PayPal AI Hackathon

About the challenge

PayPal already moves money for millions of people and businesses, every day, all over the world. This hackathon is us opening that platform up and asking what happens when you put AI behind the wheel. New agents, new ways to pay and get paid, tools nobody's built yet. We want to see what you make of it.

AI is changing how people build, buy, sell, work, connect, and move money. Now it's your turn to imagine what comes next.

Build What's Next with PayPal and AI is a global online hackathon inviting developers, designers, founders, students, and builders to create something new using PayPal and AI.

There are no prescribed problem statements and no set of tracks. Build an agent, an app, an automation, a new payment experience, a business tool, a social product, or something we haven't thought of yet.

The only fundamental requirement: your project must meaningfully use both PayPal and AI.

Why Join?

• Build something ambitious — Turn an idea into a working project using PayPal and AI.

• Explore what’s next — Experiment with new ways people, businesses, and AI agents can interact with money and payments.

• Win part of $69,750 in total prizes — Compete for overall prizes and special awards across creativity, impact, execution, and more.

• Show what you can build — Put your project in front of PayPal judges, developers, and the wider hackathon community.

• Learn by building — Explore PayPal APIs, AI tools, agents, automations, and emerging development workflows.

• Build your way — Join individually or as a team, and start something new or meaningfully advance an existing project.

Get started

• Get a PayPal Developer account (5 minutes)

• Review example projects and brainstorm your own (30 minutes)

Webinars

• Oct 6th 9am PT - 9:45am PT ~ Start building with PayPal

• Oct 7th 9am PT - 9:30am PT ~ Power Your PayPal Hackathon Project with APIMatic Context Plugins

• Oct 12th 7am PT - 7:45am PT ~ Build a payments dashboard without building a dashboard

• Oct 13th 1am PT - 2am PT ~ Start building with PayPal