If your store has two PayPal accounts connected, the PayPal button at your checkout can take payments on both. You choose how much of your new PayPal sales goes to the second account. Spreading sales over two accounts means one account isn’t carrying all your PayPal volume, and if PayPal stops one account, your PayPal button keeps selling on the other.

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Turn it on

1

Connect both PayPal accounts

Connect PayPal Express Checkout and PayPal Card Processing in Settings → Payments, each with its own PayPal account. The option only shows up when the two connections are different PayPal accounts. With one account there is nothing to split.
2

Switch it on

Under PayPal Express Checkout, switch on Use both PayPal accounts for the PayPal button. It starts at 20%: about 1 in 5 new PayPal sales go to account 2.
3

Choose the share

Under Share of new PayPal sales on account 2, pick 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% or 50%. Every change saves straight away and applies to the next checkout.
Switch it off to send every new PayPal sale to account 1 again.

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How the split works

  • Each checkout gets one account. The PayPal button your shopper sees runs on one account from start to finish. A shopper is never moved halfway through paying.
  • Repeat buyers stay on the account they used before. A shopper who already paid you with PayPal pays on the same account again, whatever the share.
  • New buyers are split by your share. At 20%, about 1 in 5 new PayPal buyers pay on account 2.
  • The split also balances by money each day. Once your PayPal sales for the day pass about $500, an account that is behind its share of today’s PayPal money gets more of the next checkouts, so each account ends the day close to its share of the money, not just of the orders.
Under the share, each account shows whether it’s working and, once it has sales today, how much it took today and in how many orders.

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Everything stays with the account that took the payment

A payment always stays on the PayPal account that took it:
  • Subscriptions renew on the account they started on. Changing the share, or switching the option off, never moves an existing subscription.
  • Refunds go back through the account that took the payment.
  • Tracking numbers are sent to the account that took the payment (see Send tracking to PayPal).
  • Upsells after checkout are charged on the same account as the order.
Don’t disconnect either PayPal account while subscriptions renew on it or recent orders may still need a refund. Switching the split off is enough to stop new sales going to account 2.

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When PayPal refuses payments on one account

If PayPal stops taking payments on one of the accounts (for example, PayPal limited the account or no longer accepts its connection), that account is paused automatically:
  • New checkouts go to the other account straight away. A shopper who was on the paused account is moved to the other one and can pay right away.
  • Settings → Payments shows the account as Paused, with the time it comes back and PayPal’s reason in plain words.
  • After 30 minutes the account comes back by itself. If PayPal still refuses, it is paused again.
Nothing to do on your side unless PayPal keeps refusing. Then sign in to that PayPal account to see what PayPal needs from you.

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Start small on a new PayPal account

PayPal watches for sudden jumps in sales. A new account, or one that hasn’t sold much, that suddenly takes a lot of payments may have its money held by PayPal for a while.
  • Start at about 20% on account 2.
  • Raise it gradually, a step at a time over several days or weeks, while you watch that PayPal pays the money out normally.
  • 50% is the most you can choose: an even split between the two accounts.
How PayPal reviews accounts and holds money is decided by PayPal under its own terms. Splitting sales between accounts doesn’t change those terms.