---
title: "PayPal"
description: "Connect your PayPal account to Two Minute Billing: find your REST app credentials, connect them, and let Two Minute Billing register the webhook. Recurring payments from a saved PayPal wallet."
canonical_url: "https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/connect-a-payment-gateway/paypal"
---
# PayPal

> Connect your PayPal account to Two Minute Billing: find your REST app credentials, connect them, and let Two Minute Billing register the webhook. Recurring payments from a saved PayPal wallet.

Two Minute Billing charges your customers' PayPal wallets through **your** PayPal business
account. The customer approves once on PayPal's page, and Two Minute Billing charges each renewal
from the saved wallet. You keep your PayPal rates, and the money goes to your PayPal balance as
usual.

## Before you start

- A PayPal business account and access to the PayPal Developer Dashboard. A new developer
account comes with a **Default Application** and two sandbox accounts: a personal account to
pay with and a business account to sell with.
- PayPal gives each REST app two sets of credentials: **Sandbox** and **Live**. Connect the
Sandbox credentials to a test business and the Live credentials to a live business.
- Optional, recommended: turn on **Transaction search** in your app's settings. If PayPal's answer
to a charge is lost on the way, Two Minute Billing uses it to look the payment up. Without it,
the payment stays open until PayPal's capture webhook arrives.
- You need permission to manage payment gateways in Two Minute Billing. The owner and admin
roles have it.

## Find your API keys

In the PayPal Developer Dashboard, set the **Sandbox | Live** toggle to match the business you
are connecting. Open **Apps & Credentials** and select your app under **REST API apps**.

<screenshot :height="639" :single="true" :width="1386" alt="The PayPal Developer Dashboard's app page in sandbox, showing the client ID and the secret" caption="PayPal Developer Dashboard → Apps & Credentials → your REST app. Copy the client ID and the secret." src="gateways/paypal-api-keys">



</screenshot>

You need two values:

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Field
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Where to find it
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Looks like
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Client ID
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      The Client ID of your PayPal REST API app.
    </td>
    
    <td>
      <code>
        AYS…
      </code>
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Client Secret
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      On the same app page, under the Client ID.
    </td>
    
    <td>
      —
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

<warning>

**Keep the client secret secret.** Anyone with the client ID and the secret can charge and refund in your PayPal account. Paste
them only into Two Minute Billing, which stores them encrypted, and never into an email or a
chat.

</warning>

## Permissions

<warning>

**Turn on the app features before you connect.** A PayPal app has no permission settings of its own. What its Client ID and secret can do comes
from the **features** you turn on for the app. A missing feature does not show when you connect:
it shows later, when a customer saves a payment method or a renewal is charged.

</warning>

Open the app in **Apps & Credentials** and check these features. The Sandbox and the Live
version of the app have separate settings, so check both.

<table>
<thead>
  <tr>
    <th>
      Feature
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Required?
    </th>
    
    <th>
      Two Minute Billing uses it to
    </th>
  </tr>
</thead>

<tbody>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Payment capabilities → Save payment methods
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Required
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Save the customer's PayPal account or card, then charge renewals without the customer
    </td>
  </tr>
  
  <tr>
    <td>
      <strong>
        Add-on services → Transaction search
      </strong>
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Recommended
    </td>
    
    <td>
      Find a payment whose answer from PayPal was lost on the way
    </td>
  </tr>
</tbody>
</table>

Two Minute Billing does not use the **Customer disputes** feature: disputes come by webhook.

For live payments, PayPal must also approve your business account to save payment methods. If
customers cannot save PayPal as a payment method in live mode, ask PayPal to enable it for your
account.

**Webhook:** Two Minute Billing registers the webhook with the app's credentials. No other
permission is necessary. A PayPal app can have at most 10 webhooks.

## Connect it in Two Minute Billing

1. Open **Settings → Payment gateways** and click **Add gateway**.
2. Select **PayPal** and paste the **Client ID** and the **Client Secret**.
3. Select the **currencies** and the **payment methods** this account handles.
4. Click **Create gateway account**.

Then open the account and click **Check credentials**. **Healthy** means PayPal accepted the
credentials.

The payment methods you can turn on for PayPal:

- **PayPal wallet** — A billing agreement that the buyer approves.

PayPal in Two Minute Billing takes PayPal wallets only. To take cards, connect a second gateway
for them.

## Currencies

Two Minute Billing offers these 25 currencies on PayPal:

AUD, BRL, CAD, CHF, CNY, CZK, DKK, EUR, GBP, HKD, HUF, ILS, JPY, MXN, MYR, NOK, NZD, PHP, PLN, RUB, SEK, SGD, THB, TWD, USD

BRL, CNY and MYR need a PayPal account in that country. If your PayPal account does not hold the currency, set your payment receiving preferences in PayPal. If you do not, the payment stays pending.

If you leave **Currencies** empty on the gateway account, the account takes each currency of your business that is on this list.

## Webhooks

PayPal tells Two Minute Billing about things that happen after a charge: a payment that completes
later, a refund made in PayPal, a dispute, a customer who cancels the agreement in PayPal.

Two Minute Billing registers the webhook with PayPal for you when you save the account. Nothing to copy.

If the gateway account page shows the webhook as not configured:

1. Click “Register with PayPal” on the gateway account page. We create the webhook and store its ID.
2. Optional: confirm it under your app's settings → Webhooks.

## Test it

In your test business, create a customer and save a PayPal wallet for it. On PayPal's page, sign
in with your sandbox personal account and approve. Its email and password are in the Developer
Dashboard under **Sandbox → Accounts**. Collect an invoice: it is marked paid, and **Logs** shows
the call to PayPal and PayPal's answer.

## Go live

1. In the PayPal Developer Dashboard, set the toggle to **Live** and open your app under
**Apps & Credentials**.
2. Under **Features → Payment capabilities**, turn on **Save payment methods**. Without it,
customers cannot save a PayPal wallet.
3. Optional: turn on **Transaction search** for the live app too.
4. In your **live** business, add PayPal with the live **Client ID** and **Client Secret**.
5. Two Minute Billing registers a separate webhook for the live app. Check it under your app's
**Webhooks** in the Developer Dashboard.

## Troubleshoot

- **Check credentials says "We could not check the credentials." with "PayPal OAuth failed:
401".** The client ID or the secret is wrong, or they belong to the other environment. Copy
both again from the app in **Apps & Credentials**, with the toggle set to the correct mode.
- **The account page shows the webhook as not configured.** Follow the steps under
[Webhooks](#webhooks).
- **Registering the webhook fails because the app has 10 webhooks.** A PayPal app can have at
most 10. In the app's **Webhooks** section, delete one you no longer use, then register again.
- **A customer says PayPal asks them to add a card.** PayPal does not allow automatic payments
from a PayPal balance alone, so it asks the customer to add a card. When **Use balance first**
is on, PayPal still takes each renewal from the balance first.

## Related

- [Payment gateways overview](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/connect-a-payment-gateway)
- [Hosted checkout and portal](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/hosted-checkout-and-portal)
- [Recover failed payments](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/recover-failed-payments)
- [Handle disputes](https://twominutebilling.com/help/guides/handle-disputes)


## Sitemap

See the full [sitemap](https://twominutebilling.com/sitemap.md) for all pages.