Accept a PayPal payment

Server-side

This integration requires endpoints on your server that talk to the Stripe API. Use our official libraries for access to the Stripe API from your server:

# Available as a gem
sudo gem install stripe

# If you use bundler, you can add this line to your Gemfile
gem 'stripe'

Client-side

The React Native SDK is open source and fully documented. Internally, it uses the native iOS and Android SDKs. To install Stripe’s React Native SDK, run one of the following commands in your project’s directory (depending on which package manager you use):

yarn add @stripe/stripe-react-native

Next, install some other necessary dependencies:

• For iOS, navigate to the ios directory and run pod install to ensure that you also install the required native dependencies.
• For Android, there are no more dependencies to install.

Stripe initialization

To initialize Stripe in your React Native app, either wrap your payment screen with the StripeProvider component, or use the initStripe initialization method. Only the API publishable key in publishableKey is required. The following example shows how to initialize Stripe using the StripeProvider component.

import { StripeProvider } from '@stripe/stripe-react-native';

function App() {
  const [publishableKey, setPublishableKey] = useState('');

  const fetchPublishableKey = async () => {
    const key = await fetchKey(); // fetch key from your server here
    setPublishableKey(key);
  };

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchPublishableKey();
  }, []);

  return (
    <StripeProvider
      publishableKey={publishableKey}
      merchantIdentifier="merchant.identifier" // required for Apple Pay
      urlScheme="your-url-scheme" // required for 3D Secure and bank redirects
    >
      // Your app code here
    </StripeProvider>
  );
}

Server-side

Stripe uses a payment object, called a PaymentIntent, to track and handle all the states of the payment until it’s completed. Create a PaymentIntent on your server, specifying the amount to collect and the currency. If you already have an integration using the Payment Intents API, add paypal to the list of payment method types for your PaymentIntent.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d amount=1099 \
  -d currency=eur \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"=paypal

Included in the returned PaymentIntent is a client secret, which is used to securely complete the payment process instead of passing the entire PaymentIntent object. Send the client secret back to the client so you can use it in later steps.

Include a custom description

By default, the order details on the PayPal users purchase activity page displays the order amount. You can change this by providing a custom description in the description property.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d amount=1099 \
  -d currency=eur \
  -d description="A sample description" \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"=paypal

Customize the preferred locale

By default, the PayPal authorization page is localized based on variables such as the merchant’s country. You can set this to your customer’s preferred locale using the preferred_locale property. The value must be a two-character lowercased language code, followed by a hyphen (-), followed by a two-character uppercased country code. For example, the value for a French-language user in Belgium would be fr-BE. See supported locales for more information.

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/payment_intents \
  -u "
sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
:" \
  -d amount=1099 \
  -d currency=eur \
  -d "payment_method_types[]"=paypal \
  -d "payment_method_options[paypal][preferred_locale]"=fr-BE

Statement descriptors with PayPal

The descriptor that appears on the buyer’s bank statement is set by PayPal, and by default is PAYPAL *YOUR_BUSINESS_NAME. If you set the statement_descriptor field when creating the PaymentIntent, its value is appended to the one set by PayPal, up to a total limit of 22 characters.

For example, if your business name in PayPal is BUSINESS and you set statement_descriptor to order_id_1234, buyers see PAYPAL *BUSINESS order on their bank account statement.

Client-side

On the client, request a PaymentIntent from your server and store its client secret:

function PaymentScreen() {
  const fetchPaymentIntentClientSecret = async () => {
    const response = await fetch(`${API_URL}/create-payment-intent`, {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        currency: 'eur',
      }),
    });
    const {clientSecret} = await response.json();

    return clientSecret;
  };

  const handlePayPress = async () => {
    // See below
  };

  return (
    <View>
      <Button onPress={handlePayPress} title="Pay" />
    </View>
  );
}

The client secret is different from your API keys that authenticate Stripe API requests. Handle it carefully because it can complete the charge. Don’t log it, embed it in URLs, or expose it to anyone but the customer.

When a customer exits your app, for example to authenticate in Safari or their banking app, provide a way for them to automatically return to your app afterward. Many payment method types require a return URL, so if you fail to provide it, we can’t present those payment methods to your user, even if you’ve enabled them.

To provide a return URL:

1. Register a custom URL. Universal links aren’t supported.
2. Configure your custom URL.
3. Set up your root component to forward the URL to the Stripe SDK as shown below.

import React, { useEffect, useCallback } from 'react';
import { Linking } from 'react-native';
import { useStripe } from '@stripe/stripe-react-native';

export default function MyApp() {
  const { handleURLCallback } = useStripe();

  const handleDeepLink = useCallback(
    async (url: string | null) => {
      if (url) {
        const stripeHandled = await handleURLCallback(url);
        if (stripeHandled) {
          // This was a Stripe URL - you can return or add extra handling here as you see fit
        } else {
          // This was NOT a Stripe URL – handle as you normally would
        }
      }
    },
    [handleURLCallback]
  );

  useEffect(() => {
    const getUrlAsync = async () => {
      const initialUrl = await Linking.getInitialURL();
      handleDeepLink(initialUrl);
    };

    getUrlAsync();

    const deepLinkListener = Linking.addEventListener(
      'url',
      (event: { url: string }) => {
        handleDeepLink(event.url);
      }
    );

    return () => deepLinkListener.remove();
  }, [handleDeepLink]);

  return (
    <View>
      <AwesomeAppComponent />
    </View>
  );
}

For more information on native URL schemes, refer to the Android and iOS docs.

When a customer taps to pay with PayPal, complete the payment by calling confirmPayment. This presents a webview where the customer can complete the payment with PayPal. Upon completion, the promise resolves with either a paymentIntent object, or an error object if an error occurred with the payment.

import {useConfirmPayment} from '@stripe/stripe-react-native';

function PaymentScreen() {
  const {confirmPayment, loading} = useConfirmPayment();

  const fetchPaymentIntentClientSecret = async () => {
    // See above
  };

  const handlePayPress = async () => {
    // Fetch the client secret from the backend.
    const clientSecret = await fetchPaymentIntentClientSecret();

    const {error, paymentIntent} = await confirmPayment(clientSecret, {
      paymentMethodType: 'PayPal',
    });

    if (error) {
      console.log('Payment confirmation error: ', error);
    } else if (paymentIntent) {
      console.log('Successfully confirmed payment: ', paymentIntent);
    }
  };

  return (
    <View>
      <Button onPress={handlePayPress} title="Pay" disabled={loading} />
    </View>
  );
}

You can find the payment owner’s name, email, payer ID, and transaction ID in the payment_method_details property.

{
  "charges": {
    "data": [
      {
        "payment_method_details": {
          "paypal": {
            "payer_id": "H54KFE9XXVVYJ",
            "payer_email": "jenny@example.com",
            "payer_name": "Jenny Rosen",
            "transaction_id": "89W40396MK104212M"
          },
          "type": "paypal"
        },
        "id": "src_16xhynE8WzK49JbAs9M21jaR",
        "object": "source",
        "amount": 1099,
        "client_secret": "src_client_secret_UfwvW2WHpZ0s3QEn9g5x7waU",
        "created": 1445277809,
        "currency": "eur",
        "flow": "redirect",