Authentication

The Sendbound API uses API keys for authentication. Every request must include a secret key in the Authorization header.

Creating an API key

Open your Sendbound dashboard.
Navigate to Developer → API Keys.
Click Create key, give it a name, and copy the plaintext value.

The plaintext key is shown once at creation time. Store it securely — you cannot retrieve it again.

Sending authenticated requests

Pass your key as a Bearer token:

Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key_here

cURL

curl https://api.sendbound.com/v1/contacts \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_live_your_key_here"

Node.js

const res = await fetch('https://api.sendbound.com/v1/contacts', {
  headers: {
    Authorization: 'Bearer sk_live_your_key_here',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
});

Python

import httpx

client = httpx.Client(
    base_url="https://api.sendbound.com/v1",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer sk_live_your_key_here"},
)
response = client.get("/contacts")

Key types

Prefix	Type	Use
`sk_live_`	Secret key	Server-side API calls
`sk_test_`	Test key	Development — emails are not delivered

Never expose your secret key in client-side code, public repositories, or error logs.

Revoking a key

Go to Developer → API Keys, find the key, and click Revoke. The key is immediately invalidated and all requests using it will return 401 Unauthorized.