canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/paypal.com/subscriptions

# Paypal Subscriptions

You can use billing plans and subscriptions to create subscriptions that process recurring PayPal payments for physical or digital goods, or services. A plan includes pricing and billing cycle information that defines the amount and frequency of charge for a subscription. You can also define a fixed plan, such as a $5 basic plan or a volume- or graduated-based plan with pricing tiers based on the . The API exposes 16 endpoints secured with oauth2 authentication.

## For AI agents

Programmatically create plan, list plans. Covers 16 operations with oauth2 authentication.

## Scope

Does not handle communications, crm, or developer tools - use for payments only.

## Capabilities

- Create plan
- List plans
- Show plan details
- Update plan
- Activate plan
- Deactivate plan

## Use cases

### Payments Operations

Use the Subscriptions to perform payments operations programmatically. The API provides 16 endpoints covering core functionality including create plan, list plans, show plan details.

Example prompt: Call POST /v1/billing/plans to create plan

### Automated plans Management

Automate plans operations by combining multiple Subscriptions endpoints. Agents can list plans and then show plan details in a single workflow.

Example prompt: Call GET /v1/billing/plans to list plans, then verify the result

### AI Agent Integration via Jentic

AI agents discover and call Subscriptions endpoints through Jentic without managing credentials directly. An agent searches for the required operation by intent, receives the matching endpoint schema, and executes the call with Jentic-managed authentication. This eliminates the need to read API documentation or handle oauth2 tokens manually.

Example prompt: Search Jentic for 'create plan', load the operation schema, and execute with Jentic-managed credentials

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| POST | /v1/billing/plans | Create plan |
| GET | /v1/billing/plans | List plans |
| GET | /v1/billing/plans/{id} | Show plan details |
| PATCH | /v1/billing/plans/{id} | Update plan |
| POST | /v1/billing/plans/{id}/activate | Activate plan |
| POST | /v1/billing/plans/{id}/deactivate | Deactivate plan |
| POST | /v1/billing/plans/{id}/update-pricing-schemes | Update pricing |
| POST | /v1/billing/subscriptions | Create subscription |

## Key resources

- **plans** — Use the `/billing/plans` resource to create and manage plans.
- **subscriptions** — Use the `/billing/subscriptions` resource to create and manage subscriptions.
- **subscriptions-buyer-consent** — Use the `/billing/subscriptions/approval-tokens` resource for subscriptions buyer consent flow.

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring PayPal Subscriptions by hand means running its OAuth 2.0 flow, refreshing Bearer tokens, and choosing the right sandbox or live host before you can manage billing plans and subscriptions. Through Jentic you install once, import Subscriptions from the API Directory, store the client credentials once, and your agent calls it.
- **Permission scoping:** Subscriptions puts the plan id in the URL path (/v1/billing/plans/{id}), so a rule can pin your agent to reading one billing plan. You choose the operations it may call, so activating, deactivating, or updating a plan's pricing is not included unless you add them.
- **Credential handling:** 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.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'create a billing plan' or 'create a subscription', and Jentic returns the matching Subscriptions operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **Stripe** — Alternative payments API
- **Adyen** — Alternative payments API
- **Square** — Complementary payments API

## FAQ

### What authentication does the Subscriptions use?

The Subscriptions uses OAuth 2.0 for authorization. Through Jentic, these credentials are stored encrypted in your Jentic One instance and injected at execution time, so raw secrets never enter the agent context.

### Can I create plan with the Subscriptions?

Yes. Use the POST /v1/billing/plans endpoint. The API returns structured JSON responses that agents can parse and act on directly.

### What are the rate limits for the Subscriptions?

Rate limits are not specified in the OpenAPI spec. Check the vendor documentation for current limits. Through Jentic, rate limiting is handled automatically with retry logic built into the execution layer.

### How do I create plan through Jentic?

Install the Jentic SDK with pip install jentic, authenticate through Jentic One, the self-hosted execution layer, then search for 'create plan'. Jentic returns the matching Subscriptions operation with its input schema. Load the schema and execute the call - credentials are injected automatically.

### How many endpoints does the Subscriptions have?

The Subscriptions exposes 16 endpoints covering plans, subscriptions, subscriptions-buyer-consent operations.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the PayPal Subscriptions API?

Yes. Because Jentic One is self-hosted, your own rules decide which of the Subscriptions operations the agent may call, so you can grant read-only access with GET /v1/billing/plans and GET /v1/billing/plans/{id} while withholding create, update, activate, and deactivate. Since the plan id sits in the URL path (/v1/billing/plans/{id}), a rule can pin the agent to a single billing plan rather than the whole account. Write actions such as POST /v1/billing/plans, the activate and deactivate calls, update-pricing-schemes, and creating subscriptions stay blocked until you explicitly add them, and the OAuth client credentials are injected by your instance so the agent never sees the raw secrets.