PayPal Standard takes customers from your site to PayPal’s secure site to finish paying for their order.

Requirements

• A PayPal Business account

Go to paypal.com, and sign up for a PayPal Business account or convert an existing Personal account to Business. It’s free.

Setup and Configuration

To set up PayPal Standard:

1/ Go to: WooCommerce > Settings > Payments.
Note: ‘Payments’ formerly called ‘Checkout’ prior to WooCommerce 3.4.

2/Use the toggle under Enabled to select PayPal.

3/ Select Set up. You are taken to the PayPal Standard settings.

4/ Enter your email address in the PayPal Email field, which is the most important thing to configure before taking payments. Must match the same email address on your PayPal Business account.

Advanced Options

Under Advanced Options, complete fields as needed.

5/ Tick the box for Enable PayPal Sandbox if you wish to test the checkout process during your store’s development. With sandbox enabled, no payment/money is taken. To use Sandbox mode, you need a separate sandbox account via PayPal Sandbox.

6/ Debug log may also be turned on, which can be useful during development. You may need to first create a wc-logs folder and set permissions to make it writable. These logs are available at WooCommerce > System Status > Logs and then select the PayPal log from the dropdown.

7/ Tick the box for Enable IPN Email Notifications (optional). Instant Payment Notifications (IPN) are sent from PayPal when you receive a payment, issue a refund or a chargeback or cancellation.

8/ Enter an email address for Receiver Mail if this address is different than the PayPal email address you entered above in step 4.

9/ PayPal Identity Token (optional). Only required if you signed up for the Data Transfer option on your PayPal account; can be used to verify payments if you have IPN issues.

10/ Enter an Invoice Prefix (useful if you have multiple stores). WC is default to denote WooCommerce transactions.

11/ There are two shipping options:

• Send shipping details to PayPal. You can opt to have WooCommerce send shipping details to PayPal to create shipping labels instead of billing.
• Address override option. PayPal verifies addresses therefore this setting can cause errors. We recommend keeping it disabled, but it can be useful in preventing address information from being changed.

Note: When selecting the option to send Shipping details, PayPal verifies passed addresses and can reject the customer if they don’t fully recognize the address. If “Shipping Details” checkbox is not checked – PayPal Seller protection might not be valid, since PayPal requires buyer’s Shipping Address for Seller Protection.

12/ Payment Action lets you choose to Capture funds immediately or only Authorize*.

*Once an ‘authorize only’ order has been changed to Processing or Completed, funds are automatically captured as long as you have entered your PayPal API Credentials (as below) under WooCommerce > Settings > Payments > PayPal. It is no longer a manual process as of WooCommerce 3.0.

13/ Page Style (optional) allows you to select the name of a custom page from your PayPal account.

14/ Image URL (optional) gives the option to specify a 150×50 image to display on PayPal checkout pages.

API Credentials

There are three fields to paste API information into:

• API Username
• API Password
• API Signature

How to get Live API Information

1. Log in to your PayPal account at PayPal.com.
2. Go to Settings (Gear Icon) > Account Settings > API Access.
3. Select NVP/SOAP API integration (Classic) > Manage API Credentials > Request API Signature.
4. View and copy API Username, API Password, and API Signature.

Configuring the PayPal dashboard

Most of the configuration is handled from WooCommerce, but there are a few items to set up at PayPal.

PayPal IPN URL

It’s necessary for WooCommerce to set up your PayPal IPN URL.

PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (PayPal IPN) tells your store that payment has been successful (or not). To learn more about how to set this up on PayPal, see: How to Activate IPN in your PayPal Account.

How to setup PayPal IPN

1. Log in to your PayPal account at PayPal.com.
2. Go to Settings (Gear Icon) > Account Settings > Notifications > Instant Payment Notifications (Update).
3. Click the Choose IPN Settings button, then use this URL, replacing example.com with your own URL:https://example.com/?wc-api=WC_Gateway_Paypal
4. Make sure the Receive IPN messages option is selected, then save.

Auto-Return

You can set up auto-return in your PayPal account, which will take customers to a receipt page.

How to setup Auto-Return

1. Log in to your PayPal account at PayPal.com.
2. Go to Settings (Gear Icon) > Account Settings > Website payments > Website preferences.
3. In the Auto return section, select On, then use this URL, replacing example.com with your own URL:https://example.com/checkout/order-received/Regardless of this setting, it redirects dynamically to the correct receipt page.
4. Optional: Add ?utm_nooverride=1 to the end of your URL to ensure that transactions (i.e., conversions) are credited to the original traffic source, rather than PayPal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need an SSL certificate?

Payment is made offsite on the PayPal website and not your checkout. Adding an SSL certificate is optional but definitely recommended. SSL is a ranking factor in search results; it also keeps any information transmitted to and from your site secure, and customers expect it. For free and low-cost options, see: SSL and HTTPS.

How much does it cost to use PayPal with WooCommerce?

It’s free to download both WooCommerce and the PayPal Powered by Braintree payment gateway.

PayPal charges you transaction fees depending on the account you qualify for and the number/volume of sales you make. More at: Which Payment Option is Right for Me?

WooCommerce does not charge you a fee.

I have pending orders, but no payment was received.

If the customer abandons the order in PayPal (and not your WooCommerce store), the order shows as Pending (unpaid). No action is necessary.

When the hold stock time is reached, the order will be automatically canceled.

What data is sent to PayPal when a customer is checking out?

The PayPal gateway passes individual line items to PayPal (product name, price and quantity) unless:

• Your prices are defined as including tax
• You have more than nine line items, including shipping – PayPal only supports nine items.

This is to prevent rounding errors and to ensure correct totals are charged. When line items are not sent, the items are grouped and named ‘Order #x’.

My shipping costs are not transferring to PayPal

WooCommerce 2.6+ sends shipping costs as a ‘real’ shipping line item via PayPals API. If your PayPal account has shipping rules setup within it, these will take over and remove the cost WooCommerce sends across.

To resolve you must remove all shipping rules setup on the PayPal account side or disable them using this method:https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/How-to-use-PayPal-Archive/Turning-off-shipping-calculator/td-p/40601

Why am I getting payments, but orders are still pending? *OR* Why is my cart not clearing after making payment?

In this case, the PayPal IPN is failing. Check your server and see the Debugging IPN issues section below.

Why do I get an Internal Server Error?

If you see the following error message after hitting the purchase button, the email address you entered in PayPal settings is incorrect:

Using the same PayPal account with more than one website

WooCommerce uses an “invoice” system. There is a setting that “blocks duplicate invoices.” With two websites using invoices, it is inevitable that there will be duplicate invoice numbers. By de-selecting that setting in PayPal, the invoices have no issue. Please check that the Invoice Prefix in your WooCommerce PayPal settings is different for each site.

Alternatively, to disable duplicate invoice checking, log into your PayPal account and go to Profile > Profile and Settings > My Selling Preferences > Block Payments (or) Payment Receiving Preferences and set Block accidental payments to“No.”

Do customers need a PayPal account?

There is an option that allows customers to check out without creating an account, but it does first need enabled in your PayPal account.

Once logged in select the gear icon in the top right to get to the My Profile page. Then head to the Products & Services section and select Website Preferences. Once there toggle on the PayPal Account Optional option. To learn more, see: PayPal’s Website.

Is PayPal Seller Protection in effect?

Yes, if you use the Shipping address. No, if you use your Billing address (default). The PayPal API does not recognize more than one address.

How does Venmo work with my PayPal account?

PayPal has a page dedicated to common questions about Venmo signup, payments, refunds, disputes and opting out at Venmo and my PayPal account FAQ.

Message: Seller only accepts payments from unencrypted payments

The “Seller only accepts payments from unencrypted payments” message is from PayPal.

This error displays when your PayPal Account Profile is set to only accept payments from “encrypted” buttons but your item button code is “not” encrypted. This interrupts the payment process and displays the error message.

To turn off this option:

1. Log into your PayPay Account.
2. Select the Profile tab or Edit Profile link.
3. Under Selling Preferences, select Website Payment Preferences.
4. In the “Encrypted Website Payments” section, select Off.
5. Save changes.

Message: This invoice has already been paid

WooCommerce order numbers may not be unique if you’re running multiple stores or use your PayPal account for other things.

To avoid this issue, go to WooCommerce > Settings > Checkout > PayPal and set a unique ‘prefix’ for your store, e.g., MYSTORE-

Message: Sorry, it seems there are no available payment methods which support subscriptions

To use PayPal Standard with WooCommerce Subscriptions:

• add API credentials
• set up PayPal IPN URL
• check the box Enable PayPal Standard for Subscriptions: