---
title: "Chargeback and Dispute Statuses Compared: Stripe vs PayPal vs Square"
short_title: "Dispute Statuses: Stripe vs PayPal vs Square"
description: "Stripe has 8 dispute statuses, Square 8, PayPal 6 plus stages. What each means, how inquiries differ from chargebacks, and why ignoring an inquiry costs you — from their docs."
date: 2026-09-24
products: Stripe=https://stripe.com; PayPal=https://www.paypal.com; Square=https://squareup.com
faq: What are the Stripe dispute statuses?=warning_needs_response, warning_under_review, warning_closed, needs_response, under_review, won, lost and prevented. The warning_ statuses are inquiries, the stage before a formal chargeback. || What happens if I don't respond to a Stripe inquiry?=Stripe warns that failing to respond can signal acceptance of the claim and lead to a formal, likely unwinnable chargeback. An inquiry left open for 120 days without escalating is marked closed. || What are the PayPal dispute statuses?=OPEN, WAITING_FOR_BUYER_RESPONSE, WAITING_FOR_SELLER_RESPONSE, UNDER_REVIEW, RESOLVED and OTHER. Separately, a lifecycle stage records whether the case is an INQUIRY, CHARGEBACK, PRE_ARBITRATION or ARBITRATION. || What are Square's dispute states?=INQUIRY_EVIDENCE_REQUIRED, INQUIRY_PROCESSING, INQUIRY_CLOSED, EVIDENCE_REQUIRED, PROCESSING, WON, LOST and ACCEPTED.
---

# Chargeback and Dispute Statuses Compared: Stripe vs PayPal vs Square

<p class="meta">Researched and verified against each product's API documentation on 2026-09-24.</p>

:::tldr
**Short answer:** Stripe and Square each have eight dispute statuses, split into an **inquiry** phase and a formal **dispute** phase. PayPal has six statuses plus a separate lifecycle stage (inquiry, chargeback, two appeal rounds). In all three, the inquiry is the cheap moment to act: answer it and you may avoid a chargeback and its fee; ignore it and you may lose by default.
:::

## The statuses side by side

| Phase | Stripe | Square | PayPal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inquiry, you must respond | `warning_needs_response` | `INQUIRY_EVIDENCE_REQUIRED` | stage `INQUIRY` |
| Inquiry, evidence submitted | `warning_under_review` | `INQUIRY_PROCESSING` | — |
| Inquiry ended, no chargeback | `warning_closed` | `INQUIRY_CLOSED` | — |
| Dispute, you must respond | `needs_response` | `EVIDENCE_REQUIRED` | `WAITING_FOR_SELLER_RESPONSE` |
| Dispute, being decided | `under_review` | `PROCESSING` | `UNDER_REVIEW` |
| You won | `won` | `WON` | `RESOLVED` (+ outcome) |
| You lost | `lost` | `LOST` | `RESOLVED` (+ outcome) |
| You gave up | — | `ACCEPTED` | — |
| Stopped before chargeback | `prevented` | — | — |

## Stripe: warnings first, then disputes

Stripe's API lists the statuses as "warning_needs_response, warning_under_review, warning_closed, needs_response, under_review, won, lost, or prevented." The `warning_` prefix marks an inquiry — the API calls them warnings "to mirror the language in the API", while the Dashboard calls them inquiries.

Stripe's documentation explains why the inquiry stage matters: "Failing to respond to an inquiry can signal to the issuer your implicit acceptance of the claim, resulting in an escalation to a formal, and likely unwinnable, chargeback." Answering in time lets you "resolve the case without incurring a dispute fee."

Which networks use inquiries has changed: "American Express and Discover are the networks that most often use this phase, while Mastercard and Visa no longer use it." And inquiries don't end with a win — "If an inquiry remains open for 120 days without escalating to a chargeback, Stripe marks it as closed," and "Card networks don’t provide an explicit “win” message for inquiries."

Once a formal dispute opens, Stripe "debits your Stripe balance for the disputed amount plus a dispute fee." The two final outcomes are defined from the customer's side and yours: `lost` is "A dispute resolved in the customer’s favor" and `won` "A dispute resolved in the merchant’s favor." `prevented` covers "A dispute that was prevented from becoming a formal chargeback."

One more timing fact worth knowing: "Card networks typically allow cardholders to initiate disputes within 120 days of the original payment," but for future events or services "the dispute window starts on the event date, not the payment date."

## Square: the same two phases, plus "accepted"

Square's `DisputeState` enum mirrors Stripe's structure almost exactly:

- `INQUIRY_EVIDENCE_REQUIRED` — "The initial state of an inquiry with evidence required"
- `INQUIRY_PROCESSING` — "Inquiry evidence has been submitted and the bank is processing the inquiry"
- `INQUIRY_CLOSED` — "The inquiry is complete"
- `EVIDENCE_REQUIRED` — "The initial state of a dispute with evidence required"
- `PROCESSING` — "Dispute evidence has been submitted and the bank is processing the dispute"
- `WON` — "The bank has completed processing the dispute and the seller has won"
- `LOST` — "The bank has completed processing the dispute and the seller has lost"
- `ACCEPTED` — "The seller has accepted the dispute"

The difference from Stripe is `ACCEPTED`: Square records conceding as its own outcome, separate from losing after a fight. That distinction is useful in reporting — a high `LOST` rate means your evidence is weak; a high `ACCEPTED` rate means you're choosing not to contest.

## PayPal: one status for everyone, one state per party

PayPal's disputes API is the most layered. It has three separate fields.

**Status** — "The overall status of the dispute, constant for all the parties involved": `OPEN`, `WAITING_FOR_BUYER_RESPONSE`, `WAITING_FOR_SELLER_RESPONSE`, `UNDER_REVIEW`, `RESOLVED` and `OTHER`.

**Dispute state** — "The user specific state of the dispute, could vary between parties": `OPEN_INQUIRIES`, `REQUIRED_ACTION`, `REQUIRED_OTHER_PARTY_ACTION`, `UNDER_PAYPAL_REVIEW`, `APPEALABLE` and `RESOLVED`. The same dispute can be `REQUIRED_ACTION` for you and `REQUIRED_OTHER_PARTY_ACTION` for your customer.

**Lifecycle stage** — `INQUIRY`, where "A customer and merchant interact in an attempt to resolve a dispute without escalation to PayPal"; `CHARGEBACK`, where an inquiry is escalated to a claim; then two appeal rounds, `PRE_ARBITRATION` ("The first appeal stage for merchants") and `ARBITRATION` ("The second appeal stage for merchants").

One trap in the naming: PayPal's `CHARGEBACK` stage "is a PayPal dispute lifecycle stage and not a credit card or debit card chargeback."

## What to take from this

1. **Treat inquiries as urgent.** All three separate the inquiry from the chargeback, and Stripe says outright that ignoring one can make the chargeback unwinnable.
2. **Separate "what state is it in" from "whose move is it."** PayPal's per-party state is the clearest design here. Any product where two sides act on the same record — marketplaces, approvals, disputes — benefits from it.
3. **Record conceding separately from losing.** Square's `ACCEPTED` tells you something `LOST` can't.

## Method and limits

Stripe's statuses and rules are from its Dispute object API reference and its "How disputes work" guide; Square's from its `DisputeState` enum reference; PayPal's from the Customer Disputes v1 OpenAPI specification in PayPal's official GitHub repository. All read on 2026-09-24. Card-network rules change, and response deadlines vary by network and reason. We have no affiliation with any of the three.

## Sources

- Stripe — [The Dispute object](https://docs.stripe.com/api/disputes/object)
- Stripe — [How disputes work](https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/how-disputes-work)
- Square — [DisputeState enum](https://developer.squareup.com/reference/square/enums/DisputeState)
- PayPal — [Customer Disputes v1 OpenAPI spec](https://github.com/paypal/paypal-rest-api-specifications/blob/main/openapi/customer_disputes_v1.json)

---

*Researched by [SaaSReadyit](https://saasreadyit.com), which writes AI-generated validation reports for software ideas. Related: [Subscription statuses compared](https://saasreadyit.com/blog/subscription-statuses-stripe-paddle-chargebee.html) · [Order statuses compared](https://saasreadyit.com/blog/order-statuses-shopify-woocommerce-bigcommerce.html).*