--- title: "PayPal API Customer Story | Postman API Platform" description: "How PayPal scales API revenue faster in the age of AI with Postman" url: https://www.postman.com/customer-stories/paypal-postman-api/ --- # PayPal API Customer Story | Postman API Platform > How PayPal scales API revenue faster in the age of AI with Postman ## How PayPal scales API revenue faster in the age of AI with Postman [Customer Stories](/customer-stories/) --- ## About [PayPal](https://www.paypal.com/uk/home/) processes billions of transactions for merchants ranging from sole traders to global enterprises. The speed at which those merchants can integrate PayPal APIs directly determines how quickly they begin generating revenue. Through its partnership with Postman, PayPal has compressed [API onboarding to under one minute](/customer-stories/paypal/), scaled developer adoption to over 100,000 collections being forked, and introduced AI agents and AI-assisted workflows that serve developers and autonomous systems. The result is measurably faster time to first revenue, reduced integration risk, and a developer experience that doubles as a scalable acquisition channel. --- ## The Challenge PayPal launched its first APIs in 2004, long before most organizations recognized APIs as a strategic asset. Two decades of innovation produced an extraordinarily flexible platform with thousands of request permutations. That flexibility, however, came with a cost: complexity that slowed merchant onboarding and delayed revenue. Every day a merchant spends navigating documentation instead of processing payments is lost revenue, both for the merchant and for PayPal. Legacy API documentation had become dense, JSON-heavy, and difficult to act on. Integration speed was not optimized. Considerable time was spent determining the correct sequence of API calls for integrations. Tasks as fundamental as authorization demanded encryption and long code strings that static documentation could not adequately support. There was data risk as static documentation could not keep pace with frequent API updates, leaving developers uncertain whether the resources they relied on were current. The strategic imperative was clear: reduce the friction between API discovery and revenue generation for merchants. --- ## The Solution PayPal and Postman deployed a suite of AI-native capabilities designed to collapse the time between API discovery and live transactions. The approach operates on three levels: agents for autonomous interactions, visual workflows for complex integrations, and curated resources for immediate productivity. “ Postman is expanding our reach to developers that may have not considered us. Postman makes our APIs accessible while providing a faster and easier experience. ” **[Bo English-Wiczling](https://www.linkedin.com/in/boenglish/)**, Vice President, Global Developer Relations, PayPal Postman's Agent Mode, Postman Flows, and the PayPal MCP server enable developers to work at speed and reach time to revenue quicker than before. Postman's [Agent Mode](/product/agent-mode/) turns natural language into executable API workflows. It understands a developer's existing collections, specifications, and environments, automating tasks that previously required manual effort across multiple tools, saving significant time. “ I've been a Postman fan since day one, and now there's Postman Flows, which are beautiful graphics that tell PayPal API stories, providing great value to our external developers. ” **[Mark Lummus](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklummus/)**, Lead Technical Product Manager, Developer Experience, PayPal Working with complex integrations such as [checkout](https://www.postman.com/paypal/paypal-public-api-workspace/collection/2jcwu8z/paypal-checkout-flows/) has been made easier in Postman. PayPal has built visual API workflows using [Postman Flows](/product/flows/). It's a low-code, drag-and-drop editor that maps the full logic, sequence, and data movement of an API integration in a single view. Developers can begin by testing to build confidence and then quickly move on to creating complete visual integration guides. It's essentially an executable blueprint that saves time and effort. “ Postman Flows cover multiple PayPal API use cases in one easy-to-understand image that's organized and readable for humans and AI agents. ” **[Sam Gabbard](https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-gabbard/)**, Senior Software Engineer, PayPal Developers see the complete decision tree in a flow rather than piecing together documentation fragments. [Scenarios](https://learning.postman.com/docs/postman-flows/build-flows/scenarios/) allow teams to test different integration paths, for example, 'capture' versus 'authorize', without rebuilding from scratch. These workflows are searchable by LLMs, making them accessible to both developers and agents. The [PayPal MCP server](https://www.postman.com/paypal/paypal-public-api-workspace/collection/6830d951bcd2d577d7632320) enables AI agents to interact with PayPal's services programmatically: processing payments, retrieving transaction history, and accessing account information through natural language. Developers can connect AI tools such as Claude, Cursor, and VS Code to the MCP server without leaving Postman. The [Postman API Network](https://www.postman.com/paypal/) serves as a single, managed source of truth for all PayPal API resources. Developers copy pre-configured API collections into their own workspace with a single click, customize them, and begin building. Internally, new hires use the same resources to onboard PayPal's entire public API portfolio. More than 90,000 developers now receive API [updates](https://www.postman.com/paypal/paypal-public-api-workspace/overview?ctx=updates) directly through [workspace](https://www.postman.com/paypal/paypal-public-api-workspace/overview) notifications, which is a built-in marketing channel. “ Postman is another front door for PayPal. The popularity of the Run in Postman button proves our strategy is successful as so many developers are using our APIs. ” **[Bo English-Wiczling](https://www.linkedin.com/in/boenglish/)**, Vice President, Global Developer Relations, PayPal Finally, the [Run in Postman](https://learning.postman.com/docs/publishing-your-api/run-in-postman/introduction-run-button/) button, embedded across the [PayPal developer portal](https://developer.paypal.com/home/), allows any developer to copy pre-configured API collections, environments, and variables into a personal workspace with a single click. With 40 million Postman users globally, PayPal is meeting developers exactly where they already work. --- ## The Outcome The partnership delivers faster time to revenue for merchants, with time to first call now just a minute and workflows streamlined with AI. Agent Mode has redefined how developers interact with PayPal's APIs, while Postman Flows and the PayPal MCP server ensure the PayPal API ecosystem is ready for the agentic era. Developers can customize API resources and begin processing payments quickly with easily customizable API collections. Postman is key to developer education and onboarding as it provides multiple ways to absorb information. The developer adoption numbers confirm the strategy is working. A community of 90,000 developers on Postman helped PayPal cross 100,000 API forks in just three years. On average, there were over 2,000 collection forks per month in 2025, demonstrating that developers are experimenting, innovating, and implementing PayPal APIs. The number of forks being made is evidence of a sustained rate of active developer engagement. Verified, centrally managed API resources in the Postman API Network have replaced fragmented documentation, reducing integration risk across the board. For PayPal, the time to first revenue has been decreased and API monetization has been accelerated. “ Postman is critical in making us a developer-first company because developers can integrate with PayPal APIs in minutes. ” **[Bo English-Wiczling](https://www.linkedin.com/in/boenglish/)**, Vice President, Global Developer Relations, PayPal --- ## Contact Enterprise sales Join these companies and more than 40 million developers who are already building, running, and distributing APIs with Postman. [Contact Sales](/company/contact-sales/) --- ## Broken collaboration leads to broken APIs. Ninety-three percent of API teams still face collaboration blockers. The 2025 State of the API report reveals how you can unlock the productivity gains that API-first promises, but scattered tooling prevents. [Read the Report](/state-of-api/2025/)