How to Enable PayPal Instant Payment Notification (IPN)

PayPal Instant Payment Notification (IPN) is a notification service that used to notify merchants about the PayPal transaction. This notification is sent to the URL which you have set in notify_url variable of the HTML payment form. Using the Notify URL you can get the transaction information, validate and store the payment data in the database.

If IPN is enabled, PayPal is sent the payment notification to the Notify URL. Means, you must enable PayPal IPN to work with Instant Payment Notification. Follow the step by step instructions to configure and setup Instant Payment Notification in your PayPal business account.

Define Notify URL

At first set the notify_url in the HTML Variable of the PayPal payment form. This URL is used by PayPal to posts information about the payment.

<input type="hidden" name="notify_url" value="https://www.codexworld.com/paypal_ipn.php">

Enable PayPal IPN

Follow the below steps to enable IPN on PayPal Sandbox or Live Business account.

• Sign in to your PayPal Business Account
• After successfully logged in, you would redirected to the account overview page.
• At the top naivation menu bar, click the Settings (Gear icon). You will be redirected to the Profile page.
  
• In the Profile page, navigate to the Selling tools tab. Under the Getting paid and managing my risk section, click the Update link of Instant payment notifications.
  
• You will be redirected to the Instant Payment Notification (IPN) page. Click the Choose IPN Settings.
  
• In the Edit Instant Payment Notification (IPN) settings page, Enter the Notification URL and enable the Receive IPN messages. Click the Save button.
  

Now the PayPal will send the transaction notification to the specified Notify URL. After that, in the notify_url file (paypal_ipn.php), you will be able to retrieve the transaction information and store the payment data on the server.

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