Forwarding PayPal Instant Payment Notifications (IPN)
PayPal IPN Forwarding is a ChartMogul feature that lets you relay Instant Payment Notifications (IPNs — real-time payment alerts PayPal sends when a transaction occurs) to ChartMogul, even if your PayPal account already sends IPNs to another destination.
PayPal only allows one IPN endpoint (the URL that receives payment notifications) per account. If you're already using your PayPal IPN — for example, in your own checkout system — you'll need a webhook relay. A webhook relay receives one incoming webhook and copies it to multiple destinations, including ChartMogul.
To forward the PayPal IPN, you'll send PayPal payloads (the raw data PayPal transmits for each transaction) to your ChartMogul webhook URL via HTTP POST.
What Is a Webhook
A webhook is an automatic HTTP request that one service sends to another the moment an event happens. Here, PayPal sends payment data to ChartMogul in real time — no manual export needed.
How to Find Your ChartMogul Webhook URL
- Go to :settings~gray: Settings > Sources.
- Find your PayPal source and click the :settings~gray: Settings icon.
- Copy your webhook URL from the Enable Instant Payment Notifications in PayPal section.
How to Forward PayPal Data to ChartMogul
- Choose a relay service: Pick a service that can forward your PayPal IPN payload from your server to ChartMogul.
- Save your PayPal Client ID first: Before you start forwarding, save your PayPal Client ID in ChartMogul. ChartMogul uses it to pull additional customer details from your PayPal account. The IPN must match the Client ID you've saved.
- Match accounts: The IPN must come from the same PayPal account tied to the Client ID in ChartMogul. If you saved a Production Client ID, send webhooks from your Production PayPal account — not the Sandbox account.
- Send the payload unchanged: ChartMogul requires the original PayPal payload delivered via HTTP POST. Forward it exactly as PayPal sent it to your server, encoded in UTF-8.
You can also use an IPN redirect plugin (a WordPress or platform plugin that intercepts PayPal's IPN and copies it to a second URL) to forward the payload.
How to Confirm Your PayPal IPN Is Working
Use either of these checks to confirm your PayPal IPN is working: