Payfast Sandbox Environment

The Payfast Sandbox is a full replica of the production environment, built specifically for testing your integration safely — with no real money involved. You’ll be able to simulate one-time and recurring payments, ITN notifications, and even troubleshoot your signature generation.

Sandbox URL

https://sandbox.payfast.co.za/

Getting Started

Head to the Sandbox login page.
Enter your email address to access your test dashboard.
Explore the dashboard — it includes helpful tips on every page.

Payment Methods

Payments are simulated using a dummy wallet with a large balance.
Other payment methods (e.g., credit cards or Instant EFT) are not available in Sandbox.
All test transactions will appear successful — the Sandbox does not connect to external systems.

❗The actual payment screen cannot be simulated in Sandbox — it’s used solely for integration testing.

Payment Notifications (ITNs)

ITNs (Instant Transaction Notifications) are sent only once.
To view all ITNs, go to the “ITN” section in the Sandbox menu.
Use this to confirm the data you’ll receive during live transactions.

Set a Passphrase

For subscriptions and tokenization:

Go to Account Information in the left menu.
Enter your passphrase in the “Salt Passphrase” field.
This value is added to your parameter string before generating the signature.

Integration Tools

Use these tools to:

Test and evaluate your signature strings.
Simulate responses by submitting incorrect or altered variables.
Understand how Payfast responds to various integration scenarios.

Test Your Integration

Try out:

Signature generation
One-time payments
Subscriptions
Tokenized charges

You can generate and send transactions from within the Sandbox to see how your system behaves.

Limitations

No connections to external systems (all transactions succeed).
All test buyers appear as "Test Buyer" in the data.
Subscription tokens do not display — be sure to capture them from the ITN.

Recurring Billing in Sandbox

Use the Sandbox to simulate:

Creating and managing subscriptions.
Charging, cancelling, pausing, or editing them.
Performing tokenization-based payments.

You can adjust:

Amounts
Next payment dates
Frequency
Number of cycles