Authentication

Getting started

The Mollie API offers three authentication methods:

• API keys: basic API access for a specific payment profile.
• Organization access tokens: advanced API access for organization-level data. (API v2 and later)
• App access tokens (OAuth): for app developers who need access to the Mollie accounts of their app users.

We recommend creating basic API keys to get started.

Creating API keys

The first thing you need is a website profile. Each website profile has a Live API key and a Test API key.

While building and testing your integration, you should use the Test API key. Read more about the test mode in our guide about testing the Mollie API. Once you are ready to start processing real payments, switch out your test key for the Live API key.

Of course it’s very important to keep any API keys secure. Do not ever share them and treat it as a password. However, if a key leaks you can always regenerate it. Do not forget to apply new keys to your code. Until you do your integration will not work.

Authenticating an API call

The API key or token must be sent along with each API request, by providing it in the HTTP call’s Authorization header using the Bearer method. For example: a valid Authorization header is Bearer test_dHar4XY7LxsDOtmnkVtjNVWXLSlXsM. Our default API clients provide shortcuts to easily set the API key or access token. For example, our PHP client offers MollieApiClient::setApiKey()andMollieApiClient::setAccessToken().

In the example below we use a Test API key on the GET method of the payments resource. This method fetches a payment - in this case the payment with the fictional payment ID tr_WDqYK6vllg.

curl -X GET https://api.mollie.com/v2/payments/tr_WDqYK6vllg \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer test_dHar4XY7LxsDOtmnkVtjNVWXLSlXsM"

The response will be JSON.

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/hal+json

{
    "resource": "payment",
    "id": "tr_WDqYK6vllg",
    "mode": "test",
    "createdAt": "2018-03-12T11:51:35+00:00",
    "amount": {
        "value": "1.00",
        "currency": "EUR"
    },
    "description": "Order 66",
    "method": null,
    "metadata": null,
    "status": "open",
    "isCancelable": false,
    "expiresAt": "2018-03-12T12:06:35+00:00",
    "details": null,
    "profileId": "pfl_7N5qjbu42V",
    "sequenceType": "oneoff",
    "redirectUrl": "https://www.example.org/payment/completed",
    "_links": {
        "self": {
            "href": "https://api.mollie.com/v2/payments/tr_WDqYK6vllg"
        },
        "checkout": {
            "href": "https://www.mollie.com/payscreen/select-method/WDqYK6vllg"
        }
    }
}

Comparison of authentication methods

For completeness’ sake, the following table compares the available authentication methods.