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Getting started

Chargebee provides an HTTP-based API that follows the principles of REST. The HTTP rules followed allow simple HTTP clients like cURL to be used as well. The URLs are resource-oriented, the request format is form-encoded, and the responses are in JSON.

Depending on the type of operation, the endpoints use one of two HTTP methods:

  • GET: Used for all read-only operations such as retrieving a resource or listing a group of resources.
  • POST: Used for all write operations. Such operations modify the state of a resource.

A history of changes to the API is provided in the API Changelog.

Note

Sometimes, while working with Chargebee APIs, you may see undocumented attributes returned in the response. Such attributes should be ignored.

Early Access Program

Some features in the API are part of the Early Access Program and are labeled "EAP," "Beta," or "Early Access." Please review the terms and conditions that apply to these features before using them.

Chargebee follows the REST model of exposing resources as urls. For example, subscriptions are exposed as

https://{site}.chargebee.com/api/v2/subscriptions

Request

The HTTP method (like GET,POST) determines the operation type on the resource. Query parameters allow you to provide additional options to the GET requests. POST parameters provide the data to write operations like creation, modification of resource(s).

By default curl uses GET method. Use -X option to specify a specific HTTP method to use. For passing parameters, use -d option.

Note: cURL automatically uses the POST method if any parameter is sent via -d option.

Response

The response is in JSON format. Currently Chargebee does not support any other response format.

Note: Sometimes, while working with Chargebee APIs, you may see undocumented attributes returned in the response. Such attributes should be ignored.

Sample Request
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Sample Response [ JSON ]

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If you are calling our APIs without any of the client libraries, you can set the User-Agent header to a custom value to differentiate API calls from different applications and help with troubleshooting.

Sample request with custom User-Agent header
curl https://{site}.chargebee.com/api/v2/customers \
     -X POST \
     -H 'User-Agent: my-app' \
     -u {site_api_key}: \
     -d first_name="John" \
     -d last_name="Doe" \
     -d email="[email protected]"

Client libraries

Chargebee provides the following open-source client libraries as a wrapper around the HTTP API:

To view this API reference tailored to the programming language of your choice, select the language in the “Library” dropdown above. Reach out to us at [email protected] if you’d like to request any other language bindings.

Using cURL

Note

Select the programming language of your choice from the “Library” dropdown at the top of the page.

You can use cURL to test Chargebee API from a CLI. When you pass input parameters to the API using -d or --data-urlencode options, the HTTP POST method is used:

curl https://{site}.chargebee.com/api/v2/subscriptions/{subscription_id}/change_term_end
    -u {site_api_key}:\
    -d term_ends_at=1601490600

When no input parameters are provided, cURL uses the GET method by default:
curl https://{site}.chargebee.com/api/v2/subscriptions/{subscription_id} \
    -u {site_api_key}:

To make a POST request without providing any input parameters, use the -X POST option:
curl -X POST https://{site}.chargebee.com/api/v2/exports/subscriptions \     -u {site_api_key}:

Further, to make GET requests with parameters, you must use the -G option:
curl -X POST https://{site}.chargebee.com/api/v2/v2/orders \
    -G  \
    -u {site_api_key}:\
    --data-urlencode limit=3 \
    --data-urlencode status[is]="queued"

OpenAPI Specification

As part of our commitment to enhance the developer experience, we're thrilled to introduce the Chargebee OpenAPI specification. It's the first step in a series of planned improvements.

The Chargebee OpenAPI specification is a version of our API spec that is fully compliant with the OpenAPI Specification v3.0.1. Stay tuned for more updates!

Code samples

The sample code snippets provided for the endpoints in this documentation are ready-to-test. Once you log in and select a test site using the dropdown that appears at the top, the code samples in this documentation automatically include your API key and site data.

API testing

Chargebee provides the Time Machine feature to help you test your integration. Once you've set up your billing configuration on the test site, you can simulate events on a hypothetical time frame to ensure everything works as expected. Ensure that you rigorously test your configuration before going live.

Additional developer resources

Check out our collection of sample applications and related tutorials for integrating with Chargebee.