PayPal AI Hackathon 2026

The PayPal AI Hackathon is an online public hackathon sponsored by PayPal and run on Devpost. The project must use the PayPal developer platform, in the free sandbox, and an AI tool, model, or platform of your choice. PayPal says there are no set problem statements. You can build an agent, an app, an automation, a payment experience, or a business tool. New projects and existing projects both qualify if you make meaningful progress during the submission period.

The hackathon page lists $67,500 in cash. It also says the total prizes are $69,750. First place is $12,000 in cash, second place is $8,000, and third place is $5,000. Further cash awards on the page include best use of PayPal and AI, best use of agentic commerce, and best demo delivery, each $5,000, plus sponsor awards such as AG Grid, APIMatic, and Channel3. Render offers credits rather than cash.

You can enter as an individual, a team, or an organisation that already exists. You must be at least the age of majority where you live. The rules exclude residents of Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and any other place comprehensively sanctioned by the US Treasury. Employees of PayPal and Devpost, judges, and members of their immediate family or household cannot enter.

Join on the Devpost page, then build in the PayPal sandbox. A developer account is at https://developer.paypal.com/. The submission needs a text description, a working demo that judges can run, a public GitHub repository with an open source license file, and a demo video under 3 minutes on YouTube. A design mockup does not qualify.

The submission period runs from 1 October 2026 at 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time to 12 November 2026 at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time. Judging runs from 13 November to 15 December 2026. Winners are announced on or around 21 December 2026. Judges score technical implementation, design, potential impact, innovation, and presentation.