# Sandbox accounts (/sandbox-testing/accounts)



## Overview [#overview]

The PayPal sandbox supports these account types:

| Account type | Represents                     |
| ------------ | ------------------------------ |
| Personal     | The customer in a transaction. |
| Business     | The merchant in a transaction. |

To test a typical PayPal transaction, you must use both types of accounts.

When you register as a PayPal developer on the [developer site](/), the PayPal
sandbox creates these sandbox accounts:

* A business account and associated API test credentials. For example, `sb-4i2nn47000072@business.example.com`.
* A default personal account. For example, `sb-gypf446000721@personal.example.com`.

You can
[create additional sandbox accounts](#create-and-manage-sandbox-accounts) on the
developer site or directly on the sandbox site,
[https://www.sandbox.paypal.com](https://www.sandbox.paypal.com).

> **Note:** **Note:** You can
> [link a sandbox account to your developer account](#link-a-sandbox-account-to-your-developer-account).

Some PayPal transactions require more than one buyer-and-seller pair. For
example, parallel payment calls and Adaptive calls each require two different
business accounts but for different reasons. In these cases, you must create
additional sandbox business accounts to play the roles of the entities in your
transactions.

For information about sandbox account roles, see
[plan your sandbox accounts](/sandbox-testing/accounts#create-a-personal-sandbox-account).

## Create and manage sandbox accounts [#create-and-manage-sandbox-accounts]

On the [developer site](/), you can:

* [Create a personal sandbox account]()
* [Create a business sandbox account](#create-a-business-sandbox-account)
* [Manage sandbox accounts](#manage-sandbox-accounts)

> **Note:** **Tip:** To simplify the creation of multiple accounts, do one of the
> following:
>
> * [Duplicate](#duplicate-a-sandbox-account), or *clone*, an existing sandbox account.
> * [Bulk-upload sandbox accounts](/sandbox-testing/bulk-accounts) through the Bulk Account Upload tool.

### Create a personal sandbox account [#create-a-personal-sandbox-account]

Create a personal sandbox account to represent the buyer in a transaction. The
PayPal sandbox automatically creates your first personal sandbox account when
you sign up for a developer account on the developer site. To generate a unique personal sandbox account name, PayPal follows this format: `sb-[random-string]@personal.example.com`.

When you create a sandbox account, an email and password are generated. You use
the email address to reference the sandbox account in your test API calls. You
also use the email and password values to log in to the sandbox accounts page to
view and configure the sandbox account.

To create an additional personal sandbox account:

1. Log in to the Developer Dashboard and navigate to the [Sandbox>>Accounts](https://developer.paypal.com/developer/accounts) page.
2. Click **Create Account**.
3. Set the **Account Type** to **Personal**.
4. Select a **Country**.
5. Click **Create Account**.

A personal account with default values for balances and other information is
created for you. If you need more customization of the test values, click
**Create Custom Account** in the **Create Sandbox Account** dialog.

### Create a business sandbox account [#create-a-business-sandbox-account]

The PayPal sandbox automatically creates your first business sandbox account
when you sign up for a developer account on the [developer site](/). To generate a unique business account name, PayPal follows this format: `sb-[random-string]@business.example.com`. PayPal
assigns a set of test API credentials to the account. Use the account to create
mock PayPal transactions in the PayPal sandbox.

To create an additional business sandbox account:

1. Log in to the Developer Dashboard and navigate to the [Sandbox>>Accounts](https://developer.paypal.com/developer/accounts) page.
2. Click **Create Account**.
3. Set the **Account Type** to **Business**.
4. Select a **Country**.
5. Click **Create Account**.

A business account with default values for balances and other information is
created for you. If you need more customization of the test values, click
**Create Custom Account** in the **Create Sandbox Account** dialog.

### Manage sandbox accounts [#manage-sandbox-accounts]

On the developer site sandbox accounts page, you can:

* [Change a sandbox account password](#change-a-sandbox-account-password)
* [Delete a sandbox account](#delete-a-sandbox-account)
* [Link a sandbox account to your developer account](#link-a-sandbox-account-to-your-developer-account)
* [Duplicate a sandbox account](#duplicate-a-sandbox-account)

#### Change a sandbox account password [#change-a-sandbox-account-password]

To change the account password:

1. Log in to the Developer Dashboard and navigate to the [Sandbox>>Accounts](https://developer.paypal.com/developer/accounts) page.
2. In the **Manage Accounts** column, click the icon associated with the account you want to manage.
3. Click **View/Edit Account**.
4. On the **Profile** tab of the **Account Details** dialog box, click **Change password**.
5. Enter a new password and click **Save**, located just below the password text box.

#### Delete a sandbox account [#delete-a-sandbox-account]

To delete an account:

1. Log in to the Developer Dashboard and navigate to the [Sandbox>>Accounts](https://developer.paypal.com/developer/accounts) page.
2. In the **Manage Accounts** column, click the icon associated with the account you want to manage.
3. Click **Delete**. A message confirms the successful deletion of the account(s).

> **Note:** **Note:** You cannot delete the default `*@business.example.com` and \*`@personal.example.com` sandbox
> accounts that the PayPal sandbox creates.

#### Link a sandbox account to your developer account [#link-a-sandbox-account-to-your-developer-account]

To link a pre-existing sandbox account to your developer account:

1. Log in to the developer site [sandbox accounts](https://developer.paypal.com/developer/accounts) page and click on the link for authenticating with the credentials of the test account you to which you want to link.
2. On the log in page, enter your sandbox account credentials.
3. A message confirms successful log in. Your sandbox account appears on the developer site.

> **Note:** **Note:** If your sandbox account is already linked to another developer
> account, you cannot link it to your developer account.

#### Duplicate a sandbox account [#duplicate-a-sandbox-account]

If you have an existing Business or Personal test account, you can *clone* that
account to create a new account of the same type. This can be helpful if you're
trying to model several merchants or customers that have slightly varying
properties. By creating multiple sandbox accounts, you can test various payment
flows and error scenarios.

When you clone a sandbox account, PayPal automatically copies the account type
(Business or Personal), PayPal balance, first name, and last name of the
original account to the new account. PayPal creates an email address for the
account by appending `-1` to the original email address. If you clone the same
account again, PayPal follows the same pattern and increments the ID. A second
cloned account appends `-2` to the email address.

After you clone an account, you can edit the PayPal balance, first name, last
name, and email address. You must also set a password for the new account, the
password is not cloned.

To duplicate a sandbox account:

1. Log in to the [Developer Dashboard](/dashboard) and navigate to the **Sandbox Accounts** section of the **Sandbox > Accounts** page to view your existing sandbox accounts.
2. In the **Manage Accounts** column, click the icon associated with the account you want to manage.
3. Select **Duplicate Account**.
4. Edit any fields you want to modify, supply payment information, and click **Create Account** to complete the process.

> **Note:** **Note:** When you duplicate a sandbox account, the Pro status is disabled by
> default and any flags that have been set up by your Account Manager are not
> duplicated to the new account.

Some sandbox accounts have cloning disabled for the following reasons:

* Test account is still in the creation process.
* The test account partially or completely failed on the back-end during the creation process and such accounts cannot be cloned.