Venmo and PayPal Add Payment-Transfer Support, but Do This First

Many Venmo users have received a welcome email in recent days, confirming that direct payments will at last be supported between Venmo and PayPal. It’s an integration that users of the payment apps have been waiting for since 2014, when PayPal acquired Venmo.

This direct payment support arrives in November, and will work with basic searches on the mobile app and other portals. PayPal users, for example, will be able to search for Venmo users by their phone number, then send them money. The ability to search for users by email will be added at a later, unconfirmed date. So far, the companies have not said if any additional fees would apply to these types of payments.

Representatives for PayPal and Venmo did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.

The change is one of a number of updates PayPal is making in 2025. Others include the PayPal World platform, peer-to-peer payment links and an AI partnership with Google. Venmo is just one of the partners that PayPal plans on integrating with more fully around the world. 

Keep your privacy and visibility options in mind

Longtime Venmo users will remember how annoying it was to have Venmo automatically make payment details public to everyone you connect with, something Venmo has improved in recent years, but which can still be a source of frustration. 

We’ll have to wait until November to investigate every detail, but there is a critical visibility setting that all users should know about. It looks like PayPal users can find any Venmo user if they have the correct phone number, which could make specific scams easier or lead to spam. 

You can adjust this option by heading into your Venmo app, choosing Settings (the gear icon), then Privacy, then navigating to your Find Me options, where you can restrict who can find you on PayPal. Just don’t do it quite yet: Expect a Venmo update in November to make this option available.