# Get your API key

Source: https://parasend.com/docs/get-api-key

Every request to the API carries a key. Start with a **test key**: it sends nothing to anyone and costs nothing, and everything in these docs works with it.

## The quickest way: Use my test key

Signed in to the portal already? Open **API key** at the top of any page here and choose **Use my test key**. Agree in the window that opens, and the docs get a 12-hour test key, private to you, for every page.

![API key at the top of the docs: paste a key, or Use my test key](/docs/_/img/api-key-4-docs-popover.png)

For your own code, make a key in the portal as below.

## 1. Sign in, or create an account

[Create a free account](https://app.parasend.com/register), or [sign in](https://app.parasend.com/sign-in). You sign in with your eID; a company account is set up in the same steps.

## 2. Open API keys

In the portal's menu, under **Developers**, choose **API keys**. The **Test data** switch at the top decides which kind of key you make: in test mode, keys start with `ps_test_`.

![The API keys page in the portal, in test mode](/docs/_/img/api-key-1-page.png)

## 3. Create the key

Choose **New API key**, give it a name you will recognise (the system that uses it, say), and pick what it may do. **Sending** suits most integrations: deliveries, batches, files, events and evidence. Under **Restrictions** you can limit a key to your servers' IP addresses, give it an expiry date or a monthly cap.

![The New API key form: name, access and restrictions](/docs/_/img/api-key-2-form.png)

A key is bound to the person who issues it, by their eID, and that person is responsible for what is sent with it. If you signed in more than ten minutes ago, the portal asks you to confirm it is you first.

## 4. Copy it

The new key is shown straight away. Copy it and keep it somewhere safe, such as your system's secrets manager, never in your code. You can show a test key again later; a live key is shown only once.

![The new key, ready to copy](/docs/_/img/api-key-3-secret.png)

## 5. Use it

In your code, send it in the `Authorization` header, read from the environment:

```bash
export PARASEND_KEY=ps_test_...
curl "https://api.parasend.com/v1/deliveries" -H "Authorization: Bearer $PARASEND_KEY"
```

In these docs, paste it under **API key** at the top of the page: **Try it** on every endpoint uses it.

![The docs' header with a test key set](/docs/_/img/api-key-5-docs-header.png)

## Live keys

When you are ready to send for real, switch the portal to live data and make a live key the same way. Live keys start with `ps_live_`, send real notices to real people and are billed. See [Test and live mode](/docs/test-mode) and [Authentication](/docs/authentication) for what each permission allows.