Quick Start

This guide will help you integrate PayGate and create your first payment in under 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have:

A PayGate account (Sign up here)
Your API keys from the Dashboard
Node.js 18+ (or your preferred language)

Installation

npm install @paygate/node

pip install paygate-python

composer require paygate/paygate-php

go get github.com/paygate/paygate-go

Create Your First Payment

Initialize the SDK

Configure the SDK with your secret API key:

import PayGate from '@paygate/node'

const paygate = new PayGate('sk_test_...')

import paygate

client = paygate.Client('sk_test_...')

<?php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

$paygate = new \PayGate\PayGate('sk_test_...');

import "github.com/paygate/paygate-go"

client := paygate.New("sk_test_...")

Create a Payment

Create a mobile money payment request:

const payment = await paygate.payments.create({
  amount: 5000, // Amount in pesewas (GHS 50.00)
  currency: 'GHS',
  payment_method: 'mobile_money',
  provider: 'mtn',
  phone: '0241234567',
  description: 'Order #1234',
  metadata: {
    order_id: '1234',
    customer_email: 'customer@example.com'
  }
})

console.log(payment.id) // pay_abc123...
console.log(payment.status) // pending

payment = client.payments.create(
    amount=5000,
    currency='GHS',
    payment_method='mobile_money',
    provider='mtn',
    phone='0241234567',
    description='Order #1234',
    metadata={
        'order_id': '1234',
        'customer_email': 'customer@example.com'
    }
)

print(payment.id)  # pay_abc123...
print(payment.status)  # pending

$payment = $paygate->payments->create([
    'amount' => 5000,
    'currency' => 'GHS',
    'payment_method' => 'mobile_money',
    'provider' => 'mtn',
    'phone' => '0241234567',
    'description' => 'Order #1234',
    'metadata' => [
        'order_id' => '1234',
        'customer_email' => 'customer@example.com'
    ]
]);

echo $payment->id; // pay_abc123...
echo $payment->status; // pending

payment, err := client.Payments.Create(&paygate.PaymentParams{
    Amount:        5000,
    Currency:      "GHS",
    PaymentMethod: "mobile_money",
    Provider:      "mtn",
    Phone:         "0241234567",
    Description:   "Order #1234",
    Metadata: map[string]string{
        "order_id":       "1234",
        "customer_email": "customer@example.com",
    },
})

fmt.Println(payment.ID)     // pay_abc123...
fmt.Println(payment.Status) // pending

Handle the Payment

The customer will receive a prompt on their phone to authorize the payment. You can:

Poll for status - Check the payment status periodically
Use webhooks - Receive real-time notifications (recommended)

// Option 1: Poll for status
const updatedPayment = await paygate.payments.retrieve(payment.id)
console.log(updatedPayment.status) // succeeded, failed, or pending

// Option 2: Set up webhooks (see Webhooks guide)

Test Your Integration

Use test API keys (sk_test_...) during development. No real money is moved in test mode.

Test Phone Numbers

Phone Number	Behavior
`0241234567`	Always succeeds
`0241234568`	Always fails (insufficient funds)
`0241234569`	Always fails (timeout)

Test Amounts

Amount (pesewas)	Behavior
Any amount	Succeeds normally
`99999999`	Fails (amount too large)

What's Next?

Now that you've created your first payment, explore more features:

Handle Webhooks - Get real-time payment notifications
Accept Subscriptions - Set up recurring billing
Process Payouts - Send money to customers
Go Live Checklist - Prepare for production

Quick Start

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