How to Disable Payment Methods in WooCommerce

Are you looking for various ways to remove payment methods in your store? We’ve got you covered. In this guide, we’ll show you different ways to disable payment methods in WooCommerce, both with and without plugins.

WooCommerce is the complete solution for running an online store on your website because it allows you to customize payment methods, gateways, and options. Similarly, you can also disable them for your customers based on particular conditions if needed.

Before we look at how to remove payment methods, let’s first consider why you may need to disable them.

Why May You Need to Deactivate WooCommerce Payment Methods?

There are many reasons why you may need to deactivate specific payment methods. It all depends on how you manage and run your online store. Usually, payment methods are disabled when the admin wants to test some payment features on their website or when they have to address certain customer conveniences.

Disabling payment methods is a common practice when a store needs to process transactions across multiple countries.

Most payment methods are used globally, but some may not be available in certain countries. These locations may even use local payment gateways unfamiliar to the rest of the world.

These payment options are irrelevant to customers outside the US, so it’s better to hide them to keep your website as clean as possible. In that case, disabling these payment options for customers who don’t use them is the way to go.

Similarly, you can also remove them depending on the cart total, user roles, test purposes on your website, and so on. It all comes down to your website’s and your customers’ needs in the end.

Now that you have a brief understanding of why you may need to disable the payment methods, let’s go through the process.

Best Practices When Disabling Payment Methods in WooCommerce

Disabling payment methods can improve your checkout flow, but it must be done carefully to avoid disrupting orders. Follow these best practices:

• Do not disable all methods – Always leave at least one active payment option so customers can complete their purchases.
• Test the checkout process – After disabling all payment methods, run a test order to confirm that the remaining methods work correctly and that the checkout page loads as expected.
• Communicate with customers – If you remove a popular payment method, notify customers through a banner or email to avoid confusion.
• Use conditional logic instead of entirely disabling – When possible, hide payment methods based on conditions (e.g., shipping location or order amount) rather than removing them entirely.
• Update related integrations – If the disabled payment method is connected to accounting or CRM tools, ensure these integrations are updated accordingly.
• Review settings periodically – Check your payment methods regularly to ensure they align with your store’s current requirements.

How to Disable Payment Methods in WooCommerce

There are three significant ways to disable payment methods in WooCommerce. They are:

• Default WooCommerce Dashboard
• Programmatically
• Using Plugins

We’ll go through each of these options in detail one by one.

Before you begin, make sure that you have correctly set up WooCommerce on your WordPress website and have used one of the compatible WooCommerce themes.

Also, ensure that you have updated the theme and the related plugin to their latest version. This will reduce the likelihood of encountering any unnecessary issues during the process.

1. Disable Payment Methods from the Default WooCommerce Dashboard

This is the easiest method to deactivate payment methods on your WooCommerce store. You can either disable specific payment methods or all of them without using any code or additional plugins.

All you have to do is go to WooCommerce > Settings from your WordPress website and open the Payments tab. Here, you can view all payment methods installed on your online store, along with their descriptions. Additionally, the status of each payment method—whether enabled or disabled—is displayed in this section.

All the enabled payment methods will be highlighted in purple under the Enabled column. If you want to disable any of the payments in your WooCommerce store from here, click on the toggle of the Enabled column.

The toggle will be switched and turned grey. This means the specific payment method is now disabled on your website and won’t appear on the checkout page.

For this tutorial, we have disabled Stripe and PayPal payment methods. Now, if you go to your checkout page, the payment options for Stripe and PayPal won’t be available for your customers.

You can also click on the payment option and uncheck the checkbox for Enable > Payment Gateway> to disable it.

Although this is an expeditious and easy way to disable the payment methods in WooCommerce, it does have its limitations. When you deactivate a payment option in the WooCommerce dashboard, it becomes entirely unavailable for all customers.

If you want to hide the payment methods under certain conditions, you will need to look for alternatives.

2. Disable Payment Methods in WooCommerce Programmatically

To disable payment methods in WooCommerce under specific conditions, a programmatic approach can be an excellent option. WordPress and WooCommerce allow you to edit their core files and customize your website.

Note that for this method, you will need basic programming knowledge. Before you continue, make sure you create a child theme for your website, either programmatically or with a child theme plugin.

Similarly, it’s worth backing up your WordPress site, as any unnecessary changes to your core files may lead to further issues on your website.

2.1. Deactivate All Payment Methods

Let’s start with the simplest one. You can add a line of code to your functions.php file to disable all payment gateways on your website. This can be particularly helpful if you need to conduct experiments on your website while it is in maintenance mode.

To add the code, go to Appearance > Theme File Editor from your WordPress dashboard. Here, open the functions.php file and add the following code to the text area.

add_filter( 'woocommerce_cart_needs_payment', '__return_false' );

Don’t forget to click Update file to save your changes.

When you preview your checkout page, you will see that the payment methods are disabled on the website.

2.2. Hide Payment Options for a Specific Country

There’s no guarantee that all the payment methods will work in every part of the world. Some of the payment methods may not work in certain countries. You may need to disable the payment method just for that particular country.

In cases like these, you can use the following code snippet with the gateway ID’s slug.

In the following example, the PayPal payment gateway will be disabled for your customers if the billing address country is the US.

add_filter( 'woocommerce_available_payment_gateways', 'quadlayers_payment_gateway_disable_country' );
  
function quadlayers_payment_gateway_disable_country( $available_gateways ) {
    if ( is_admin() ) return $available_gateways;
    if ( isset( $available_gateways['authorize'] ) && WC()->customer->get_billing_country() <> 'US' ) {
        unset( $available_gateways['authorize'] );
    } else {
        if ( isset( $available_gateways['paypal'] ) && WC()->customer->get_billing_country() == 'US' ) {
            unset( $available_gateways['paypal'] );
        }
    }
    return $available_gateways;
}

If you are having difficulties getting the correct gateway ID, go to the Payments tab on your WooCommerce dashboard, as previously mentioned. Then, inspect the payment method. You’ll be able to see the ID from this console.

After you make all the necessary code changes, don’t forget to update the file. Now, if you preview your checkout, the PayPal option will be disabled for you if the billing address is in the US.

2.3. Hide Payment Gateways Based on Cart Total

There may be cases where you need to disable payment methods in WooCommerce, depending on the cart total.

When a certain amount exceeds the cart total, you may need to pay additional fees for certain payment methods. To avoid that, you can disable the specific payment gateway and require customers to use an alternative payment method.

The following code snippet will allow you to do so.

add_filter( 'woocommerce_available_payment_gateways', 'quadlayers_disable_paypal_above_100' );

function quadlayers_disable_paypal_above_100( $available_gateways ) {
$maximum = 200;
if ( WC()->cart->total > $maximum ) {
unset( $available_gateways['paypal'] );
}
return $available_gateways;
}

In the above demonstration, PayPal payment will be disabled if the cart total exceeds $200.

3. Disable Payment Methods using a Plugin

If using codes is too much for you, we have an excellent alternative for you as well. Plugins allow you to increase the flexibility of your website and customize it to add the features you need. Therefore, you can also use a plugin to disable payment methods.

We will use the WooCommerce Disable Payment Methods based on cart conditions plugin for this section. It is a free, simple-to-use plugin that, as its name suggests, lets you disable payment methods based on the cart subtotal. So let’s start by installing the plugin.

3.1. Install and Activate the Plugin

To install the plugin, go to Plugins > Add New in your WordPress dashboard and search for it first. After you find the plugin, click Install Now to start installing it.

The plugin installation will take just a few seconds. Activate the plugin as soon as it’s completed.

The plugin also offers a premium version that unlocks a wide range of features. If you want to use it, you’ll need to install the plugin manually.

3.2. Add Cart Conditions

Once the plugin is activated, go to WooCommerce > Conditional Payment Methods from your WordPress dashboard once again. Ensure that the checkbox for enabling conditions is checked.

Then you’ll have to start adding conditions by clicking Add condition. You will be redirected to the Add new condition page.

Here, add the title of your condition first. After that, you can select to either disable or enable the payment method based on the condition. To disable the payment method, select the Disable the payment method(s) option.

Now, select the payment methods that you want to disable under the particular condition. You can even select multiple payment methods.

Finally, set the conditions under which you want to disable the particular payment methods. For example, we have added a condition to disable PayPal when the cart total exceeds $200, just as in the programmatic approach.

You can further add a new condition or group multiple ones by repeating this process. Lastly, Publish the condition once you make all the necessary changes to it.

When you preview the checkout page, the selected payment method will be disabled when the cart exceeds the condition.

That’s it! You just disabled the payment methods using a plugin under specific cart conditions.

Tips and Best Practices

• Always keep at least one payment method active: Make sure customers still have a valid way to complete their purchase after disabling any gateway.
• Use conditional logic wisely: Instead of disabling methods globally, set up rules based on location, product type, or cart total for better flexibility.
• Test checkout thoroughly: After disabling or modifying payment gateways, complete a few test orders to ensure that everything works smoothly.
• Avoid disabling through code unless necessary: If possible, use a plugin or WooCommerce settings to manage payment visibility—this prevents future update conflicts.
• Document your changes: Keep notes on which methods were disabled and why, so you can easily reverse them later if needed.
• Regularly review your payment setup: Check performance and customer preferences to keep the most efficient and cost-effective payment options active.
• Use staging for experiments: Test new rules or plugins on a staging site before applying them to your live store.

Troubleshooting

• No payment methods showing at checkout: Verify that at least one payment gateway is enabled in WooCommerce → Settings → Payments. Also, check if your conditional rules are too restrictive.
• Disabled payment method still appearing: Clear your site and browser cache, and check for plugin conflicts or outdated templates overriding payment settings.
• Payment methods disappear after adding a product: Some plugins or custom functions may interfere with conditional logic—temporarily disable them to identify the culprit.
• Changes not saving in the Payments tab: Ensure you have the correct permissions and no caching plugin is preventing updates from being saved.
• Custom code not working: Confirm you’re using the latest filter (woocommerce_available_payment_gateways) and add it inside your child theme’s functions.php or a custom plugin.
• Payment gateways conflict with shipping zones: Review any shipping-based restrictions in your setup, as some methods may auto-disable based on shipping location or class.
• Checkout still accepts a disabled payment method: Clear the transient data and regenerate the WooCommerce cache under Status → Tools to apply the latest configuration.

Frequently Asked Questions

Now, let’s take a look at some of the frequently asked questions and answers regarding this topic.

Conclusion

All in all, this is how you can disable the payment methods on your WooCommerce website. These options can be advantageous if you want to hide or disable the payment methods for specific customers.

To summarize, in this tutorial, we’ve had a look at three ways to deactivate payment methods:

• Default WooCommerce dashboard
• Programmatically
• Using a plugin

The easiest and quickest approach to hide the payment options is through the WooCommerce dashboard. However, it has some limitations, and it may not be beneficial if you want to add specific conditions.

Alternatively, if you want to disable just many specific payment gateways under particular conditions, your best option is to use the programmatic approach. There are tons of customizations that you can do with code snippets.

If you aren’t familiar with programming or don’t feel comfortable writing code, you can use a plugin to disable the payment methods under particular conditions.

If you want to further customize your checkout page, have a look at other plugins like WooCommerce Direct Checkout and WooCommerce Checkout Manager. They will help you improve your conversions and take your store to the next level.

Which method did you use to disable the payment methods on your online store? Please let us know in the comments below.