Checkout

Paga Checkout

A Paga-hosted payment page that takes card, bank transfer, USSD, Paga Wallet and agent payments. Choose how to open it. Everything after that works the same way.

Environment	Checkout base URL
Sandbox	`https://beta-checkout.paga.com`
Live	`https://checkout.paga.com`

How Checkout works

Start Checkout

Open the payment page with an HTML form, a payment link or JavaScript. See Choose how to start Checkout.

Your customer pays

They choose a payment method on the Paga-hosted page and complete the payment.

They return to your site

Paga redirects them to your charge_url with the result.

Paga notifies your server

Paga sends a payment notification to your callback_url.

Verify, then fulfil

Check the notification’s hash, or call Verify charge, before you deliver the order.

Try Checkout in the playground

Set the parameters, open Checkout and pay with test data, without writing any code. It runs in Sandbox, so no real money moves.

Open the Checkout playground

Test card. Card 5531 8866 5214 2950, expiry 09/32, CVV 555. More cards are on the Test data page.

Choose how to start Checkout

Pick the option that fits your product. The parameters, redirect, notification and verification are the same for all three.

Best for

Websites where you want a ready-made “Make Payment” button with no JavaScript.

How it works

Add the script inside a form. It renders a button that opens Checkout. Parameters are prefixed with data-.

<form method="POST">
  <script
    src="https://beta-checkout.paga.com/checkout/?w=150&h=40"
    data-public_key="YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY"
    data-amount="1000.00"
    data-currency="NGN"
    data-payment_reference="JHX-18743567"
    data-email="[email protected]"
    data-charge_url="https://yourstore.com/payment/complete"
    data-callback_url="https://yourstore.com/webhooks/paga"
    data-funding_sources="CARD,PAGA,TRANSFER,AGENT,USSD"
    data-button_label="Make Payment">
  </script>
</form>

Best for

Invoices, emails, chat and social media, or any page where you can only share a link.

How it works

Add the parameters to the URL as a query string, with no quotes around values, and send the customer to it.

https://beta-checkout.paga.com/checkout/params?public_key=YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY&amount=1000.00&currency=NGN&payment_reference=JHX-18743567&[email protected]&charge_url=https://yourstore.com/payment/complete&callback_url=https://yourstore.com/webhooks/paga&funding_sources=CARD,PAGA,TRANSFER,AGENT,USSD

Best for

Single-page apps and custom buttons, where you start payment from your own code.

How it works

Load the Checkout script, then call startPayment from your own button or event.

<script src="https://beta-checkout.paga.com/checkout/checkout.js"></script>

<button onclick="startPayment()">Make Payment</button>

<script>
  function startPayment() {
    PagaCheckout.startPayment({
      public_key: "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY",
      amount: "1000.00",
      currency: "NGN",
      payment_reference: "JHX-18743567",
      email: "[email protected]",
      charge_url: "https://yourstore.com/payment/complete",
      callback_url: "https://yourstore.com/webhooks/paga"
    });
  }
</script>

Parameters

The same for all three. In the HTML form, add data- in front of each name, for example data-public_key.

All parameters (12)

Parameter	Required	Description
`public_key`	Yes	Your public key. See Get your API keys
`amount`	Yes	Amount to charge, for example `1000.00`
`email`	Yes	Customer’s email address
`currency`	No	Defaults to `NGN`
`payment_reference`	No	Your unique reference for the payment. Paga generates one if you leave it out
`charge_url`	No	Where to send the customer after payment. Without it, they see your account’s default success page
`callback_url`	No	Where Paga sends the payment notification. Set it so your server can confirm payments
`phone_number`	No	Customer’s phone number
`display_image`	No	A logo or image to show on the payment page
`funding_sources`	No	Payment methods to offer, in order. Any of `CARD`, `PAGA`, `TRANSFER`, `AGENT`, `USSD`. Defaults to all
`button_label`	No	HTML form only. Text on the button
`width`	No	HTML form only. Button width in pixels

After payment

1 · Browser

Customer is redirected

To your charge_url, with charge_reference, status_code and status_message added to the URL.

2 · Server

Paga notifies your server

A payment notification is sent to your callback_url. This is the one to trust.

3 · Email

You get an email

If notifications are switched on for your business account.

https://yourstore.com/payment/complete?charge_reference=JHX-18743567&status_code=0&status_message=success

🚧
Don’t fulfil orders from the redirect alone
Customers can change a URL. Fulfil only after you’ve verified the payment notification or called Verify charge.

Verify the payment notification

Paga sends this to your callback URL. Check its hash before you trust it, then respond with HTTP 200.

{
  "statusCode": "0",
  "statusMessage": "success",
  "paymentReference": "Paga_Auto_Ref_20250826_132929_yjmb",
  "amount": "10.00",
  "currency": "NGN",
  "timeStamp": "2025-08-26T13:36:04",
  "description": null,
  "customerEmail": "[email protected]",
  "customerPhoneNumber": "+2348063334156",
  "hash": "39453c520890841fe3a837701e60b7dba3f8d737696d8fa5a39e8566b9f96948eaac792e7c03783e67033c37bf6d123e1ff181f015e729e1bcfa70bd8a16ae97"
}

Notification fields (10)

Field	Description
`statusCode`	`0` means the payment was successful
`statusMessage`	Readable status, such as `success`
`paymentReference`	Your payment reference, or the one Paga generated if you didn’t send one. Used in the hash
`amount`	Amount paid, in decimal format such as `10.00`. Used in the hash
`currency`	Currency code, such as `NGN`
`timeStamp`	When the payment happened, in UTC. Used in the hash
`description`	Optional description. Can be `null`
`customerEmail`	Customer’s email address, if given at checkout
`customerPhoneNumber`	Customer’s phone number
`hash`	SHA-512 signature to check before you trust the notification

Check the hash

Join amount + timeStamp + paymentReference + hashKey, hash the result with SHA-512, and compare it with hash.

Use amount exactly as it appears in the notification, in decimal format such as 10.00.
Join the values with no spaces or separators.

const crypto = require("crypto");

// body is the parsed notification
const expected = crypto
  .createHash("sha512")
  .update(body.amount + body.timeStamp + body.paymentReference + process.env.PAGA_HASH_KEY)
  .digest("hex");

if (expected !== body.hash) return res.sendStatus(401);

// safe to fulfil the order
res.sendStatus(200);

Verify charge

Confirm a payment from your server at any time, using the payment_reference. Authenticate with HTTP Basic, as in Authentication.

curl -X POST https://checkout.paga.com/checkout/transaction/verify \
  -u "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY:YOUR_SECRET_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"paymentReference": "JHX-18743567", "publicKey": "YOUR_PUBLIC_KEY", "amount": 1000, "currency": "NGN"}'

{
  "status_code": 0,
  "status_message": "successful",
  "chargeId": "JHX-18743567",
  "amount": 1000,
  "currency": "NGN"
}

Paid. Safe to fulfil.

Pending. Check again shortly.

Invalid. The request failed validation.

401

Unauthorised. Check your keys.

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