PayPal is a worldwide online payment system that facilitates payments between parties through online transfers. PayPal allows paying via an account on its platform, which is connected to a user's credit card or checking account. The company is highly popular as a payment processor for online stores all over the world due to its one-click transaction confirmation and storing passwords. For more info about this payment provider please visit https://www.paypal.com.

To enable PayPal as a payment gateway on your store, you must have an active PayPal business account. If you have already used PayPal with Shopify, we suggest you simply connect it to Checkify (do not create a new one). If you don't have one, register it here.

Please note that PayPal Business is available only to stores in certain countries. For the list of supported countries, please visit their website.

One PayPal Business account may be used with a maximum of 10 Checkify (or other) integrations due to the webhooks limits.

To connect your PayPal account to Checkify, you need to generate an API key for Checkify. For this, sign in to your PayPal account and go to the PayPal Developer section (usually in the top header menu, under the icon < / >), then select Apps & Credentials in the side menu.

Important: Make sure you are viewing your live PayPal API keys ("Live" mode must be selected).

To generate API keys for Checkify:

After adding PayPal as a payment method on Checkify, you will also be able to configure a couple of additional options, e.g.:

You can select specific countries or regions for which this payment method will be displayed.

PayPal's payment method initially performs a pre-authorization of the payment sum and then, upon a successful charge on the bank's side, PayPal changes the status of the payment to either Failed or Success. In such cases payment processing may take from couple of minutes to day(s).

Since it is being managed by PayPal, Checkify has no influence on it and has no ability to speed it up. You can track the status of such orders in your Shopify admin. It is not recommended to ship an order to your customer when "Payment pending" status is seen. When the payment status changes to "Paid", feel free to dispatch the order:

Once processing by PayPal is over, the status on Shopify changes to either Paid or Void (void - if PayPal returned a Failed status - not capture payment):
​

You can test PayPal payment flow on our demo-store. In order to do that you need to have or to create a PayPal sandbox account. Alternatively, you can use our test account (country IT):

Checkify offers, in addition to regular payments via PayPal, to connect the express checkout button. This is an express payment developed and provided by PayPal. It got more speed and stability with SKD v6 release in September 2025.

Buyer's behavior and flow are different when paying through the payment options shown in the screenshot above. These aspects are described further in this article.
Kindly note that the PayPal buttons will not be displayed in the Checkify's preview mode.

Translation of "Buy Now" text on the PayPal express button happens automatically based on a buyer's country / OS / browser language settings. It cannot be changed or translated using localization options and features available on and provided by our checkout service, but your buyers will be getting it in the language they understand, like and use.

If a buyer makes a payment through this button, then Checkify uses the shipping address specified in the PayPal account to form an order in Shopify.

Therefore, if you use a custom address form, we do not recommend enabling this option, at least without extra checks and tests on your side, due to the fact that some fields may not be transferred to the order on the Shopify side. When initiating a payment via PayPal, the buyer can choose the shipping method.

Your customers across the world can pay with their credit or debit cards without needing a PayPal account. This option becomes visible in the Payments section of the Checkify checkout only after a customer has filled in all the required shipping details (fields in the address form).

PayPal - Checkify integration does not enable processing of Apple Pay and Google Pay express payment methods. It is possible to get them by activating Stripe - Checkify integration to get these buttons on the checkout page by Checkify, or Airwallex - Checkify / Mollie - Checkify / Checkout.com - Checkify integrations to get Apple Pay or Google Pay express buttons on the pages hosted by these payment processors.

PayPal currently supports 24 currencies (listed below). If the default currency of your Shopify store is not one of them, PayPal integration will not work.

In other words, the currency of the checkout should be in one of those currencies. This is not a limitation for your buyers, whose cards may be in any other currency, even those not included in this list.

No, if you want to use PayPal express buttons you need have a Business account.

Log in to your PayPal account. Then open https://developer.paypal.com/dashboard/applications

Pick your app used together with Checkify Pro. Scroll down to Features block.

Find JavaScript SDK v6 option and put a tick into the appropriate checkbox to enable it.

Save your changes and this error in admin.checkify will be gone. Refer to the full connection flow for more details.

In general, PayPal does not allow individuals without a legal entity to open a Business account. For up-to-date information on this question, please visit the PayPal Business Resource Center.

In this case, your best option is to find another payment processor that operates in your country or engaged into some sort of a partnership with third parties that are eligible. You can also check thematic forums for ideas on how to get a PayPal account from a country that is not on their list.

When the order is placed successfully, there is always a set of data associated with it. It is provided in the Orders section.

Alternatively, you may find this info on Shopify. Here, Authorization key = PayPal Transaction ID. Example:

It is a highly unlikely event, which could have been triggered by a payment decline on the payment processor's side. Your buyer could have completed the checkout and the payment from them could have been initially approved. They landed on the Thank You (order confirmation) page, and the order was formed almost instantly. However, if the funds are not settled and the transaction is rejected for some reason, such an order should be cancelled.

This mechanism provides additional customer protection, for example from fraud and potential chargebacks. Every order must be backed by a payment. If all the orders are placed (imported) and their status remains unchanged regardless the status of the payment, there could be situations when the order is fulfilled, but the payment for it will be missing (= no transaction).

Upon fulfillment of an order and adding tracking code (ID), this code is imported to PayPal.

For up-to-date information on this question, please visit the PayPal official website.

Please make sure you copied and pasted the correct Live keys to the corresponding fields. The keys from the 'sandbox' will trigger such kind of an error. If this was not helpful, write to [email protected].

There is a possibility that some extensions or cache-cookies are interfering and causing the problem. Please try performing the operation in Incognito mode of your browser, or do it in a completely different browser. A network change, like activation or deactivation of a VPN, may also change the outcome.

Contact PayPal support and try to resolve this issue with them. Unfortunately, we cannot influence their decision. Presence of Checkify on a store is not a risk factor. PayPal monitors dozens of other signals and makes decisions based on them: Excessive chargebacks or disputes, pattern recognition, security issues and geographic discrepancies, among others.