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Integrations

Pay affiliates from your own PayPal account

Your affiliates are paid from your own PayPal Business balance to their PayPal email. We work out who is owed what and tell your account to send it. The money never touches us, and we take no fee on it. You need a Business account with Payouts enabled and a Live app's Client ID and Secret.

Published 3 September 2026. Every claim on this page was read off the documentation linked below on 3 September 2026. Written by Jimi Barkway, who built AffiliateRail. Jimi has run affiliate programs from both sides of the link. Corrections go to support@affiliaterail.com.

01 The money

Where does the money come from?

Your PayPal balance, and nothing else. PayPal will not take a shortfall from a linked bank or card. So the balance has to cover each batch plus PayPal's fee before the payout date. The Payouts page shows the batch total before anything is sent.

If the balance is short, PayPal refuses the whole batch. Nothing is half sent. The payouts land on the Failed tab with PayPal's reason, you get one email, and the partner is told nothing is lost. Top up, then choose Send again.

The AffiliateRail payouts screen: a scheduled run through the merchant's own PayPal account, the amount owed to each partner, and the 0% platform share
The payouts screen: a scheduled run through your own PayPal account, and the 0% platform share.

02 Setup

What does PayPal need from you?

A Business account with a confirmed identity and a linked bank. A personal account can be upgraded in place. Then ask PayPal to switch on Payouts. They review the request and email a decision within a few business days.

Last, a Live app in the developer dashboard with Payouts ticked. Copy its Client ID and Secret into the panel and choose Save and verify. A green tick with your app's name means it worked.

Three things, in order

  • A Business account

    Confirmed identity, linked bank. A personal account upgrades in place.

  • Payouts switched on

    Requested from paypal.com/payoutsweb/landing. Allow a few business days.

  • A Live app

    Not Sandbox. Payouts ticked. Copy the Client ID and the Secret.

03 After sending

What happens after a batch goes out?

A payout is never marked paid because PayPal accepted the request. Rails fail after they say yes. It is marked paid when the money moved, and a payout.paid webhook follows.

A partner whose email has no PayPal account shows as unclaimed. PayPal emails them, holds the money for 30 days, and returns it to your balance if nobody claims it. A retry goes out under a fresh reference, so PayPal never mistakes it for the refused attempt.

{
  "type": "payout.paid",
  "data": {
    "payout_id": "pyt_2WsXcDeRfVtGbYhNuJmIk",
    "partner_id": "part_4Jk2mN8pQrS7tUvWxYz01A",
    "amount_minor": 12500,
    "currency": "USD",
    "method": "paypal",
    "paid_at": "2026-10-15T09:00:00.000Z"
  }
}
The payout.paid event. Sent when PayPal confirms settlement, never on a 200.

Step by step

Connect PayPal Payouts

Fifteen minutes of your time, plus a few days waiting on PayPal. Ask for Payouts now so it is ready when you have partners to pay.

  1. Open a PayPal Business account

    paypal.com/bizsignup, with the email your company uses for money. Confirm your email and your identity, and link a bank.

  2. Ask PayPal to switch on Payouts

    From paypal.com/payoutsweb/landing. Say what it is for: commissions to the partners who refer customers. Allow a few business days.

  3. Create a Live app

    developer.paypal.com, Apps and Credentials, the toggle set to Live. Tick Payouts. Copy the Client ID and the Secret.

  4. Save, verify, test

    Paste both into the panel and choose Save and verify. Send a one-cent payout to an account you control. Turn on automatic payouts, or send each batch by hand.

Read the PayPal guide in the docs

Said plainly

What the PayPal Payouts integration does, and does not do

Both lists are read off the same docs pages as everything else here.

It does

  • Pays from your balance to their PayPal email

    Partners add the email in their portal. Payouts go out on your schedule.

  • Verifies the credentials before anything is sent

    Save and verify calls PayPal. If Payouts is not switched on yet, it says so.

  • Sends a one-cent test payout

    To a PayPal account you control that is not the business account itself.

  • Fails cleanly

    A refused batch is never half sent. The Failed tab, PayPal's reason, one email.

  • Takes 0% of every payout

    PayPal's own fee per payout still applies. Their merchant fees page has your rate.

It does not

  • Hold the money

    It goes from your balance to your affiliate and never passes through us.

  • Draw on a linked bank or card

    PayPal pays from the balance only. Keep it topped up before the payout date.

  • Pay an account to itself

    PayPal refuses it, so the test payout goes to a different account you control.

  • Run automatically on the Launch plan

    Automatic payouts start on Grow. On Launch you send each batch by hand from the same screen.

Questions

Common questions

Does the money pass through AffiliateRail?

No. It goes from your PayPal balance to your affiliate's PayPal account. We compute the amounts and tell your account to send them. We take 0%.

What if my balance is short?

PayPal refuses the batch with INSUFFICIENT_FUNDS and nothing is half sent. Add funds, then open the batch and choose Send again.

What does unclaimed mean?

The partner's email has no PayPal account yet. PayPal emails them, holds the money for 30 days, and returns it to your balance if nobody claims it.

Can I rehearse in the sandbox?

Yes. PayPal's developer dashboard gives you pretend accounts and a pretend balance. Tick the sandbox box when you save sandbox credentials, and switch back to Live before the first real batch.

Sources

Where these facts come from

Every claim on this page was read off the product's own documentation on the date shown. The docs change with the product, and then this page is behind until we fix it. Email support@affiliaterail.com and we will correct it and move the date.

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