2012

Sandbox User Guide April 2012 7
1
Overview to the PayPal Sandbox
The PayPal Sandbox is a self-contained environment within which you can prototype and test
PayPal features and APIs. The PayPal Sandbox is an almost identical copy of the live PayPal
website. Its purpose is to give developers a shielded environment for testing and integration
purposes and to help avoid problems that might occur while testing PayPal integration
solutions on the live site. Before moving any PayPal-based application into production, you
should test the application in the Sandbox .
At a Glance: Differences between the Sandbox and Live PayPal
The following table compares the Sandbox and Live PayPal. This is an at-a-glance view of the
differences from the perspective of an in-house or third-party developer for a business.
You can also use this table as a checklist.
PayPal Sandbox Live PayPal Website and API Service
Type of PayPal
Accounts
Depending on the feature you want to develop
and test, you need a Personal, Business, or
Premier account.
Personal, Business, or Premier account
Site logos in
upper left
corner
https://www.sandbox.paypal.com
https://www.paypal.com
NVP API
Servers
https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/nvp
/
For API Certificate security:
https://api.paypal.com/nvp/
For API Signature security:
https://api-3t.paypal.com/nvp/
SOAP API
Servers
https://api.sandbox.paypal.com/2.0
/
For API Certificate security:
https://api.paypal.com/2.0/
For API Signature security:
https://api-3t.paypal.com/2.0/
Business roles You fill all roles you need to test: merchant,
buyer, and seller.
Real-world people fill these roles.