PayPal Instant Payment Notification - 2004 User Guide

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Instant Payment Notiﬁ cation Manual

A hands-on guide to understanding and using Instant Payment Notiﬁ cation

Last Revision: February 12, 2004

PayPal Instant Payment Notification Manual

Notice of Liability

The information in this manual is distributed in an “as is” basis. All information provided in this document is provided with good will. The authors and publishers of this manual are not responsible for loss, or purported loss due to any contents of this publication.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Instant Payment Notiﬁ cation (IPN) 1

IPN in Action 2

Instant Payment Notiﬁ cation

How It Works 5

IPN Variables 5

Restrictions on Field Lengths and Data Types 5

Using IPN

Setting up IPN 13

Notiﬁ cation Validation 13

Specifying Your Notiﬁ cation URL 14

Using IPN with Subscriptions and Recurring Payments

Subscriptions Variables 15

Variables for Each Subscription Type 16

Testing IPN

Using IPN with Multiple Currencies

payment_gross and payment_fee 22

Multi-currency IPN Variables 22

Additional Variables 24

Where to Get Help with IPN

PayPal Help 28

PayPal Developer Discussion Boards 28

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Introduction to Instant Payment Notification (IPN)

Automate online payments with back-end server-to-server integration

PayPal’s Instant Payment Notification (IPN) allows you to integrate PayPal payments with your website’s back-end operations. IPN provides immediate notification and confirmation of PayPal payments you receive, allowing you to:

• Customize your website’s response to customer purchases in real-time.

• Track customers through the notification’s “pass through” variables.

• Automate your fulfillment operations.

• Store transaction information in your own database.

Once you activate IPN, you will receive an IPN when a payment is first sent which will state the status of the payment (Completed or Pending). If the payment was “Pending,” you will receive another IPN when the payment clears, fails, or is denied.

IPN can be seamlessly integrated with each of the PayPal Website Payments solutions (Buy Now Buttons, PayPal Shopping Cart, Subscriptions and Recurring Payments, and Donations), as well as with regular PayPal “Send Money” payments, and lets you focus on selling, not on manually tracking your orders.

Get the most out of your online business today: start using IPN.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

IPN in Action

How IPNs are sent

Step 1: Your buyer comes to your website and clicks on a PayPal Buy Now button to

make a purchase.

Step 2: After your buyer checks the payment details and sends the payment, he will

see a confirmation page, as shown in the following diagram.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Step 3: At the time the payment is made, PayPal will post a notification to your server

at the URL you specified. All of your customer’s payment information and a piece of encrypted code will be included in this notification.

Step 4: On receiving the notification, your server will send the information, including

the encrypted code, back to a secure PayPal URL. PayPal will authenticate the transaction by checking the encrypted string. This post-back of the IPN data to PayPal prevents “spoofing,” so you can be sure the IPN came from PayPal. Upon verification, PayPal will send your server a “VERIFIED” or “INVALID” response.

Step 5: When you receive a VERIFIED response, you need to perform several checks

before fulfilling the order.

Note: An INVALID response should be treated as suspicious, and should be investigated.

• Confirm that the payment status is Completed, since IPNs are also sent for status types such as Pending or Failed.

• Check that the transaction ID is not a duplicate — this prevents a fraudster from using an old, completed transaction.

• Validate that the receiver_email is truly your account — this prevents the payment from being sent to a fraudster’s account.

• Check other transaction details, such as item number and price, to confirm that the price hasn’t been changed.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Step 6: After successfully completing the checks, you can update your database with

the IPN data and process the purchase.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Instant Payment Notification

Back-end server-to-server integration

Instant Payment Notification allows you to integrate your PayPal payments with your website’s back-end operations, so you get immediate notification and authentication of the PayPal payments you receive.

Note: To activate Instant Payment Notification, you will need to go to your Profile to enter the URL at which you would like to receive notification posts. For more information, please refer to the Setting Up IPN section of this document, which begins on page 13.

How It Works

When a customer makes a payment to you or a payment is reversed or refunded, PayPal will post a notification to your server at the URL you specified. Included in this notification will be all of your customer’s payment information (e.g. customer name, payment amount) as well as a piece of encrypted code. When your server receives a notification, it will then post the information, including the encrypted code, back to a secure PayPal URL. PayPal will authenticate the transaction and send confirmation of its validity back to your server.

After you have activated Instant Payment Notification, your server will be sent a notification every time you receive a payment. This notification will be sent as a hidden “FORM POST” to the URL you specified, and will include all of the payment information. The FORM variables for these notifications are listed in the following table.

IPN Variables

The following variables work for all Send Money, Buy Now, PayPal Donations, and PayPal Shopping Cart IPNs. If you are using IPN to receive Subscriptions payment notifications, you will need to support additional variables. Please note that the IPN variables are case-sensitive. Most values are lower-case, but payment_status is non- standard with the first letter capitalized (e.g., Completed). For more information on these additional variables, please refer to the Variables for Each Subscription Type section of this document, which begins on page 17.

Restrictions on Field Lengths and Data Types

IPN posts contain only alphanumeric characters. The maximum field length for each returned field is 127 characters, with the exception of the custom field, which has a maximum length of 255 characters. The unique PayPal Transaction ID will always be 17 characters long.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Value Description

Basic Information

business

receiver_email

receiver_id

item_name

item_number

Transaction-specific Email address or account ID of the payment

recipient (i.e., the merchant). Equivalent to receiver_email if payment is sent to primary account, and essentially an echo of the business variable passed in the Website Payment button HTML code.

Transaction-specific Primary email address of the payment

recipient (i.e., the merchant). If the payment is sent to a non-primary email address on your PayPal account, the receiver_email will still be your primary email.

Transaction-specific Unique account ID of the payment recipient

(ie., the merchant). This is the same as the receipient’s referral ID.

Transaction-specific Item name as passed by you, the merchant.

Or, if not passed by you, as entered by your customer. If this is a shopping cart transaction, PayPal will append the number of the item (e.g., item_name1, item_name2).

Transaction-specific Item number as passed by you, the

merchant. If this is a shopping cart transaction, PayPal will append the number of the item (e.g., item_number1, item_

number2).

quantity

Advanced and Custom Information

invoice

custom

memo

tax

option_name1

option_selection1

Transaction-specific Quantity as entered by your customer or

Transaction-specific Invoice number as passed by you, the

Transaction-specific Custom value as passed by you, the

Transaction-specific Memo as entered by your customer in PayPal

Transaction-specific Amount of tax charged on payment.

Transaction-specific Option 1 name as requested by you.

Transaction-specific Option 1 choice as entered by your customer.

as passed by you, the merchant. if this is a shopping cart transaction, we will append the number of the item (e.g. quantity1, quantity2).

merchant. Your customer is not able to view or edit this. It must be unique per transaction.

merchant. These are pass-through variables that are never presented to your customer

Website Payments note field.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Value Description

option_name2

option_selection2

Shopping Cart Information

num_cart_items

Transaction Information

payment_status

Transaction-specific Option 2 name as requested by you.

Transaction-specific Option 2 choice as entered by your customer.

Transaction-specific for PayPal Shopping Cart

“Canceled_Reversal” This means a reversal has been canceled;

“Completed” If referring to an initial purchase, this means

“Denied” You, the merchant, denied the payment.

“Failed” The payment has failed. This will only

If this is a PayPal Shopping Cart transaction, number of items in cart.

for example, you, the merchant, won a dispute with the customer and the funds for the transaction that was reversed have been returned to you.

the payment has been completed and the funds have successfully been added to your account balance.

This will only happen if the payment was previously pending due to one of the following pending reasons.

happen if the payment was made from your customer’s bank account.

“Pending” The payment is pending; see the pending_

reason variable for more information. Please note, you will receive another Instant Payment Notification when the status of the payment changes to "Completed," "Failed," or "Denied."

“Refunded” You, the merchant, refunded the payment.

"Reversed" This means that a payment was reversed

due to a chargeback or other type of reversal. The funds have been removed from your account balance and returned to the customer. The reason for the reversal is given by the reason_code variable.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Value Description

pending_reason

This variable is set only if payment_status = Pending.

“address” The payment is pending because your

customer did not include a confirmed shipping address and you, the merchant, have your Payment Receiving Preferences set such that you want to manually accept or deny each of these payments. To change your preference, go to the Preferences section of your Profile.

“echeck” The payment is pending because it was made

by an eCheck, which has not yet cleared.

“intl” The payment is pending because you, the

merchant, hold a non-U.S. account and do not have a withdrawal method. You must manually accept or deny this payment from your Account Overview.

“multi_currency” You do not have a balance in the currency

sent, and you do not have your Payment Receiving Preferences set to automatically convert and accept this payment. You must manually accept or deny this payment.

“unilateral” The payment is pending because it was made

to an email address that is not yet registered or confirmed.

“upgrade” The payment is pending because it was made

via credit card and you, the merchant, must upgrade your account to Business or Premier status in order to receive the funds. You could also get this status because you, the merchant, have reached the monthly limit for transactions on your account.

“verify” The payment is pending because you, the

merchant, are not yet Verified. You must verify your account before you can accept this payment.

“other” The payment is pending for a reason

other than those listed above. For more information, contact customer service at https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/

webscr?cmd=_contact-general.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Value Description

reason_code

payment_date

txn_id

This variable is only set if payment_status = "Reversed" or “Refunded”.

“buyer_complaint” A reversal has occurred on this transaction

due to a complaint about the transaction from your customer.

“chargeback” A reversal has occurred on this transaction

due to a chargeback by your customer.

“guarantee” A reversal has occurred on this transaction

due to your customer triggering a moneyback guarantee.

“refund” A reversal has occurred on this transaction

because you have given the customer a refund.

“other” A reversal has occurred on this transaction

for a reason other than those previously listed.

Transaction-specific Time/Date stamp generated by PayPal

system [format: “18:30:30 Jan 1, 2000 PST”]

Transaction-specific A unique transaction ID generated by the

PayPal system.

parent_txn_id

txn_type

payment_type

Transaction-specific In the case of a refund, reversal, or canceled

reversal, this variable contains the txn_id of the original transation, while txn_id contains a new ID for the new transaction.

“cart” This payment was sent by your customer via

the PayPal Shopping Cart.

“send_money” This payment was sent by your customer

from the PayPal website, using the Send Money tab.

“web_accept” The payment was sent by your customer

via Buy Now Buttons, Donations, or Smart Logos.

“echeck” This payment was funded with an eCheck.

“instant” This payment was funded with PayPal

balance, credit card, or Instant Transfer.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Value Description

Currency and Exchange Information

mc_gross

mc_fee

mc_currency

Transactionspecific for Multiple Currencies

For payment IPNs, this is the currency of the payment. For nonpayment subscription IPNS, this is the currency of the subscription.

“USD” The currency of the payment is U.S. Dollars.

“GBP” The currency of the payment is Pounds

“USD” The currency of the payment is U.S. Dollars.

“GBP” The currency of the payment is Pounds

Full amount of the customer's payment, before transaction fee is subtracted. Equivalent to payment_gross for USD payments. If this amount is negative, it signifies a refund or reversal, and either of those payment statuses can be for the full or partial amount of the original transaction.

Transaction fee associated with the payment. mc_gross minus mc_fee will equal the amount deposited into the receiver_email account. Equivilent to payment_fee for USD payments. If this amount is negative, it signifies a refund or reversal, and either of those payment statuses can be for the full or partial amount of the original transaction fee.

Sterling.

settle_amount

settle_currency

exchange_rate

“EUR” The currency of the payment is Euros.

“CAD” The currency of the payment is Canadian

Dollars.

“JPY” The currency of the payment is Yen.

Transaction-specific Amount that is deposited into the account’s

primary balance after a currency conversion from automatic conversion (through your Payment Receiving Preferences) or manual conversion (through manually accepting a payment).

Transactionspecific for Multiple Currencies

Currency of settle_amount.

Exchange rate used if a currency conversion occurred.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Value Description

payment_gross

payment_fee

Auction Information

for_auction

Transaction-specific for USD payments only

“true” This is an auction payment—payments made

Full USD amount of the customer's payment, before transaction fee is subtracted. Will be empty for non-USD payments. This is a legacy field replaced by mc_gross. If this amount is negative, it signifies a refund or reversal, and either of those payment statuses can be for the full or partial amount of the original transaction.

USD transaction fee associated with the payment. payment_gross minus payment_ fee will equal the amount deposited into the receiver email account. Will be empty for non-USD payments. This is a legacy field replaced by mc_fee. If this amount is negative, it signifies a refund or reversal, and either of those payment statuses can be for the full or partial amount of the original transaction fee.

using Pay for eBay Items or Smart Logos— as well as Send Money/Money Request payments with the type eBay items or Auction Goods (non-eBay).

auction_buyer_id

auction_closing_ date

auction_multi_item

Buyer Information

first_name

last_name

payer_business_ name

Transaction-specific for Auctions

Transaction-specific Customer’s first name.

Transaction-specific Customer’s last name.

Transaction-specific Customer’s company name.

This is the customer’s auction ID.

This is the auction’s close date.

This is a counter used for multi-item auction payments. It allows you to cumstomize your script to only count the mc_gross or payment_gross for the first IPN you receive from a multi-item auction (auction_multi_ item), since each item from the auction will generate an Instant Payment Notification showing the amount for the entire auction.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Value Description

address_name

address_street

address_city

address_state

address_zip

address_country

address_status

payer_email

payer_id

payer_status

IPN Information

notify_version

Transaction-specific Name used with address (Included when the

customer provides a Gift Address).

Transaction-specific Customer’s street address.

Transaction-specific City of customer’s address.

Transaction-specific State of customer’s address.

Transaction-specific Zip code of customer’s address.

Transaction-specific Country of customer’s address.

“confirmed” Customer provided a confirmed address.

“unconfirmed” Customer provided an unconfirmed address.

Transaction-specific Customer’s primary email address. Use this

email to provide any credits.

Transaction-specific Unique customer ID.

“verified” Customer has a Verified PayPal account.

“unverified” Customer has an Unverified PayPal account.

“1.6” The version of the Instant Payment

Notification you are using.

Security Information

verify_sign

Transaction-specific An encrypted string used to validate the

authenticity of the transaction.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Using IPN

Getting set up to use IPN and validate notifications

Setting up IPN

To set up IPN:

1. Log in to your Business or Premier PayPal account.

2. Click the Profile subtab.

3. Click on the Instant Payment Notification Preferences link in the Selling Preferences column.

4. Click Edit.

5. Click the checkbox and enter the URL at which you would like to receive your IPN Notifications.

6. Click Save.

Notification Validation

To ensure that a payment has been made into your PayPal account, you must verify that the email address used as your receiver_email has been registered and confirmed in your PayPal account.

Once your server has received the Instant Payment Notification, you will need to confirm it by constructing an HTTP POST to PayPal. Your POST should be sent to

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr. This post-back of the IPN data to a secure

PayPal URL (i.e., https://) prevents 'spoofing,' so you can be sure that the IPN came from PayPal.

Note: It is possible to implement IPN without SSL (i.e., http://), but then the IPN data that is received and posted back is not secure.

You must post all of the form variable you received exactly as you received them. You will also need to append a variable named cmd with the value _notify-validate (e.g., cmd=_notify-validate) to the POST string.

PayPal will respond to the post with a single word, “VERIFIED” or “INVALID,” in the body of the response.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

When you receive a VERIFIED response, perform the following checks:

1. Check that the payment_status is Completed.

2. If the payment_status is Completed, check the txn_id against the previous PayPal transaction you have processed to ensure it is not a duplicate.

3. After you have checked the payment_status and txn_id, make sure the receiver_email is an email address registered in your PayPal account.

4. Check that the price, mc_gross, and currency, mc_currency, are correct for the item, item_name or item_number.

5. (Optional) To be 100% certain of the authenticity of this tranasaction, you can check PayPal’s digital certificate if you are using SSL:

/C=US/ST=California/L=Palo Alto/O=PayPal, Inc./OU=Information Systems/ CN=www.paypal.com

Once you have completed the above checks, you may update your database based on the information provided.

If you receive an INVALID response, you should investigate. In some cases, this response is caused by an IPN error, possibly from a change in the IPN format. To determine if it is an IPN error, first examine your code. If you need further assistance, go to http://www.paypal.com/wf/ Payment Notification (IPN).

, click the Seller Tools topic, and then click Instant

Specifying Your Notification URL

If you only need to receive your IPNs at a single URL, you can enter that URL in the Preferences section of your Profile.

If you would like to receive payment notifications for different payments at different URLS (i.e. if you need to separate payments made to different websites you run), you can manually pass the IPN URL with each payment by including it in that payment’s HTML code. Use the notify_url field to pass this information.

The notify_url for a specific payment will be saved, and any subsequent updates to that payment (e.g. cleared eCheck) will be sent to that notify_url. When you pass a notify_url in your HTML code, it will override any preferences you set in your Profile.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Using IPN with Subscriptions and Recurring Payments

Additional information if you receive PayPal Subscriptions payments

Subscriptions Variables

In addition to the variables listed in the previous table, the following variables are included in Subscriptions IPNs:

Variable Value Description

txn_type

subscr_date

subscr_effective

period1

period2

period3

amount1

“subscr_signup” This IPN is for a subscription sign-up.

“subscr_cancel” This IPN is for a subscription cancellation.

“subscr_failed” This IPN is for a subscription payment failure.

“subscr_payment” This IPN is for a subscription payment.

“subscr_eot” This IPN is for a subscription’s end-of-term.

“subscr_modify” This IPN is for a subscription modification.

Transaction-specific Start date or cancellation date depending on

whether transaction is subscr_signup or subscr_cancel.

Transaction-specific Date when the subscription modification will be

effective (only for txn_type = subscr_modify).

Transaction-specific (optional) Trial subscription interval in days,

weeks, months, years (example: a 4 day interval is “period1: 4 D”).

Transaction-specific (optional) Trial subscription interval in days,

weeks, months, or years.

Transaction-specific Regular subscription interval in days, weeks,

months, or years.

Transaction-specific Amount of payment for trial period 1 for USD

payments; otherwise blank (optional).

amount2

amount3

mc_amount1

mc_amount2

Transaction-specific Amount of payment for trial period 2 for USD

Transaction-specific Amount of payment for regular subscription

Transaction-specific Amount of payment for trial period 1, regardless

Transaction-specific Amount of payment for trial period 2, regardless

payments; otherwise blank (optional).

period for USD payments; otherwise blank.

of currency (optional).

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Value Description

mc_amount3

mc_currency

recurring

reattempt

retry_at

Transaction-specific Amount of payment for regular subscription

period, regardless of currency.

For non-payment subscriptions IPNs (i.e., txn_type = signup, cancel, failed, eot, or modify), this is the currency of the subscription. For payment IPNs, it is the currency of the payment (i.e., txn_type = subscr_payment)

“USD” The currency of the subscription is U.S. Dollars.

“GBP” The currency of the subscription is Pounds

Sterling.

“EUR” The currency of the subscription is Euros.

“CAD” The currency of the subscription is Canadian

Dollars.

“JPY” The currency of the subscription is Yen.

Transaction-specific Indicates whether regular rate recurs (1 is yes,

blank is no).

Transaction-specific Indicates whether reattempts should occur upon

payment failures (1 is yes, blank is no).

Transaction-specific Date PayPal will retry a failed subscription

payment.

recur_times

username

password

subscr_id

Transaction-specific The number of payment installments that will

occur at the regular rate.

Transaction-specific (optional) Username generated by PayPal and

given to subscriber to access the subscription.

Transaction-specific (optional) Password generated by PayPal and

given to subscriber to access the subscription (password will be hashed).

Transaction-specific ID generated by PayPal for the subscriber.

Variables for Each Subscription Type

The following table shows which variables are associated, and may be included, with each transaction type. Please note that the IPN will only contain variables for which it has information.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Signup Cancel Modify

Basic Information

business

receiver_email

receiver_id

item_name

item_number

Advanced and Custom Information

invoice

custom

option_name1

option_selection1

option_name2

option_selection2

Transaction Information

XXXX XXX

Payment

(USD)

Payment

(MC) Failed EOT

payment_status

pending_reason

reason_code

payment_date

txn_id

parent_txn_id

txn_type

Currency and Exchange Information

mc_gross

mc_fee

mc_currency

settle_amount

settle_currency

exchange_rate

payment_gross

subscr_

signup

XXXX XXX

subscr_

cancel

subscr_

modify

subscr_payment

XXX

payment_fee

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Signup Cancel Modify

Buyer Information

first_name

last_name

payer_business_ name

address_name

address_street

address_city

address_state

address_zip

address_country

address_status

payer_email

payer_id

payer_status

XXXX XXX

XXXX X

XXXX XXX

Payment

(USD)

Payment

(MC) Failed EOT

payment_type

IPN Information

notify_version

Security Information

verify_sign

Subscription Information

subscr_date

subscr_effective

period1

period2

period3

amount1

amount2

amount3

mc_amount1

mc_amount2

XXXX XXX

XXX

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Variable Signup Cancel Modify

mc_amount3

recurring

reattempt

retry_at

recur_times

username

password

subscr_id

XXX

XXXX XXX

Payment

(USD)

Payment

(MC) Failed EOT

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Testing IPN

You should always test your IPN implementation with the live PayPal system. Here’s an easy way to do it:

1. Sign up for a Personal PayPal account if you don’t already have one, and add a credit card to the account. This will be your “buyer” account.

Note: According to the PayPal User Agreement, you may have one Personal and one Premier/Business account. Please do not set up any additional PayPal accounts, as this may result in your account access being limited.

2. Make sure that your Business/Premier account is Verified. This is the account which uses IPN, your “seller” account.

3. Log in to your buyer account and send money to your seller account, as if you were making a regular payment. You can send a very small amount, such as $0.01.

4. Check the results of your IPN test.

5. Log in to your seller account and refund the payment. To refund a payment, go to the Transaction Details page and click the Refund Payment link at the bottom. The refund reverses the entire payment, including transaction fees. Remember that you only have 30 days to refund the payment.

This testing method is free of charge and lets you complete the entire process yourself. If you would prefer not to open a second PayPal account, you can also have friends or trusted clients send you test payments, which you can then refund.

Testing tip 1: PayPal recommends you start with one of PayPal’s code samples

available at https://www.paypal.com/ipn under the Code Samples section. There are code samples for the following development environments.

• ASP/VBScript

• ColdFusion

• Java/JSP

• PERL

• PHP

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Testing tip 2: In your Website Payments button HTML code, add or modify the

return and rm variables as follows (replacing the URL with the URL for your website):

Then, from the buyer account, click on the Website Payments button and complete the transaction. Once you get to the PayPal Payment Complete page, you can use your browser's View Source function to view the values of the posted IPN variables at the bottom of the code.

Testing tip 3: You can put debugging print statements into your IPN script. PayPal

recommends creating a debugging mode of your script that you can turn off and on by commenting or uncommenting a variable. Set the return variable in your Website Payments button HTML code to point to your IPN URL. When you complete the payment, the output of your script’s print statements will be sent to your browser.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Using IPN with Multiple Currencies

With multiple currencies, you can accept payments in U.S. Dollars, Canadian Dollars, Euros, Pounds Sterling, and Yen. As a result, your IPNs will then include information about the currency of the payment. The following overview explains how IPN interacts with multiple currencies.

Note: If you are using one of PayPal’s Website Payments solutions (e.g. PayPal Shopping Cart), and would like to be paid in a currency other than U.S. Dollars, you will need to set up your buttons for your currency of choice. For additional information, please refer to the PayPal website or the manual for your PayPal Website Payments Solution.

payment_gross and payment_fee

These variables reflect the amount received and corresponding fee of U.S. Dollar (USD) payments. If the amount received and fee deducted are in a currency other than USD, the variables will still appear in your IPN, but will have no values in them.

Note: payment_fee is not always present in IPNs, such as when a payment is pending.

These values are absent for non-USD payments so that IPN scripts will not process these amounts as USD. This will intentionally break IPN scripts that do not handle Multiple Currencies payments if they receive a non-USD payment. However, legacy IPN scripts will continue to work as before as long as the merchant only receives USD payments.

Multi-currency IPN Variables

IPNs that use the payment_gross variable will have the following multi-currency variables added. The variables mc_gross and mc_fee will not be added to IPNs with

txn_type: subscr_signup, subscr_cancel, subscr_modify, subscr_failed, or subscr_eot.

• mc_gross: Full amount of payment received, before transaction fee.

Note: If payment is in USD, the payment_gross value will equal mc_gross.

• mc_fee: Transaction fee associated with the payment. Variable should function like “payment_fee” variable (variable does not appear when payment pending, and so on).

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Note: If payment is in USD, the payment_fee value will equal mc_fee.

• mc_currency: Currency of mc_gross, mc_fee, payment_gross, and payment_ fee amounts. The values are (note the capitalization):

– USD

– EUR

– GBP

– CAD

– JPY

For non-payment subscription IPNs, such as signup, cancel, modify, failed, and eot, mc_currency will refer to the currency of the subscription, rather than the currency of the payment.

For payment subscription IPNs, mc_currency will refer to the currency of the payment. Examples 1 & 2 below refer to subscr_payment IPNs.

Example 1: If a user with a USD balance receives a $100 USD payment, the following

variables will be used for the payment:

• mc_gross = payment_gross

• mc_fee = payment_fee

Example 1: USD Payment (subscr_payment IPN)

payment_status = Completed

payment_gross = 100

payment_fee = 3.00

mc_gross = 100

mc_fee = 3.00

mc_currency = USD

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Example 2: If a user with a CAD balance receives a $100 CAD payment, the following

variables will be used for the payment:

• mc_gross and mc_fee have values

• payment_gross and payment_fee are blank

Example 2: CAD Payment (subscr_payment IPN)

payment_status = Completed

payment_gross =

payment_fee =

mc_gross =100

mc_fee = 3.00

mc_currency = CAD

Additional Variables

IPNs for payments that are either manually or automatically converted into the primary currency of the account will include the following three new variables with information on the conversion:

• settle_amount: Amount that is deposited into the user’s primary balance after the conversion occurs.

• settle_currency: Currency of settle_amount.

• exchange_rate: Exchange rate used if a conversion transaction occurs.

• pending_reason: In addition, payments that are “pending” because the balance needs to be manually accepted, either because the account does not currently have a balance in that currency or because automatic conversion is not turned on, will have a new IPN pending_reason: pending_reason = multi_currency.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Example 3: If the account is set to automatically convert payments, these variables

will be used to show the conversion. This example is for a user with a USD balance who receives a payment of 100 GBP:

Example 3: Automatic Conversion of GBP Payment

payment_status = Completed

payment_gross =

payment_fee =

mc_gross = 100

mc_fee = 3.00

mc_currency = GBP

settle_amount = 145.5

settle_currency = USD

exchange_rate = 1.5

Example 4: If a payment received is pending due to pending_reason = multi_

currency, the first IPN received would not have the settle_amount, settle_ currency, or exchange_rate.

Example 4: Pending Payment

payment_status = Pending

pending_reason = multi_currency

payment_gross =

mc_gross = 100

mc_currency = GBP

Instant Payment Notification Manual

The second IPN would contain information about settling the payment. If the payment is accepted into the account’s primary currency, which is USD in the following example:

Example 5: Pending - Convert to Primary Currency

payment_status = Completed

payment_gross =

payment_fee =

mc_gross = 100

mc_fee = 3.00

mc_currency = GBP

settle_amount = 145.5

settle_currency = USD

exchange_rate = 1.5

If the payment is accepted into a balance of the same currency:

Example 6: Pending - Accept to Currency Balance

payment_status = Completed

payment_gross =

payment_fee =

mc_gross = 100

mc_fee = 3.00

mc_currency = GBP

Instant Payment Notification Manual

If the payment is denied:

Example 7: Pending - Deny

payment_status = Denied

payment_gross =

mc_gross = 100

mc_currency = GBP

Note: If a user receives a payment into a currency balance and later converts this amount into another currency balance, the corresponding currency conversion transaction has no IPN.

Instant Payment Notification Manual

Where to Get Help with IPN

PayPal Help

If you need further assistance, go to http://www.paypal.com/wf/, click the Seller Tools topic, and then click Instant Payment Notification (IPN).

PayPal Developer Discussion Boards

You can also check the PayPal Developer Discussion Boards at

http://www.paypaldev.org for help

PayPal Instant Payment Notification - 2004 User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual