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Set up PayPal manually

Fallback method to set up PayPal.

If you are a marketplace, follow the PayPal setup instructions for marketplaces.

When setting up PayPal, you normally receive an activation link by email. If you don't receive this email or if the activation link does not work, you need to:

  • Get your test or life PayPal Merchant ID (also known as Payer ID) and add the ID to your test or live Customer Area.
  • Manually give Adyen permission to process transactions on your business sandbox account (for test) or your live business account.

The instructions on this page describe the full manual process from start to finish. If you already created the various PayPal accounts, skip the steps to create those accounts.

To enable accepting online PayPal payments, you need to:

  1. Create PayPal developer and sandbox accounts.
  2. Give Adyen access to your PayPal sandbox business account.
  3. Get your PayPal Merchant ID.
  4. Set up PayPal in your Customer Area.
  5. When you go live, set up a live PayPal business account, give Adyen access to that account, get your live Merchant ID, and add PayPal to your live Customer Area.

Create developer and sandbox accounts

To test your integration, you need to get a PayPal developer account and create PayPal personal and business sandbox accounts under your developer account.

To be able to see your test payments later, it is important that you create your sandbox accounts under your PayPal developer account.

  1. Create a PayPal developer account, if you don't already have one.
    This account gives access to the developer dashboard where you can create and manage business and personal sandbox accounts.

  2. Under your developer account, create a PayPal business sandbox account.
    This account, ending in @business.example.com for example, lets you simulate receiving payments as a merchant when testing payments.

  3. Under your developer account, create a PayPal personal sandbox account.
    This account, ending in @personal.example.com for example, lets you simulate making payments as a shopper when testing payments.

Give Adyen access to your PayPal account

To connect your PayPal account to your Adyen integration, you need to grant third-party permissions to Adyen in your PayPal business account. To do that:

For your test environment:

  1. Log in to your PayPal test store with your business sandbox account.

  2. Follow PayPal's instructions on granting third-party permissions.
    For Third Party Permission Username, use sell1_1287491142_biz_api1.adyen.com.
    Under Permissions, select:

    • Use Express Checkout to process payments.
    • Issue a refund for a specific transaction.
    • Process your shopper's credit or debit card payments.
    • Authorize and capture your PayPal transactions.
    • Obtain information about a single transaction.
    • Obtain authorization for pre-approved payments and initiate pre-approved transactions.
    • Generate consolidated reports for all accounts, if available in your region.
    • Use Express Checkout to process mobile payments, if you plan on supporting mobile payments.

    To use PayPal for recurring payments, also select:

    • Charge an existing customer based on a prior transaction.
    • Create and manage Recurring Payments.

    To use MassPay, also select:

    • Obtain your PayPal account balance.
    • Initiate transactions to multiple recipients in a single batch.

Get your PayPal Merchant ID

When you add PayPal as a payment method in your Customer Area, you need to provide your PayPal Merchant ID. This Merchant ID is generated when you create your sandbox and live PayPal business accounts, and consists of 13 randomly generated alphanumeric characters.

For your test PayPal Merchant ID:

  1. Log in to PayPal with your business sandbox account.

  2. Get your Merchant ID:

    1. Go to Profile > Account Settings.
    2. Under Business profile, select Business information.
    3. Copy or write down your PayPal Merchant ID.

Add PayPal to your Customer Area

When you add PayPal to your test or live Customer Area, you need to provide some details specifically for PayPal.

When you add PayPal as a payment method to your test Customer Area:

  • Specify the email address that is linked to your PayPal business sandbox account, for example ending in @business.example.com.
  • Specify the Merchant ID for your PayPal business sandbox account.
  • By default, PayPal payments are captured immediately after authorisation. If you want to capture payments later, select Enable authorisation & capture.

Before you go live

For live operations, you need to set up a live PayPal business account and repeat some of the steps that you did for your test environment.

  1. Create a live PayPal business account:

    1. Go to the PayPal website, select Sign Up, and follow the instructions.

      Don't use a personal email address for your live PayPal business account. We strongly recommend that you use a generic company email address. This is to prevent having to configure a new account for your business in the future, should the personal email address no longer be in use for any reason. The email address for your live PayPal business account will also be shown on the payment receipt the shopper receives from PayPal.

    2. Activate your business account.

  2. Give Adyen access to your live business account

  3. Get your live PayPal Merchant ID.

  4. Add PayPal to your live Customer Area.