A certification bundle sold worldwide
A trainer sells a bundle of three courses. Buyers pay by PayPal or card on one offer, and a single Enrol Student step on the bundle opens all three courses for them.
Native integration
PayPal + Thinkific integration
Buyers who pay with PayPal on a Plandalf checkout can be enrolled in the Thinkific course or bundle they bought, with a sign-in email from Thinkific.
No credit card required. No coding required.
PayPal
ThinkificDoes PayPal integrate with Thinkific?
Plandalf connects them; Thinkific does not read your PayPal account here. PayPal takes the payment on a Plandalf checkout, then a sequence runs the native Thinkific steps to find or create the student and enrol them in a course or bundle. It needs the Grow plan or above. PayPal refunds do not end access automatically.
What moves between PayPal and Thinkific
| Event | From and to | Through | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checkout completed | Plandalf (paid via PayPal) → Thinkific | Native step | Enrol Student creates the student if needed and starts access as soon as the step runs. New students get Thinkific's welcome email with their sign-in link. PayPal buyers share the card buyers' completion path per the PayPal docs; rehearse in the sandbox. |
| Repeat purchase | Plandalf (paid via PayPal) → Thinkific | Native step | If access was ended earlier and the person pays again, running Enrol Student restores it, because Thinkific keeps the enrolment record. A buyer who is already enrolled is left unchanged. |
| Refund in PayPal | PayPal → Thinkific | By hand | Remove Student Access sets the enrolment to expire at once, but its refund template starts on Invoice Refunded, documented for Stripe refunds. After a PayPal refund, end access in Thinkific or from a sequence started by a Webhook Trigger. |
Enrol a PayPal buyer in a Thinkific bundle
You need a Thinkific school on the Grow plan or above, and a Plandalf checkout that sells the course or bundle.
Turn on PayPal for the offer
In Plandalf connect PayPal and enable it on the offer. Keep a card option beside it for buyers who prefer one. Connect the sandbox environment to test.
Collect the Thinkific details
Your subdomain is the first part of the school address, such as yourschool. Then in Settings, on the Code and analytics tab, scroll to API and copy the key. Thinkific shows it once; Reset key makes a new one.
Connect Thinkific
Go to Automation, Marketplace, Thinkific, Connect. Enter the School subdomain and API Key. A pasted full address is cut down to the subdomain.
Add the Enrol Student step
Create a sequence on Plandalf, Checkout Completed, for the offer. Add Thinkific, Enrol Student with Email Address
{{trigger.customer_email}}, the course or bundle (bundles are marked), and First Name and Last Name from{{trigger.customer_first_name}}and{{trigger.customer_last_name}}.Pay in the PayPal sandbox
Approve a sandbox payment and read the Events view. The student appears in Thinkific and gets a welcome email only if they were new, so test with an address that is not already a student.
Set a refund routine
Pick who ends access in Thinkific after a PayPal refund, and whether the Remove Student Access step lives in a sequence you start by hand.
What sellers do with PayPal and Thinkific
Re-purchase after a lapse
A student whose access ended after a refund buys again a month later. The same sequence runs Enrol Student, and Thinkific restores the old enrolment rather than starting a second one.
Limits and gotchas
- Thinkific's API is not available below the Grow plan.
- The API key is shown once. If it is lost, Reset key creates a new one and anything using the old key stops working.
- Invoice Refunded is documented for refunds that succeed in Stripe. A PayPal refund does not end the student's access.
- A student gets the welcome email only when new to Thinkific, and only if Send Thinkific welcome email is on.
- Plandalf has no subscription-cancelled trigger, so a lapsed recurring buyer keeps access until you end it.
PayPal and Thinkific: common questions
- Does PayPal integrate with Thinkific?
- Not as a direct link through Plandalf. PayPal pays on a Plandalf checkout and a sequence enrols the student in Thinkific. For PayPal inside Thinkific's own checkout, check Thinkific's payment settings.
- How do I connect PayPal to Thinkific?
- Enable PayPal on a Plandalf offer, connect Thinkific with your subdomain and API key under Automation, then build a Checkout Completed sequence with Enrol Student.
- How do I give access to a Thinkific course after a PayPal payment?
- Run Enrol Student from the sequence that starts on Checkout Completed. It handles courses and bundles, and creates the student if needed.
- Thinkific PayPal integration: can I enrol into a bundle?
- Yes. The Course or bundle field lists both, with bundles marked, so one step can open every course in a bundle.
Guides for this pair
- Plandalf with PayPal
- Plandalf with Thinkific
- PayPal on a Plandalf checkout
- Thinkific setup guide
- Automations overview
More from PayPal and Thinkific
- PayPal + beehiivReaders click from a beehiiv post to a Plandalf checkout and can pay with PayPal. Subscriber sync is not built in.
- PayPal + CircleA community that wants PayPal can take payment on a Plandalf checkout and have a sequence add each buyer to the right Circle space.
- PayPal + Kit (ConvertKit)PayPal buyers on a Plandalf checkout can be tagged in Kit and dropped into an email sequence, using the same steps as card buyers.
- Thinkific + MailchimpOne paid checkout enrols the student in Thinkific and gives Mailchimp a tag and an event to start their journey.
- Stripe + ThinkificA paid Plandalf checkout enrols the buyer in a Thinkific course or bundle, and a full refund through Stripe ends that access.
- Thinkific + Kit (ConvertKit)A paid Plandalf checkout enrols the student in a Thinkific course or bundle and tags them in Kit.
Checked October 26, 2026 against Plandalf's own setup guides.