WooCommerce Payment Gateway Not Working — How to Fix It

When your WooCommerce payment gateway stops working, every minute costs you sales. This guide covers the most common causes for Stripe, PayPal and other gateways — and how to fix them fast.

Check 1: Test Mode vs Live Mode

The most common "payment not working" issue is the gateway still being in test/sandbox mode after going live. In WooCommerce → Settings → Payments → your gateway, check if "Enable test mode" or "Sandbox mode" is active. Disable it and use your live API keys instead. Also verify you're using the correct live API keys — not the test ones.

Check 2: Verify API Keys Are Correct

Wrong or expired API keys are the second most common cause. For each gateway:

• Stripe: Log in to dashboard.stripe.com → Developers → API keys. Copy the live Secret Key and Publishable Key. They start with sk_live_ and pk_live_
• PayPal: Log in to developer.paypal.com → My Apps & Credentials. Use the live credentials, not the sandbox ones
• Razorpay / Others: Regenerate keys in your gateway dashboard and update in WooCommerce

Check 3: SSL Certificate is Valid

Payment gateways require HTTPS. If your SSL certificate has expired or is showing a browser warning, payments will fail. Check your site URL — it must start with https://. Visit your site in Chrome and look for a lock icon in the address bar. No lock = SSL issue.

Fix: Renew your SSL certificate in Hostinger panel → SSL → Free Let's Encrypt certificate (renews automatically if auto-renew is on).

Check 4: Plugin Conflict with Payment Gateway

Other plugins can break payment gateways — especially caching plugins, page builders, and security plugins. Test by:

1. Disabling your caching plugin temporarily
2. Trying a test payment
3. If it works, re-enable caching and configure it to exclude the checkout page

For WP Rocket: Exclusions → Exclude URLs → add /checkout/ and /cart/

For LiteSpeed Cache: Cache → Exclude → URI: /checkout, /cart

Check 5: Webhook Issues (Stripe)

Stripe uses webhooks to tell WooCommerce when payments complete. If webhooks aren't configured or the URL changed, orders get stuck as "Pending". In your Stripe dashboard → Developers → Webhooks, check that the webhook endpoint URL points to your current domain and is not returning errors.

Check 6: Currency Mismatch

Payment gateways only work with currencies they support. If you have WooCommerce set to a currency your gateway doesn't accept (e.g., PayPal doesn't support all currencies), payments will fail silently. Check your WooCommerce → Settings → General → Currency matches what your gateway supports.

Check 7: Server Requirements

WooCommerce payment plugins require specific PHP settings:

• cURL enabled (required to communicate with payment APIs)
• OpenSSL enabled (required for HTTPS API calls)
• PHP 7.4 or higher

Check in WooCommerce → Status → System Status. Any red rows in this report indicate server configuration issues.

Check 8: WooCommerce Logs

WooCommerce logs every payment attempt. Go to WooCommerce → Status → Logs. Select your payment gateway from the dropdown and look at the most recent entries. The log will show the exact error message from the payment API — this is the fastest way to diagnose obscure failures.

Common Error Messages and Fixes

• "Your card was declined" — Usually a customer issue, but also occurs if Stripe's Radar fraud filters are too aggressive. Check Stripe Radar settings.
• "No such customer" — Stripe customer ID mismatch. Clear WooCommerce's Stripe customer data in the user profile.
• "PayPal IPN not working" — Update PayPal to use Webhooks instead of IPN (IPN is legacy).
• "Order stays pending" — Webhook not firing. Check your site's firewall isn't blocking incoming POST requests.