Quick Start
Get up and running with the SendAPI platform in under 5 minutes.
By the end of this guide, you will have created a SendAPI account, obtained an API key, and successfully dispatched your first message.
1. Create your account
First, sign up for a free SendAPI account. New accounts automatically start with a 3-day free trial with access to all core features, allowing you to test the WhatsApp, SMS, and Email endpoints without requiring a credit card up front.
2. Obtain your API Key
Once logged in to the dashboard:
- Navigate to API Keys in the sidebar.
- Click Create Key.
- Name your key (e.g.,
Production Key). - Copy the generated
sk_live_...key.
Secure your key
For security reasons, you will only be able to see the secret key once. If you lose it, you will need to revoke it and generate a new one. Store it securely in your .env file.
3. Make your first request
You can interact with the SendAPI using our official SDKs or via any standard HTTP client. For this quick start, we will use cURL to send a test SMS message.
Open your terminal and run the following command, replacing YOUR_API_KEY with the key you just generated, and YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER with your mobile device number (in E.164 format, e.g., +1234567890).
curl -X POST https://sendapi.co/v1/sms/send \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"to": "YOUR_PHONE_NUMBER",
"content": "Hello from my first SendAPI request! 🚀"
}'Inspecting the response
If the request was successful, SendAPI will return an HTTP 200 OK generic response containing the unique message_id:
{
"id": "msg_01H8BKF...Z2T",
"status": "queued",
"to": "+1234567890",
"created_at": "2026-03-09T14:30:00Z"
}Congratulations! You have successfully integrated SendAPI.
Next Steps
Now that you understand the basics of authentication and request structure, you can explore the specific channel APIs: