{"id":140754,"date":"2026-07-21T07:37:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/docs.daftra.com\/?post_type=faq&#038;p=140754"},"modified":"2026-07-21T07:37:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:37:22","slug":"what-is-the-difference-between-sandbox-and-production-in-m-pesa-settings","status":"publish","type":"faq","link":"https:\/\/docs.daftra.com\/en\/faq\/what-is-the-difference-between-sandbox-and-production-in-m-pesa-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the difference between Sandbox and Production in M-PESA settings?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"auto\">The <strong>Sandbox<\/strong> environment is used for testing purposes \u2014 it connects to Safaricom&#8217;s test infrastructure (<code class=\"bg-text-200\/5 border border-0.5 border-border-300 text-danger-000 whitespace-pre-wrap rounded-[0.4rem] px-1 py-px text-[0.9rem]\">https:\/\/sandbox.safaricom.co.ke<\/code>) and does not process real payments or deduct real funds. It is intended for development and verification before going live.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"auto\">The <strong>Production<\/strong> environment connects to Safaricom&#8217;s live infrastructure (<code class=\"bg-text-200\/5 border border-0.5 border-border-300 text-danger-000 whitespace-pre-wrap rounded-[0.4rem] px-1 py-px text-[0.9rem]\">https:\/\/api.safaricom.co.ke<\/code>) and processes real payments from actual M-PESA accounts. This is the setting that must be selected once your app has been approved by Safaricom and you are ready to accept live payments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"auto\">The environment setting defaults to Production on first load. Make sure you are using the correct credentials for whichever environment you select \u2014 Sandbox credentials will not work in Production and vice versa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"template":"","categories":[2068],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140754","faq","type-faq","status-publish","hentry","category-payment-methods"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v17.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is the difference between Sandbox and Production in M-PESA settings? - Daftra Knowledge Base<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/docs.daftra.com\/en\/faq\/what-is-the-difference-between-sandbox-and-production-in-m-pesa-settings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is the difference between Sandbox and Production in M-PESA settings? - Daftra Knowledge Base\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Sandbox environment is used for testing purposes \u2014 it connects to Safaricom&#8217;s test infrastructure (https:\/\/sandbox.safaricom.co.ke) and does not process real payments or deduct real funds. It is intended for development and verification before going live. The Production environment connects to Safaricom&#8217;s live infrastructure (https:\/\/api.safaricom.co.ke) and processes real payments from actual M-PESA accounts. 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