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Developers · Sandbox

Test Paynancial without touching live payments.

Build and test your whole integration with a sandbox API key — payments, payouts, webhooks, failures and retries — with no real funds involved. When it works, switch the key and go live.

Request Sandbox Access Read the API Reference

No real funds
Same API calls as production
Built for testing agents

A sandbox request, authenticated with a sandbox key

$payment = $client->payments->create([
    'amount'   => 50000, // in paise
    'currency' => 'INR',
    'receipt'  => 'order_rcpt_101',
]);

echo $payment->id;

const payment = await client.payments.create({
  amount: 50000,
  currency: 'INR',
  receipt: 'order_rcpt_101',
});

console.log(payment.id);

curl https://api.paynancial.com/v1/payments \
  -u YOUR_API_KEY: \
  -d amount=50000 \
  -d currency=INR \
  -d receipt=order_rcpt_101

What is the Sandbox?

A safe place to get it wrong.

The Paynancial Sandbox is a test environment for your integration. Requests authenticated with a sandbox API key run in the sandbox, so you can run a complete integration test with no real funds involved.

You make the same API calls, with the same SDKs, that you will make in production — authenticated with a sandbox key while you build and test, and a live key once you are ready.

That makes the sandbox the right place to find out what happens when things go wrong — a timeout, a declined payment, a duplicate request — before a real customer or a real payout is affected.

How it works

Four steps from access to production.

01
Request access
Ask for sandbox access through the contact page.
02
Get your sandbox key
Sandbox and live API keys are managed from your Paynancial dashboard.
03
Build and test
Call the API with your sandbox key and test every path your integration can take.
04
Switch to live
When testing is complete, replace the sandbox key with your live key on your server.

Sandbox credentials

Sandbox key or live key?

Your API key decides whether a request is a test or real. Keep them apart.

Sandbox and live keys
	Sandbox key	Live key
Real money	No	Yes
Use it for	Building, testing, demos, agent trials	Production traffic only
Where it lives	Development and test environments	Your production server only

How authentication works →

Test payments and payouts

Exercise every product you use.

Make the same calls you will make in production, authenticated with your sandbox key.

Calls to test in the sandbox
Test	Call
Payments	`POST /payments`
Refunds	`POST /refunds`
Payouts	`POST /payouts`
Payment Links	`POST /payment_links`
Collections	`POST /collections`
Transaction reports	`POST /reports/transactions`

Test a payout

$payout = $client->payouts->create([
    'beneficiary_id' => 'bene_3Kd91',
    'amount'         => 250000, // in paise
    'mode'           => 'upi',
], [
    'idempotency_key' => 'payout-run-2026-08-29-0417',
]);

echo $payout->status;

curl https://api.paynancial.com/v1/payouts \
  -u YOUR_API_KEY: \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: payout-run-2026-08-29-0417" \
  -d beneficiary_id=bene_3Kd91 \
  -d amount=250000 \
  -d mode=upi

Test scenarios

What to test before you go live.

The sandbox is the recommended place to test retry behaviour, rate limits and failure handling. Work through each of these. Ask developer support which failure scenarios can be simulated for your account.

Error handling: Does your code branch on the error code — insufficient_funds, invalid_method, rate_limited — rather than the message, and tell the user something useful?
Idempotency: Send the same write twice with the same idempotency key. You should get the original result back, not a second payment or payout.
Timeouts and retries: When a request times out, does your code retry with the same idempotency key, and give up gracefully after a sensible number of attempts?
Rate limits: When you receive rate_limited, does your code back off and retry later instead of hammering the API?
Webhooks: Does your handler respond quickly, skip events it has already processed, and cope with events arriving in any order?
Agent workflows: If an AI agent or automated job calls the API, does it stay inside the limits you set, and stop when it should?

Moving to production

Going live starts with a key change.

Because you test with the same API calls you will make in production, going live means replacing your sandbox key with your live key — on your production server only — and keeping sandbox keys in every other environment. Confirm with developer support whether anything else changes for your account.

Store the live key in an environment variable or secrets manager, never in code.
Confirm with developer support how to verify that webhook requests come from Paynancial.
Watch your first live transactions closely.

The go-live checklist in the Integration Guide covers each item in detail.

Security considerations

Test data is still your data.

Treat sandbox keys as secrets: A sandbox key cannot move real money, but it still identifies your account. Keep it out of public repositories.
Never mix keys: Do not load a live key in a development or test environment, even briefly.
Do not use real customer data: Use made-up names, emails and references when testing.
Test permissions too: If agents or automated jobs will call the API, test the limits and approval thresholds you plan to give them. See AI Governance.

FAQ

Sandbox questions.

What is the Paynancial Sandbox?

A test environment for your Paynancial integration. Requests made with a sandbox API key run in the sandbox, so you can build and test a complete integration with no real funds involved.

How do I get sandbox API keys?

Request sandbox access through the contact page. Once your access is set up, sandbox and live API keys are managed from your Paynancial dashboard.

How do I test payments?

Make the same API calls you will make in production — create a payment, a payment link, a payout or a collection — authenticated with your sandbox key. The API Reference has an example for each.

What is the difference between sandbox and live mode?

A sandbox key runs requests in the sandbox, where no real money moves. A live key processes real payments and payouts. Confirm with developer support whether anything else differs between environments for your account.

Can I test failures, retries and rate limits?

Yes — the sandbox is the recommended place to test retry behaviour, rate limits and failure handling before any code gets a live key. Ask developer support which failure scenarios can be simulated for your account.

Is the sandbox suitable for testing AI agents?

Yes. Any agent-driven or autonomous workflow should be tested in the sandbox — including how it retries and how it handles errors — before it is given a live key.

Get your sandbox key.

Request sandbox access and start building with no real money involved.

Request Sandbox Access Contact Developer Support