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Test Data for Sandbox Testing

Testing your PayPal integration requires realistic payment scenarios without processing actual money. PayPal's Sandbox environment provides comprehensive test data that simulates real-world payment situations, allowing you to verify your WooCommerce store handles various payment methods, card types, and transaction outcomes correctly.

Why You Need PayPal Test Data​

When you're working in PayPal's Sandbox environment, you can't use real credit cards or bank accounts. Instead, PayPal provides specially crafted test data that triggers specific responses from their payment system. This test data helps you understand how your customers will experience payments and ensures your store responds appropriately to successful payments, declined cards, and various error conditions.

Using PayPal's official test data is crucial because it's designed to work seamlessly with their Sandbox environment. Random fake numbers won't trigger the proper responses you need to thoroughly test your payment flow.

PayPal's Official Test Credit Cards​

PayPal maintains comprehensive documentation of test credit card numbers that work in their Sandbox environment. These cards are specifically designed to test different scenarios and card types.

Access PayPal's Test Credit Cards: PayPal Developer Test Credit Card Numbers

This resource provides test cards for:

  • Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover - Cover all major card types your customers use
  • Different card behaviors - Cards that simulate successful payments, declined transactions, and various error conditions
  • International cards - Test cards from different countries to verify global payment processing
  • 3D Secure testing - Cards that trigger additional authentication steps

Testing PayPal Account Payments​

Beyond credit cards, you'll want to test the core PayPal account payment experience. PayPal provides test accounts that simulate different customer scenarios.

Access PayPal Test Accounts: PayPal Sandbox Test Accounts

These test accounts include:

  • Personal accounts - Simulate customers paying with their PayPal balance
  • Business accounts - Test business-to-business payment scenarios
  • Accounts with different funding sources - PayPal balance, linked bank accounts, and credit cards
  • International accounts - Test cross-border payment scenarios

Need help creating sandbox accounts? Our Create Sandbox Accounts guide walks you through the process step-by-step.

Testing 3D Secure Authentication​

When customers use credit cards that require additional security verification, PayPal's 3D Secure system adds an extra authentication step. Testing these scenarios ensures your store handles the additional security prompts correctly.

PayPal's 3D Secure Test Data: PayPal's 3D Secure testing documentation

This resource provides:

  • Test cards that trigger 3D Secure - Cards that require additional authentication steps
  • Different authentication outcomes - Successful authentication, failed authentication, and timeout scenarios
  • Various card issuer responses - Test how different banks' 3D Secure systems interact with your store

Need to enable 3D Secure first? Check out our PayPal Credit Card Settings guide to configure 3D Secure in your plugin.

How to Use PayPal Test Data Effectively​

When testing with PayPal's test data, follow a systematic approach to ensure you're covering all the scenarios your customers might encounter. Start with successful payment flows using the basic test cards, then progressively test edge cases like declined payments, expired cards, and insufficient funds scenarios.

Remember that test data only works in Sandbox mode. Once you switch to Production mode, you'll need to use real payment methods. This is why thorough testing in Sandbox is essential before going live with your store.

Keeping Your Test Data Current​

PayPal occasionally updates their test data and adds new testing scenarios. Bookmark their official test data pages and check them periodically, especially when you're implementing new PayPal features or troubleshooting unexpected behavior in your Sandbox environment.

The test data provided by PayPal is designed to give you confidence that your payment integration will work reliably for your customers when you're ready to process real transactions.