How to create recurrings payments with paypal api

I'm working on implementing a payment system that requires the ability to set up recurring payments with an initial payment and a token for infinite recurring payments. However, I need to achieve this without relying on the subscription module. Specifically, I'm looking for a solution within the EU region.

Here are the key requirements:

Recurring Payments: I want to set up a recurring payment structure where the customer is billed periodically (e.g., monthly) for a specific amount.

Initial Payment: There should be an initial payment made at the start of the recurring payment agreement. This could be a one-time setup fee or the first installment of the recurring payments.

Infinite Recurring Payments: The recurring payments should continue indefinitely without a predetermined end date. The agreement should be flexible enough to allow the payments to be ongoing until canceled.

EU Region: The solution needs to comply with the regulations and standards of the European Union (EU) region.

I understand that PayPal provides a subscription module for handling recurring payments, but in this case, I'm looking for an alternative method that doesn't rely on that module. I would appreciate any guidance or recommendations on how to achieve this using the PayPal API or any other suitable approach within the EU region.

Thank you in advance for your help!

When I create an payment with the /v1/payments/payment I receive a payment token. But with this token I can execute the payment only once with the /v1/payments/payment/{payment_id}/execute endpoint.

The api docs are very confusing. The /v3/vault/payment-tokens are only allowed in the US and the only alternative seems to be the subscription module, which is not what I am looking for.

Any idea?

Issue

The PayPal Subscription Integration API documentation is not confusing, just that you are not familiar with the big picture. Let's break it down.

General Dev Workflow

Vendor

1. Register & Login to Paypal sandbox account
2. Go to Sandbox Account and get the business account information (email & password)
3. Go to Plan Management (login using the business account)
4. Create Products (Give your product an ID)
5. Create Plans (PayPal will generate plan ID)
6. Integrate the Paypal button in JS by setting the Plan ID
7. Setup WebHook to listen to PayPal events (e.g. receive a notification when a recurring payment is made)

Customer

1. Create Subscription (PayPal will generate a subscription ID)
2. Suspend (pause) Subscription
3. Cancel Subscription (cannot reactivate)

Basically, that's it.

If you wish to integrate the API in PHP

You might need this cURL-PHP converter

1. get access token from Paypal using your (client ID & secret ID)
2. setup cURL request header
   • Content-Type: application/json (sending the content as JSON)
   • Accept: application/json
   • Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN
3. setup your client URL (cURL)
   • get cURL at API documentation
   • convert cURL-PHP
   • tailor as you wish for cURL but for the required header, you must include
4. execute cURL
5. Listen to PayPal HTTP response
6. Save data to your database

Extra

• look into json_decode() & json_encode() for PHP

You're welcome. If you need detail explanation, do let me know