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PayPal
Updated Sep 29, 2026
PayPal is the payments service, and it has two entirely separate downloads that are not interchangeable. One is a formal personal data request with no published list of what comes back. The other is a transaction report with hard limits that will not cover a long history. For anyone keeping receipts or chasing a dispute, the second is the one you want, and it is not the one most guides send you to.
What you'll get
Transaction Reports, 7 Years DeepCSV, Tab, PDF, Quicken FormatsYour Profile and Account DataCounterparty Names and EmailsIP and Device Data
Before you start
- For the personal-data request: Settings, then Data & Privacy, then Download your data. The section is called Data & Privacy, and the exact label varies a little by region.
- PayPal verifies your identity before it will do anything. That is an SMS code or a call back to the number on the account, and a request can be refused if the check does not pass. This is the step that catches people out.
- Do it while you can still sign in. The button lives inside your account and closing the account takes it with it. PayPal runs a separate privacy portal for people in that position, and it is a slower route.
- This is personal accounts only. Business accounts do not get this download.
How to download
- Pick what you want and submit the request. PayPal publishes neither how long it takes nor what is in the result, so treat both as unknown.
- If what you actually want is your transactions, use History, then Download. That is a different feature and it is the one with documented behaviour.
- The history report reaches back 7 years, but a single report is capped at 12 months. So seven years is seven downloads rather than one, which is the detail most guides skip.
- Formats are CSV, tab-delimited, PDF, and IIF or QIF for QuickBooks and Quicken. Reports over 50,000 records are split across several files and zipped.
- PayPal emails you when the report is ready. A large history log can take up to 5 business days, and only the last three of them are kept.
Pro tip
Read this before you download anything. PayPal's transaction reports include the other person's name, both email addresses, and depending on the transaction their address and phone number. That file contains other people's personal data, not only yours, and it deserves the same care as a bank statement.
After the download
- The two downloads are not interchangeable. The personal-data request is a broad sweep with no published manifest. The transaction report is narrow, documented and the one worth your time if you are after money.
- No card numbers and no bank account numbers. PayPal's report fields give you the card type and the payment source, and that is where it stops.
- Passwords and security answers are not in anything PayPal documents as exportable.
- The only response window PayPal actually publishes is 20 business days, and that is a commitment under US privacy law rather than a general promise. In the EU and UK the statutory window is a month, and in California it is 45 days.
- If that window passes with no answer, the next step is a regulator rather than waiting longer: the ICO for the UK, your national data protection authority in the EU, or the California Privacy Protection Agency.
- Closing the account does not make the request go away. PayPal keeps data for legal and fraud purposes for as long as it says it needs to, independently of your account.
- Store the archive in ProtonDrive or pCloud for an off-site backup