Test PayPal Webhooks with HookTest
Test PayPal IPN and webhook notifications for payments and subscriptions. Use HookTest to create a free webhook URL, point PayPal at it, and inspect every request in real time — headers, body, and signature included.
Quick Start
Get PayPal webhooks flowing to HookTest in under a minute:
- Create a HookTest URL. Go to hooktest.dev and click Create Bin. Copy the webhook URL.
- Add it to PayPal webhook settings. Paste the HookTest URL as your webhook endpoint in the PayPal developer dashboard. Select the events you want to receive.
- Trigger an event and inspect. Perform an action in PayPal (or use their test/sandbox mode) and watch the request appear in HookTest in real time. Check headers, body, and query parameters.
Common PayPal Webhook Events
These are the most commonly tested PayPal webhook events. Each one triggers an HTTP POST to your webhook URL with a JSON payload.
| Event | Description |
|---|---|
PAYMENT.CAPTURE.COMPLETED | A payment capture completes |
BILLING.SUBSCRIPTION.ACTIVATED | A subscription becomes active |
CHECKOUT.ORDER.APPROVED | Buyer approves a checkout order |
Verifying PayPal Signatures
PayPal signs every webhook request using the PAYPAL-TRANSMISSION-SIG header. You should always verify this signature in production to confirm the request actually came from PayPal and was not tampered with in transit.
When testing with HookTest, you can inspect the raw signature header value in the request details. This is useful for verifying that your signature verification code handles the header format correctly before deploying to production.
See the official PayPal webhook docs for the full signature verification algorithm and code samples.
Why Test PayPal Webhooks?
Webhook handlers are notoriously hard to debug. You cannot see what PayPal is sending until your endpoint receives it, and errors in your handler can cause silent failures — missed payments, lost data, or broken integrations.
HookTest gives you full visibility into every request before you write a line of handler code. Create a bin, point PayPal at it, and see exactly what arrives: HTTP method, headers (including signatures), body, and query parameters. Once your handler is ready, use webhook forwarding to send requests to your local server in real time.
Start testing PayPal webhooks
Create a free webhook URL in one click. No signup required.
Create Free Webhook URL