You’re hovering over the "Place your order" button on Amazon, looking at a cart full of stuff you probably don't need, and you realize your bank account is looking a bit thin. But wait! You’ve got a couple hundred bucks sitting in your PayPal balance from that old couch you sold on Marketplace. You go to checkout, ready to click that familiar blue button. It’s not there. It’s never been there. It probably won't be there anytime soon. Honestly, it’s one of the most frustrating gaps in the modern internet economy. Why doesn't Amazon take PayPal when literally everyone else does?
It feels personal. Like a petty feud between two kids on a playground who refuse to share their toys. In a way, it kind of is.
The ghost of eBay still haunts the checkout line
To understand why your PayPal balance is useless on the world's biggest e-commerce site, you have to look at the history books. For a long time, PayPal wasn't just a payment processor; it was the lifeblood of eBay.
Back in 2002, eBay bought PayPal. For more than a decade, they were essentially the same company. Think about that from Jeff Bezos’s perspective. If Amazon had integrated PayPal during those years, they would have been handing over a massive cut of every single transaction directly to their biggest rival. It would be like a McDonald's opening up a stall inside a Burger King and giving the King a 3% commission on every Big Mac sold. It just wasn't going to happen.
✨ Don't miss: 1 million pesos to us dollars: What you'll actually get after fees and inflation
Even after eBay and PayPal officially split into two separate, publicly traded companies in 2015, the bad blood—or at least the competitive friction—didn't just vanish. They had a long-term operating agreement that kept them tightly bound. Amazon isn't in the business of helping out companies that are even remotely cozy with the competition.
The fight for your data is the real reason
Money is great, but data is better. That’s the mantra in Seattle.
When you use a credit card on Amazon, Amazon owns the entire experience. They see the transaction, they manage the fraud detection, and they keep the customer relationship end-to-end. If they let PayPal into the ecosystem, PayPal becomes a middleman. PayPal gets to see what you’re buying, how much you’re spending, and how often you’re shopping.
Amazon hates sharing.
They want to know everything about your shopping habits so they can feed that data back into their recommendation algorithms. If PayPal sits between the customer and the merchant, Amazon loses a slice of that precious analytical pie. Plus, PayPal has its own buyer protection programs. Amazon already has the A-to-z Guarantee. Having two different dispute resolution systems overlapping each other is a customer service nightmare waiting to happen. It creates a "who do I call?" situation that Amazon would rather avoid by just keeping everything in-house.
Venmo broke the ice (sorta)
Here is where things get weird. You might have noticed that Venmo is now an option on Amazon. Wait, isn't Venmo owned by PayPal?
Yes. It is.
In late 2022, Amazon finally cracked the door open and started allowing Venmo at checkout. It was a massive deal. It signaled that Amazon was finally willing to play ball with the PayPal family, likely because Venmo’s demographic is younger and highly active. But if they take Venmo, why the holdout on the parent company?
It comes down to the fee structure and the "wallet" ecosystem. Venmo functions more like a social debit system, whereas PayPal is a behemoth of a global financial platform. The negotiation for transaction fees between two giants like Amazon and PayPal is basically a high-stakes poker game where neither side wants to blink. Amazon wants the lowest possible swipe fees. PayPal wants to protect its margins.
The Amazon Pay factor
Amazon doesn't just want you to buy things on Amazon. They want you to use Amazon Pay on every other website on the internet.
They are actively trying to kill PayPal.
By refusing to integrate PayPal, they force users to lean into the Amazon ecosystem. If you get used to your credit cards being stored in your Amazon account, you're more likely to click the "Amazon Pay" button when you're buying shoes on a random boutique's website. If Amazon allowed PayPal, they’d be admitting that PayPal is the superior universal wallet.
Amazon doesn't admit anyone is superior.
Is there a workaround?
If you're sitting on a mountain of PayPal cash and you absolutely must buy that 12-pack of rechargeable batteries on Amazon, you aren't totally stuck. It’s just annoying.
The most "official" way to do it is the PayPal Debit Card. Since it’s a Mastercard, Amazon treats it like any other debit card. It pulls directly from your PayPal balance, and Amazon is none the wiser. It’s a bit of a loophole. You’re using PayPal’s money, but through Mastercard’s plumbing, so Amazon accepts it.
Another way is buying Amazon gift cards through third-party retailers that do accept PayPal. Sites like eGifter or even some physical grocery stores let you use PayPal to buy an Amazon card. You then load that claim code into your account. It’s a three-step process for a one-step problem, but it works.
📖 Related: Walmart DC Shelby NC: What Most People Get Wrong About Distribution Center 6091
The hidden cost of "Buyer Protection"
PayPal’s biggest selling point has always been that they have your back if a seller scams you. On Amazon, this is redundant.
Amazon’s third-party marketplace is already heavily policed. If a merchant sends you a box of rocks, Amazon usually refunds you before the rocks even get cold. Because Amazon provides the protection, they don't want to pay PayPal the extra fee that usually covers that protection. From a pure business logic standpoint, Amazon is already paying for the infrastructure to keep you safe; paying PayPal a premium to do the same thing is just burning money.
Will they ever give in?
Probably not.
The trend in big tech right now is "walled gardens." Apple wants you using Apple Pay. Google wants you using Google Pay. Amazon wants you using Amazon Pay. Adding a competitor's payment method is a step backward in their eyes. Unless PayPal offers a deal so sweet—basically a near-zero transaction fee—Amazon has no incentive to change. They already have your credit card. You’re already buying the batteries. They’ve already won.
How to use your PayPal funds on Amazon today
If you want to bypass the corporate feud, here is exactly what you need to do:
- Request a PayPal Business or Personal Debit Card: This is the cleanest method. It links directly to your balance and works anywhere Mastercard is accepted, including Amazon.
- The Gift Card Route: Use PayPal to purchase an Amazon Gift Card from a legitimate vendor like Newegg or Best Buy (when available).
- Transfer to Bank: The old-school way. Move your PayPal balance to your linked bank account. It takes 1-3 days (or instantly for a small fee), and then you can use your regular debit card on Amazon.
- Check for Venmo: See if the Venmo option is active in your Amazon "Your Payments" section. Since you can move money between PayPal and Venmo fairly easily, this is the newest "soft" bridge between the two platforms.
Stop waiting for a "Pay with PayPal" button to appear next to the Prime logo. It’s been twenty years, and the two giants are still staring each other down. Your best bet is to use the debit card workaround and keep it moving.
When you set up your next Amazon order, go to the "Payment Methods" section in your account settings. Instead of looking for a PayPal login, enter the details of your PayPal Debit Card as if it were a standard Visa or Mastercard. This bypasses the merchant restrictions entirely and lets you spend your balance without waiting for a corporate truce that may never come.