PayPal is winding down the legacy integrations that many MemberPress sites currently run on.
If you're using PayPal to accept membership payments, here's what's happening, what it means for you, and exactly how to stay ahead of the deadline.
If you've been running PayPal as a payment gateway on your MemberPress site for a while, you're probably used to it just working. And it still does… for now.
No entanto, PayPal has announced the end-of-life timeline for its older API systems, and the clock is ticking.
January 2027 is the hard deadline. After that, sites still relying on older PayPal integrations will stop being able to accept new payments through them.
This isn't a drill, and it's not something to put off until Q4. Here's everything you need to know.
What PayPal Is Changing
PayPal has been moving merchants toward its newer payment infrastructure for some time now, and the timeline has become official.
Their older payment systems are being retired, with a shutdown in January 2027. After that point, any site still running the older PayPal integration will stop being able to process new payments through it.
What This Means for Your MemberPress Site
If your site currently uses MemberPress's existing PayPal gateway, don't worry, your existing subscribers aren't going anywhere.
Active subscriptions that were set up through the legacy PayPal gateway will continue to process correctly.
You don't need to migrate anyone's subscription or cancel anything. The old gateway can stay active in the background, you just want to stop new signups going through it.
What vontade stop working at some point after January 2027 is new payments through the legacy gateway.
So if you leave it as-is and a new member tries to sign up using PayPal, the payment will fail.
The fix is straightforward: add the new PayPal Complete Payments gateway, and hide (NOT delete) your old PayPal gateway from your checkout forms.
That way, existing subscribers keep renewing normally, and new members sign up through the updated integration.
Introducing PayPal Complete Payments
While this all sounds urgent and scary, this news deserves some fanfare. That's because the new integration is genuinely better.
PayPal Pagamentos completos is MemberPress's new gateway for PayPal, and it's available now on Growth and Scale plans.
Google Pay, Pay Later, Venmo and more!
Once you're live with PayPal Complete Payments, members can check out using PayPal, Pay Later, Venmo (US buyers), Apple Pay, Google Pay, and standard debit or credit cards with 3D Secure.
All of that appears in a clean pop-up on your registration page, no redirecting off-site.
Setup is simpler
With older PayPal configurations you had to manually copy and paste webhook URLs, dig around in settings, and cross your fingers. Now, PayPal Complete Payments connects with a few clicks. You click “Connect with PayPal,” log in, grant permissions, and you're done.
Subscriptions are handled by MemberPress
In your PayPal dashboard, renewals show up as individual charges rather than a recurring subscription.
MemberPress manages the billing schedule on its end, so everything looks and works exactly as you'd expect inside MemberPress.
Refunds sync automatically
Refunds processed in MemberPress push through to PayPal automatically, and refunds made directly in PayPal sync back to MemberPress.
Partial refunds need a small manual step (process in PayPal, then update the transaction status in MemberPress), but the sync works both directions.
The One Thing Not to Do
Do not delete your existing PayPal gateway. I repeat:
DO NOT DELETE YOUR EXISTING PAYPAL GATEWAY!
If you delete it, MemberPress loses the record it needs to process renewals for existing subscribers who signed up through that gateway. Those subscriptions will break.
Instead, once you've added PayPal Complete Payments and confirmed it's working, go into your payment settings and hide the old gateway from your checkout forms.
New members won't see it, but renewals for existing members will continue processing behind the scenes without any issues.
What to Do Right Now
Here's the practical checklist:
1. Check your plan. PayPal Complete Payments is available on MemberPress Growth and Scale plans. If you're on the Launch plan, you'll need to upgrade first. You can do that from the MemberPress account page using the Change Plan link.
2. Add the new gateway. Ir para Painel de controle > MemberPress > Configurações > Pagamentos, clique em + Adicionar método de pagamentoe selecione PayPal Pagamentos completos from the dropdown. Follow the steps to connect your PayPal Business account.
3. Test it. If you want to test before going live, you can connect to PayPal's Sandbox environment first. It's an optional step, but it'll give you want peace of mind before going live.
4. Hide the old gateway. Once the new gateway is live and confirmed working, hide the existing PayPal gateway from your checkout forms. Don't delete it, just remove it from view.
5. You're done. Existing subscribers continue as normal. New members sign up through the updated integration. January 2027 rolls around and you've got nothing to worry about.
The full setup documentation is here: Connect PayPal Complete Payments to MemberPress
A Note on Timing
January 2027 might feel far away, but it isn't, really. We're already in Q3 of 2026 (if you can believe it)
If you're running a membership site, the last thing you want is to discover your payment gateway is broken on a Monday morning when a new member can't sign up.
Adding the new gateway takes less than 30 minutes and there's no disruption to existing subscribers. It's one of those things that's much easier to do now than later.
If you hit any snags during setup, the MemberPress support team is here to help.
Don't have time to do it right this minute? Add it to your Google Calendar with this link and schedule it for some point before January.
The sooner you do it the better. It'll be one less thing on your to do list, and you can start accepting more payment methods.
Less friction for your members = more money for you.
Perguntas frequentes
Once you've added PayPal Complete Payments, simply hide the old gateway from your checkout forms. New members will use the new gateway; existing subscriptions will continue through the old one.
However, after January 2027, new members will not be able to sign up using the old PayPal integration.
To avoid any disruption and to future-proof your site, we strongly recommend adding PayPal Complete Payments as soon as possible.
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