Can You Use PayPal on Amazon?

Summary: Amazon does not accept PayPal at checkout, in any country, and Venmo stopped working there in January 2024. You can still get PayPal money into an Amazon order in two ways: pay with a PayPal Debit Mastercard, which Amazon treats like any bank card, or buy an Amazon gift card from a retailer that takes PayPal and redeem it to your Amazon balance.

• PayPal is not a payment option on Amazon.com, the Amazon app, or any other Amazon store, and no account setting turns it on.
• A PayPal Debit Mastercard draws from your PayPal balance and is added to Amazon like any other debit card.
• Amazon gift cards bought with PayPal elsewhere can be redeemed to your Amazon balance in under a minute.
• Gift cards are excluded from PayPal's Purchase Protection, so buy them only from established sellers.

If you reached Amazon's checkout looking for a PayPal button, it is not there. Amazon takes credit and debit cards, its own store cards, gift card balance and a handful of buy-now-pay-later and regional options, as the full list of Amazon payment methods shows, but PayPal has never been one of them. Amazon runs its own wallet, Amazon Pay, and has little reason to route payments through a direct competitor.

Can You Use PayPal on Amazon?

Not directly. There is no PayPal option at checkout on the website or in the app, and the same applies to Prime membership, Kindle books and Prime Video purchases. That has been true since Amazon and PayPal went their separate ways, and nothing announced so far suggests it will change.

What you can do is route PayPal money through something Amazon already accepts. There are two practical ways to do that, plus a fallback if you only want to spend a PayPal balance and do not mind where.

Option 1: Pay With a PayPal Debit Mastercard

The PayPal Debit Mastercard, which used to be called the PayPal Cash Card, spends straight from your PayPal balance. Because Amazon accepts Mastercard, checkout treats it like any other bank card. It is the lowest-effort route if you shop on Amazon often, since you set it up once.

1. Order the PayPal Debit Mastercard from the Wallet section of the PayPal app. It is available on US personal PayPal accounts.
2. On Amazon, open Your Account, then Your Payments, and choose Add a payment method.
3. Select Add a credit or debit card and enter the card number, expiry date and name.
4. Use the billing address registered on your PayPal account, since a mismatch is the most common reason the card gets declined.
5. Pick the card at checkout, or set it as your default payment method.

If your PayPal balance does not cover an order, the card can draw the difference from your linked bank account when backup funding is turned on in PayPal. The PayPal Cashback Mastercard also works on Amazon, but it is a credit card, so it bills a credit line rather than spending your PayPal balance.

Option 2: Buy an Amazon Gift Card With PayPal

Amazon itself will not sell you a gift card for PayPal, but some third-party gift card retailers do accept it. Once the code is redeemed, the balance pays for anything Amazon sells, and it can be combined with a card for orders larger than the balance.

Before you buy, check two things:

• The seller is an established, authorised reseller. Amazon only guarantees cards bought from Amazon or its authorised resellers, and a dead code bought elsewhere is hard to recover.
• The card matches your Amazon store. An Amazon.com card only works on Amazon.com, an Amazon.co.uk card only on Amazon.co.uk, and so on.

Keep in mind that PayPal's Purchase Protection terms list gift cards and prepaid cards as ineligible, because they count as cash equivalents. If a code does not work, your claim is with the seller, not PayPal.

How to Redeem an Amazon Gift Card

1. Sign in to Amazon on the website or in the app.
2. Open Account & Lists and select Gift Cards. In the app, it sits under the menu icon.
3. Choose Redeem a Gift Card.
4. Enter the claim code from your email, or scratch off the backing on a physical card to reveal it.
5. Select Apply to Your Balance. The amount appears straight away and is used automatically at checkout.

What About Venmo?

Venmo, which PayPal owns, was briefly the closest thing to PayPal at Amazon's checkout. Amazon added it in 2022 and removed it in January 2024. The Venmo debit card still works the same way the PayPal debit card does, and what changed with Venmo on Amazon covers the details.

If You Only Want to Spend a PayPal Balance

Sometimes the goal is to use up PayPal money rather than to buy something specifically from Amazon. In that case, the simplest move is to shop somewhere that takes PayPal directly.

• Large marketplaces such as AliExpress accept PayPal in many countries, which skips the gift card step and keeps PayPal's buyer protection on eligible physical orders.
• You can also transfer the balance to your bank. A standard transfer is free in most markets, while an instant transfer carries a fee, and the bank's debit card then works on Amazon as normal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you pay for Amazon Prime with PayPal?

Not directly. Prime fees can, however, be paid from your Amazon gift card balance, so a gift card bought with PayPal can cover a Prime renewal. Choose the gift card balance option under your Prime payment settings, and keep a card on file as a backup so the membership does not lapse when the balance runs out.

Can I use PayPal Credit on Amazon?

Not at Amazon's checkout. PayPal Credit is only offered where a merchant accepts PayPal, so it can be used with a gift card retailer that takes PayPal, and the resulting Amazon gift card then goes on your balance.

Does Amazon accept PayPal in the UK or Germany?

No. PayPal is not a payment option in any Amazon store, including Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.de. The gift card route works in those countries too, as long as the card is issued for that specific Amazon store.

Is it safe to buy Amazon gift cards with PayPal?

It is safe with an established seller, but there is no PayPal safety net if something goes wrong. Be wary of emails posing as Amazon gift card orders or PayPal receipts, which are a common phishing trick. Never redeem a code or log in from an unexpected message, and an inbox filter such as Clean Email can keep that kind of mail out of a busy inbox.

Can I get a refund back to PayPal if I return an Amazon item?

It depends on how you paid. Orders paid from gift card balance are refunded to that balance, not to PayPal. Orders paid with a PayPal Debit Mastercard are refunded to the card, which means back to your PayPal balance.

Do Amazon gift card balances expire?

Amazon.com gift card balances do not expire. Some other Amazon stores set a limit, such as ten years from issue on Amazon.co.uk, so check the terms for your country if you plan to hold a balance for a long time.

Which PayPal Route to Pick

If you shop on Amazon every week, set up the PayPal Debit Mastercard once and forget about it. If you have a specific PayPal balance to use up, a gift card bought from a reputable seller does the job in a few minutes, and any leftover stays on your Amazon account for next time.

If you would rather skip PayPal altogether and pay by card or crypto, browse Amazon gift cards.