StripeKit - Find or Create Customer by Email

`$kit->customers->findOrCreateByEmail()`

Looks up a customer by email and returns it if one already exists; otherwise creates a new one. This is the method to use at the start of any flow where you don't yet know if the person has a Stripe customer, for example before starting a checkout or attaching a payment method.

Signature

Lookup order

If a storage adapter is configured, calls findUserByEmail($email). If that returns a record with a stripeCustomerId, the matching customer is retrieved from Stripe via retrieve() and returned immediately.

Otherwise, searches Stripe directly for a customer with that email and returns the first match, if any.

If nothing is found, creates a new customer via create(), passing through $extra and the resolved userId from your storage adapter, if any.

Parameters

Field	Type	Required	Description
`email`	`string`	Yes	The email address to look up or create.
`extra`	`array`	No	Any additional fields accepted by `create()` (`name`, `phone`, `address`, `metadata`, and so on), used only if a new customer needs to be created.

Example request

Example response

Same shape as create() / retrieve():

Errors

Same as create() and retrieve(), depending on which path is taken.

Notes

This method only ever creates one customer per email. If you call it twice in a row with the same email and no storage adapter, the second call finds the customer created by the first call via Stripe's own search, so you won't get duplicates.

Without a storage adapter, every call does a live search against Stripe's API before deciding whether to create. With a storage adapter, the first check is against your own database, which is faster and avoids relying on Stripe's search consistency.

Find or Create by Email

$kit->customers->findOrCreateByEmail()#

Signature#

Lookup order#

Parameters#

Example request#

Example response#

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