Set Up the Testing Sandbox
Before starting sandbox onboarding, you must sign up for a free PayPal Developer’s account, and create both merchant (to use for onboarding) and shopper accounts (to use for testing your checkout). You can create multiple Developer accounts, if desired.
A PayPal sandbox account allows you to use Payment Services in test mode. PayPal requires that you use a PayPal Developer Portal-generated Business sandbox test account, email, and password for sandbox onboarding. Do not create another account during the sandbox onboarding process.
Sandbox onboarding
To complete sandbox onboarding:
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Navigate to the PayPal Developer Account page.
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Click Log in to Dashboard and log in with your existing PayPal Developer Portal-generated Business sandbox test account or click Sign Up to create an account.
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Create a PayPal sandbox account:
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Go to Testing Tools > Sandbox Accounts.
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Click Create account.
If you created an a PayPal sandbox account during the sandbox PayPal onboarding process, you must reset your onboarding sandbox because or you cannot verify your email.
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Select Business as the Account Type and click Create.
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In the Sandbox Accounts section, click the three dots in the Manage accounts column for the sandbox account you created.
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Click View/edit account.
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Copy and save the Email ID and System-Generated Password for future use.
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On the Admin sidebar, go to Sales > Payment Services.
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Click Sandbox onboarding.
This option is visible if you have not yet completed sandbox onboarding for Payment Services.
A sandbox merchant ID is auto-generated and populated into settings. Do not change or alter this ID.
You are presented with a PayPal window for connecting a PayPal account to start accepting payments.
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Enter the email and password of the PayPal sandbox account you generated in step 3 (not your PayPal business account information) and your country or region.
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Click Next.
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Continue to follow the PayPal flow, using your previously saved sandbox account credentials.
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On the Admin sidebar, go to Sales > Payment Services.
The Sandbox onboarding button is no longer visible and you see a “Sandbox payments pending” text.
When your PayPal sandbox onboarding is approved, you should see a notification stating that your payment system is currently in sandbox mode and is not processing live payments.
Reset your sandbox account
If you created an a PayPal sandbox account during the sandbox PayPal onboarding process, you must reset your onboarding sandbox because or you cannot verify your email.
To reset your sandbox account:
- Click Reset sandbox. Create a PayPal business sandbox account.
- Click Sandbox onboarding and complete the next set of steps.
Enable contact telephone number
Contact telephone number allows you to obtain the contact telephone numbers that PayPal collects from your customers. PayPal always collects contact telephone numbers from PayPal account holders to help confirm their identities and to contact them to resolve problems on their accounts, or to complete their fulfillment processes. However, PayPal discourages the use of contact phone numbers directly from the merchant because it can negatively impact sales. See the PayPal get contact telephone numbers documentation for more information.
This feature is off by default. When you enable it, store administrators can see phone numbers when a customer completes a Branded Checkout flow outside of the checkout page.
Test in sandbox environment
See Test and validate for more information.