Modern Web Guidance

Build a payment form that follows best practice

Payment forms are the single most critical part of the checkout process. Poor payment form design is a common cause of shopping cart abandonment.

Create a form that makes it as easy as possible for users to enter payment details on desktop and mobile. Ensure the form makes the most of built-in browser features for autofill, validation and data entry constraints.

How to implement

Outlined below are the most important guidelines for building successful payment forms.

Use meaningful, valid HTML

Make the most of the elements and attributes built for creating forms:

• <form>, <input>, <label>, and <button>

• type, autocomplete, and inputmode

These enable built-in browser functionality, improve accessibility, and add meaning to markup.

Use the <label> element to label form fields for data entry

To label an <input>, <select>, or <textarea>, use a <label>. Associate a label with an input by giving the label's for attribute the same value as the input's id.

Make the most of HTML attributes

Make it easy for users to enter data, by using the appropriate <input> element <type> attribute to provide the right keyboard on mobile and enable basic built-in validation by the browser.

Always use type="email" for email addresses and type="tel" for phone numbers.

<!-- type="email"/"tel" gives mobile users the right keyboard and enables built-in validation -->
<input type="email" id="email" name="email" autocomplete="email" required>
<input type="tel" id="phone" name="phone" autocomplete="tel">

Every <input>, <select>, and <textarea> element SHOULD have an appropriate autocomplete attribute, to improve accessibility and help users avoid re-entering data.

Make buttons helpful

Use <button> for buttons. You can also use <input type="submit">, but don't use a div or some other random element acting as a button. Button elements provide accessible behaviour, built-in form submission functionality, and can easily be styled.

Give each form submit button a value that says what it does. For each step towards checkout, use a descriptive call-to-action that shows progress and makes the next step obvious. For example, label the submit button on your delivery address form Proceed to Payment rather than Continue or Save.

Use a single name input where possible

Allow your users to enter their name using a single input, unless you have a good reason for separately storing given names, family names, honorifics, or other name parts. Using a single name input makes forms less complex, enables cut-and-paste, and makes autofill simpler.

Allow international names. For validation, avoid using regular expressions that only match Latin characters. Latin-only excludes users with names or addresses that include characters that aren't in the Latin alphabet. Allow Unicode letter matching instead—and ensure your backend supports Unicode securely as both input and output. Unicode in regular expressions is well supported by modern browsers.

Allow for a variety of address formats

When adding form fields for an address in a payment form, be aware of the variety of address formats, even within a single country. Do not make assumptions about "normal" addresses.

If possible within your data requirements, consider using a single <textarea> element for address. This is the most flexible option for a variety of local and international address formats.

Use autocomplete for billing address

By default, set the billing address to be the same as the delivery address. Reduce visual clutter by providing a link to edit the billing address (or use summary and details elements) rather than displaying the billing address in a form.

Use appropriate autocomplete values for the billing address, just as you do for shipping address, so the user doesn't have to enter data more than once. Add a prefix word to autocomplete attributes if you have different values for inputs with the same name in different sections. For example:

<input autocomplete="shipping address-line-1" ...>
...
<input autocomplete="billing address-line-1" ...>

Show checkout progress

For each step towards payment, use page headings and descriptive button values that make it clear what needs to be done now, and what checkout step is next.

Use the enterkeyhint attribute on form inputs to set the mobile keyboard enter key label. For example, use enterkeyhint="previous" and enterkeyhint="next" within a multi-page form, enterkeyhint="done" for the final input in the form, and enterkeyhint="search" for a search input.

Help users avoid re-entering payment data

Make sure to add appropriate autocomplete values in payment card forms. Without autocomplete, users may keep a physical record of payment card details or store them insecurely.

<!-- cc-number tells autofill this is a card number, not a generic number field -->
<!-- inputmode="numeric" gives a numeric keyboard without the increment/decrement spinner -->
<!-- DO NOT use type="number" — it adds increment/decrement controls and strips leading zeros -->
<input id="cc-number" name="cc-number" type="text" autocomplete="cc-number"
       inputmode="numeric" maxlength="19" pattern="[\d ]{13,19}" required>

<!-- cc-name autofills with the name exactly as it appears on the card; Unicode pattern allows international names -->
<input id="cc-name" name="cc-name" type="text" autocomplete="cc-name"
       maxlength="50" pattern="[\p{L} \-\.]+" required>

<!-- cc-exp autofills the full expiry date as MM/YY -->
<!-- MANDATORY: Place format hints above the input so autocomplete popovers or virtual keyboards do not obscure them during editing -->
<span id="exp-hint" class="hint">Format: MM/YY</span>
<input id="cc-exp" name="cc-exp" type="text" autocomplete="cc-exp"
       aria-describedby="exp-hint" maxlength="5" required>

<!-- cc-csc autofills the security code; DO NOT use type="password" here -->
<input id="cc-csc" name="cc-csc" type="text" autocomplete="cc-csc"
       inputmode="numeric" maxlength="4" pattern="[0-9]{3,4}" required>

Use a single input for payment card and phone numbers

For payment card and phone numbers use a single input: don't split the number into parts. That makes it easier for users to enter data, makes validation simpler, and enables browsers to autofill. Consider doing the same for other numeric data such as PIN and bank codes.

Validate carefully

You should validate data entry both in realtime and before form submission. One way to do this is by adding a pattern attribute to a payment card input. If the user attempts to submit the payment form with an invalid value, the browser displays a warning message and sets focus on the input.

However, your pattern regular expression must be flexible enough to handle the range of payment card number lengths: from 14 digits (or possibly less) to 20 (or more). Card security codes (also known as CSC, CVC, CVV, or other names) consist of 3 or 4 digits.

Allow users to include spaces when they're entering a new payment card number, since this is how numbers are displayed on physical cards. That's friendlier to the user (you won't have to tell them "they did something wrong"), less likely to interrupt conversion flow, and it's straightforward to remove spaces in numbers before processing.

Help save users from accidentally missing data fields

Add the required attribute to mandatory fields. Modern browsers automatically prompt and set focus for missing data.

Fallback strategies

Baseline status for enterkeyhint: Widely available. It's been Baseline since 2021-11-02. Supported by: Chrome 77 (Sep 2019), Edge 79 (Jan 2020), Firefox 94 (Nov 2021), Safari 13.1 (Mar 2020), and Safari iOS 13.4 (Mar 2020). Baseline status for Email, telephone, and URL <input> types: Widely available. It's been Baseline since 2015-07-29. Supported by: Chrome 5 (May 2010), Edge 12 (Jul 2015), Firefox 4 (Mar 2011), Safari 5 (Jun 2010), and Safari iOS 3 (Jun 2009). Baseline status for inputmode: Widely available. It's been Baseline since 2021-12-07. Supported by: Chrome 66 (Apr 2018), Edge 79 (Jan 2020), Firefox 95 (Dec 2021), Safari 12.1 (Mar 2019), and Safari iOS 12.2 (Mar 2019).

Autofill is a progressive enhancement. In browsers that do not support autofill, users will simply need to manually enter their payment details. The semantic HTML constraints (such as type, inputmode, pattern, and required) will still function appropriately to validate user input and provide the correct virtual keyboards.