API Keys | SendGrid Docs (2024)

There are 3 different types of API keys:

1. Full Access allows the API key to access GET, PATCH, PUT, DELETE and POST endpoints for all parts of your account, excluding billing and Email Address Validation.
2. Restricted Access customizes levels of access for all parts of your account, excluding billing and Email Address Validation.
3. Billing Access allows the API key to access billing endpoints for the account.

During the API key creation process, you will be given the option of selecting scopes, or specific permissions, that you would like to assign to your new API key. These permissions restrict which areas of your account your API key will be able to access.When assigning permissions to your API key, you will be given the option to select one of the following levels of access:

• No Access prevents the API key from accessing any endpoint within the selected permission.
• Read Access allows the API key to access GET endpoints within the selected permission.
• Full Access allows the API key to access GET, PATCH, PUT, DELETE, and POST endpoints within the selected permission.

We require that you create a separate API key for making billing-related API calls. This segmentation adds an extra level of security by giving you more control over who has access to the various areas of your account.

When viewing the API keys page, you will see a list of your current API keys along with the following information:

Name - The name you defined for your API key.

API Key ID - The way you would reference your API key for management through the API (e.g. editing or deleting a key).

Action - Actions you can perform on your API keys, such as editing or deleting the key.

1. Navigate to Settings on the left navigation bar, and then select API Keys.
2. Click Create API Key.
3. Give your API key a name.
4. Select Full Access, Restricted Access, or Billing Access.
5. If you're selecting Restricted Access, or Billing Access, select the specific permissions to give each category. For more information, see API key permissions.
6. Click Create & View.
7. Copy your API key somewhere safe. For security reasons, do not put it directly in your code, or commit it somewhere public like GitHub.

There is a limit of 100 API Keys per account.

Twilio SendGrid recommends storing your API key in an environment variable or a config file that is not stored in version control.

When setting a variable in your program, that variable is readable by any person or system that can access the text file where it's set. However, a variable that's confined to the environment where the code is executed, stored outside the program itself, is called an environment variable. Only people and programs with access to the environment can read the value assigned to an environment variable. This makes environment variables a more secure choice for storing credentials such as API keys.

Once you assign your API key to an environment variable, you can then tell your program to look for and use that variable. Another benefit of this approach is the ability to set API keys with different permissions in different environments such as development, staging, and production without changing the code you deploy to those environments.

The examples below show how to store your key in a variable named SENDGRID_API_KEY. You can find additional examples in the Twilio Documentation.

To store your SendGrid API key, open your terminal or command prompt and add the following:

export SENDGRID_API_KEY=the_key_you_copied_from_SendGrid

setx SENDGRID_API_KEY the_key_you_copied_from_SendGrid

To then access the variable, you can use the convention provided by your coding language.

var apiKey = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SENDGRID_API_KEY");

apiKey := os.Getenv("SENDGRID_API_KEY")

apiKey = System.getenv("SENDGRID_API_KEY");

const apiKey = process.env.SENDGRID_API_KEY;

$apiKey = getenv('SENDGRID_API_KEY');

api_key = os.environ.get('SENDGRID_API_KEY')

api_key = ENV['SENDGRID_API_KEY']

Click the action menu in the same row as the key you would like to edit. From here you can delete a key, making it completely inactive, or you can edit your key's name and permissions.

Click the action menu in the same row as the key you want to delete. Select Delete. This will delete the key permanently, making it inactive. SendGrid will reject any subsequent API calls using this deleted API key.

1. Locate the API key you would like to replace in your list of keys and select the action menu drop down at the right on the same row, then select Delete API key.
2. Next, create an API key.
3. Replace the old API key with the new one in your code.

You may not give an API key greater permissions than you currently have.

You can test your newly created API key using cURL:

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curl -i --request POST \
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--url https://api.sendgrid.com/v3/mail/send \
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--header 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY_HERE' \
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--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
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--data '{"personalizations": [{"to": [{"email": "[email protected]"}]}],"from": {"email": "[email protected]"},"subject": "Hello, World!","content": [{"type": "text/plain", "value": "Howdy!"}]}'

Look for a 202 Accepted in the HTTP response headers.