Postman Guide

Use Postman to explore PayPal's REST APIs without a developer account. You can customize requests and receive responses for any of PayPal's core APIs.

To do more with Postman:

  1. Create your own fork of the collection
  2. Link your collection to your PayPal Developer Dashboard account
  3. Start making API calls

1. Fork the PayPal Postman collection

  1. Sign in to your account.
  2. Select the Run in Postman below.

  3. Select Fork Collection.
  4. Name your fork and select a workspace.

2. Authentication

An access token is automatically generated using a default client_id and client_secret. Replace the default access tokens with your own client_id and client_secret from the Developer Dashboard.
  1. On the Developer Dashboard, find your client_id and client_secret under Dashboard > My Apps & Credentials.
  2. In Postman, select your fork of the PayPal collection.
  3. Under the Variables tab, enter your client_id and client_secret.
  4. Select Save.
A pre-request script generates and manages the access_token automatically. Use the access_token allows you to call any API in the collection.

3. Start making API calls with Postman

This example uses the Orders API to create an order and capture payment using sandbox accounts linked to your Developer Dashboard account. To find your sandbox account credentials, log into the Developer Dashboard and select Sandbox > Accounts.

To create an order:

  1. In your Postman workspace, navigate to your fork of the PayPal collection.
  2. Select Orders > Create Order > Send. On a successful call, the API returns a 201 order created response code.
  3. Find the approve link in the response.
  4. Open the approve link in a browser.
  5. Log in with your Developer Dashboard sandbox personal account credentials.

Capture Payments

Capture payments in both your personal and business sandbox accounts as follows:

  1. Find the id in the response of the order you created and copy the value.
  2. In the left panel, select your fork of the PayPal collection.
  3. In the Variables tab, enter the value you copied in the order_id field.
  4. Select Orders > Capture payment for order.
  5. Select Send. The API returns an HTTP 201 order created response code in response to a successful call.