Response

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "Deduction completed successfully",
  "data": {
    "virtual_account_id": "VA_ABC123456",
    "debit_reference": "DEB_TRX_123456",
    "amount": 3000,
    "currency": "ETB",
    "balance_before": 12500,
    "balance_after": 9500,
    "created_at": "2025-11-07T13:20:00Z"
  }
}

Response Fields

Validation Rules

• currency must match the virtual account currency
• amount must be a positive number
• Account must have sufficient funds
• merchant_reference should be unique (recommended)

Insufficient Balance Handling

If the account does not have enough balance:

• Return a clear user-facing message (e.g. "Insufficient wallet balance")
• Avoid retry loops
• Optionally suggest topping up (deposit)

Best Practices

• Use idempotency keys on retries
• Store debit references for reconciliation
• Log balance_before / balance_after for auditing
• Use merchant_reference to prevent duplicate charges
• Optionally validate balance before calling deduct (still handle race conditions)

Common Errors

Next Steps

• Create Virtual Account - Create a new account
• Deposit to Virtual Account - Add funds
• Get Debit History - View debit transactions