Official vendor OpenAPI document · agent-readyPaymentsPayment Processingoauth29 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Create and capture PayPal payment orders, authorize funds, and attach shipping trackers. Supports PayPal wallet, cards, and local payment methods with buyer and seller protection.
Use for: I need to create a PayPal checkout order for a customer purchase, Capture an authorized payment after shipping the product, Check whether an order has been successfully captured, I want to authorize funds without capturing immediately
Not supported: Does not handle recurring subscriptions, invoicing, or payouts - use for one-time order payments and authorizations only.
Create, authorize, and capture payment orders across PayPal wallets, cards, and local payment methods through a unified checkout flow. The API handles buyer authentication, seller protection eligibility, and payment state transitions from creation through authorization and final capture. Order tracking with carrier and shipment details enables automatic seller protection and buyer dispute resolution.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Orders to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Orders, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
1
Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fpaypal.com%2Fpaypal-orders" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Fpaypal.com%2Fpaypal-orders" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Orders API.
Create payment orders with multiple purchase units, shipping details, and payment source preferences
Authorize funds on an order and capture them separately for delayed fulfillment workflows
Confirm the payment source on an order to trigger buyer authentication (3D Secure, PayPal login)
Attach carrier tracking information to captured orders for automatic seller protection
Update order details including shipping address and purchase amount before authorization
Retrieve full order state including payment status, buyer details, and disbursement timelines
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Orders API for, with concrete tasks.
★ AI Agent Order Processing
AI agents create and capture PayPal orders through Jentic without storing OAuth client secrets directly. An agent searches for 'create a PayPal order' via Jentic, receives the order creation schema with purchase unit structure, and executes the call with credential isolation. The agent can then authorize and capture in subsequent calls, all without managing token refresh logic.
Search Jentic for 'create a PayPal order', load the schema, create an order for $75.00 USD with intent CAPTURE, then execute the capture call
E-Commerce Checkout with PayPal
Accept payments from 400+ million PayPal wallet users alongside guest card payments through a single order creation call. The Orders API handles buyer redirection to PayPal for approval, supports both immediate capture (intent=CAPTURE) and delayed authorization (intent=AUTHORIZE), and calculates seller protection eligibility based on shipping address and item category.
Create an order with intent CAPTURE for $50.00 USD including item details and shipping address, then retrieve the order to confirm status is APPROVED
Authorization and Delayed Capture
Place a hold on buyer funds at checkout and capture later when goods ship, with a 29-day authorization window for PayPal wallet and 3-day window for cards. The authorize-then-capture flow is ideal for physical goods fulfillment where the exact shipping cost may change. Partial captures are supported, allowing agents to capture less than the authorized amount.
Create an order with intent AUTHORIZE for $120.00 USD, authorize it, then capture $115.00 as a partial capture after adjusting for actual shipping cost
Shipment Tracking and Seller Protection
Attach carrier tracking information to captured orders to qualify for PayPal Seller Protection on eligible transactions. The tracking endpoint accepts carrier name, tracking number, and notify_buyer flag. Orders with valid tracking automatically transition to seller-protected status, reducing chargeback liability and dispute losses.
Add a UPS tracking number to a captured order using POST /v2/checkout/orders/{id}/track with carrier 'UPS' and notify_buyer set to true
Key Endpoints
9 endpoints — create, authorize, and capture payment orders across paypal wallets, cards, and local payment methods through a unified checkout flow.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
POST
/v2/checkout/orders
Create a new payment order
GET
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}
Retrieve order details by ID
POST
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}/authorize
Authorize payment on an order
POST
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}/capture
Capture payment on an authorized order
POST
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}/confirm-payment-source
Confirm payment source for buyer auth
POST
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}/track
Add tracking info to a captured order
POST
/v2/checkout/orders
Create a new payment order
GET
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}
Retrieve order details by ID
POST
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}/authorize
Authorize payment on an order
POST
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}/capture
Capture payment on an authorized order
POST
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}/confirm-payment-source
Confirm payment source for buyer auth
POST
/v2/checkout/orders/{id}/track
Add tracking info to a captured order
Jentic AI Readiness Score
This API is usable in Jentic One now. Its AI-readiness score against Jentic's framework shows where it stands today and where improvements would make it even easier for agents to use.
O
Orders
- Foundational (D-)42/100
46
Foundational Compliance73
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility18
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience94
Agent Usability85
Security100
AI DiscoverabilityPowered by JenticScoring Framework 1.0.0 | Scoring Engine 0.4.0
Show dimension breakdown
46
Foundational Compliance
Base layer of spec validity and structural soundness.
Grade: DSignals: 4
43%
Lint Results
Aggregated quality score from linter diagnostics, weighted by severity.
100%
Resolution Completeness
Percentage of `$ref` references that resolve successfully.
0%
Specification Validity
Checks whether the API description parses successfully and conforms to its declared specification (e.g., OpenAPI).
42%
Structural Integrity
Structural correctness score based on schema issues using logarithmic dampening.
73
Developer Experience & Jentic Compatibility
Clarity, completeness, and ingestion readiness for developers and tooling.
Grade: A-Signals: 4
0%
Example Density
How richly the API is illustrated with examples.
100%
Example Validity
Percentage of examples that conform to their schemas.
92%
Response Coverage
Percentage of operations with complete response definitions (success, client error, server error).
100%
Tooling Readiness
Health of API ingestion, bundling, and resolution within Jentic pipelines.
18
AI-Readiness & Agent Experience
Semantic breadth, depth, and agent comprehension for AI systems.
Grade: FSignals: 4
29%
Description Coverage
Coverage of descriptions across API elements.
0%
Error Standardization
Coverage of RFC 9457 Problem Details for error responses.
0%
OperationId Quality
Coverage, uniqueness, and casing consistency of operationIds for AI inference.
43%
Summary Coverage
Coverage of summaries across operations/tags/info.
94
Agent Usability
Functional utility, complexity comfort, and AI orchestration readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
94%
Complexity Comfort
Agent comfort level based on API operational and structural complexity.
85
Security
Trust, risk posture, and security compliance.
Grade: ASignals: 1
85%
Authentication Strength
Average quality of security schemes based on authentication method strength (weakest link for OAuth2).
100
AI Discoverability
Findability, semantic richness, and reasoning readiness.
Grade: A+Signals: 1
100%
Descriptive Richness
Clarity and depth of descriptions across API elements.
Score it yourself
Every API in the directory is allowlisted, so you can re-score it with no key required.
npx @jentic/api-scorecard-cli score <openapi-url>Why Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring PayPal Orders by hand means running its OAuth 2.0 flow, refreshing Bearer tokens against the live api-m.paypal.com host, and constructing the purchase_units payload yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import Orders from the API Directory, store the client credentials once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
Orders puts the order id in the URL path (/v2/checkout/orders/{id}), so a rule can pin your agent to reading one order. You choose the operations it may call, so authorizing or capturing that order is not included unless you add them.
Credential isolation
Your PayPal OAuth client id and secret are stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time, with token refresh handled for you. They never enter the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'create a PayPal order' or 'capture a payment', and Jentic returns the matching Orders operation with its full request schema so the agent constructs the correct purchase_units payload without browsing the reference docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
Alternative
Stripe API
Developer-centric payment platform with broader subscription and marketplace features
Choose Stripe when you need advanced subscription billing, metered usage, or a multi-party Connect marketplace rather than simple order-based checkout
FAQs
Specific to using Orders API through Jentic.
What authentication does the PayPal Orders API use?
The PayPal Orders API uses OAuth 2.0 with client credentials flow. You exchange your client_id and secret for a Bearer access token via POST /v1/oauth2/token, then pass the token in the Authorization header. Tokens expire after ~9 hours. Through Jentic, your PayPal OAuth credentials are stored in your Jentic One instance and token refresh is handled automatically - agents never see the client secret.
Can I authorize and capture payments separately with the PayPal Orders API?
Yes. Create an order with intent=AUTHORIZE, then call POST /v2/checkout/orders/{id}/authorize to place a hold on funds. When ready to collect, call POST /v2/checkout/orders/{id}/capture. The authorization window is 29 days for PayPal wallet payments and 3 days for card payments. Partial captures below the authorized amount are supported.
What are the rate limits for the PayPal Orders API?
PayPal applies rate limits based on your account tier and endpoint. Standard accounts get approximately 30 requests per second for order creation and 50 for retrieval. If you exceed limits, the API returns HTTP 429. PayPal recommends exponential backoff with a maximum of 3 retries.
How do I create a PayPal order through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'create a PayPal order' to find the POST /v2/checkout/orders operation. The schema shows required fields: intent (CAPTURE or AUTHORIZE) and purchase_units array with amount (currency_code + value). Jentic handles OAuth token management automatically. Run it through Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer.
Does the PayPal Orders API support multiple currencies?
Yes. The Orders API supports over 100 currencies specified in the purchase_units[].amount.currency_code field using ISO 4217 codes (e.g., USD, EUR, GBP). Each purchase unit can have a different currency. Settlement currency depends on your PayPal account configuration.
How does seller protection work with the PayPal Orders API?
Seller protection eligibility is determined automatically based on order attributes. To qualify, orders must include a shipping address and be captured (not just authorized). Adding carrier tracking via POST /v2/checkout/orders/{id}/track strengthens protection. The order response includes a seller_protection object showing eligibility status and dispute categories covered.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the PayPal Orders API?
Yes. Jentic One is self-hosted by you, so your own rules decide which PayPal Orders operations and credentials your agent may use. Because the order id sits in the URL path (/v2/checkout/orders/{id}), you can pin an agent to reading a single order while excluding authorize (POST /v2/checkout/orders/{id}/authorize) and capture (POST /v2/checkout/orders/{id}/capture) unless you explicitly allow them. Your OAuth client id and secret stay in your own instance and are injected at execution time, so the agent can only call the operations you scope to it.
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