SHORT ANSWER
Only PayPal publishes numbers: risk holds up to 21 days, account limitations up to 180 days, and a rolling-reserve example of 10% held for 90 days. Stripe’s terms name no period; reserves release when Stripe is satisfied the risk has passed. Square’s terms name no schedule either. The durations you hear elsewhere are ranges of practice built around card-network dispute windows, not published rules.
This material is general educational information as of the “last reviewed” date. It is not legal advice and may not reflect later developments or facts specific to your business. Links are provided so readers can inspect the primary or official sources.
01 / WHAT IS ACTUALLY PUBLISHED
Three providers, one set of numbers
A hold delays payout of specific transactions. A reserve keeps back a share of your balance on an ongoing basis. A limitation or closure restricts the account itself. Each provider describes all three in its terms, but only one of them attaches a number of days.
Everything below was read on September 3, 2026. These are private contract terms, applied at each provider’s discretion, and they change. Where a figure is absent, that absence is the finding.
- PayPal: risk holds “generally remain in place for up to 21 days”; limitation holds “for up to 180 days”; rolling-reserve example of 10% for 90 days
- Stripe: no number of days for holds or reserves anywhere in the Services Terms
- Square: no release schedule for a Reserve in the Payment Terms
02 / PAYPAL
The one provider that states durations
PayPal’s User Agreement separates a hold on a payment from a limitation on the account. For risk-based holds it says they “generally remain in place for up to 21 days from the date the payment was received,” and that PayPal may release earlier, for example after shipment tracking is uploaded, though “any earlier release is at our sole discretion.”
For an account limitation, PayPal may hold the balance “for up to 180 days if reasonably needed to protect against the risk of liability or if you have violated our Acceptable Use Policy.” Where a payment is itself disputed, PayPal holds it “until the matter is resolved (but no longer than 180 days).” Under court orders, regulatory requirements, or other legal process, a hold, reserve, or limitation “may remain in place longer than 180 days.”
Reserves get their own section. PayPal lists the factors it weighs, including “whether you have higher than average number of returns, chargebacks, claims or disputes,” and gives a worked example: “your reserve could be set at 10% and held for a 90-day rolling period.” It also describes a minimum reserve, taken up front or built from a percentage of sales.
03 / STRIPE
A release condition, not a release date
Stripe’s Services Terms define a Reserve as “collateral funds which Stripe holds and controls to satisfy any liabilities or potential liabilities.” The release clause is conditional, not scheduled: Stripe releases Reserve funds “only if, and to the extent that, Stripe is satisfied that the relevant risk exposure has been mitigated.” Stripe may also change the Reserve terms if it believes the risk has changed.
We searched the Services Terms for any number of days attached to a hold or a reserve and found none. The day counts that do appear concern other things: error reporting, notice periods, and a clause treating settlement funds left untouched for more than 90 days as a termination trigger. None of them says how long Stripe keeps your money after a closure.
Stripe’s public dispute documentation does explain the logic behind the hold. It states that card networks “typically allow cardholders to initiate disputes within 120 days of the original payment,” with longer windows in some situations, and that an inquiry left open for 120 days is closed without escalation. A reserve exists to cover that tail.
Any specific number of days attributed to Stripe comes from a support conversation, a negotiated reserve notice, or someone else’s experience. It may be accurate for that account. It is not a published rule.
04 / SQUARE
A reserve “for any reason,” with no schedule
Square’s Payment Terms, section 14, say that if “some aspect of your business is especially risky,” Square “may need to withhold funds or require that you set aside funds in a reserve to protect against losses.” It may “require a Reserve for any reason related to your use of the Services,” in an amount Square determines based on “your payment history, a credit review,” or otherwise as Square or its processor requires.
The section states no release schedule and no outer limit. The only day count nearby is the refund window: a merchant “can process a refund through your Square Account up to one hundred and twenty (120) days from the day you accepted the payment.” That window is a useful proxy for how long Square expects money to stay in motion after a sale.
05 / WHY THE DURATIONS LOOK LIKE THIS
Holds track the dispute window, not your behavior
A processor is liable to the card network for disputes on your sales whether or not it still holds your money. So the length of a hold is set by how long a cardholder can still dispute, not by how long you have behaved well. The two published figures line up with that: Stripe’s documentation cites a typical 120-day network window, and PayPal’s 180-day limitation hold and its 90-day rolling example bracket the same tail.
We could not retrieve Visa’s or Mastercard’s dispute time-limit documents directly, so the 120-day figure here rests on Stripe’s published description of network rules rather than a network primary source. Treat it as the processor’s summary, which is what it is.
06 / ROLLING RESERVE MATH
What PayPal’s own example means in dollars
PayPal’s example is 10% held for 90 days: “10% of the money you receive on day 1 is held and then released on day 91.” The arithmetic follows from the example. If sales are steady, then on any given day roughly 90 days’ worth of 10% slices are sitting in the reserve. At $1,000 a day that is about $9,000 held at steady state, refilled each day as the oldest slice is released. The reserve stops growing after the first 90 days and does not shrink until sales do.
Percentages and periods other than PayPal’s example are set per account and are not published. If a provider gives you a reserve notice, the notice is the source for your numbers.
07 / THE “90 TO 180 DAYS” LINE
Where the common figure comes from, and what it is not
Broker sites repeat “90 to 180 days” as if it were a rule. The two ends of that range are real, but they are PayPal’s figures: a 90-day rolling example and a 180-day limitation cap. Stripe and Square publish neither. So the line is best read as a range of practice across providers, anchored to dispute windows, not as a promise about any one account.
The practical difference matters. A merchant told “180 days” by a blog may wait passively for a date that no document guarantees. A merchant who reads the terms knows the release condition is discretionary, and answers the provider’s requests instead.
08 / DURING THE HOLD
Use the time to change what the next review sees
Respond to the notice completely, export your transaction and dispute history, keep fulfilling and refunding, and do not open a second account with the same provider. The sibling guide on why funds get frozen covers each of those in detail.
Then fix the storefront. A hold ends when the provider decides the risk has passed, and the risk it sees is the public site: product names, descriptions, imagery, bundled supplies, testimonials, and linked accounts. Applying elsewhere with the same site tends to reproduce the same review later.
QUESTIONS
Related questions
Is 180 days the maximum any processor can hold my money?
No. 180 days is PayPal’s stated cap for a limitation hold, and even PayPal says holds can run longer under court orders or regulatory requirements. Stripe and Square publish no maximum.
Does a clean dispute history shorten the hold?
Not by rule. PayPal lists dispute history among the factors it weighs for reserves, and Stripe releases when it judges the risk mitigated. Neither ties release to a dispute count.
Can RUO Clear tell me when my funds will be released?
No. Release is the provider’s decision under its own terms. RUO Clear can help document what the storefront said and what changed, which is what a provider’s review looks at.
SOURCES
Sources cited
Each source is listed with its class so government authority, agency guidance, enforcement examples, and private policy are never blended into one rule.
Risk holds up to 21 days, limitation holds up to 180 days, disputed-payment holds no longer than 180 days, and the 10% for 90 days rolling-reserve example. Read September 3, 2026.
Reserve definition and the discretionary release condition. No number of days is attached to holds or reserves. Read September 3, 2026.
States that card networks typically allow disputes within 120 days of payment. A processor’s summary of network rules, not a network primary source. Read September 3, 2026.
Section 14 on reserves, with no release schedule, and the 120-day refund window. Read September 3, 2026.