---
description: The PayPal CREATED status means an order is created but lacks a payment source. Learn how to resolve incomplete checkouts and prompt payer approval.
title: PayPal Status CREATED: Order / Authorization Created
image: https://cdn.smartretry.com/_next/static/media/og-image.0z0q4_5kazzzo.jpeg
---

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PayPal · Order & Authorization Status

# PayPal Order & Authorization Status CREATED: Order / Authorization Created

The order or authorization has been created and is awaiting payer approval or capture. No funds have been moved yet.

## What it means

The CREATED status is an early, pre-approval lifecycle state within the PayPal Orders v2 API. It indicates that the order or authorization object has been successfully generated in PayPal, but no payment method has been attached and no funds have moved. This is an informational processing status, not a decline, signifying that the transaction is awaiting further merchant API inputs or buyer approval.

## Classification & retryability

technicalRetryable: conditional

Do not submit standard payment retries. Instead, programmatically confirm the order by attaching a payment source or prompt the customer to complete their checkout flow.

## Common causes

* The merchant created a PayPal order without immediately providing a payment source in the API request.
* The checkout integration intentionally defers attaching the payment method until a later step.
* The buyer abandoned the checkout process before being redirected to approve the payment.

## How to resolve it

To advance the order out of the CREATED state, you must attach a valid payment method. If a payment source was not included in the initial Create Order request, call the confirm-payment-source API to add it. This transitions the order to the PAYER\_ACTION\_REQUIRED state, at which point the customer can be redirected to PayPal to approve the transaction. If the approval window expires before completion, let the order expire or void it according to your business rules.

### For merchants

Review your Checkout integration to ensure you are either passing the payment\_source during order creation or correctly calling the Confirm Order API immediately afterward. Implement cart abandonment workflows to remind users to complete their payment if the order stalls in the CREATED state. Ensure your payment operations team does not treat this status as a hard decline, as it represents an incomplete checkout.

### For customers

Complete the checkout process by following the merchant's redirect link to log into PayPal and approve the payment. If the session has timed out, return to the merchant's checkout page to restart the process.

## Sources

* [PayPal Developer – Payment Lifecycle (Checkout/APM)](https://developer.paypal.com/platforms/checkout/apm/reference/lifecycle)
* [PayPal Docs – Create Order (REST Orders API)](https://docs.paypal.ai/reference/api/rest/orders/create-order)
* [PayPal Docs – Confirm the Order](https://docs.paypal.ai/reference/api/rest/orders/confirm-the-order)
* [PayPal Developer – Orders v2 API](https://developer.paypal.com/api/orders/v2)

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