PayPal still handles a meaningful share of payments for many businesses. Connecting your PayPal account to clariBI brings those transactions and subscriptions into the same place as your Stripe and Square data.
Why connect PayPal
When PayPal lives outside your main payment reporting, revenue analysis splits across spreadsheets. The clariBI MCP connection makes PayPal a first-class source.
You can compare PayPal volume to other processors, track subscription churn for PayPal-billed customers, or pull out reconciliation reports across providers.
How the connection works
clariBI talks to PayPal through its hosted MCP server at https://mcp.paypal.com/sse. Authentication uses an OAuth flow that clariBI registers itself for (no developer console setup on your side). Tokens stay encrypted server-side and never leave clariBI in clear form.
sequenceDiagram
actor U as You
participant C as clariBI
participant V as PayPal
U->>C: Click Authorize with PayPal
C->>V: Open OAuth authorization
V-->>U: Grant read access?
U->>V: Approve
V-->>C: Authorization code
C->>V: Exchange code for tokens
V-->>C: Access + refresh tokens
C->>C: Encrypt and store credentials
C-->>U: Connection ready
Available tools
clariBI exposes the read-only PayPal tools that the vendor's MCP server publishes at connection time. Write operations (create, update, delete, send, refund) are filtered out by a name-pattern blocklist before any tool reaches the analysis engine, so connecting PayPal cannot modify data on the vendor side.
The exact tool inventory depends on the PayPal features your account has access to. After connecting, try a few natural-language questions to see what PayPal data clariBI can pull.
Data flow during analysis
When you ask a question that maps to PayPal, the AI engine routes to the right tool, reads the result, and pairs the answer with a chart you can pin to a dashboard.
sequenceDiagram
actor U as You
participant C as clariBI
participant AI as AI engine
participant V as PayPal
U->>C: Ask a question about PayPal transaction data
C->>AI: Plan the analysis
AI->>V: Call the right tool
V-->>AI: Tool result
AI->>AI: Summarize and chart
C-->>U: Answer plus visual
Setting up the connection
- Open Data Sources in the clariBI sidebar.
- Click Add data source.
- Open the MCP Servers tab.
- Click the PayPal card.
- Click Authorize with PayPal.
- Sign in to PayPal in the popup window and grant the requested read scopes.
- Back in clariBI, give your data source a name.
- Click Finish.
Permissions and data access
clariBI requests read access to PayPal transactions and subscriptions. No payment can be sent, refunded, or modified through this integration. Disconnect from your PayPal developer dashboard or from clariBI Settings.
Troubleshooting
| Error | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "Invalid scope" | Your PayPal account does not have the requested permission level. | Upgrade your PayPal account to a Business account, then reconnect. |