I am trying to set up a weekly payout to someone using the built-in PayPal node but I keep getting an error when I try to execute the step that sends the payment. Everything worked great in sandbox but is failing with the live credentials. The error is:
Forbidden - perhaps check your credentials?
Authorization error occurred.
I went through every suggestion offered by the n8n AI agent trying to resolve the issue but nothing worked. Here is what I’ve done:
- created a new key: the connection test was successful but the step execution was not
- confirmed that the application I created on PayPal’s developer site has permission to do payouts
- tried multiple different values for the “Sender Batch ID” none of them worked
- confirmed that the recipient’s email is a valid paypal email
- confirmed that both of our accounts are located in the US
- confirmed that my paypal email has been verified
- confirmed that my bank account has been linked and verified
- confirmed that there do not appear to be any restrictions on my account
- confirmed that I am in fact using ‘live’ credentials and that the n8n setting for the credential is ‘live’
All out of ideas here, unfortunately. All help is welcome.
Share the output returned by the last node
{
“errorMessage”: “Forbidden - perhaps check your credentials?”,
“errorDescription”: “Authorization error occurred.”,
“errorDetails”: {
“rawErrorMessage”: [
“403 - {"name":"AUTHORIZATION_ERROR","message":"Authorization error occurred.","debug_id":"2067c9bd9f1a9","information_link":"https://developer.paypal.com/docs/api/payments.payouts-batch/#errors\“,\“links\”:[]}”
],
“httpCode”: “403”
},
“n8nDetails”: {
“nodeName”: “Send Money”,
“nodeType”: “n8n-nodes-base.payPal”,
“nodeVersion”: 1,
“resource”: “payout”,
“operation”: “create”,
“time”: “11/17/2025, 6:09:24 PM”,
“n8nVersion”: “1.119.1 (Cloud)”,
“binaryDataMode”: “filesystem”,
“stackTrace”: [
“NodeApiError: Forbidden - perhaps check your credentials?”,
" at ExecuteContext.payPalApiRequest (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-nodes-base@file+packages+nodes-base_@[email protected]_asn1.js@5_afd197edb2c1f848eae21a96a97fab23/node_modules/n8n-nodes-base/nodes/PayPal/GenericFunctions.ts:75:9)”,
" at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:105:5)“,
" at ExecuteContext.execute (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-nodes-base@file+packages+nodes-base_@[email protected]_asn1.js@5_afd197edb2c1f848eae21a96a97fab23/node_modules/n8n-nodes-base/nodes/PayPal/PayPal.node.ts:190:22)”,
" at WorkflowExecute.executeNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@file+packages+core_@[email protected]_@[email protected]_08b575bec2313d5d8a4cc75358971443/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1093:8)“,
" at WorkflowExecute.runNode (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@file+packages+core_@[email protected]_@[email protected]_08b575bec2313d5d8a4cc75358971443/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1274:11)”,
" at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@file+packages+core_@[email protected]_@[email protected]_08b575bec2313d5d8a4cc75358971443/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:1708:27",
" at /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n8n/node_modules/.pnpm/n8n-core@file+packages+core_@[email protected]_@[email protected]_08b575bec2313d5d8a4cc75358971443/node_modules/n8n-core/src/execution-engine/workflow-execute.ts:2324:11"
]
}
}
Information on your n8n setup
- n8n version: 1.119.1
- Database (default: SQLite): default
- n8n EXECUTIONS_PROCESS setting (default: own, main): default
- Running n8n via (Docker, npm, n8n cloud, desktop app): n8n cloud
- Operating system: Window 11