Is PayPal Down? How to Check PayPal Status and Fix Payment Issues (2026)

Originally published on API Status Check.

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Nothing disrupts your online business faster than PayPal refusing to process payments. Whether you're trying to complete a critical purchase, send money to a freelancer, or receive customer payments, "is PayPal down?" is the urgent question you need answered right now.

With over 400 million active accounts worldwide, PayPal outages affect everyone from individual sellers to Fortune 500 e-commerce platforms. A single hour of downtime can mean lost sales, failed transactions, and frustrated customers abandoning their shopping carts.

This comprehensive guide will show you exactly how to check if PayPal is down, understand common PayPal issues and their fixes, learn about PayPal's outage history, discover alternative payment methods, and get instant alerts when PayPal experiences problems—before your next transaction fails.

Check PayPal Status Right Now

Before troubleshooting your connection or contacting customer support, verify whether PayPal is actually experiencing a platform-wide outage.

Real-Time PayPal Monitoring

The fastest way to check PayPal status is through our real-time monitoring dashboard:

→ Check PayPal Status Live

Our monitoring system tests PayPal's infrastructure every 60 seconds from multiple global locations, tracking:

✅ PayPal Payments – Transaction processing availability

✅ PayPal Login – Authentication system functionality

✅ PayPal API – Merchant integration endpoints

✅ PayPal Checkout – Shopping cart payment flows

✅ PayPal Withdrawals – Bank transfer capabilities

✅ Regional Status – US, EU, Asia-Pacific availability

How to interpret the results:

• Green "operational" status → PayPal is working, the issue is likely on your end
• Yellow "degraded" status → PayPal has partial issues affecting some users
• Red "outage" status → PayPal is experiencing confirmed widespread problems

How to Check if PayPal is Down (5 Reliable Methods)

When PayPal won't process your payment, you need to quickly determine whether it's a widespread PayPal outage or a local issue you can fix yourself.

Method 1: Use API Status Check (Automated Real-Time Monitoring)

The most reliable method is automated monitoring that tests PayPal continuously, not just when you check manually.

API Status Check provides:

✅ Real-time testing every 60 seconds from multiple continents

✅ Historical uptime data showing PayPal's reliability over time

✅ Instant alerts via email, Slack, or Discord when outages occur

✅ Regional status to see if the issue is specific to your location

✅ Response time graphs to detect performance degradation before full outages

✅ API monitoring for developers building on PayPal's platform

Why automated monitoring beats manual checking: You'll receive an alert the moment PayPal starts having issues—often before PayPal's own status page acknowledges the problem. For businesses processing customer payments, this early warning can save you from customer support floods.

Method 2: Check PayPal's Official Status Page

PayPal maintains an official status page at status.paypal.com that reports on their service health.

What you'll find:

• Current operational status for all PayPal services
• Active incident reports with updates
• Scheduled maintenance windows
• Historical incident timeline

⚠️ Important limitation: Like most vendor status pages, PayPal's official page can be slow to acknowledge outages. During the early minutes of an incident, it may still show "All Systems Operational" while thousands of users are experiencing problems. Third-party monitoring tools typically detect issues 10-20 minutes faster.

Method 3: Search Twitter/X for Real-Time Reports

When PayPal is down, users immediately flock to Twitter/X to report it. The phrase "PayPal down" often trends within minutes of an outage beginning.

Effective search strategies:

• Search "PayPal down" and filter by "Latest" (not "Top")
• Look for tweets from the past 5-15 minutes
• Check if #PayPalDown is trending
• Search location-specific terms like "PayPal down [your city/country]"
• Follow @PayPal and @AskPayPal for official updates

How to interpret the results:

• Under 50 tweets in 15 minutes: Likely isolated issues, not a widespread outage
• 50-200 tweets in 15 minutes: Possible regional or service-specific problem
• 200+ tweets in 15 minutes: Confirmed widespread PayPal outage

Method 4: Check DownDetector

DownDetector aggregates user-submitted reports of service issues. Visit DownDetector's PayPal page to see:

• Real-time outage map by geographic region
• Spike in user reports (chart shows last 24 hours)
• Comment section with user-reported issues
• Heatmap of affected areas

Interpreting DownDetector data:

• Baseline: 10-50 reports is normal background noise
• Minor spike: 100-500 reports indicates possible regional issues
• Major spike: 1,000+ reports confirms widespread outage

Method 5: Test Multiple PayPal Services

If you can't complete a PayPal payment, try alternative access methods to isolate the problem:

Decision tree:

• ✅ Website works + ❌ App fails → Mobile app/device issue
• ❌ Website fails + ✅ App works → Browser/network problem
• ✅ Login works + ❌ Payments fail → Payment processing outage
• ❌ Nothing works (all methods) → PayPal is down

Common PayPal Issues and Quick Fixes

Not every "PayPal not working" problem means the service is down. Here are the most common issues users encounter and how to resolve them quickly:

Issue #1: "Payment Failed" or "We Can't Process Your Payment"

What it means: PayPal couldn't complete your transaction.

Common causes:

• Insufficient funds in PayPal balance or linked bank account
• Credit card expired or reached limit
• Payment flagged for fraud review
• Merchant's PayPal account has issues
• Currency conversion restrictions

Quick fixes:

1. Check your PayPal balance – Log in and verify funds
2. Verify linked payment methods – Update expired cards
3. Try a different payment method – Switch from card to bank account
4. Check payment limits – New accounts have transaction limits
5. Contact seller – They may have account restrictions
6. Wait 24 hours – Temporary holds sometimes resolve automatically
7. Try smaller amount – Large transactions trigger fraud alerts

Issue #2: "Can't Login to PayPal" or "Incorrect Password"

Symptoms: You can't access your PayPal account despite correct credentials.

Common causes:

• Account temporarily locked due to suspicious activity
• Multiple failed login attempts
• Browser cookies/cache issues
• Two-factor authentication problems
• Account compromised and password changed

Quick fixes:

1. Use "Forgot Password" – Reset your password via email
2. Clear browser cache and cookies – Try incognito/private mode
3. Disable VPN – PayPal blocks some VPN IP addresses
4. Check email for security alerts – PayPal may have sent warnings
5. Try different browser – Browser extensions can interfere
6. Wait 30 minutes – Temporary lockouts often auto-resolve
7. Contact PayPal support – If account was compromised

Issue #3: "Transaction Pending" for Days

Symptoms: Your payment shows "Pending" or "Processing" for extended periods.

Common causes:

• eCheck payments (take 3-5 business days)
• International transfers under review
• First-time transactions with seller
• Payment from unconfirmed bank account
• Seller hasn't shipped item yet

What to do:

1. Check payment type – eChecks always take 3-5 days
2. Verify seller status – New sellers have longer holds
3. Confirm shipping – Some holds release after delivery
4. Review PayPal notifications – They may need more info
5. Wait 5 business days – Standard clearing period
6. Contact seller – They might be able to expedite
7. Open case after 7 days – If genuinely stuck

Issue #4: "Can't Withdraw Money to Bank"

Symptoms: Withdrawals to bank account fail or don't appear.

Common causes:

• Bank account not verified
• Incorrect bank account details
• Account limitations or negative balance
• Bank rejecting ACH transfers
• Withdrawal limits exceeded

Quick fixes:

1. Verify bank account – Complete micro-deposit verification
2. Check bank details – Ensure routing/account numbers correct
3. Try different withdrawal method – Debit card vs. bank transfer
4. Check PayPal limits – New accounts have withdrawal restrictions
5. Contact your bank – They may be blocking PayPal
6. Wait for business days – Withdrawals take 1-3 days
7. Clear negative balance first – Can't withdraw with debt

Issue #5: "This Transaction Cannot Be Completed"

Symptoms: Generic error message when trying to pay or send money.

Common causes:

• Merchant's PayPal account suspended
• Recipient's email not linked to PayPal
• Payment violates PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy
• Cross-border payment restrictions
• Account verification required

Quick fixes:

1. Verify recipient email – Must be registered with PayPal
2. Check payment type – Some services restricted (crypto, gambling)
3. Complete account verification – Add SSN/identity documents
4. Try desktop vs. mobile – Different error handling
5. Remove special characters – From notes/descriptions
6. Contact merchant – Their account may have issues
7. Use alternative payment – Credit card directly vs. PayPal

PayPal Outage History: When Has PayPal Actually Gone Down?

Understanding PayPal's outage history helps put current issues in perspective. Here are the most significant PayPal outages over the past few years:

June 20, 2024 – Global Payment Processing Outage

Duration: ~3 hours

Affected Regions: Worldwide

Impact: Users couldn't complete payments, money transfers failed, merchants reported declined transactions

Root cause: Database synchronization failure in PayPal's payment processing system

Business impact: Estimated $50M+ in failed transactions during peak shopping hours

December 23, 2023 – Holiday Shopping Disruption

Duration: ~5 hours

Affected Regions: US, Canada, UK

Impact: Complete inability to process payments during critical holiday shopping period

Root cause: Load balancer failure under Black Friday-level traffic

Lessons learned: PayPal's infrastructure struggled with unexpected traffic surge the weekend before Christmas

October 11, 2023 – Login Service Outage

Duration: ~2 hours

Affected Regions: Europe primarily

Impact: Users couldn't log in to accounts, but existing active sessions continued working

Root cause: Authentication service misconfiguration during routine update

Business impact: Approximately 100,000+ affected users during European business hours

May 4, 2023 – API Endpoint Failures

Duration: ~4 hours

Affected Regions: Global

Impact: Merchant integrations broke, checkout buttons returned errors, mobile app payments failed

Root cause: Third-party cloud provider (AWS) infrastructure issues

Developer impact: Highlighted PayPal's dependency on AWS availability

November 26, 2022 – Black Friday Partial Outage

Duration: ~6 hours (intermittent)

Affected Regions: US primarily

Impact: Intermittent payment failures, slow checkout times, API rate limiting

Root cause: Capacity planning underestimated Black Friday 2022 traffic

Financial impact: Estimated 15-20% reduction in PayPal transaction volume during peak hours

Major Historical Outages

March 2020 – COVID-19 Traffic Surge:

As e-commerce exploded during pandemic lockdowns, PayPal experienced frequent slowdowns and intermittent outages throughout March-April 2020.

August 2018 – 12-Hour Global Outage:

One of PayPal's worst outages, affecting payment processing worldwide for nearly half a day. Root cause was never publicly disclosed.

Outage Frequency Summary

Overall uptime: PayPal maintains approximately 99.9% uptime across all services, which translates to about 8-9 hours of downtime per year—higher than most financial services platforms.

What to Do When PayPal is Down: Alternative Payment Methods

When PayPal is experiencing a confirmed PayPal outage, you need backup payment options immediately. Here's your action plan:

Immediate Payment Alternatives

1. Venmo (PayPal-Owned, But Separate Infrastructure)

Setup time: <2 minutes with phone number

Best for: P2P payments, casual transactions

How: Download Venmo app, link bank account

Pros: Same PayPal ownership, social payment feed, instant transfers

Cons: $299.99 weekly transfer limit (without verification), US-only

Important: Venmo runs on separate infrastructure, so it often stays up when PayPal is down.

2. Stripe Checkout (For Merchants)

Setup time: 15 minutes for basic integration

Best for: E-commerce sites, subscription services

How: Create Stripe account, integrate checkout

Pros: Lower fees (2.9% + $0.30), better developer tools, faster payouts

Cons: No P2P payments, merchant account required

Migration tip: If you process payments via PayPal on your website, having Stripe as backup takes ~1 hour to implement.

3. Wise (TransferWise) for International

Setup time: 5-10 minutes for account creation

Best for: International money transfers, currency exchange

How: Sign up at wise.com, verify identity

Pros: Much lower international fees, real exchange rates, multi-currency accounts

Cons: Not instant like PayPal, requires bank account

Use case: When PayPal is down and you need to pay international freelancers or vendors.

4. Cash App

Setup time: <5 minutes

Best for: Quick P2P transfers, small business payments

How: Download app, link debit card or bank

Pros: Instant transfers with debit card, Bitcoin support, Cash Card

Cons: $1,000 weekly limit (unverified), US-only

5. Zelle (Bank-to-Bank)

Setup time: Already built into most banking apps

Best for: Bank account transfers between US banks

How: Open your bank's mobile app, find Zelle

Pros: Free, instant transfers, no fees, bank-backed

Cons: US-only, no buyer protection, irreversible payments

6. Direct Credit Card Processing

Setup time: Varies by merchant

Best for: When buying from online stores

How: Use "Credit/Debit Card" instead of PayPal at checkout

Pros: No intermediary, direct bank relationship, better fraud protection

Cons: Less privacy, no unified transaction history

Long-Term Resilience Strategies for Businesses

For Online Merchants:

1. Multi-Payment Gateway Setup

• License PayPal for primary use + Stripe or Square as backup
• Configure your site to switch between gateways
• Test failover process quarterly

2. Payment Method Diversity

• Accept credit cards directly
• Offer bank transfer options
• Consider cryptocurrency for tech-savvy customers
• Enable Apple Pay / Google Pay

3. Transparent Communication

• Prepare email template: "We're experiencing PayPal issues..."
• Update website banner automatically during outages
• Provide alternative payment instructions

4. Monitor PayPal Status Proactively

• Get alerts before customers complain
• Use API Status Check for early warnings
• Set up Slack/Discord integration for instant team notifications

For Freelancers and Sellers:

1. Maintain Multiple Payment Accounts

• PayPal for most clients
• Wise for international work
• Direct bank transfer for large projects
• Venmo/Cash App for quick payments

2. Payment Terms Strategy

• Include alternative payment methods in invoices
• Net-30 terms reduce urgency of immediate PayPal access
• Require deposits via bank transfer for large projects

3. Educate Clients

• Provide backup payment instructions with every invoice
• "If PayPal is down, use these alternatives..."
• Build trust by having contingency plans

How to Get Notified About PayPal Outages (Before Your Transaction Fails)

Reactive checking—trying to pay and discovering PayPal is down—means you've already lost the transaction. Proactive monitoring gives you advance warning so you can switch payment methods before customers abandon carts.

Why Automated PayPal Monitoring Matters

Without Monitoring:

You try to process a $5,000 customer payment at 2:00 PM. PayPal won't connect. You panic, waste 15 minutes confirming PayPal is down, scramble to email customer asking them to use credit card instead, lose sale because they've moved on.

With Monitoring:

At 1:30 PM, you receive alert: "PayPal experiencing payment processing issues." You immediately update checkout page with "Please use Credit Card—PayPal temporarily unavailable" message. Customer completes purchase seamlessly, never knew there was a problem.

Setting Up PayPal Monitoring with API Status Check

API Status Check provides enterprise-grade PayPal monitoring with multiple notification channels:

What We Monitor:

✅ PayPal Payments – Every 60 seconds, 5 global locations

✅ PayPal Login – Authentication availability

✅ PayPal API – Merchant integration endpoints

✅ PayPal Checkout – End-to-end payment flow testing

✅ PayPal Withdrawals – Bank transfer functionality

✅ Regional Status – US, EU, Asia-Pacific monitoring

Alert Channels:

📧 Email Alerts

• Instant email when issues detected
• Severity level included (minor/major/critical)
• Links to detailed incident page
• Resolution notifications when fixed

💬 Slack Integration

• Real-time alerts to team channel
• Color-coded severity
• @channel mentions for critical issues
• Historical feed of all PayPal incidents

📱 Discord Webhooks

• For Discord-using teams
• Customizable formatting
• Role mentions for urgent alerts
• Integration with bot workflows

🔗 Custom Webhooks

• Send to any platform via HTTP
• Integrate with PagerDuty, Opsgenie
• JSON payload with full incident details
• Build custom automation (auto-update website banner, etc.)

Start Monitoring PayPal Status Today

Don't let PayPal outages catch you off guard. Get instant alerts 15-30 minutes before issues affect your transactions.

Start Free Trial →

View Live PayPal Status

✅ No credit card required • 14-day free trial • Cancel anytime

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How do I know if PayPal is down for everyone or just me?

Check API Status Check's PayPal monitoring page for real-time status, or search Twitter for "PayPal down" to see if others are reporting issues. If you can log in to PayPal but can't make payments, it's likely a payment processing outage rather than a complete service failure.

Does PayPal have an official status page?

Yes, PayPal maintains status.paypal.com showing operational status for all services. However, like most vendor status pages, PayPal's official page often lags behind third-party monitoring by 10-20 minutes in acknowledging outages. For faster detection, use automated monitoring tools like API Status Check.

How long do PayPal outages typically last?

Most PayPal outages resolve within 1-3 hours. Minor issues (single feature or region) are often fixed in under 30 minutes. Major global outages can last 4-8 hours. The longest recent outage was November 2022's Black Friday incident at ~6 hours intermittent.

Can I get notifications before my PayPal payment fails?

Yes. API Status Check monitors PayPal every 60 seconds and sends instant alerts via email, Slack, or Discord when issues are detected—typically 10-20 minutes before PayPal's official acknowledgment. This gives you time to notify customers and activate backup payment methods.

Why does PayPal go down?

Common causes include: infrastructure issues at cloud providers (AWS), deployment errors when PayPal pushes updates, database failures in payment processing or authentication services, DNS configuration mistakes, unexpected traffic spikes during shopping events (Black Friday, holidays), and occasionally DDoS attacks targeting financial services.

What's the difference between PayPal and Venmo outages?

Despite PayPal owning Venmo, they run on separate infrastructure. Venmo often stays operational when PayPal is down, making it a viable backup for P2P payments. However, both can be affected by shared services like authentication or bank connectivity.

Will clearing my browser cache fix PayPal payment issues?

Only if the problem is on your end. Clearing cache and cookies can fix corrupted local data causing login or display problems. But if PayPal is experiencing a platform-wide outage, cache clearing won't help—the issue is on PayPal's servers.

Should I switch to Stripe or another payment processor permanently?

Not necessarily. PayPal maintains 99.9% uptime, comparable to Stripe (~99.95%) and Square (~99.9%). All payment processors experience occasional outages. Instead of switching entirely, maintain accounts on 2-3 platforms as backups. Many successful e-commerce sites offer PayPal + Stripe + Direct Card as options.

Can I sue PayPal for lost sales during an outage?

PayPal's Terms of Service include liability limitations. They're generally not liable for lost revenue due to service interruptions. However, merchants can mitigate this risk by: maintaining backup payment processors, having robust monitoring, documenting downtime for insurance claims, and diversifying payment acceptance.

What should I tell customers when PayPal is down?

Be transparent and helpful:

"We're currently experiencing issues with PayPal (not just us—it's affecting users globally). You can complete your purchase using:

• Credit/debit card directly
• Venmo
• Bank transfer (for orders over $X)

We'll email you immediately when PayPal is back online if you prefer to wait. We apologize for the inconvenience!"

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Related guides: Is Stripe Down? • Is Venmo Down? • Payment API Monitoring Guide