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Charge a customer’s saved PayPal account without requiring the customer to approve each payment. Common scenarios include:
  • Subscription renewals
  • On-demand services billed after usage
  • Automatic bill payments
  • One-click purchases for returning customers
Use PayPal’s vault parameter to save the customer’s PayPal information. The customer approves once. Then you can charge their PayPal account without them present.

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Prerequisites

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Integrate server side

Endpoint: POST /v2/checkout/orders
# Step 1: Create order with vault=true
curl -X POST https://api-m.paypal.com/v2/checkout/orders \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "intent": "CAPTURE",
    "payment_source": {
      "paypal": {
        "experience_context": {
          "return_url": "https://example.com/return",
          "cancel_url": "https://example.com/cancel"
        },
        "attributes": {
          "vault": {
            "store_in_vault": "ON_SUCCESS",
            "usage_type": "MERCHANT",
            "customer_type": "CONSUMER"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "purchase_units": [{
      "amount": {
        "currency_code": "USD",
        "value": "10.00"
      }
    }]
  }'

# Step 2: After customer approval, capture the order
curl -X POST https://api-m.paypal.com/v2/checkout/orders/{order_id}/capture \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN"

# Extract payment token from response:
# capture.payment_source.paypal.attributes.vault.id

# Step 3: Later, charge using saved token
curl -X POST https://api-m.paypal.com/v2/checkout/orders \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "intent": "CAPTURE",
    "payment_source": {
      "token": {
        "id": "PAYMENT_TOKEN_ID",
        "type": "PAYMENT_METHOD_TOKEN"
      }
    },
    "purchase_units": [{
      "amount": {
        "currency_code": "USD",
        "value": "29.99"
      }
    }]
  }'