Get Access Token

To access the platform, you must first have an access token. Through this URL, you can obtain one — but be careful! The access token expires after 1 hour. After this period, you will need to re-authenticate.

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '
{
  "client_id": "<string>",
  "client_key": "<string>"
}
'

import requests

url = "https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token"

payload = {
    "client_id": "<string>",
    "client_key": "<string>"
}
headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json"}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  body: JSON.stringify({client_id: '<string>', client_key: '<string>'})
};

fetch('https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token', options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
    'client_id' => '<string>',
    'client_key' => '<string>'
  ]),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "Content-Type: application/json"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token"

	payload := strings.NewReader("{\n  \"client_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"client_key\": \"<string>\"\n}")

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)

	req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token")
  .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
  .body("{\n  \"client_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"client_key\": \"<string>\"\n}")
  .asString();

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["Content-Type"] = 'application/json'
request.body = "{\n  \"client_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"client_key\": \"<string>\"\n}"

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJlY2E1ZTk4Mi0wMGI1LTRhYTItYjcwOS03ZDVjZDY3M2U5NWMiLCJjb21wYW55SWQiOiJlY2E1ZTk4Mi0wMGI1LTRhYTItYjcwOS03ZDVjZDY3M2U5NWMiLCJjbGllbnRJZCI6ImNsaWVudF91dGtxNnV5MnB0IiwiaWF0IjoxNzYyMTY4MDIzLCJleHAiOjE3NjIxNzE2MjN9.hloSSSPJ2WFa31s41BL1nqhemuwHCJKC_wcwVupsBlU",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_in": 3600
}

{
  "message": "Invalid client credentials",
  "error": "Unauthorized",
  "statusCode": 401
}

POST

auth

token

curl --request POST \
  --url https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data '
{
  "client_id": "<string>",
  "client_key": "<string>"
}
'

import requests

url = "https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token"

payload = {
    "client_id": "<string>",
    "client_key": "<string>"
}
headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json"}

response = requests.post(url, json=payload, headers=headers)

print(response.text)

const options = {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
  body: JSON.stringify({client_id: '<string>', client_key: '<string>'})
};

fetch('https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token', options)
  .then(res => res.json())
  .then(res => console.log(res))
  .catch(err => console.error(err));

<?php

$curl = curl_init();

curl_setopt_array($curl, [
  CURLOPT_URL => "https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token",
  CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
  CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
  CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
  CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
  CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
  CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "POST",
  CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS => json_encode([
    'client_id' => '<string>',
    'client_key' => '<string>'
  ]),
  CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
    "Content-Type: application/json"
  ],
]);

$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);

curl_close($curl);

if ($err) {
  echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
  echo $response;
}

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"strings"
	"net/http"
	"io"
)

func main() {

	url := "https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token"

	payload := strings.NewReader("{\n  \"client_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"client_key\": \"<string>\"\n}")

	req, _ := http.NewRequest("POST", url, payload)

	req.Header.Add("Content-Type", "application/json")

	res, _ := http.DefaultClient.Do(req)

	defer res.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(res.Body)

	fmt.Println(string(body))

}

HttpResponse<String> response = Unirest.post("https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token")
  .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
  .body("{\n  \"client_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"client_key\": \"<string>\"\n}")
  .asString();

require 'uri'
require 'net/http'

url = URI("https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token")

http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true

request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url)
request["Content-Type"] = 'application/json'
request.body = "{\n  \"client_id\": \"<string>\",\n  \"client_key\": \"<string>\"\n}"

response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJlY2E1ZTk4Mi0wMGI1LTRhYTItYjcwOS03ZDVjZDY3M2U5NWMiLCJjb21wYW55SWQiOiJlY2E1ZTk4Mi0wMGI1LTRhYTItYjcwOS03ZDVjZDY3M2U5NWMiLCJjbGllbnRJZCI6ImNsaWVudF91dGtxNnV5MnB0IiwiaWF0IjoxNzYyMTY4MDIzLCJleHAiOjE3NjIxNzE2MjN9.hloSSSPJ2WFa31s41BL1nqhemuwHCJKC_wcwVupsBlU",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_in": 3600
}

{
  "message": "Invalid client credentials",
  "error": "Unauthorized",
  "statusCode": 401
}

Overview

POST /auth/token exchanges your business credentials (client_id and client_key) for a short-lived Bearer access token. Every other Cartevo endpoint requires this token in the Authorization header. There is no refresh-token endpoint — when a token expires, call this endpoint again.

When to use it

Once at the start of any worker, cron job, or HTTP request that needs to call Cartevo.
Whenever a previous token is about to expire (recommended: refresh ~5 minutes before expires_in runs out).
After a 401 Unauthorized response from any other endpoint — refresh and retry once.

Prerequisites

An active Cartevo company account.
A client_id / client_key pair, available from the dashboard at Settings → API Keys.

Request

Headers

Name	Required	Description
`Content-Type`	Yes	Must be `application/json`.

No Authorization header is required for this endpoint.

Body

Field	Type	Required	Description
`client_id`	string	Yes	Your business client identifier (begins with `client_`).
`client_key`	string	Yes	Your business client secret. Treat as a password — never commit or share.

{
  "client_id": "client_abcdef123456",
  "client_key": "key_xyz9876543210"
}

Response

200 — Success

{
  "access_token": "eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiI...",
  "token_type": "Bearer",
  "expires_in": 3600
}

Field	Type	Description
`access_token`	string	The JWT to send in the `Authorization: Bearer <token>` header on every other request.
`token_type`	string	Always `"Bearer"`.
`expires_in`	integer	Token lifetime in seconds. Treat this value as authoritative — do not hard-code an expiry length.

Note: This endpoint returns the raw response shown above — it is not wrapped in the standard { success, statusCode, message, data } envelope used elsewhere. See API Conventions → Response envelope.

Error responses

Status	Trigger	Recommended action
`400`	`client_id` or `client_key` missing or empty.	Fix the request body.
`401`	`client_id` does not exist, `client_key` is wrong, or the account is disabled.	Verify credentials in the dashboard. Do not retry without changing credentials.
`429`	Rate limit exceeded (default 10 req / 60 s per IP).	Back off, then retry. Cache the access token aggressively rather than minting a new one each call.

{
  "message": "Invalid client credentials",
  "error": "Unauthorized",
  "statusCode": 401
}

Token scope and lifetime

Scope: Each token is bound to one company in one mode (preproduction or production). It cannot operate on another company’s data, and it cannot cross modes.
Lifetime: Determined by the deployment configuration. Treat expires_in as the only authoritative value. The current production default is short-lived (typically 1 hour); preproduction may differ.
Revocation: There is no per-token revocation endpoint. Rotating the underlying client_key immediately invalidates all tokens minted from it.

Code examples

cURL

curl -X POST https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "client_id": "client_abcdef123456",
    "client_key": "key_xyz9876543210"
  }'

Node.js (axios)

import axios from "axios";

const { data } = await axios.post(
  "https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token",
  {
    client_id: process.env.CARTEVO_CLIENT_ID,
    client_key: process.env.CARTEVO_CLIENT_KEY,
  }
);

const accessToken = data.access_token;
const expiresAt = Date.now() + data.expires_in * 1000;

Python (requests)

import os, requests

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token",
    json={
        "client_id": os.environ["CARTEVO_CLIENT_ID"],
        "client_key": os.environ["CARTEVO_CLIENT_KEY"],
    },
    timeout=10,
)
resp.raise_for_status()
token = resp.json()["access_token"]

PHP (Guzzle)

$client = new GuzzleHttp\Client();
$response = $client->post("https://api.cartevo.co/api/v1/auth/token", [
    "json" => [
        "client_id" => getenv("CARTEVO_CLIENT_ID"),
        "client_key" => getenv("CARTEVO_CLIENT_KEY"),
    ],
]);
$data = json_decode($response->getBody(), true);
$accessToken = $data["access_token"];

Best practices

Cache the token in your server for expires_in - 300 seconds and reuse it across requests — do not mint a new token per call.
Refresh preemptively. Schedule a refresh ~5 minutes before expiry so in-flight requests never hit a 401.
Never expose client_key or the access_token to browsers, mobile apps, or any client-side code. Always proxy through your server.
Rotate client_key immediately if you suspect compromise. Existing tokens minted from it remain valid until expiry — there is no per-token revocation.
Use separate credentials per environment (preproduction vs. production) so a leaked test key cannot touch live money.

Webhooks fired

None. This endpoint is purely synchronous.

Body

application/json

client_id

string

required

client_key

string

required

Response

Authentication successful

access_token

string

required

JWT access token for API authentication

Example:

"eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJlY2E1ZTk4Mi0wMGI1LTRhYTItYjcwOS03ZDVjZDY3M2U5NWMiLCJjb21wYW55SWQiOiJlY2E1ZTk4Mi0wMGI1LTRhYTItYjcwOS03ZDVjZDY3M2U5NWMiLCJjbGllbnRJZCI6ImNsaWVudF91dGtxNnV5MnB0IiwiaWF0IjoxNzYyMTY4MDIzLCJleHAiOjE3NjIxNzE2MjN9.hloSSSPJ2WFa31s41BL1nqhemuwHCJKC_wcwVupsBlU"

token_type

string

required

Type of token

Example:

"Bearer"

expires_in

integer

required

Token expiration time in seconds

Example:

3600

API Reference — Introduction Cards Overview

API documentation

Auth

Cards

Customers

Wallets

Payment Collection

Webhook

Overview

When to use it

Prerequisites

Request

Headers

Body

Response

200 — Success

Error responses

Token scope and lifetime

Code examples

Best practices

Webhooks fired

Body

Response

​Overview

​When to use it

​Prerequisites

​Request

​Headers

​Body

​Response

​200 — Success

​Error responses

​Token scope and lifetime

​Code examples

​Best practices

​Webhooks fired

​Related

Body

Response

Overview

When to use it

Prerequisites

Request

Headers

Body

Response

200 — Success

Error responses

Token scope and lifetime

Code examples

Best practices

Webhooks fired

Related