Payment Gateways
Take course payments through PayPal with the PayPal LMS integration
Get paid for courses through your own PayPal business account and enroll learners automatically at checkout with the PayPal LMS integration.
TL;DR
The PayPal integration adds PayPal to your LearnWorlds checkout, so buyers pay with PayPal and get enrolled without you adding them by hand. Payments go to your own PayPal business account.
Skip manual enrollments. Learners who pay with PayPal at checkout get enrolled automatically
Accept foreign cards. Turn on currency conversion so payments in other currencies go through
Test before launch. Run sandbox purchases and sample invoices before real money moves
Best for: Course creators who already take payments through a PayPal business account.
Available on all paid plans. Subscription plans need Stripe.
What you can do with PayPal and LearnWorlds
Connect your PayPal app
Create a Merchant app in PayPal Apps and Credentials, then paste its Client ID and Secret into your LearnWorlds payment settings.
Run PayPal next to other gateways
Keep PayPal connected alongside other payment gateways in the same school. Shopify is the exception, since it needs every other gateway off.
Let buyers pay by card
Turn on PayPal Account Optional in PayPal, and customers can pay with a credit card without necessarily creating a PayPal account.
Sell installments with PayPal buttons
Create a PayPal Subscribe button with an installment schedule and embed it on a course page. You enroll those buyers manually once the payment arrives.
How LearnWorlds and PayPal integrate
See what happens in PayPal when learners pay in your school. Automatic rows need no action after setup, and conditional rows need a PayPal setting first.
| LearnWorlds | PayPal | Type of trigger |
|---|---|---|
| Learner pays at your LearnWorlds checkout | PayPal processes the payment and LearnWorlds enrolls the learner | Automatic |
| Learner pays in a currency your PayPal account doesn’t hold | Payment accepted and converted once you allow it in PayPal | Conditional |
| Learner chooses to pay by credit card | Card payment without necessarily creating a PayPal account, with PayPal Account Optional on | Conditional |
| Sandbox mode turned on | Test payments with no cards processed, plus sample invoices | Conditional |
What teams ask before connecting
Can I use PayPal for subscriptions and recurring payments, or only one-off purchases?
Subscriptions in LearnWorlds run only through Stripe, so connect Stripe alongside PayPal if you sell subscription plans. For installments, you can create PayPal installment buttons and embed them on a page, but you enroll those buyers manually after each payment.
Does a PayPal purchase automatically enroll the learner, or is there manual work involved?
Purchases at your LearnWorlds checkout enroll the learner automatically. Once a payment gateway is connected, your checkout accepts payments and enrolls learners with no extra step. PayPal buttons you embed yourself work differently, and you enroll those buyers manually.
How to set up the LearnWorlds and PayPal integration
You need a PayPal business account and access to your school’s financial settings. At the end, your checkout accepts PayPal payments.
1. Create a PayPal app
Log in to your PayPal business account, open Apps and Credentials, and create a new app with the Merchant option. Requires: a PayPal business account.
2. Copy your API credentials
Once the app is created, copy the Client ID and Secret shown under App name.
3. Add PayPal in LearnWorlds
Open Settings → Financial → Payment Gateway and choose PayPal. Paste the Client ID and Secret, save your changes, and activate PayPal.
4. Allow other currencies
In your PayPal payment preferences, set “Allow payments sent to me in a currency I do not hold” to accept and convert them.
5. Turn on card payments
In your PayPal website preferences, set PayPal Account Optional to On so customers can pay by credit card.
6. Test, then go live
Make a test purchase, then turn off Sandbox before your school goes live so real payments process. For the full setup guide, see the PayPal help article.
What the PayPal integration handles automatically
Enroll paying learners
LearnWorlds automatically enrolls the learner in the product when their PayPal payment at checkout goes through.
Flag legacy PayPal setups
LearnWorlds automatically shows a dashboard notification when your PayPal setup is legacy and needs updating.
| What LearnWorlds handles automatically | What your team configures |
|---|---|
| Enrolls learners after a PayPal checkout payment | Creates the PayPal Merchant app and credentials |
| Flags legacy PayPal setups in your dashboard | Reconnects legacy setups with new credentials |
| Accepts foreign currency payments once allowed | Turns on currency conversion and PayPal Account Optional |
| Runs test payments without charging cards in Sandbox | Turns Sandbox off before the school goes live |
Who uses the PayPal integration and how
Course creators selling to international buyers
Turn on currency conversion in PayPal so learners paying with foreign cards aren’t declined at your LearnWorlds checkout.
School owners updating a legacy PayPal setup
See the dashboard notification, create a new Merchant app, and reconnect so PayPal payments keep working without interruptions.
Creators selling courses in installments
Create a PayPal installment button, embed it on the course page, and enroll each buyer once their payment arrives.
What our customers are saying
“If in a week our team could onboard five companies, now they can onboard ten companies in one training session, in one day.”
Lara Oliveira, Community Learning Experience Specialist, Blip
“I love their customer support, which is top tier. I always receive quick replies, and they always solve my issues. When I first joined LearnWorlds, the platform was very simple to understand and get by. We’ve been going strong and love it!”
“The user interface is excellent, both on the main website and inside the virtual classroom. The integrations are incredibly comprehensive—so much so that after more than two years on the platform, I still haven’t explored them all.”
“I like that LearnWorlds provides me with a fully functional website where I can offer my students self-study resources and a community chat. The team is responsive and professional, and they really care about what they are doing.”
“I really appreciate the customer service at LearnWorlds; it’s been incredible and every time I’ve reached out, they’ve been expedient and gone above and beyond, even when they didn’t have something yet but were working on it.”
“The platform has been easy to set up and navigate. Plus, the onboarding calls have been helpful and tech support is extremely responsive! I am so pleased So far, the tech support has been worth every penny I’ve paid!”
“The platform integrates our website, funnels, marketing, and learning system all in one place, which is super convenient. I also appreciate their regular updates and the support team, which is extremely responsive.”
“I’ve been very impressed with LearnWorlds’ level of service so far. They’ve been very helpful with technical issues I don’t have the skills to deal with. It’s easy to use, and the initial setup was pretty easy.”
“We love how it has improved communications with our students. Daily tracking of student activity is vital to our programs and the reporting options help us see where all students are in the push of a button.”
“The wide range of features, responsive support, and regular platform updates. The value is good for the price, especially considering the range of features, regular updates, and responsive customer support.”
“The platform is really configurable, giving us a huge amount of flexibility about how to lay out our course. It’s allowed us to deploy our course in a drip feed format, which is fantastic for our learners.”
“I love how LearnWorlds makes it easy to write and implement my training materials. The platform’s support team is fantastic, providing clear answers quickly, which has been really useful.”
“What I like most about LearnWorlds is how easy and intuitive it is to use. I also really like the possibility to customize the school and make it fit your own style and brand.”
“Many features and almost everything can be customized, which makes it very easy to configure it the way you like.”
“The site is very user friendly and easy accessible. UI/UX is wonderful. The onboarding was also very easy”
“There are a lot of unique and user friendly features. The system is very customizeable.”
FAQs
All paid plans include PayPal as a payment gateway, from Starter to High Volume and Corporate. PayPal charges its own processing fees, separate from LearnWorlds fees.
Foreign cards are charged in local currencies, and PayPal might deny them if your account doesn’t accept those currencies. In your PayPal payment preferences, set “Allow payments sent to me in a currency I do not hold” to accept and convert them.
No. You need a PayPal business account. If you have a personal account, upgrade it to a business account from your PayPal settings first.
No. You can connect PayPal alongside other payment gateways, but connecting Shopify as your gateway means every other gateway must be off. Compare every option on the LearnWorlds integrations page.
Yes. Setups connected before April 2026 may now be legacy, and your dashboard shows a notification prompting the update. Follow the setup steps as if you were connecting PayPal for the first time to keep payments running.
Yes, if your buyers prefer PayPal. Setup takes one PayPal app and two credentials, and from then on learners who pay at checkout get enrolled automatically.
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