export const metadata = {
  title: `Payment Collection`,
}

# {metadata.title}

In this document, you’ll learn what a payment collection is and how the Medusa application uses it with the Cart Module.

## What's a Payment Collection?

A payment collection stores payment details related to a resource, such as a cart or an order. It’s represented by the [PaymentCollection data model](/references/payment/models/PaymentCollection).

Every purchase or request for payment starts with a payment collection. The collection holds details necessary to complete the payment, including:

- The [payment sessions](../payment-session/page.mdx) that represents the payment amount to authorize.
- The [payments](../payment/page.mdx) that are created when a payment session is authorized. They can be captured and refunded.
- The [payment providers](../payment-provider/page.mdx) that handle the processing of each payment session, including the authorization, capture, and refund.

---

## Multiple Payments

The payment collection supports multiple payment sessions and payments.

You can use this to accept payments in increments or split payments across payment providers.

![Diagram showcasing how a payment collection can have multiple payment sessions and payments](https://res.cloudinary.com/dza7lstvk/image/upload/v1711554695/Medusa%20Resources/payment-collection-multiple-payments_oi3z3n.jpg)

---

## Usage with the Cart Module

The Cart Module provides cart management features. However, it doesn’t provide any features related to accepting payment.

During checkout, the Medusa application links a cart to a payment collection, which will be used for further payment processing.

It also implements the payment flow during checkout as explained in [this documentation](../payment-flow/page.mdx).

![Diagram showcasing the relation between the Payment and Cart modules](https://res.cloudinary.com/dza7lstvk/image/upload/v1711537849/Medusa%20Resources/cart-payment_ixziqm.jpg)
