Send your first Stripe API request

This guide walks you through a simple interaction with the Stripe API—creating a customer. For a better understanding of Stripe API objects and how they fit together, take a tour of the API or visit the API reference. If you’re ready to start accepting payments, see our quickstart.

You can begin exploring Stripe APIs using the Stripe Shell. The Stripe Shell allows you to execute Stripe CLI commands directly within the Stripe docs site. As it operates in a sandbox environment only, you don’t have to worry about initiating any real money-moving transactions.

1. To create a customer using the Stripe Shell, enter the following command:

   Command Line

   
   stripe customers create --email=jane.smith@email.com --name="Jane Smith" --description="My First Stripe Customer"
   

   If everything worked, the command line displays the following response:

   
   {
     "id": 
   "cus_LfctGLAICpokzr",
     "object": 
   "customer",
   

   See all 31 lines

2. (Optional) Run the same command by passing in your API secret key in a sandbox:

   Command Line

   
   stripe customers create --email=jane.smith@email.com --name="Jane Smith" --description="My First Stripe Customer" --api-key sk_test_BQokikJOvBiI2HlWgH4olfQ2
   

   If everything worked, the command line displays the following response:

   
   {
     "id": 
   "cus_LfdZgLFhah76qf",
     "object": 
   "customer",
   

   See all 32 lines

Whenever you make a call to Stripe APIs, Stripe creates and stores API and Events objects for your Stripe user account. The API key you specify for the request determines whether the objects are stored in a sandbox environment or in live mode. For example, the last request used your API secret key, so Stripe stored the objects in a sandbox.

• To view the API request log:

  • Open the Logs page.
  • Click 200 OK POST /v1 customers.

• To view the Event log:

  • Open the Events page.
  • Click jane.smith@email.com is a new customer.

By default, all accounts have a total of four API keys, two in a sandbox and two in live mode:

• Sandbox secret key: Use this key to authenticate requests on your server when you’re testing in a sandbox. By default, you can use this key to perform any API request without restriction. Reserve this key for testing and development to make sure that you don’t accidentally modify your live customers or charges.
• Sandbox publishable key: Use this key for testing purposes in your web or mobile app’s client-side code. Reserve this key for testing and development to make sure that you don’t accidentally modify your live customers or charges.
• Live mode secret key: Use this key to authenticate requests on your server when in live mode. By default, you can use this key to perform any API request without restriction.
• Live mode publishable key: Use this key, when you’re ready to launch your app, in your web or mobile app’s client-side code.

Your secret and publishable keys are in the Dashboard in the API keys tab. If you can’t view your API keys, ask the owner of your Stripe account to add you to their team with the proper permissions.

When you’re logged in to Stripe, our documentation automatically populates code examples with your test API keys. Only you can see these values. If you’re not logged in, our code examples include randomly generated API keys. You can replace them with your own test keys or log in to see the code examples populated with your test API keys.

The following table shows randomly generated examples of secret and publishable test API keys: