PayPal (classic)

Payment Type	Shopper journey	Recurring	Refunds	Partial Refunds	Separate captures	Partial Captures	Chargebacks
Wallet	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

You can accept PayPal payments with:

• Our Checkout SDKs.
• Our API integration.

Prerequisites

This page assumes you have already:

• Built a integration.
• Completed the PayPal setup steps.

Set up the PayPal payment method

When you add PayPal to your test Customer Area, you will be asked to provide:

• Your PayPal email address. Use your test PayPal Business email address, for example ending in @business.example.com.
• Your PayPal account ID. Use your test PayPal Merchant ID.
• Whether you want to enable authorisation first, and capture the payment later. By default, payments will be captured immediately after authorisation. Check this box only if payments should not be captured immediately.

Integrate with Checkout SDKs

Our Checkout SDKs support PayPal without any additional configuration. 

Verifying payment results works in the same way as it does for SDKs, but you can also set up notifications.

Integrate with API

In this section, we show the API integration steps for PayPal.

Step 1: Get payment methods

Call /paymentMethods, specifying the amount, a countryCode, and the appropriate channel. 

{
  "merchantAccount":"YourMerchantAccount",
  "countryCode":"NL",
  "amount":{
    "currency":"EUR",
    "value":1000
  },
  "channel":"Web"
}

Response

{
  "paymentMethods":[
    {
      "name":"PayPal",
      "type":"paypal"
    },
  ...
  ]
}

Step 2: Redirect shopper

Make a /payments API call, providing the amount and a paymentMethod.type set to paypal. Also provide a returnUrl, which the shopper will be redirected to after they complete the payment.

If the payment will be the first in a series of recurring payments, also include:

• shopperReference: your unique ID for the shopper (minimum length three characters).
• paymentMethod.storeDetails set to true.
• shopperEmail: the email address of the shopper.

{
  "merchantAccount": "YourMerchantAccount",
  "amount": {
    "currency": "EUR",
    "value": 1000
  },
  "reference": "Your order number",
  "paymentMethod": {
    "type": "paypal"
  },
  "returnUrl": "https://your-company.com/..."
}

This returns the /payments response which contains the redirect.url. Redirect the shopper to this address so they can verify the payment with PayPal.

{
  "resultCode":"RedirectShopper",
  "details":[
    {
      "key":"payload",
      "type":"text"
    }
  ],
  "paymentData":"sdfsdf...",
  "redirect":{
    "method":"GET",
    "url":"https://test.adyen.com/hpp/redirectPayPal.shtml?brandCode=paypal&currencyCode=EUR&merchantAccount..."
  }
}

Step 3: Handle redirect

After the shopper has completed the payment, they return back to the returnUrl you specified in the /payments call. This URL is appended with a payload query parameter which you will use to verify the payment result. If any other parameters are appended, ignore them.

https://your-company.com/?payload=sdfsdf...&type=complete&resultCode=authorised

Step 4: Present payment result

Finalize the payment and present the result to the shopper.

1. URL decode the payload and submit it in a POST request to the /payments/details endpoint.

   {
     "details":{
       "payload":"sdfsdfsdf..."
     }
   }

   The response contains a pspReference, which is our unique identifier for this payment, and a resultCode.

   If you were tokenizing the payment details, the response also contains a recurringDetailReference, which is the token for the shopper's details.

2. Use the resultCode from the /payments/details endpoint to present first. You should generically handle the resultCode as specified in Payment Result codes.

PayPal result codes

The resultCode values you can receive for PayPal are:

• Authorised: The payment was successful. You will receive the funds in 3 days.
• Cancelled: The shopper canceled the payment while on the PayPal website. Request them to reselect a new payment method.
• Refused: The payment was refused by the shopper's bank.

Webhooks

Webhooks inform you of important events related to your account.

To inform you of the outcome of a payment, we send you a webhook with:

• eventCode: AUTHORISATION.
• pspReference: Adyen's unique reference associated with the payment request.

• success: Indicates the outcome of the payment. Possible values:

  • true: The payment was authorised.
  • false: The payment failed.

AUTHORISATION is just one of the events that trigger a webhook. For more information, see Webhooks.

Test and go live

Test your integration

When you are done setting up your integration, use your PayPal sandbox accounts to test the PayPal payment flow. Your business sandbox account lets you simulate your role as a merchant when testing payments. With your personal sandbox account you can simulate the role of a customer.

Refer to the following resources:

For instructions to create sandbox accounts, see Set up PayPal.

For testing instructions, see the PayPal sandbox testing guide.

You can check the status of a PayPal test payment in your Customer Area > Transactions > Payments.

Before you go live

For live operations, you need to get a live PayPal business account and configure your live environment. See Set up PayPal.

Note that in the live environment, PayPal will only be available if:

• The shopper is logged in to their PayPal account.
• The shopper has at least one valid payment method on their PayPal account.

Make a recurring PayPal payment

Adyen can not enable recurring payments on your PayPal account. To enable recurring payments for PayPal:

1. Contact PayPal Support to enable reference transactions on your seller account.
2. Enable the recurring permission on your PayPal account. Follow the steps described in the third-party API permission setup section.
3. Send a payment request to the plataforma de pagamentos da Adyen for PayPal with the parameter recurringContract set to the value RECURRING.

Set up PayPal Seller Protection

If you're enrolled in the PayPal Seller Protection program, contact our Support Team to set this up for your Adyen integration.

Once you're set up, submit the following fields with a payment:

• deliveryAddress
• shopperName