Overview

PayPal Invoicing lets merchants and partners create and send itemized invoices and get paid through a secure PayPal payment page, without building their own payment flow. Customers can pay using PayPal, major credit and debit cards, and other eligible payment methods, often without needing a PayPal account, depending on regional availability. Merchants can share invoices via a secure URL, merchant-branded email, or scannable QR code, and configure automatic payment reminders.

Invoicing vs Payment Link

Use the following table to compare PayPal’s Invoicing and Payment Links, and choose the option that best matches your needs.

	Invoicing	Payment Links
Description	Use Invoicing to collect one-time or recurring payments from a specific customer	Use Payment Links to sell a product, service, or accept a donation or tip
Customer	Specific individual or business	Anyone with the link
Reusability	One invoice per transaction	Reuse the same link multiple times
Integration options	Business Dashboard or API	Business Dashboard or API
Sharing options	Email invoice, share hosted invoice link, or provide a QR code that opens the invoice	Share link through email, SMS, or social channels
Customization	Invoice branding and business details.	Limited checkout customization
Payment methods	PayPal, Pay Later, Venmo, Debit or Credit Cards, Apple Pay, and Pay by Bank (ACH)	PayPal, cards, and eligible local methods
Recurring payments	One-time invoices	One-time payments only
Collection tools	Invoice reminders and status tracking	Not supported
Customers can choose what to pay	❌	✅
Hosted payment page	✅	✅
Partial payments	✅	❌
Discounts	✅	✅
Taxes	✅	✅
PCI compliance handling	✅	✅

How Invoicing works

Learn what happens after you create and send an invoice, including how customers pay, what you can change along the way, and how to track the final outcome.

Choose between Invoicing solutions

Decide between using the PayPal dashboard or the Invoicing API by comparing setup effort, automation needs, invoice volume, and how invoices are created and managed.

Quick start using Dashboard

Create and send an invoice from your Dashboard using just the essential fields—no code required.

Quick start using Invoicing API

The Invoicing REST API lets you to create, update, send, and manage invoices programmatically from your backend systems.