PayPal

Create and send invoices, capture order payments, issue refunds, manage subscriptions and resolve disputes.

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What the PayPal connector does

The PayPal MCP server connects a PayPal Business account to Claude, ChatGPT and any MCP-compatible agent. It exposes 28 tools for creating and sending invoices, capturing order payments, issuing refunds, managing subscription plans, tracking shipments and resolving disputes. Sign-in is OAuth. This connector writes, and several of the things it writes move money.

Verified connector

Listed by Anthropic as a partner connector in its Connectors Directory.

Connection checked by Agentman on .

Anthropic states this reflects the level of review a connector received, not a security audit.

PayPal tools (28)

  • create_product
  • list_product
  • show_product_details
  • list_disputes
  • get_dispute
  • accept_dispute_claim
  • create_invoice
  • list_invoices
  • get_invoice
  • send_invoice
  • send_invoice_reminder
  • cancel_sent_invoice
  • generate_invoice_qr_code
  • create_order
  • create_refund
  • get_order
  • get_refund
  • pay_order
  • list_transaction
  • create_shipment_tracking
  • get_shipment_tracking
  • cancel_subscription
  • create_subscription
  • create_subscription_plan
  • list_subscription_plans
  • show_subscription_details
  • show_subscription_plan_details
  • update_subscription

Tool names from Anthropic's directory listing. This server requires sign-in, so we could not read tool descriptions or parameter schemas.

Limits

  • This connector writes, and several writes are irreversible transfers of money. pay_order captures a payment, create_refund returns one, and accept_dispute_claim concedes a dispute and triggers an automatic refund to the buyer. Treat it as an actioning integration, not a reporting one.
  • No scopes are advertised, so consent is all-or-nothing on the published evidence. Neither the RFC 9728 descriptor nor the RFC 8414 metadata carries a scopes_supported field, on either the production or the sandbox host. There is no documented way to grant invoice reading without also granting dispute acceptance.
  • Sandbox and production are separate hosts and separate credentials. PayPal names sandbox-and-live mix-up as a recurring integration failure. On this connector the failure mode is a test invoice reaching a real customer, or a live refund issued during a rehearsal.
  • Tool parameters and safety annotations were not readable. The endpoint returned HTTP 401 to an anonymous initialize on 2026-08-18, so names came from the directory snapshot and meanings from PayPal's documentation. We read no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint off the wire and make no claim about them. No tool was called.
  • Rate limits are real but unpublished. PayPal states it does not publish exact rate limits because they vary by API, environment and circumstances, and that a 429 may indicate anomalous traffic. Its guidance is to use webhooks over polling, cache OAuth tokens, and retry with exponential backoff.
  • The published tool list may be behind the server. PayPal's own reference documents 31 tools where Anthropic's snapshot names 28, and one name (update_plan) appears in PayPal's PROMPTS.md but not its README. Expect the live surface to differ from both.
  • Retried requests can duplicate an invoice. PayPal's invoicing troubleshooting page documents duplicate invoices from retried requests as a known issue and points to the PayPal-Request-Id header for idempotency. Whether the MCP server sets that header is not documented.
  • PayPal disclaims the accuracy of AI output. Its agent-toolkit repository states that AI-generated content may be inaccurate or incomplete and that users are responsible for independently verifying information before relying on it.

Frequently asked questions

Can the PayPal MCP server move real money?

Yes, when you point it at the production endpoint. PayPal documents mcp.paypal.com as the production endpoint and mcp.sandbox.paypal.com as the sandbox one. The tool set includes pay_order, which PayPal describes as capturing payment for an authorised order, and create_refund, which processes a refund for a captured payment. Sandbox transactions use test accounts and no real funds.

Does create_invoice send an invoice to the customer?

No. Creating and sending are separate tools. PayPal's invoicing lifecycle documentation states an invoice starts in draft status, is created but not sent, and is invisible to the payer. The separate send_invoice tool emails it to the recipient, and send_invoice_reminder chases an existing one. Nothing reaches your customer until the send step runs.

What does accept_dispute_claim actually do?

It concedes the dispute. PayPal's Disputes API guide states that accepting a claim accepts liability, closes the dispute in the buyer's favour, and that PayPal automatically refunds the buyer. PayPal's Resolution Center documentation describes the same action as closing the case in the buyer's favour and issuing a refund. Money leaves your account as a result.

Which PayPal account do you need for the MCP server?

A PayPal Business account for production and a PayPal Developer account for sandbox, per the prerequisites in PayPal's agent-toolkit repository. Sandbox business and personal test accounts are created automatically when you sign up for the developer account, and you retrieve their credentials from the Developer Dashboard under Sandbox Accounts.

Is PayPal's MCP server the local package or the hosted server?

PayPal ships both. Its quickstart documents a local server run with npx @paypal/mcp using a PayPal access token, and a remotely hosted server reached over OAuth. Anthropic's directory lists the hosted one at mcp.paypal.com. PayPal states the complete catalog of tools is available in both the local and remote server.

What rate limits apply to the PayPal MCP server?

PayPal publishes no exact numbers. Its rate-limiting guide states PayPal does not publish exact rate limits because they vary by API, environment and circumstances, and that exceeding them returns HTTP 429. Its invoicing troubleshooting page tells callers to use exponential backoff with jitter on any 429 or 5xx response.

Can the PayPal MCP server send a payout or read your balance?

No tool for either appears in any published list. PayPal Payouts is a documented product for sending money to many recipients, but no payout, balance, transfer or withdrawal tool appears in Anthropic's 28-name snapshot or in PayPal's own 31-tool reference. The connector acts on invoices, orders, refunds, subscriptions, products, shipments and disputes.

Sources

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